AP 0001: How Do You Craft the Perfect About Page?

AskPat 1 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everyone? This is Pat Flynn, and welcome to the first episode of AskPat, a bite-sized daily show that I've started to answer your online business, blogging, entrepreneurship, podcasting, and basically any questions that you might have related to business, lifestyle, design, and personal development.

I'm here for you, and each day I'll be featuring a brand new voicemail question from the audience, whether that's someone who already follows my main podcast, the Smart Passive Income podcast, or someone who has recently discovered me through this show instead. Doesn't matter. What matters is that your questions get answered and if your question gets featured here on the show, I'll actually send you an AskPat t-shirt, which is pretty cool.

This particular episode is brought to you by you. This show would not be possible if it wasn't for the listeners out there who support what I do and take the time to ask questions. Thank you guys so much for all of your support. I mean, this show, it's here for you. So let's get right to it.

Today's question is from Addie and it's an important question based on something you should all have on your website already. Addie, take it away.

Addie: Hi Pat, this is Addie, and I'm a little stressed right now because I'm trying to write an About Me page. I don't want it to be too long, I don't want it to be boring, and I want to make sure that I get some key points across but I just don't really know how to do that without making it long. So what are some advice or key points that you can give to someone like me on writing a good About Me page that is both helpful to my audience and any potential affiliates? Any advice on that would be great. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to ask you any questions and looking forward to the new podcast. Keep doing what you're doing. Huge follower, love ya, and best wishes to you and your family.

Pat Flynn: Addie, thank you so much for your question. The About page is an extremely important page on any website and many would argue that it is in fact the most important page on your website, and I would actually agree. The thing is it's so often overlooked, which is why I'm so glad to see that you're concerned about creating a good one. That's a great sign and I'll be sharing a number of different tips to help you and anyone else who is working on their About page, or anyone else out there who wants to revisit their existing About page and just make sure it's top notch. You might be surprised, but your About page is typically one of the most visited pages on your website. You can check your analytics to verify this if you've been up and running for awhile.

More than likely, you will have a link to it somewhere in your navigation menu, which you should have, because no matter what page visitors land on for the first time, whether it's your homepage or an internal page, many of those visitors will click on your About page to learn more about you, to learn more about who is behind the content that's on your website. But beyond you, and beyond the person behind your content, they are also there to see what you have to offer them. What's the benefit of sticking around your site? And depending on how you craft your About page, you can either grab someone's attention and have them understand that you're someone worth paying attention to and that they're in the right place, or you can do the opposite and immediately turn them away.

So how do you make a great About page? What do you include? How long should it be? Well, let's address length first. I wouldn't try to make the About page a certain word count. You don't want to leave the important parts out just to meet a word count, and you don't want to add more when you don't have to. If you follow the recipe here, it'll be just long enough no matter what the actual word count turns out to be. It'll just be long enough. Now, there are many different formulas for the "perfect" About page, and over time as you tweak and, hopefully, test, you'll find out which one works best for you and your audience. But to help us out here, I'm going to analyze someone else's About page, someone who I know has tested this over and over again for maximum impact, and this is someone who has actually helped me craft my own About page.

This is Derek Halpern from SocialTriggers.com. He has an amazing About page. So let's break it down into different parts. The first part that you want to have in your About page is the hook. The hook. You need to immediately grab the attention of people who visit your About page by showing them that they're in the right spot. Derek does this by saying, "If you've ever asked yourself: how can I get more customers? How can I persuade someone to work with me or help me? How can I negotiate lower prices? How can I price my products profitably and entice people to buy them? Then you're in the right spot. If you've asked those questions, then you're in the right spot." He's getting into the heads of his target customer or his target audience member. He's basically saying to his audience, "Look, I know what you need help with. Here are the questions that I know you have, and guess what? I have the answers to those questions."

Very basic, but very, very effective. That's a good strategy for a hook. Find out the questions that your target customer has and list them, list the most common ones. How do you know what they are? Well, you ask, you do the research. You run surveys and you put your top questions that you get from your audience right there at the top of your About page, because more than likely people will be nodding along while they're reading that first part of your About page and they'll keep reading. The point is to get them to keep reading. There's a great quote by Jay Abraham. He says, "If you can define the problem better than your target customer, they will automatically assume that you have the solution."

So that's one thing you should do, or you could do. For me, I know I have a unique story, and I'm in the unique position where my story actually becomes the hook. So at first I talk about how I'm the luckiest person on earth because I got laid off in 2008, and that's a hook because usually a layoff is considered a bad thing or a negative thing, so the irony there sort of pulls people in. So that's the first part, the hook.

