On a blog, it’s important to think of every page as a landing page. Every page on your site is an opportunity to convert a visitor or lose them. This is true of your front page, each post and each page on your site. Writing your “About” page is a sticky subject for some bloggers when they first get started, so I wanted to touch on this. Let me know what you think!
Don't think of your "about page" as a place to write a book about yourself. No one cares! Instead, answer the more difficult questions: "Why are you writing this blog?" "Why SHOULD you write this blog?" "Why are you different?"
A Few Tips on Writing Your About Page
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when writing the “about” page on your blog.
Your About page is the one page on your blog where you should feel free to talk openly about yourself.
Mention a bit about your experience and why you’re qualified to write the content on the blog. More importantly, share honestly why you’re compelled to write this blog. Your readers are looking for a reason to connect with you.
Focus on the main problem you can solve for a reader. When visiting an About page, a visitor wants to know about you, but they still only care about what’s in it for them. So, talk about yourself, but keep in mind why a visitor should care. What benefit will they get by being a regular reader?
How are you different? What unique value or perspective do you add to the niche you’re covering? It’s rare indeed for you to be covering something that no one else covers. Instead, talk about why you’re different and what you offer that no one else offers.
The About page can be a powerful asset to your blog, or it can also be a great excuse for a reader to take off and never return. How do you feel about your About page? Are you intimidated by it? Do you have any questions about how to optimize it?
If you’re running a blog for your business, it’s important to think of every page, every post you publish as an opportunity to either ramp up your business or lose ground. Every page on your site will either produce comments and other forms of interaction with your visitors, or it will fail in this regard. For this reason, it’s important to spend a minute to think about what your goal is for each page.
Sometimes a little tune up will give you much better performance. Here are a few performance tips for your blog 🙂
What do you want this page to accomplish? Not every page is going to have the same goal of course. Some posts, you’ll want to simply generate comments and interaction with your readers. Some will be focused on generating new subscriptions. Some will me meant to sell a product, etc. You get the idea. So here are a few elements I’d encourage you to include on your blog. They’ve worked well for me, so they’re at least worth a try.
Install a share widget.I use this one. It makes it very easy for a visitor to share your content with their friends. Twitter, Facebook and a ton of the biggest social networks are all supported. The viral nature of content is one of the most powerful elements to blog marketing. Make it easy for your visitors to spread your content around any way they see fit.
Have a contact form on every page. You’ll see a contact form in the side bar on almost every page on my site. When I installed this form, specifically for the purpose of just giving general feedback, submitting questions, etc, I found that a lot of people really do use it. Is it hard to click over to my contact page? Of course not, but having a contact form right there in front of you consistently reminds a visitor that I earnestly to want to hear from them if they have anything to share. It’s started a lot of good conversation.
Install SEO links plugin. It’s a free piece for WordPress. You can set certain keywords within your blog to automatically link up to other pages, even outside pages to other sites. An example: I set the words “contact me” to automatically link to my contact page. This produces a number of incoming links automatically to my contact page. I don’t have to think about it or manually put the links in. Internal link structure is beneficial to a site for a number of reasons. I recommend it 🙂
Using Aweber. I’m an affiliate for Aweber for good reason. Why? They rock. Enough said. I’ve checked out all the major email marketing solutions, and my personal opinion is that Aweber is the most powerful provider to use. They are inexpensive, give you powerful ways to measure the effectiveness of the email you send your subscribers, and they offer a ton of creative, effective opt in forms to put on your pages. An Aweber opt in form looks great, and it can be set up in mere seconds.
Use simple graphics. I set up sites to be content-focused. This is just my personal M.O., but I honestly think visitors want content, not fancy graphics. When it comes to blogging, less is more. Keep it simple, spend time on good content, and results will follow!
Use captions on your images. I haven’t always been big on using images in posts. I don’t personally like the use of stock images in posts, because I think it looks cheesy. However, I cannot ignore that other top bloggers swear by it. The fact is that a simple, well-placed image in your post can grab people. Some people respond strongly to visual anchors like this. I’ve found that by taking a minute and putting a caption on the image, it gives it a lot more power. Instead of just putting up a stock image, put in a caption. Your caption will give the reader a frame of reference and make it that much more powerful. Details matter.
Link up your social networks. Are you on Twitter? Are you on LinkedIn? I encourage you to link these things up in your sidebar, so that your visitors can see you’re out there. They’ll see they can connect with you in a number of other locations, which can be of great benefit to you. You may think that you want people on your blog. Why would you encourage them to leave and hit you up on Facebook when you really want them to subscribe to your blog? The answer is that many users are simply more comfortable on Facebook. Connect with them where they’re most comfortable. By sharing your blog content on other networks, users can share your ideas just as easily from Facebook or any other place. Your blog is your hub, but you should be active in other places as well, and it all contributes to your user base. Just because a fan on Facebook doesn’t add to your Feedburner count doesn’t matter at all. Connections are what matter. Facebook counts 🙂
I think it’s important to mention that not every blog is the same of course. Just because something works really well for me doesn’t mean you’ll get the same results with your audience. However, this list should give you a few things to try. Trial and error is the key 🙂
There are many more, but these are the ones that jump out at me at the moment…do you have any additional page tweaks that have worked really well for you? I’ve love to hear what works for you!
