Do yourself a favor and log into your analytics account. You there? Good – I’m going to bet that your second most popular page on your site is your About page. If it isn’t it’s at least in the top 5. If it’s not in your top 5 you probably forgot to put a link to it in your nav bar (just sayin).
Chris Brogan first brought this to light a couple of years ago. Since then it’s been the topic of much discussion in the blogosphere. It’s one of the most visited pages on your site, don’t you think that deserves a little attention?
If you think that just because you’re an affiliate you don’t need an about page – you’re dead wrong. Often times, YOU are the only difference between the blue widget you sell and the blue widget your competitor’s sell. Sometimes YOU are your unique selling position. Think about that.
Just like most things worth doing, there is an optimal way and an awful way to create your about page. Despite the name of the page – this isn’t just a place to talk about you. Your about page should be looked at as an opportunity.
Here are a few things you should look at when building your about page
#1 Introduce Yourself
Copyblogger says it best when it comes to talking about yourself on your about page:
Yes, it’s a spot for you to talk about yourself — but only in the context of how you serve your readers.
source
People do want to know about you, the person. But they want to know this only after they’ve got a good idea of what you can do for them. It may sound shallow or insensitive but it’s human nature. Subconsciously many people are asking themselves “What’s in it for me.” Introduce yourself with brevity and in the context of what you’re going to do for the reader/customer.
#2 Add Pictures
Duh. People do business with people even if you’re just referring them to another company to close the sale. Post pictures of yourself. And please, for the love of god try to smile. It’s not going to kill you.
#3 Talk About What’s In It For The Reader
Yes I mentioned this above but this concept deserves it’s own section. Take the chance to talk about what you can do for the reader or customer. What problem of theirs are you going to fix? What results can you deliver? These are the things people need to know from you. These are the reasons they are here in the first place.
#4 Offer Social Proof
If you’re talking about the solutions you can provide it only makes good marketing sense to share a snippet from a happy customer or two. This doesn’t have to be elaborate or long. Just get a quote from a customer that shows you’re real. If you can use a small picture of the customer or client – go for it. Customer pictures add another level of connection.
$5 – Close with a Call to Action
You’ve got them there, you’ve shown them what you can do for them, you’ve provided social proof that what you say is real, and now it’s time to get them into your funnel. Close your about page with a call to action.
The CTA could be as simple as a newsletter optin form, an RSS feed, or even a contact form. The ideal thing to do here is test which CTA works best, but that’s another post altogether. No matter what you do – make sure you take the opportunity to try and get them into your funnel. Waste not want not.
Thanks for the valuable information. Who would have thought of making the ‘About’ page ‘optimized’ as well!
That’s exactly why I thought this would be a good topic to share! When we’re all so focused on optimizing landing pages, product pages, and sales copy – who thinks of the about page?
I have been doing manual optizimation of my main pages and it seems too be a daunting task to do this just for my 15 websites now I need to do my about pages too? Any suggestions?
Optimizing your about page is a bit different than your typical SEO task. This is a bit more personal. You can only do this by hand so I suggest just taking it one page, one site at a time. There’s no easy button for high quality work.
Optimizing your about page is a great way to brand yourself while adding more credibility to you and your site. it doesn’t have to be search engine optimized as we all used to, but adding those factors you have mentioned will sure help.
Great post
Tobi
Thanks for a great post Dustin, sometimes you don’t see stuff that is in plain site and miss out completely. The learning curve is exponential and awesome when you get on the steep part.
Take action and prosper friends, Pete.
Thanks for your reminding!
Good Morning, I am just getting started in afiliate marketing and really don’t understand how the website is supposed to look. I have contacted several people who build websites and no one can understand what im talking about. I know this is unrelated to the previous information you provided but I am desperate to find answers to what should be the most basic question….. who can build me an afiliate website? Any suggestions/guidance?