Whenever I come upon a new blog or a blog I’ve never visited before, one of the first pages I visit is the “About Me” page. It could be called anything, but it is the page about the blogger or the blog. I call mine “About Me” because I’m unimaginative but you could just as easily call it “The Blogger” or “Me, Myself and I” or “About this blog” 🙂
I personally believe that it is important to have this “About Me” page because it will tell the reader a little bit more about you and your blog. It is also helpful for PR and companies who may stumble on your blog and want to get to know you better before contacting you. You could keep it as long as you like, or as short as you like. You may include your photo or you may opt not to – its your choice.
Do you like reading “About Me” pages too? 🙂
If you do, then you will appreciate the need for having one on your own blog if you own one. Whilst I think it very helpful for blogs to have this page, I think it absolutely crucial that company or retail websites have this. The sad fact is that there are still sites that do not and for a retail business, I think that is quite disastrous.
Some bits of basic information I think you should include in your “About Me” page :-
- Your name or the name you go by on your blog – I like getting to know the people behind the blog, so it is always nice to know your name too, or how I may refer to you.
- Where you are based – I love discovering a new blog and then realizing that the blogger is local. Makes me very happy for some reason 🙂 Similarly, I like knowing where people are from because the world is now getting so much smaller! This is also helpful for PR or companies who may want to know where you are based (not that some of them even read it 😛 )
- What is your blog about – This is sometimes useful, more for PR or companies who may look up your blog, to see if it s a niche that fits their brand.
- How you may be contacted – Include your email and any other social media profiles you may feel comfortable in including.
Some bloggers choose to include this information in the sidebar as well. However, sidebar space is usually quite limited, so I think information like this should be placed in a separate page, prominently displayed so people can click through from the sidebar to find out more about you, the blogger.
The 2 popular blogging platforms – WordPress and Blogger – have page functionality, to allow you to set up pages which are separate from posts. So, before you decide to set up a page for your blogroll, consider setting up an “About Me” page first. After all, we all want to get to know you a little better! 😀
Oh and now you have your “About Me” page, make sure you display the link prominently on your blog – we want to know where to find you! 😀 Here’s mine.
Take a look at your blog – do you have an About Me page? If you are a reader, do you enjoy reading About Me pages? I love it and some bloggers can be very creative and it gives me a nice insight into the blogger behind the blog 🙂
Paris B
Simple Blogging Tips are some simple tips I have for fellow bloggers, based on my own experiences. I’m no ‘guru’ but I hope they will help you. You may read up on previous Simple Blogging Tips here.
I do have an about me page heh heh! Yes, I love reading them pages too! However, the only company that’s ever contacted me is AdoreMe, a lingerie site that acts sorta like ShoeDazzle, which is you pay USD XXX a month, and they ship 1 item to you. Bleh.
Its always nice to know more about the blogger behind a blog eh? I think I may have gotten that email too but I didn’t do anything about it because it was all US based 😛
ooops! i dont have an About Me and all the while I thought I had one! Must be hiding somewhere. Time to let it resurface
Oho! This was a timely reminder then!
I have an “About Me” page and just realized it’s not been updated like, since I started my blog! Time to rectify that… 😛
Ah yes that’s the other thing – keeping it updated! Thats why I don’t usually advocate putting an age because people tend to update their “About Me” page and they remain 21 forever 😛
Thanks for the wonderful tips! I have an About ME page so I think it isn’t that complete with information! Time to complete it by adding up my…vital statistics too! heheh Just joking!
Good morning!
You never know just when having your vital stats may come in useful! 😛
Yup, I have an About Me page because I too love getting to know the person behind the blog. If there are FOTD posts, I’d also check that out just to see what the blogger looks like 😉 I guess it’s a sense of identification? Or just plain nosy!
Ah we’re all guilty of nosiness 😉 I love getting to “know” people who blog because everyone is interesting… in one way or another 😉
I only have contact information on mine. Oops. PR and companies? What PR?! 😛 Thanks for the little kick in the butt to have a proper About Me page. You’re right, I look at others’ too and so it only makes sense that I have my own.
Haha build the page and they will come 😉 It took me a while to hunt down your page last time but I’m glad you’ve included Twitter in there because I quite literally dug on Twitter to find you LOL! 😉
Yes I have one too! And I”ve received numerous emails from readers, it’s always nice to hear from them. We’ve become real life friends since then too so it’s all good 🙂
Isn’t blogging wonderful?! I’ve met so many lovely people just from it and made so many friends too! 😀
I do! 😀 I love making About Me pages, really. It’s fun both writing and reading them, and I always read other blog’s About Me page (If they have it) before really digging into the contents 😛
I divided mine into 3 though- about me, about the blog and contact.
Ah yeah splitting them up is a good idea too so as to keep it manageable for the reader. I opted not to do an “About the blog” page because I figured people will just read and know what the site is about 😉
Yep I definitely have one and hopes all bloggers do as well. When I stumble upon a blog I’ve never read before, other than scanning the homepage, the next thing I do is check out the “About Me”.
Although, what do you think about those who write the “About Me” in a third person way? Could just be me, but I find it odd 😛
Haha you do the exact same thing I do! I always want to know the person behind the blog and I do think the About Me page is the most telling of the whole blog 😉 I actually find intros written in the third person hard to read. If written as a narrative its not as bad, but when its written as an introduction then it can sometimes read a bit odd.
I do have an About Me, which I really should update because I never know what to write!
I’m thinking of updating mine too! At least I hope you don’t put your age in the About me page, which would be very telling if you didn’t update it for years 😀
Can’t believe I actually went over to my blog and check if my About Me page was there (shows how long I haven’t looked at it, heh). And I have just decided to re-write my About Me page to reflect my current status/position 😀
*let’s hope that I can find time and inspiration to do it*
I need to create one! Since I find it hard to write about myself, I always end up putting a little about-me box in the sidebar. Will do when I have some spare time: work + course = stress. T_T