Marketing Your Blog & Business: Writing the Perfect About Page

1. Hello and welcome!: Hi, my name is Teresa Christine. Welcome to class, marketing your blog and Business Writing a Perfect About Page. I'm a freelance writer, and also the travel blogger behind tremendous times, as well as the managing editor of the [inaudible]. From my own personal experience, I have gone through many iterations of my own About Page, and I also follow many bloggers as well. I have seen their About Pages, and I've seen things that are wonderful and also seen things that are just not so awesome as well, and this course is intended for you if you are a blog owner or a business owner and you have a website and you need to have an About Page. I think that IT blogger or business owner should have an About Page, and it's a lot of pressure because the About Page can really make or break you, your ideal client or your ideal reader is going to be going to this page to learn more about you and really ultimately figure out if you are someone that they want to continue following in some way. If you have a poorly written About Page, if it doesn't really capture who you are and what you're doing, then you could be losing potential clients or potential readers. The core of this class is going to be discussing the different elements of an About Page. I'll also talk a little bit about why an About Page is so important. You're here clearly, you see a value in it, but I don't think that people really understand how valuable it is to have a great About Page. Also, I've picked out some really wonderful case studies as examples throughout this entire course that will help you and will demonstrate what it is that I'm talking about. At the end of this course, you will have a much clearer vision for what you want in your About Page. You'll have a really good start, or perhaps in a really great version of your About Page, and if you come into this course and you already have an About Page, it's a really wonderful way for you to revise and edit things and improve them. I also think that through doing the exercises in this course and working on the project, you will overall have a clear idea of your blog or your business, and that's great for everybody. Basically all you'll need for classes, some way to take notes. If you are coming in and you already have an About Page, you're going to be working on revising and improving this, and if you have no About Page right now, then by the end of this course, you will have something great. Welcome to class again, and I'm so excited to have you here. If you have any questions throughout the course, please join the discussion below. I would love to hear any of your questions or comments and help you with any of your struggles throughout the course. Otherwise, when you're ready, move on to the next video and we'll get started. 2. Why an About page is so important: Hi, and welcome back to class. In this lesson, I wanted to talk a little bit about why an About page is so important. Obviously, you're taking this class because you do see some value in it, but it's helpful to understand just how important it really is. It's also good to know what an About page should achieve so that when you're writing yours, you can achieve that for your readers. The reason that an About page is so important is because it's going to be one of the most visited pages on your site. There is a chance that might actually be the most visited page that you have. The Internet is a really strange place and anybody can go online and start a blog. People can go and create websites for anything. So the readers and potential clients who are coming to your site or your blog, they really want to feel a little bit more like they know you. They want to put a face to the name, they want to get to know who you are a little bit better. It's helpful to understand what they're going through by putting yourself in their shoes, and certainly you've been in this position. You've gone to somebody's site and you found this really cool blog post that you liked, or maybe you saw their services page or something and piqued your interest, and from there, you have some questions and you want to go to the About page. Obviously, first of all, who wrote this? You just want some general information on this person. It's like when you're getting to know a new person in real life, you start asking them questions, and you want to get to know a little bit of their life story and see if you to jive together. They may be curious to know what you do exactly. Are you a full-time blogger? Or is this something that it's a passion project? If it's something related to a product or service that you're selling, they want to understand that a little bit better and your About page can help achieve that. They also would love to know if they can find similar things like this from you. Obviously, if they liked what they found initially and are going to your About page, it's good for them to know if this was just like a one-off blog post and not the normal stuff that you usually do, or if they can find more of that from you online. Additionally, it's good to know how the person who is writing the blog or who has the website, how did they know the information that they're sharing? Do you have a PhD or is this something that you've been doing since you were young? What makes you an authority on this topic? Now taking that information, which obviously there are so many other questions to, those are just a couple that came to mind. But taking that, we can see that the About page should be personal. This is a chance for people to get to know you. So they should feel like they get a sense of who you are and a bit of your unique personality. It should also give a little bit of an introduction to your blog or your business, what is the purpose of this site and what else will it provide for them? Then this is a chicken