Blogging

When an About Page Isn’t Enough, ‘Start Here’

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For years, we’ve been told every blogger needs an about page. (They still do.) But now there’s something new gaining in popularity.

First things first: you do have an About page on your blog, right? And that About page does actually have content about you, right?

If not, the first thing I’d love you to do as soon as you finished reading this post would be to create something. Do it for yourself, but more importantly, do it for your readers, many of whom would actually be happy to connect with you.

Blogging is supposed to be personal, at least to a point. Even a business blog attracts customers who are looking for some indication that there are human beings somewhere behind the scenes who might actually attempt to care about a customer’s needs.

If you’re passionate enough to blog, you ought to be willing to show at least a little of who you really are. No, you don’t have to put all your business out there. In fact, I’d never recommend you go that far. It’s just that your readers want to know who’s writing this stuff, and more particularly, why they should trust you.

While I would certainly say that an About Page is the most important page you can generate as a companion to the main feed, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger recently introduced me to the concept of a Start Here page during a May episode of his podcast.

About Me vs. Start Here: Why Both?

There’s a fairly important distinction that needs to be made between an About Me page and a Start Here page.

The About Me page is where you give a lot of background on who you are, what makes you tick, what you’re passionate about and why you set out to start a blog. It introduces your reader to you.

The Start Here page is where you lay out your plans for your website and how your readers can get more out of your site.

To put it another way, your Start Here page focuses on your presentation, while your About Me page focuses on the presenter.

You can check out my Start Here page right here.

Do you have an About Me page? Have you considered a Start Here page?

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.