Blind Dates
There’s a popular saying these days that ‘There’s no such thing as a blind date anymore.’ This is Google and the web at work. It’s now so easy to check someone out before we meet them or do business with them. As a result, it’s little surprise that the ‘About’ page on your website is one of your most important pages.
Six Principles
Recently I relaunched Book Rapper. And, as part of this I redesigned the website. And, I wrote a complete new bio page. To do this I spent a bit of time researching hot bios by searching on Google and reviewing what various other bloggers had to say about the topic. I came up with the following six principles that I used to write my new biography over at Book Rapper. You might like to compare your current bio to my six principles. And, rewrite or update if needed.
1 It’s not about you!
Strangely, your bio is not about you! It’s about them! The whole point of your bio is to show why you are THE person to solve the BIG problem your audience is struggling with. Ask yourself:
- What’s the problem I’m solving?
- And, what makes me the right person to solve it?
Ideally, don’t just talk about this. Don’t try to tell me you have a sense of humour. Instead, demonstrate it!
2 It’s not your CV
If you’re applying for a job the usual approach to creating a CV or Resume is to write a long chronological history of all the stuff you’ve done. As a bio page I don’t think anyone is interested in reading this. If you must list your life head over to LinkedIn and knock yourself out. Alternatively, provide this as a secondary and deeper level of info by adding it as a downloadable pdf. Instead of your entire life story, share your highlights reel.
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3 Don’t Be Boring
The worst thing you can do in your bio is to be dry, boring and beige. The whole point of writing and sharing your bio is to make yourself interesting! You do want the reader to engage in all the other things you share on your website, don’t you? If you don’t capture their attention, create some allure and provoke some mystery then your readers will simply click away to find someone else who is more interesting to listen to.
4 It’s Personality AND Achievement
The key to being interesting is to show some personality. And, I think a lot of boring bios are written because the author is stuck in CV mode. And this brings with it a desire to please. We think we’re being interviewed for a job and hoping like crazy that the reader will like us. A better goal is not to be liked, it’s to be admired. And, the best way to do this is to showcase YOU in all your individual and unique splendour.
Personality is crucial. And, by itself it’s just fluff. You need to marry your personality with achievement. Like a chef making a classic recipe in a new way, build a strong core of achievements and add a sprinkle of your personality to give your bio a potent twist.
[Tweet “How to stand out amongst the crowd by writing a web bio that sings a sweet siren call”]
5 It’s Public AND Private
At the end of the day there are a lot of people to do business with. And, in most cases, the person we’d like to work with is going to win the gig. This is why it’s crucial to showcase your full self and not a thin sliver based on what you think people want to read.
Whilst this is part of sharing your personality and your achievements, it’s also about sharing some public AND private details about yourself. This is not about telling people how often you have sex with your partner. Too much information! And, it is about telling people that you love Vietnamese food, taking long walks and that you hate tail-gating drivers.
In this way you present yourself as a real person who lives in the real world. And, most importantly, that you can relate to the frustrations that your audience also feels.
6 What’s your Ideal?
My pet hate about a lot of websites and bios is a page full of words. If that’s what you show me then I probably won’t read it! Ideally, your bio will be much shorter than this blog post. And, if you design your page well it will allow the scanners – like me – to read the highlights super quickly and super easily. Notice I used simple catchy headlines. And there’s only a handful of words under each one.
My ideal bio would be a visual diagram. This suits who I am, how I think and the key positioning of Book Rapper – visual ideas. Find your unique way to showcase your skills.
PS: I’m working on my ideal bio as an infographic at the moment.
Write Your Website Bio
Love to hear your thoughts…
- Did my bio work?
- What does your ideal bio look and feel like?
- Are you now ready to update yours?