and egg situation with the establishing authority. By going to your About page and seeing that you are a published author or that you've worked with so many different clients, that helps to establish your authority. But then also just having an About page in general will establish your authority as well. Imagine that you are looking at two online courses, they're really similar, but one of the online courses, the person who's making it doesn't have an About page up, and the other course does. Which course are you more likely to purchase? You are probably going to go with the one that has an About page because it feels, first of all, more like you know that person, but then also it's just you don't feel like they're hiding from you. It's a very transparent situation and that's what people want. Ultimately all of this together. It lets people know if they should stick around. Now, not everybody who comes to your blog or your website is going to stick around, and that's totally okay. I'm going to talk a little bit about that later, talking about ideal client or ideal reader. So not everyone is going to stick around and that's fine. But the people who should stick around, you want them to. That's where things get tricky. If your About page doesn't really reflect who you are 100 percent, that's where things can get messy and they say, "Oh, this isn't actually who I thought was going to be behind this. I'm not going to come back to this site." Let's go ahead and get started. If you have any questions about this, let me know in the comment section below. In the next few videos, we are going to be diving into the elements of an About page. So when you are ready, go on and move to the next video. 3. First up: a bit about you: Hello and welcome back to class. In this lesson, we're starting to dive into the elements of a good About page, and the first place to start is with a bit about yourself. I know this seems really obvious, but it is an important place to start because, this is going to be a bit about the heart of who you are and why it is that you're doing what you're doing, so that people can connect that and feel like they get to know you a little bit more on a personal level. Now, with this in general, especially if you're starting out, I encourage you to go with quality and not quantity. I think the biggest mistake that I see is people really going overboard here and thinking that they need to include their entire life story and in most cases, that is not going to be true. Unless you're absolutely sure that your ideal reader or your ideal client has the time to sit down and read the 2,000 word autobiography from you, then keep it short and sweet. Actually, I would say that some of the best about pages that I've ever read have just a small portion dedicated to a traditional biographical format. In some cases actually, with some of the examples that you'll see throughout this course, some people don't even include it at all; they just allow a bit more of their personality to come out in other ways. Very often, a sentence or two will suffice. Trust me, they will get to know you in other elements of the About page and we are going to dive into them really soon. In general, and you're going to hear this a couple times throughout the course too, "Show, don't tell." Instead of saying something that just plainly states something about who you are and what you like to do, think of it in a more creative way. For example, you could say, "I am organized, adventurous and I love to laugh." Or, if you wanted to make it a little bit more like you are showing your readers how these qualities come out, you could say, "My Passion Planner is my BFF, I go hiking somewhere new every weekend and I know every word in every season of 'Parks and Rec.'" You can see with the first one is just basically stating personality traits or the things that you like to do, and the second one, it paints a much more vivid picture. Action verbs are also going to be really helpful here. Instead of saying "I am", "I have been", instead, try to say it in a different way that's a little more dynamic. Again, as I use that example, it's really helpful to be specific, because attention to detail is really what's going to capture the attention of your ideal reader or your client. You could say, "I love reading." Okay, that's true. You might really love reading, but this is a much more interesting way to say it. "Most Saturday afternoons, you'll find me curled up on the sofa reading the latest Nicholas Sparks novel." That answers a lot of even unasked questions from the reader, they get a very vivid picture in their minds. They understand, "Okay, so this person likes reading this type of book. They like reading romance novels, and this is how they like to spend their free time. They are clearly a book lover." For people who are also this way, who also spend their Saturday afternoons curled up reading a book, or who wished that they spent their Saturday afternoons that way, they are going to instantly connect with you. Now, I wanted to show you a really great example of someone, this is Angie Orth with the travel blog, Angie Away. She does a really great job in her About page. This is how she starts it, "Welcome, you all. I'm Angie Orth, a Southern lady with a perpetually packed suitcase, the Jane Austen canon on my Kindle and an instinctive need to tell stories about my adventures - be they 3,000 miles away on a pristine mountaintop or in my garage where I'm experimenting to varying degrees of success, with DIY projects I find on Pinterest." That is a big sentence right there, obviously a lot to take in, but you really get a sense for who she is. She really paints a vivid picture of her personality, and the things that she likes to do. That's really what we're focusing on, especially in this lesson is like, What do you like to do? How do you like to spend your time, and how does that play into what it is that is the bigger picture of your blog or your business. For this lesson's task, I would like for you to brainstorm and write down a couple of the ways that you like to spend your time. What are the things that you enjoy doing? Don't worry so much about personality and traits right now, because we've actually got a lesson on that a little bit later. Go ahead and just write out the things that you like to do. Then, choose five of these and create a dynamic sentence about each of them. Remember, using those action verbs and really trying to paint a picture for the reader. Once you've done this, you are ready to move on to the next lesson. 