Who are you? What do you do? What are you talking about? What will you be talking about? What gives you the right to talk about anything? What are you doing here? Why are you doing it here? Who the hell are you?
These are the many questions I ask myself when I visit a website or blog. I want to know who is the person behind the words, what are their qualifications, why are they bothering to waste their time and mine, and why should I trust anything they have to say.
Don’t you?
If you have a site or blog, take a moment RIGHT NOW to check and see if you have included an About and/or Contact Page on your blog or website. This single page can help people decide whether or not what you have to say is worth of reading and writing about and linking to. It doesn’t have to be your resume, but it needs to be something that gives us a clue as to who you are.
If you are using wordpress.com, the odds are high that the WordPress Theme you have chosen already features an About Page. Look in your sidebar or in the header for a link to About. If it is not there, you can add it by clicking Manage > Pages and adding an About Page of your own.
Part of the fun of blogging is anonymity. No one has to know who you are. But they do need to know something about you in order to trust what you say. You don’t have to use your real name. You don’t have to hand out your email address, or even the URL of other sites you run. What you choose to share is up to you. Just share a little bit about who you are and what makes you qualified so we can get a peek behind the mask of your blog and trust you just a little bit more.
It helps us to understand, too, what you are writing about. If you are writing about everything on the planet, then tell us that you are and tell us why. If your focus is very narrow, then share with us a little of the rationale and experience you have that qualifies you to write about this subject.
You got a blog because you had something you wanted people to read, and you work hard to get attention to your site through trackbacks, pings, search engine submissions, and spreading the word, so why not give a little attention to your blog and your qualifications.
RIGHT NOW, answer the question in your About page. Who the hell am I?
And to answer the question you are probably wondering yourself right now, who the hell are you?
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network 
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24 Comments
I totally agree on having a place that tells people who the hell you are. I tried to do mine justice…I guess if I get complaints I will know.
I guess I have liked being anonymous up until now, but you’re right. People do deserve the chance to evaluate their sources. Your title really got my attention. I’ll make sure to complete my About page.
Lorelle, I was referred to this post by Collin of blogreview.wordpress.com. Thanks for a nice write-up and in particular for explicitly spelling out that writing something about oneself need not mean totally compromising one’s privacy. Your site is a veritable treasure trove of blogging fundamentals, and I see myself coming here very often.
Polaris.
Thank you, Polaris. And I thought that Collin’s review of your site was excellent. He made some very good points that will benefit everyone, including yourself. Good on you for risking yourself and your blog by opening it up for review. It shows you are serious about what you do and that you want to be the best you can.
Thank you for your kind words and if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered, please ask. I feel that this is “your” blog as well as mine and I do my best to cover topics that you need.
Hi Lorelle:
Yes, there is an issue I would want to know your opinions about; something that I am uncertain about whenever I think of my blogroll. The question is this: “Am I supposed to ask before adding someone to my blogroll?”. In my google searches, I did not find much on this. Of course, there are some bloggers who post about the issue of asking people if *I* wish to be included in *their* blogroll. But, given the newness of my blog, that is a question than does not yet cross my mind.
I am sure there have been cases where bloggers have regretted being added to someone’s blogroll. At the same time, there are bloggers who have an inviting “Blogroll Me!” link on their blogs. Is it best to just ask when in doubt, or is that overkill? If you’ve covered this before, please let me know about the link. And, I added you to my blogroll without asking, so please let me know if this is ok ;-).
Polaris
Good question, one that I thought would have been easily answered. So I will write about it. Thank you. But the short answer is, no, you don’t have to ask. And yes, you can include me. But it does bring up a bunch of other things to consider, so expect an article on this soon.
Thank you!
Hi Lorelle,
I just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration to smarten up the About page. Maybe I didn’t do it quite the way you meant, but hey at least it’s pointed.
Keep up the good work, your articles make for great reading and inspiration to those of us new to WordPress and the whole weblog experience !
There are no rules and regulations for an About page. All the reader asks is “let me know a little more about you than almost nothing”.
I think fun and colorful About pages are great and I’ll be writing about them soon, so stay tuned.
And thanks for the kind words.
