Your 'About' Page: About Time You Updated It?

If you're anything like me, your About page started as an afterthought.  You wrote your first post, published it, then quickly filled in a few lines on the About page before anybody could notice it was blank.  Maybe you came back later and added a photo and a little backstory, but after that it went largely unchanged.

But even though writing posts is much more fun, the About page is more important than any post you'll write.  So important, in fact, that Day 1, Assignment 1 in Problogger's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is all, shall we say, about About.  (Sorry, couldn't resist that softball.)

Think about someone showing up at your blog for the first time, probably from a link on another blog.  What do they do?

Well, they read or skim whatever post they landed on.  And then, assuming they didn't hate what they read, they head on over to — you guessed it — your About page.

And it's your About page that they'll use to decide whether they read more posts, subscribe, or leave you forever.  It's your chance to make your sales pitch.  Your chance to connect with them, to make them say "Yes! This person is just like me," or "Where has this blog been all my life?"

My purpose with this post is just to remind you to take a good, impartial look at your About page and ask yourself if it's doing the job you need it to do.  I'm hesitant to tell you how you should write it, because every blog is different — your About page should be part of the coherent story that your entire blog tells.  Maybe for you, that means a single picture and a phrase.  Or maybe a paragraph, a bullet list, or a FAQ does it better.  You get the idea.

Here are some basic guidelines to at least consider.  Feel free to ignore any of them.

• New readers will likely decide whether to stay or go in a matter of seconds.  Get to the point, quick.  Darren Rowse calls it an elevator pitch; if it takes more than a few lines to deliver, you're rambling.
• If you have a longer story that's absolutely necessary for understanding what your blog is all about, consider putting it on a separate "My Story" page and leaving the bite-size version for your About page.  Don't overwhelm new readers with long blocks of text.  Remember, you've only just met!
• Spend at least as much time on your About page as you'd spend writing a post.  Write a few drafts, and ask a friend or another blogger for feedback.
• Revisit your About page from time to time to make sure it reflects whatever direction your blog may have taken.