4. Explaining your big goals to the reader: Hi, welcome back to class. In this video, we're going to be diving even further into the elements of a good About page by exploring what your mission is. A mission statement basically explains what you hope your blog or your business will achieve. I like to think of it as your guiding light. It's this one or maybe two sentence bit that is your guiding light, it keeps you focused and it helps the readers to understand you better. It's very short and sweet to the point and succinct. Now, for this, you might already have a mission statement, if so, that's great. Go ahead and refer to it. If you feel like it might be time to revise it, this is a great time to do so. If you don't have one, then you can create one. In general, a mission statement is usually just a sentence long. You don't want it to be too long because like I said, it's focused, it's everything gets boiled down. If you found that with what you have already written or what you're working on, it's a struggle to make it any shorter, it's really time to get a laser focus on what you're doing and really try and get into the heart of things. The benefit to having something short and sweet like this is that it's easy to remember, not just for you really, it's more for your reader or your client. It's something that will actually, when they read it, they resonate with it on a really deep level because it will be something that's important to them too. To get yourself thinking about your mission statement, making sure that it is exactly what you want it to be or as you are creating it in this course, here are a few questions that can help you. First of all, why did I start my blog or business? Think back to when you first had the idea for this and when you first started really making it a reality, what I'm I really excited to create? Put all the hesitations aside, how much money you're able to make from stuff, what are you just genuinely excited to create with your blog or business? What do I hope people will know me for? What are the core values of what I do? Really explore a little bit deeper than surface level and going to why are you doing this and what is so important about it to you? What are those values that means so much to you? How would you define success for your blogger business? If you could just dream up a day in the future where you wake up and you're like, ''I feel like this is successful.'' What does that look like? What would that achievement be like for you? As I mentioned, you want to boil it down. I know that those questions seem like a lot to try and fit into a mission statement, and it's not so much that you're going to be fitting all of that information into your mission statement, it's more that, that information is going to help inform you how to create a really good mission statement to put it together so that it considers all the different aspects of you and of why you have your blog or your business. A couple of good examples. First of all, is A Beautiful Mess. This is a crafty website run by two sisters, and on their about page they say, ''We're Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman, we're sisters. Together. We own A Beautiful Mess, a women's lifestyle company focused on creating happiness everyday through a homemade lifestyle.'' You get a really clear idea of what they're trying to do, and it is simple and straightforward. Gala Darling is also a really good example, ''My mission is to show women how magnificent they are and to inspire them to step up and grab the life they've dreamed about with both hands.'' Instantly after reading this, if you are someone whose feeling lost and feeling a little bit like you're not reaching your potential, that's something that's really going to stand out to you, and you're going to say, ''Oh wow, I want to learn even more about this person.'' In this task, you are going to write or revise your mission statement. Again, remember those questions that I included in this course, they are not necessarily going to be written explicitly in your mission statement, but it will help you figure out what the heart of what it is that you're doing, so that you can write a really engaging and interesting mission statement. Once you've done this, you are ready to move on to the next video. 5. Exploring the problem you solve: Hi, and welcome back to class. In this lesson, we're going to be diving a little bit more into the problem that you solve for your ideal client or reader, this is a really important one. As you remember from one of the earlier lessons, the About page should let people know ultimately why they should stick around and inform them if they want to stick around. So the problem that you solve is going to play a really key part in their decision. So understanding the problem that you solve, you first have to understand your ideal reader or client and you want to know everything about this person. You should have a single person in mind who is the perfect person, who would be reading your blog or who would be hiring you for your services or who would be purchasing your products. You want to know their age, their appearance, where they live in the world, what they like and dislike, their