Aug 28
Change What You’re About
Lately it seems that all I’ve been doing is talking up Chuck at I Hate Your Job. But don’t think I’ve gone soft, it’s for good reason!
For someone who has been in the blogging game for as short a time as he, Chuck seems to be nailing a lot of stuff right out of the gate.
Well, the other day I took a glance at his about page.
And once again, he nailed it.
What He Did Right
- Introduces the site – Have you ever been to a new site and find yourself feeling lost because you don’t know what the site is about? Well right up front Chuck tells you what IHYJ is about and in the process even gets a subscription plug in there.
- Highlights popular posts – What a better way to draw new visitors in then by leading them by the hand to your best work! Introducing your site in this way shows new readers that your site is worth coming to, evident by your past work.
- Introduces himself – Everyone wants to know who’s behind a site and by introducing yourself to your readers, you let them know that you’re a person, just like them.
- Provides contact information -You gotta make it easy for readers and advertisers to make contact, so by adding a contact form (or at the very least) listing your contact information on your about page, you bridge that gap.
What He Could Be Doing Better
For all the things that Chuck is doing right, he doesn’t have a picture of himself on his About page! Readers love to see pictures of authors because it obviously makes a site a bit more personable and advertisers like to see author pictures because it gives a signal to them that this blog isn’t just another “blog in the crowd”.
What I Could Be Doing Better
Currently, my about page is a one page bio on myself. This might have been passable at the inception of this blog, but it’s not just gonna fly anymore. I need to highlight the site more, and certainly need to get some contact info up. Thankfully by stumbling onto IHYJ’s about page, I was reminded that I need to make some changes.
How about you? Time to make a change?
August 28th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Bush, I forget: Did you want cash or check?
Seriously, thanks for the kind words. You’ve helped keep me going and motivated during the difficult and slow spots.
You’re right about the lack of picture, by the way. I think it’s symptomatic of a broader problem with me site: lack of visual interest and distinction.
Maybe I’ll put up that picture of me and the cat from the morning people post… : )
August 28th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
@Chuck – Ha ha. And you raise an interesting thought…
“I think it’s symptomatic of a broader problem with me site: lack of visual interest and distinction.”
Is this something that you’ve struggled with and are you trying to do something about it?
August 28th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Absolutely. Cutline has been a good theme for keeping me from looking like a joke, and it’s clean and simple. That said, it’s utterly common. I read 10 blogs that look just like mine.
I think my conversion to subscriber rates will go up dramatically when the blog LOOKS better. I don’t want to use a template theme, though.
I lack design skills, and I lack programing skills. I’ve got a friend who is a graphic designer and we’re going to trade skills to help each other out, but she doesn’t know coding either. There’s an solution in sight, but I think it’s a huge weakness right now.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
@Chuck – Ha ha. Everyone appreciates the sincerely and straight fwd response there. And hey, you’re avg’ing 10 new subscribers every week or something anyway right? You’re doing something right!
And I wouldn’t worry too much about the “lack of skills”. A lot of ppl would be willing to help you out, myself included! *thumbs up* (speaking programingwise anyway)
August 28th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
First, I want to say how much I love Chuck. He’s adorable and his site rules. Second, my About page was just rewritten last night and it is purely about me. I’m narcissistic – so sue me.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
@Angela – Well first of all you‘re adorable and your site rules. (#):) Secondly, your About page is AWESOME too! Nice work!
August 29th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Thanks, Bush!
September 1st, 2007 at 1:24 am
I like the idea of changing up the about page. I think you may have just inspired me to do that too! I was thinking about page was about the author but it can be about the website. DOH! :c)
September 1st, 2007 at 11:56 am
@G-Newt – Looking back I think I might’ve been thinking one dimensionally about the about page myself. But you know – It’s Sept now so it’s a good time to start over!
September 16th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
[...] the end of August Bush posted about changing what your’re about. Basically he said your about page should do more than just talk about yourself. Your about page [...]