The 80-20 Rule saves you loads of time. It amazes me how few business owners use it!
We’ve most likely all heard of the Pareto principle. The law of 80-20. Also known as the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity. It means that very few things are responsible for most of what we see out there. Of course, we see this in business every day. There are the top performers in any business who seem to attract all the success, and then there’s everyone else. Why are some of us highly effective while others of us struggle to get even small results? There are answers.
Do What Works
The 80-20 rule is not just an observation of how the world works, it’s also a business strategy. It’s a strategy very few of us follow. If I had to guess, I’d guess that 20% of business owners follow it, and they’re the ones who get 80% of the results. Oddly enough, following the 80-20 rule puts you into it’s favor. Test it and see how it works for you.
To get the results of a high achiever you must do what works. You must do what gets results. This seems logical enough, right? Yet when you look closely, so few of us follow this basic business principle. We do some things that work, and we also do a lot of other things that don’t work. Have you ever had a day where you spent running around like a crazy person, and at the end of the day you’re exhausted, yet you didn’t accomplish hardly anything? That’s what I’m talking about! That’s not effective. That’s what it feels like when you spend time on the 80% of crap that only gets 20% of the results. We’ve all done it.
I see businesses all the time that have a lot going for them, but they’re so bogged down in minutia that they can barely function. It they simply stripped themselves free of all the junk that’s wasting their time and did more of what worked, they would explode. As we all know, working hard is not the key. We’re in agreement on that, right? It’s about getting results. Sometimes you need to push yourself, and there is value in that, but at the end of the day, the world doesn’t care if you’re exhausted or not…it only wants to know if you’ve made a difference. That’s all that matters.
A Few Examples of 80% Time Wasting in Action
Are you spending time working with clients that beat the crap out of you every day?
Are you doing more jobs for customers who haven’t paid you for the first job?
Are you spending time on the phone working old leads that never call you back?
Are you still spending $1500 a month on that print ad? How many calls is it bringing in? Have you checked?
Are you allowing yourself to be interrupted with calls throughout the day to deal with mundane stuff that doesn’t grow your business?
Are you checking your email 20 times a day?
Do your agents, salespeople, employees, etc have to go through you for every single little thing? Do you have to approve, for example, an order for more post-it notes before it can be taken care of?
The preceding are all examples of 80% stuff…the stuff that only gets a small result, if any. Yet it requires the bulk of our time. What would happen (I know it’s a radical idea!) if you just stopped doing it? What would happen if you empowered your people to make decisions on their own (maybe if you can’t trust em to order post-it notes, they shouldn’t be working for you)? What would happen if you just spent your time focusing on building and streamlining your business? What if you took all those old leads that never call you, and you just put them on a responder campaign?
Would the world implode? Not likely. In fact, those horrible clients that beat you up would probably stop working with you. How nice would THAT be? I bet the post-its would get ordered just fine, don’t you think?
Can you imagine how much time could be freed up? Can you imagine how many resources could be freed up…if you only freed them up? What are you doing now that’s not getting results?
A Proposed Solution
I propose simply stopping the stuff in your business that you’ve been grinding away at, that’s not producing a discernible, meaningful result. Instead, focus on the 20% that’s getting the results. Do more of THAT, and nothing else. It’s easy to think more sales, more systems, more ads, more, more, more is always the answer. But the fact is that no matter how many people you hire, if they’re working on stuff that sucks, you’re wasting your money. More isn’t always better. Sometimes simply focusing on the 20% will let you see where your business is REALLY at. Maybe you’ll see you actually have enough time to enjoy yourself a bit…or start another business with all the time you save. What do you think?
Are you wasting your time with blog tactics that don't work?
Here’s what is wrong with this whole blogging business…the advice most blogging A-listers can offer you is hugely valuable, but if you don’t put things into context, you are WASTING YOUR TIME. Context is everything! Without context, the information is useless, and that is a problem you need to address if blog marketing is part of your business. Are you putting things into context, or are you wasting your time trying to get results with techniques that WON’T work for you? If time is valuable to you, read on!
So many of us read Problogger (or any other popular meta blog) and rush out to win our fortunes online with a fancy new blog. Then what happens? Nothing. That’s what happens. We work our tails off and don’t see the results we expect. What’s wrong? There are two things that happen that cause failure to get results from your blog.
You didn’t follow the advice you got
You DID follow the advice you got
I feel compelled to submit that either way, you’re going to be thrown for a loop at some point! Why? Because the rules change. It used to be that you could follow a simple formula to get on the front page of Digg, and that would bring you a massive influx of traffic. It was a little hit and miss of course, and wouldn’t work every single time, but the fact is that you used to be able to get on Digg without a monumental effort. Today, it’s not the case.