fears and their struggles, everything. When you understand this, it is much easier to put the pieces together and say, "Oh this is what I'm offering. This is what my ideal client is like and what they want and what they need and I can piece that together." Now for those of you who have taken other classes from me before, I don't want to dive too deeply into the ideal reader or a client, because I actually have a course where I talk about it a lot. So if you're feeling stuck here or if this is a bit of a new concept for you, I encourage you to pop on over to creating blog content your readers actually want to read. There's actually an entire sheet in there of all the questions that you should ask to get to know your ideal reader or your ideal client a little bit better. For the sake of this course, we're going to be focusing primarily on what their biggest struggle is. So if you think about your ideal client or your ideal reader, what is their big problem? What do they have that they are struggling with? Then piggybacking on that, how can you help solve that problem? That's really the key. Because if you can highlight that, then you have them, they are interested and engaged, and they want to stick around. It's also good to be creative here, again, you want to show and not tell. So instead of saying, entrepreneur coaching with me will help your business thrive, say something like I will help you gain clarity and every facet of your creative business so you can spend less time stressing about how to manage it and more time doing what you actually love. That is a much more vivid and dynamic way to tell people what you offer and what problems you can solve for them. Because that first sentence, ''Entrepreneur coaching with me, will help your business thrive.'' We don't really know what kind of business you are looking to help people with. We have no idea, like what is their main problem, what do you do like social media, what sort of focus do you have? But that second sentence, that lets us know this person helps people who have creative businesses, probably lots of freelancers or like smaller businesses maybe just entrepreneurs, and people who are feeling stressed about their time and saying, I never have enough time to do everything that I need to do. This will really pop out to them and I'll say, ''I think this person can actually help me.'' A really good example of this is Lauren Hooker of Elle&Company. She does a little intro on her, and she says, ''I found that there are two types of business owners; natural-born entrepreneurs who have always wanted to start a business, they just need to come up with a great idea. Two, natural-born creatives who have no idea how to run a business, but want the freedom to pursue their passion on their own terms. Elle&Company was created to help those of you who fall into category number 2. One reason that I really like Lauren's About page here is because I think it's a kind of creative way to present the problem and solution to the ideal reader and the ideal client and it's very simple. She states the problem right up front, and she just says, ''This is what I'm here for, I'm designed to help you.'' Another blogger that I love is Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Mat and on his About page, he says,'' This way you can spend less time searching the Internet and being overwhelmed with information and more time doing the one thing you want to do, travel more.'' People who come to a site and say, ''Man, I never managed to make enough time to travel, I never save enough money up.'' They are going to see this and say, "I think this guy can actually help me, I'm going to check out some more of his blog posts, check out the book that he sells, it's going to get them interested." Now in this task, I want you to examine what the biggest struggle of your ideal reader or your client is and how it relates to what you're doing. Remember it's putting those puzzle pieces together. So you have point A, what you're doing and you've got point B, the problem from your client or your reader. How can you help solve that and bridge that gap for them. Go ahead and spend a little bit of time figuring out how you would phrase that and once you've got that down and you are confident in what problem you're solving for this person, you're ready to move on to the next video. 6. Sharing work that supports your mission: Hi and welcome back to class. This lesson is going to talk a bit more about supporting work and work that essentially supports your mission so that you can include this in your about page. This is your chance to brag a little bit. I know it's always weird when you're writing about yourself and talking about the things you've accomplished or the things that you've done, but this is a really nice chance to share the work that's related to your mission and what you do or what you offer. You could include things like the courses that you've created. These could even be freebies if you want, but also paid courses as well. You can talk about the services or products that you offer. Maybe you've written a book or whatever services that you have. You can include also guest appearances. Maybe you've been on a podcast or on somebody's YouTube show. Guest posts that you've written are also really nice to include. It's also really good for a CEO as well. If you have some favorite past clients, maybe even people who are recognizable, this is a great chance to throw them in. You Can also talk about some of your current projects and the things that you are currently focusing on. As I mentioned before, this is something that helps to establish authority, and again, it's a chicken and an egg situation where you almost can't be an established authority in some ways without getting some of these, but then also reverse. You can't get some of these without being established, and that's where coming in