Thank you, Lorelle, for writing this post. I believe in always choosing for readers and readers want a relationship with the writer so that they know how to take the message that is put in front of them.
I wonder about the blog with an anonymous writer. What makes the writer want to hide?
Funny, I never look at “About” pages unless what I’ve read piqued my interest in finding out where the blogger is from. I seldom look at the author info on a book jacket either, I read a few pages of the book to see if I want to read it. If it’s a riveting tale, than I want to know who the author is.
Well, I’m the Blog Bloke, that’s who. If you don’t believe me check out my profile.
Lorelle, didn’t you ask the Bloke for an interview about three years ago? My how time flies.
Cheers!
…BB
Blog Bloke: No, I did not.
Oh yeah, sorry Lorelle I almost forgot. The title of this post was “Who The Hell Are You?”
I love the title for this topic, Who the hell are you. It made me smile as to how blunt it is. very cool. For those who are just starting out in the blogging world and trying to figure out how “the hell” to add text to your about page, you need to click on the tab that says “page” and select “edit” so you may add your info. I thought I’d share this bit of info in case new bloggers are struggling to find it. I hope this helps!
Thanks. Yes, I had fun with the title.
And instructions for adding an About Page are in the article, but the technique is a little different depending upon your blogging platform. The instructions you’ve given and I’ve included are for WordPress.
Lorelle,
A tad late to be replying to this, but sometimes the, “Who the hell are you” could be answered better by the content in the website (or the blog) more than an About page.
Not that I don’t agree with the rest of what you had to say.
It’s never too late.
Certainly, who you are should be reflected within your content, but what are the odds that every visitor to your site will stumble upon the exact post(s) that give them the information they need to know a little more about who you are and what you do and why they should care about what you have to say? Not very good.
By featuring a very brief summary that answers these questions, and support it by your content, you make the job easier for everyone to help them get to know you.
For example, if I find a post I want to link to, I want to know a little more about who I’m linking to. I’m going to look for an About page long before I search the blog for “who is this person”. And what are the odds you’ve included those particular keywords in your posts that will give me an answer?
You can never go wrong if you provide both an About page and write so people “know you” through your writing.
Lorelle, you mentioned that its okay not to list your real name in the About page. That’s fine and dandy, but lets suppose the blog grows really big (like yours) and even your friends or colleagues may very well stumble upon your blog, so assuming you use a fake name from the start… you’d be found out eventually and that isnt nice at all for me or for my readers.
Even though, I’m really tempted to be an anonymous figure, cos that’s just my nature…how is it really possible to be anonymous if your blog grows big? Of course it doesnt matter, if your blog gets read by 30 people a month…
Marilyn Monroe, Rock Hudson, Stephan King, Agatha Christie, Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, Carolyn Keene, and…well, I’d say that’s be a very good club to belong to, wouldn’t you? These are all people who used pen names, names different from their own, for various reasons and purposes.
If your blog gets popular under a pen name, consider yourself lucky.
Well I finally found a down to earth website, is that something.
I think many people find it very difficult to write about themselves. I’ve got an article and free template called “How to Write a Short Bio” that makes it much easier. You can see the full template here…
http://www.becomeacertifiedcoach.com/how_to_write_bio.htm
or a mini-version titled “How to Write Your ‘About Me’ Page that was published oat Problogger.net…
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/11/24/how-to-write-your-about-me-page/
Hope the template makes the process less agonizing for folks!
Finally! An explanation for how to bring back my ABOUT ME page that I inadvertently deleted. Obviously, I’m new at this. I received help through WordPress Support but I don’t think my question about losing my ABOUT ME page and the link on the main page was understood (which was most likely my fault). Your blog is most helpful. I’ll be back soon - so save me a seat.
I thought this too - I added my ‘about’ page ages ago - but neglected to update my contact information (after killing a few email addresses by the spam which inevitably accumulated) I have since added a contact form which shouldn’t get spammed, and have begun to get enquiries from all sorts of people (journalists etc).
All these questions also made me write a post about everything I’ve done in the past few years, to which I can refer anyone who asks “and who the hell are you to be talking about XXXX” - it seems to do the job.
Nice post - I’ve got to stop reading all yours and do some work on my own stuff ;).
Rob
i love the first two paragraphs. my sentiments exactly.
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