Who Are You And Where Am I – Answer Your Reader’s Unspoken Questions

Have you ever landed on a page of a great blog, read the post, and then wanted to learn more? Of course you have. You then clicked on the blog’s About page, and oriented yourself as to the blog’s purpose, focus and history. You learned something about the blogger. Perhaps you even contacted the blogger.

You’ve had the opposite experience too. You’ve read a post on a blog, wanted to learn more, and couldn’t. The blog was essentially anonymous; no About page, or any indication of who the blogger might be, or why he or she was blogging.

Tell Your Story: Your Reader Wants To Know Who You Are

No one knows who anyone is on the Web, unless they’re told. Your blog may be wonderful, insightful and worth reading, but if you don’t tell your readers who you are, they have no idea whether or not they should trust you.

Trust is a big issue on the Web, so anything you can do to engender trust is worth doing.

Start by creating an About page, and revise it occasionally, as your blog grows, and as your blog’s focus changes.

If you’re nervous about talking about yourself, relax. There are no rules on what an About page should contain. Just imagine you’re talking to someone who’s arrived at one of your pages and tell him who you are.

Use humor if you wish, a light approach works on many blogs. (If you’re writing a corporate blog however, keep it formal; shareholders have no sense of humor about their money.)

Your About page could contain:

* A brief note of who you are as it relates to the purpose of the blog – keep this short, a paragraph or so long at most;

* Some indication of why the blog exists and what you hope to achieve with the blog;

* Links to other sites you own which are relevant to your blog – if your blog is part of a business site, link to the home page of the main site, for example;

* Your most popular posts, if you’ve been blogging for a while, or posts you’ve made which will orient a new reader;

* Contact information – this is vital. Include an email address at minimum. If you’re writing a small business blog include phone numbers and your address;

* A call to action. Tell your readers what you want them to do. Perhaps you want them to subscribe to your RSS feed, call you for more information, or download a report.

“Who are you?” and “Where am I?” are two questions every reader of your blog wants answered. Answer them.

Written by angela from Blogging For Dollars
Posted on October 24th, 2007 and filed under Blogging
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