and having a website or a blog and your about page fully fleshed out. That's a really great first step to getting some of those things going like the courses or the podcast appearances. If you don't have any of those right now, don't stress. You can still craft your about page to be really awesome and quite honestly it can help you to achieve that work as well. With this information, you might have a really long list also, and you really just want to stay focused on the projects, the products, whatever it is, the things that really relate to the ideal reader or client. It's quality over quantity. You do not want to bombard them with just a bunch of all the stuff that you've done and that you've worked on in the things that you're proud of. That's great, but again, if you overwhelm them, they might get a little bit bored. They might turn off and then exit out of your website. Also keep in mind, you can always have a separate portfolio page where you list all of this stuff out and you can just link to that from your about page. Think of it like a highlights real. A good example of this is Brandon Stanton, he is is the photographer behind Humans of New York. He started out doing his project just taking photos of people in New York. It turned into this huge social media thing. Now he has a book and he has done quite amazing work, but his little section on his about page where he talks about some of the things he's accomplished. It's really small. Over the past five years, it is also expanded to feature stories from over 20 different countries. The work is also featured in two best-selling books, Humans of New York and Humans of New York stories. This guy is clearly very humble. I look up to him and admire him, but he keeps it simple and he just keeps it related to what people will be interested in. So they come to a site, they like it, they're interested and then they say, oh wow, he's also got books. Cool, I'm going to go check those out. We also have Jenny Radosevich, I think I'm saying her name right. She is the woman behind I Spy DIY. She mentions, from there this website and a monthly do-it-yourself fashion column in Instyle magazine were born. Next up was writing my book, I Spy DIY style, a go-to guide for girls who want to get the look on a budget. Ever since my book was released in 2012, I transitioned into working on the site full time hosting DIY events and doing on-air segments, spreading the DIY word. Check me out on Good Morning America and Rachael Ray. After moving into I Spy DIY studio, we have expanded into making home decor DIYs, hosting events and teaching craft classes. That's a lot of information right there but, the good thing that she does here is make sure that it all stays focused on what the said person coming to the site is going to be interested in. They don't need to know all the other stuff that isn't quite so incorporated into the DIY realm because I'm sure that she has done that. Any entrepreneur has done a variety of different work. She just stays focused with some of the really cool stuff, like Good Morning America and Rachel Ray and a couple of those other notable things, and she throws them out there, and it gets people to say, wow, she really knows what she's talking about. This task involves you listing out some of your accomplishments or some of your work or both that you would like to include in this lineup. From there, I'd like for you to write a two to five sentence write-up that supports your mission and establishes you as an authority. You can use some of these and you'll pull from them to help craft that, and just remember, especially with that last example from I Spy DIY, just try and keep it really focused. All right, once you've done that, you're ready to move on to the next video. 7. How to fill it with your personality: Hi and welcome back to class. In this lesson, we're going to be talking about a really important part of your About page, your personality. This is incredibly challenging, even as a writer myself, I struggle to write about myself and to write in a way that when I read it back, feels natural and sounds actually like me. Because it's so easy to get focused on stating your mission or writing out your biography that you forget to inject this whole thing with your personality. If you look back at some of the things that you've already written for the project in this course. You might feel a little bit like, this isn't 100 percent me yet. This lesson is going to help you with that, it's going to help you put a little bit more of you into what you're saying. For this in general, I think it's just a work in progress. There are a few tips that I have that will make your words really come to life and feel like they have not just been written by anyone, but have been written specifically by you. First things first, go ahead and ask friends and family people that you trust, how they would describe you to somebody else. This is a really good indicator of your strengths and some of your most prominent characteristics. We live with ourselves every day that we sometimes overlook these things and it can be helpful for somebody else to mention what it is that they like so much about us. You also want to consider what personality traits that you have that resonate with your ideal reader. It's easy, I think, for people to aim for perfection here, and instead, the goal should be to be real and relatable. So don't feel like you need to be this perfect, amazing version of yourself. You just have to be real and think about your ideal reader or your client, the things they like to do, the people they hang out with and see where you can make connections there. My number one tip, honestly, to make sure that the text feels like me, is I actually read things out loud a lot. When I am writing something on my blog, it is helpful for me to read it out loud because then it's like, this is weird, like