The second part is share the benefits of what you and your site has to offer them. Not the features, but the benefits. What's the transformation people will have once they read into your site a little bit? Talk about those things in a section of your About page. So you've got the hook, now you share the benefits. Derek, for example, says, "I'll cut through the fluff and I'll show you exactly what works and how you can start becoming a master marketer, persuader, and salesman, all because I have a knack for breaking down psychological research, business case studies, and everyday human interactions into insanely practical tips that you can start benefiting from today." That's Derek's benefit. For me, my benefit on SmartPassiveIncome.com, my main blog, is you can get the full story about what works and what doesn't in my businesses based on my own experience. So you can learn from what I do right and what I do wrong, and make decisions on your own without having to pay someone and be subjected to the possibility of false claims and wasted money. So that's my benefit. I will take the risk and do things that you may be scared of doing at first, but you can learn from my experience. That's why I call myself sort of the “crash test dummy” online on my blog.

Okay, part three, social proof and testimonials. In other words, you need proof that you are the person to follow. You've enticed them with your hook, given them your benefits so they're interested. Now you want them to keep reading. Now it's time to show that you're the one to help them. Derek does this in a smart way, actually, with a picture of him speaking in front of a huge crowd at a conference. Even without words it gives off the idea of authority and leadership, and I think an image, especially at this moment in time, in your About page, is a great place. Sort of right there at the top, and it can even be right there at the top. That's what I do to sort of give off that feeling that you want to give, as far as authority or what you're about. For me, you see, I share a picture of myself and my family.

Now, I do this for a few reasons. One, I'm all about family and that picture definitely defines who I am, and I want people who are on the site to know what exactly I'm about. And secondly, it's because most of the other people in that space that I'm in don't do this. They don't talk about their families, they talk about their fancy cars or their mansions, or travel excursions. Which are fine, that's totally fine, but that's not me. And so I'm differentiating myself on my About page by showing an image of my family there, and I think it reinforces the fact that I'm generating a passive income. I'm here at home with my family most of the day, that type of thing. Social proof. How can you show that you're the person to follow? You can differentiate yourself from others like I did, you can show your authority level by showing you teaching others like an image like Derek did, or you can share your credentials, any sort of proof that what you teach actually works, testimonials from others. Those are all good things to include. You don't want to include a huge amount, but just enough. Just a couple is all that's needed, just to become that sort of reassurance for people who are on your site so they know they are in the right spot.

Okay, let's move on, part four. If you haven't done so already, you can tell your personal story here. This is the part of the About page where Derek finally tells his story. I tell it more in the beginning because that's my hook, but Derek talks about how he got started online in just a few short paragraphs, and people are interested in that stuff, so you want to share a little bit of your background, or where you came from, or how you came to be. Think about what you would say to someone you met for the first time who wanted to know more about you. What would you say? Well, that's what you would talk about there. I'd also include some hobbies or personal things about you, because many times those random little personal hobbies and things like that, those are things people remember about you. That's what helps you stand out from the crowd and because they may also do the same thing or know someone who does, and they can make that connection, it becomes an immediate connecting factor which helps you stand out.

And lastly, part five, and this is the biggest thing I learned from Derek when he helped me with my About page, was to make sure you include an opt-in box for your email list. You must do this. My opt-ins increased 446 percent the month I implemented the strategy by putting opt-in forms for subscribing to my newsletter on my About page. I had 60 people sign up through my sidebar opt-in form when they were on that About page before I included opt-in forms in the middle of that page at the end. And then when I put two opt-in forms, one after the introduction and then another at the end of the About page, 404 people, that's up from 60 people, signed up the next month. I swear, if there's one tip that you can take away from this entire recording, that's this one. Place at least one opt-in form so your audience can subscribe to your email list on your About page, two preferably. Derek, he actually includes three.

So that's how to create a great About page, and that's really all you need. So let's sum it up one more time. First you need the hook, that thing that helps your audience know they're exactly in the right spot. It grabs their attention, you get in their heads and address their concerns right from the start. Speak their language. Two, the benefits. What do you and your website have to offer your audience? Three, social proof and reassurance; things that you can share that show that you're qualified to talk about this stuff. Four, your personal story, if you haven't included that already. And five, opt-in forms for your email list.

And there we go. Thank you again, Addie, for your questions, great question. I'll get you set up with an AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show, and if any of you listening have a question about online business, blogging, entrepreneurship, start-ups, podcasting, videos, whatever, I'd love to answer that question for you. If you have a question, head on over to AskPat.com and leave your voicemail question there. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat.

As I mentioned at the top of the show, this show would not be possible without you, and you and your questions drive the direction of this show and the value that it provides for everybody out there in the world listening. Thank you so much for your support. If you have a question that you'd like potentially featured on AskPat, head on over to AskPat.com Thanks so much.