“You either have the magic or you don’t”
31dbbb at yeah write is about calling attention to your blog. So, hands up now: how many of us have actually had a good look at those key pages lately? Exactly as I suspected. Once we sorted that template design and managed add-ons and plug-ins, we diligently set up our key pages and threw ourselves into the routine of regularly updating our blog by, you know, blogging, then completely forgot how those key pages need to be as fresh and relevant as any recent blog post. So, in true yeah write spirit, we turn to Freddie Mercury for guidance on updating our key pages.
“I won’t be a rock star. I will be a legend”
Blogs are evolving beasts and, although we might start that blog when we’re at a certain point in our lives/careers/sense of self-purpose, a few months down the line, we could be in a different place entirely. About that about me page:
- Are you still a rock star or are you diversifying?
- Does it include a reasonable and up to date photo?
- Do you have clearer aims now than when you started? If so, add them in. Is that day one elevator pitch ready, yet? Publish it here.
“I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear”
If your blog is the smallel part of a bigger business venture, then your hire me page should be all about selling yourself.
- Is the information still correct and relevant? It’s essential that your contact details are up to date.
- What else are you now doing? Do you need to include or remove services?
- Maybe that early draft is too focused on basic services and not enough on the benefits to the clients? Refocus it to let them know what they get out of hiring you.
- Supporting evidence of satisfactory clients? If you’ve now got a whole batch of new client testimonials to say how fabulous you are, then these need to go in now!
“The lavish presentation appeals to me, and I’ve got to convince the others”
Ironically, many bloggers forget this one at the start, so if it’s a case of creating rather than updating, then get going now. Our day 11 create a sneeze page is a good place to start.
- Whilst your ‘about’ page can be all about you, your “start here” or your sneeze page is a key platform for letting your visitors know what’s in it for them. What will they get out of spending time on your blog?
- Best blog posts buried by now? Dig out those links to guide new visitors to the best of what you’re all about. Show them the best bits early on and they’re more likely to stick with you.
- Freddie’s “convince” is all about engagement: is your start here page engaging enough? Think graphics and images as much as written content, but keep ‘lavish presentation’ within moderation, otherwise your site will be slow to load, and you’ll lose readers’ interest before you’ve started!
“On stage I am a devil. But I’m hardly a social reject”
Been building up your social profile since you started? Add in your social links to your contact me page, as well as other key pages and posts.
“The reason we’re successful, darling? My overall charisma, of course!”
Review your key pages frequently to keep them as fresh and keep your readers coming back to your blog.
This is a guest post from Kat at Chilled Scribbler.
After reading this post, I realized that my “About” page sucks, my new, edited elevator pitch does not deliver, and that I am now not sure about what direction I want the blog to take. I also decided to discontinue another older blog – and all because of changes in my spiritual, emotional and mental aspects, which are all undergoing their own “editing” and revamp.
This is something I need to do, most definitely. I need to break apart and clarify my about page. And after my blogs redo, I noticed the designer left out my social media links. Crazy. But living in a small town, I feel like I am educating them on building a blog site.
I updated my “About” page: http://www.tootimidandsqueamish.com/about/
The first two paragraphs are new and came from the elevator pitch exercise (thanks for the feedback, everyone!), which I hadn’t done anything with yet, so I really appreciated the suggestion to include it in the about page.
I also tried to change some of my page to the point of view of what a reader could get out of my blog, rather than have it be just about me.
Finally, I reworded my request for homemade postcards so that it is more focused on celebrating my readers for going out of their comfort zones. (No readers have taken me up on it yet, other than my own son, after I coerced him to do it.)
After over two years of blogging, I have been struggling with my transition. If I’m saying I am no longer too timid and squeamish, then what do I write about? I think these changes helped me to address that, but I would appreciate any feedback.
Great work on the About page, Marcy.
I, too, incorporated my elevator pitch into my About page. The feedback from Day 1 was so helpful.
This post was the kick in the pants I needed to work on my other page that I created back in April. I’m working on a collection of links called “1000 Ausome Things” and assumed I would be further along at this point.
I thought your elevator pitch worked perfectly in your About page. I really like how you ended the page, too.
Your 1000 Ausome Things page seems like such a great resource for people, and I like how it will grow over time and how you incorporated a reader’s comment and your own experiences into it.
Well, as my blog’s pretty new my about page is happily up to date, so I decided to add a “contact” page. It’s pretty bare bones, any suggestions for spicing it up? Or is keeping it simple the best in this regard? Cheers!
http://breakingmoulds.com/contact/
Hi Janelle – thanks for stopping by to comment, I hope you found the post useful.
Don’t forget that the ‘contact’ part actually means communication, which is a two-way thing. So as well as giving all the details about where your readers can find you, you could always make an extra feature of communicating with you through subscribing to the blog – I know you’ve got this in the side bar but adding it into the body of the page and giving information on what this brings (an alert to each blog post, a monthly newsletter delivered via email etc) is another way of letting your readers know that you’re really open to that two-way communication.
Ditto for comments: You’ve shown very eloquently that you understand why someone might not want to leave a comment in the public domain, which is great, but this ‘why you might not …’ could also be balanced with a ‘why you might want to …’ which lets readers know what happens when they comment, eg: if you always respond personally to comments, then say so – your contact page is perfect for this! 😉
Cool, thanks for the input. I added a few more sentences along the lines you suggested, hopefully that’ll do the trick for now! Cheers!