I would never actually say that. Then I can go in and change it and it feels actually like it comes from me. If you feel like what you're saying is stiff or awkward or weird, then you should go in and revise it. Just picture yourself hanging out with your ideal reader or your ideal client. Is this something that you'd actually say to them? Again, as I've mentioned before a few other times in class, you want to show and not tell. We're not just stating personality traits. You want to try and find ways to sprinkle this in with other parts of your About page. As we're working on personality and the task at the end of this video, it's not necessarily that you are going to include all of this information in your finished about page, but, it is going to inform the rest of your text. It is going to help you say, "Hey, you know what, that seems a little dry right there." That doesn't seem like something I'd actually say, how would I really truly say this to somebody? I have two really great examples. The first one is Emma Els. She is a photographer in the UK. You feel I'm more like a friend than some photographer you hired, and then also helps you, and your guests, feel more relaxed. With me you'll actually enjoy having your photo taken. Pinky swear, just read my reviews. I limit myself to around 30 weddings a year because I'd never want any of my couples to feel ignored or like they are on a conveyor belt. Limiting the number of weddings I shoot means that I turn up every wedding with the same amount of gusto. Some say i'm a little obsessed with this gig, and it's probably true because it's not just a job to me. It's my passion and I love every single part of it. From this, she doesn't actually state anything about her necessarily. She's not just sitting there talking about her history as a photographer. She is talking about herself in relation to the ideal client and the way that she operates, and that is something that as someone who might be interested in hiring her for photography for their wedding. They'll say, this is great. I didn't want to feel like I'm just getting a photographer that everybody else is getting, and she uses emojis in here like she feels young and vibrant that's going to really connect with the clients that she's wanting to reach out to. Alionka Polanco is an entrepreneur and personal coach, and her About page starts, I believe we were put on this earth to be happy, not lukewarm happy, not acceptable, comfortable happy, but star-colored points of light bursting forth from inside of you happy. Yes, that happy. This is wonderful, she has a longer About page and you just get the same sense from her about page throughout. It's really positive and warm and empowering. She is really connecting with people who feel a little bit like they aren't 100 percent achieving what they want, and that they're living a life that isn't totally making them happy. This is the first thing that shows up on her About page and it instantly hooks you in. All right. For this task, I want you to list out 8-10 words or phrases that you would use to describe yourself or your personality. So not so much focused on what it is that you like doing, but more about who you are. Again, turn to somebody that you trust, a friend or family member. If you need some input here, then what I want you to do is try to make each one of those into a dynamic description of who you are. It's really helpful, I think, to think of situations where those characteristics might really shine. If you want to even go further, think of situations related to your blog or business where those characteristics really come out. Once you have gone ahead, written your 8-10 phrases or words and then made dynamic descriptions for them. You're ready for the next lesson. 8. Misc. things you can include: Hi there, and welcome back to class. This lesson we're going to explore a couple of the miscellaneous things that you can include in your About page if you'd like. Now, with all the things that we've been going over, really, there's nothing that's required. There are no hard and fast rules about how to create your About page. These things, especially in this lesson, are I would say mostly optional. You can figure out which ones you do and don't want to include. The other ones that I've listed out in this lesson are definitely a few more of the stronger ones to consider. First things first, all of the About pages that I've showed you so far, they have a photo of the person. This really helps. People are visual creatures, they want to see what you look like. It's a cool opportunity for them to feel like they know you even better. Now you might be a little bit uncomfortable with having your image online. I think that this is less of an issue. So many people are online now that five years ago it was maybe weird for some folks, but now pretty much everyone is online, on Facebook, whatever. But if you really aren't comfortable having a photo of yourself, then it's time to get a little bit creative here. You can see on the left is Joy Wilson, this is Joy the Baker. She has an illustration of herself on her About page. It's really awesome, I think it's adorable, and she's got her cartoon there. Even though you don't have a picture of her, you get a sense of who she is and what she looks like, so that's really cool. You could also photo on the right is a picture of me. If you don't mind having your body online, you just don't want your face, you could do something like this where you're looking away from the camera and something that is indicative or descriptive of your business or your blog in the background. That could be a really great way to go as well. Now, social media handles, I think there are a great way to connect with people even further. But you should not feel that you have to include every single social media platform in your About page. There are so many, so just include