It used to be that getting Stumbled could bring you a significant amount of traffic as well. Today, not so. I know guys like Darren Rowse (and many others; I’m certainly not trying to single him out here) have talked about the benefits of StumbleUpon as a traffic generator, and he’s telling you the TRUTH! This can’t be overstated. The blogging A-listers of today know what works for them, and they share what they’ve learned selflessly. You should pay attention to them. And you should also realize that what works for them may not necessarily be what works for you. Again, context is everything! The question for today is this: are you putting the elements of your blog marketing into context, or are you just blindly following someone else’s advice?
Building something significant requires you to be a trailblazer. Don’t expect following a generic formula to get you anything other than generic results.
Opportunities come and go. They are dynamic. They don’t remain the same year after year. What worked in 2006 doesn’t work anymore for the most part. Getting on Digg used to be a big deal, now I’d argue there are much better uses of your time.
How Bodybuilding is Broken as Well (and how it relates to blogging of course!)
This whole situation reminds me of being young, reading bodybuilding magazines. I always wanted muscles like Arnold…who the heck didn’t, right? So you read these articles that outline his workouts. It makes sense, right? If you want the same results as Arnold, do what he does. The logic is sound. Of course you’ll probably have to use lighter weights, but if you duplicate the workouts, and you’ll get great results, right? No, actually. It doesn’t work that way in most cases. Not at all.
Why is this a problem? The problem is that a number of factors are not being taken into account. First, genetics. Some people literally have a genetic ability to be able to lift very heavy weights. Also, having the ability to recuperate from workouts that intense is not something everyone can do. Additionally, the bodybuilding pros most young boys try to emulate are using drugs. No offense, but they are.
The fact is that the workouts outlined in most bodybuilding magazines are in fact, the truth. It is actually what the pros do. And if YOU do it, you won’t be able to walk for a week, you won’t be able to recuperate from it, and it might even lead to a significant injury. You have no business doing workouts like that.
So do you see the problem? Copying what the pros do does not necessarily mean you’re going to get the same results. In fact, it may very well be a colossal waste of your time. So what gives?
The Magic of Understanding the Difference Between Principle and Technique
So where does all this lead us? If modeling A-listers doesn’t work, how can you ensure you will get results with your blog? This is an important question, and it comes down to context. If you have context, you have power. Here’s how you do it.
First, let’s be clear of the difference between Principle and Technique. A lot of articles and blog posts out there talk about techniques. Techniques for generating traffic. Techniques for building a blog. Techniques for converting email subscribers into paying customers, etc. Specific step by step tutorials are techniques. They are important. But they must be put into context.
For example, if you’re reading an article from 1998 about how to build a static html website, it may have been a great tutorial…in 1998. But is it contextually valid for you NOW? You must answer this question before implementing it into your plan. Tutorials convey techniques. They are very valuable, but you have to put them into the context of your plan. No one else can do that for you. You have to do it yourself.
Principles on the other hand, are underlying concepts that work in all situations. I spend a good bit of time conveying business concepts on this blog, because my goal is to have at least 50% of the content on Next Level Blogger be content that is relevant long into the future.
Do you see the difference between Principle and Technique? Put things into context when you’re reading about how to build your blog and get the results you’re looking for. Is what you’re reading conveying a Principle or a Technique? And if it’s a Technique, does it apply to your business? Is it relevant to your present situation? If so, employ it. Use it, benefit from it, and learn from it. But first, put things into context. There is a wealth of information out there that will help you get huge results from blog marketing. However, if you don’t put the information into context, you’re wasting your time!
We talk a lot about passion in this business. What is your passion? It’s not any specific thing. There’s not just one thing you can be passionate about. It’s not about fate or birthrights or the alignment of the stars. What is your passion? I’ll tell you right now what your passion is. It’s whatever you want it to be.
Subject matter doesn’t matter. At the core of every industry, no matter how exciting or innocuous and boring that industry might be, are people making things and people buying things. What is the core of any business? People. That’s it.
You don’t need to be passionate about the product. You have to be passionate about the people who are passionate about the product.
At the core or every human need and want, no matter how mundane the subject matter, is a human being. Believe it or not, people buy sexy products like Stratocasters (best rock n roll guitar EVAR, don’t argue with me on this!) and vacations to the Bahamas for the SAME REASONS they buy life insurance or a higher grade fertilizer for their crops. People buy out of love, fear, greed, envy…the classic human triggers.
It doesn’t matter what your industry is, if you’re a passionate person, any industry can be your passion. If you’re not, you’ll never find your passion, because passion doesn’t come from out there, it comes from you.
We talk a lot about passion in this business. What is your passion? It’s not any specific thing. There’s not just one thing you can be passionate about. It’s not about fate or birthrights or the alignment of the stars. What is your passion? I’ll tell you right now what your passion is. It’s whatever you want it to be.