the ones that you're actually active on, and the ones that you are actually willing to engage with people on. If you don't ever hop on Twitter, you should not list your Twitter handle in your About page, because people are going to try and connect with you on there and then be disappointed when it turns out you're never on there. It also is helpful to think a little bit about where your ideal client or your ideal reader hangs out. For me, for my blog, I know that most of my ideal readers are on Pinterest. They are going on to Pinterest, they're looking for travel inspiration, they're looking for interesting stories to read, and that's where they find me. That's where most of my traffic comes from, so I put more effort into Pinterest than I put into any of my other social media. Social media, there are so many. If you look at the bottom of some posts that have the share buttons, you'll see just so many different options. I think the big ones are Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube. Try and get maybe on one of the main ones and don't spread yourself too thin. I think it's better to do one of these social media platforms really well, than to try and do three of them and not really do any of them that great. You could also consider including how often you post. I don't see this too often, but it's totally up to you. Anna at theannaedit.com says, "I post videos on my YouTube channel twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays at 9:00 AM and post here every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 9:00 AM, if you fancy a read with your morning coffee." That's really great. For someone especially like her, she's posting a lot in a week. It's a nice way for readers to keep tabs on when new stuff is going to come out and get them excited about the next post. For this task, I would like you to pick a photo that you'd like to use for your About page. If you really don't want a photo of yourself online, consider what your other options are. Would you be willing to have a photograph of you from behind, or do you think that you might want to get something a little more creative, some illustration or something that maybe even you draw it yourself? Also determine which social media platforms you'd like to connect with people on, keeping in mind that you still want this to relate back to the ideal reader or client. Think about what they like to use as well as what you like to use. If you have a regular posting schedule, just make a note of it. This isn't necessarily something you have to include, but it could be something that you decide is right for your reader. Once you've gotten all of this down, then you are ready to move on to the next lesson. 9. Don't forget the important final detail!: Hi and welcome back to class. We are getting to the point where we're starting to wrap some things up. We're going to be putting it all together. But before we do that, I want to talk about an important last part of your About page, the call to action. Basically, your reader or your client comes to your About page. They've gotten to know you, they love you. Now what? They might not even realize that they are asking this question and wanting to connect with you in some other way, perhaps on social media, or getting your newsletter. So you need to answer that question before they even ask it. The best way is to just be straightforward about it. Like I said, it is a really good way to end the About page. Give them the opportunity to join you on a different level. I like to phrase it that way of like they're joining you and you're extending this invitation because it makes them feel really special and it makes them say, "Oh yeah, I do want to join this person, like she or he seems really awesome." If they don't want to, no harm, no foul, it's good for you to only have those people in your circle who are really excited about what you're doing. So you have to figure out what you want. What do you want this person coming to your site to do? Do you want them to follow you in social media? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? Maybe you want them to check out a course you have, a product you have, the different services that you offer, or for service-based businesses, you may encourage them to schedule some kind of clarity call. As I mentioned before, you want to be really clear about this invitation. I think now is not the time to dance around what it is that you want. Like I said, the reader and the client, they don't even know that they are asking this question, that they want to connect with you on social media or through your newsletter or to even talk to you for a clarity call. You need to answer that question for them before it was even asked. You might decide actually that you have more than one goal in mind, like one big goal, and that's okay. I think the important thing is just to not overwhelm them. So you don't want to have too many things. I think one to two solid calls to action, that's an ideal number. Once you get beyond that, you have to get a little bit more creative and include it in a way that doesn't overwhelm them. Because if you have too many options, you might just have them be like, "Oh, nope this is too much info". So good example, "If you'd like to be friends on social media, follow me on Instagram. If you'd like to learn more about my astrology readings, head over to my services page and read about the different sessions I can offer you." Corinne Dobbas, I think she has a really creative setup for her call to action. The primary one, as you'll see at the top, is for her newsletter. So if you're ready to feel less alone and you want to read stuff that makes you laugh, smile, and teaches you how to start accepting the person in your life who matters most, yourself. Get on my email list. Then at the bottom, she also talks about the courses that she has, things that she's working on that are upcoming, and also how you can connect with her on social media. Raelyn Tan has a really simple call to action. The best way to ensure your received value would be to sign up for my email list. I send regular tips and updates about my latest training. Now it is time for you to figure out your call to action. Once this person has read through your About page, what do you want them to do next? What is the big primary goal there? What would be the best thing that they could do? You might discover that your call to action is a little bit layered. One to two things, like I said, is a really good number. Once you get beyond that, if you're listing out a bunch of stuff in a big paragraph, it can get overwhelming. So it's time to get a little creative and think about the primary ones that you're most interested in having them sign up for, and then consider doing a list or some graphic or chart or something that can get them to also see those other calls to action but the first one and the most important one is at the top. Once you've done that, you are ready to move on to the next lesson. 10. Time to put it all together: All right, so we have explored all the elements of a good About page, the different things that you can include and now it is time to put all this together. The most important thing to keep in mind and I know this is very frustrating, is that there is no set formula. There is no right or wrong way to have your About page written, there is no thing that needs to come first, no thing that absolutely needs to come last. I think in general, yeah, your call to action is last. A little intro might be what you do at the front at the top of your About page, but you might decide that there is some other different way that just makes sense for you and that's okay. You might be feeling really stuck here and that's also okay. I think a really nice place to start just to of warm you up to it and get things going. First, a little intro on you. Then also talk about your mission and a big one, the problem that you solve. I think of all the things that you can include in your About page. The problem that you solve is probably the most important and then of course, once you have this, it's a nice little skeleton. You can add a call to action at the end, edit things to incorporate your personality throughout it and you've got a really good solid start to your About page and you might even feel like at this point it's a new really good place and it should be if you've been doing all the work throughout this course. As I mentioned before, it's okay to do something different. If you feel like it makes sense to you in regards to your ideal reader or client, then go ahead you can try it out. It's totally fine. It is a page that you are able to edit. If you eventually put something up and you just don't feel like it's right, you can change it. I think it's also helpful to look at some of those previous examples that I've used throughout this course because yes, I pulled examples that really highlighted those great elements but if you look at there about page as a whole, everyone's is different. There's no right or wrong way to do it. Also, it's not forever and that is totally okay. You are growing and you are changing and your blog or business is going to do the same thing and that is actually a really good thing. Don't feel like you need to get it to some perfect place before you can launch your website or before you can start your blog. Go ahead and get something going and through your writing, through your work, you are probably going to gain a lot more clarity on what should be on your About page. As you're revising your About page, again, my big tip is read it out loud, make sure it sounds natural and it feels like it's you if you know someone who would be willing to help you out. Getting a second opinion is really useful. An outsider's perspective is always helpful. Turn to someone for feedback and before you give it to them, just let them know what it is that you wanted to achieve and ask them if it does actually achieve that. Once you've gotten it written out and you read through it, you should feel really powerful. It is a very powerful representation of you and what you're doing and what you're passionate about. Once you get to the end of it, it should feel really amazing to read. Okay, now is the time to put all this together and write your About page. I cannot stress enough that you're not necessarily going to use all of the elements that we worked on in this course and that is totally fine. I think that all of this pre-work to the About page is just going to help inform the finished product and most importantly, have fun. Make sure that this is enjoyable. It shouldn't be something that you are totally dreading and it should be something at the end, when you read it, you feel good about it. Okay. If you have any questions, make sure to post them in the discussion below and once you're ready, then you can move on to the next video. 11. Congrats! How did your About page turn out?: Congratulations. Hopefully by this point, you have a really good or even a better grasp on your blog or business, and you have a really solid about page that you feel really good about. I'd love to see what it is that you've been working on and take a look at your About page. So, go ahead and let us know, share your project page or post in the discussion what it is that you have been working on. We would all love to take a look at your About page and get to know you better. If you found this course helpful, I would love to hear some of your feedback. Please leave a rating for this course and let me know what you thought. If you liked it, I also encourage you to check out some of my other blogging and writing courses here on Skillshare. Thanks for joining me. Let me know if you have any questions, and it was a joy having you in class.