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So, I will easily admit I am a MySpace, Facebook, and “About” page stalker. I use the first 2 to keep up with friends and former acquaintances and acquaintances of acquaintances that I don’t actually talk to on a regular basis.
Yes, I want to know if you broke up with your girlfriend or boyfriend. And yes, I want to see if the girl I knew in high school is now fat. I know, I know, it’s such a female thing to do and it’s so wrong, but I still can’t shake that satisfied feeling seeing girls I may have been just a bit jealous of in high school or college get fat and ugly. I’m not proud of it, really I’m not, and given my values and morals, it’s SO wrong…but bad habits die hard.
It also makes me feel better about being the ugly duckling. I got finer with time baby, and most of them didn’t!
So anyway, my 2nd favorite form of stalking happens to be checking out people’s About pages on their website. If I’m gonna read your blog and/or site, I want to know more about you. Keyword there is YOU. I want to know more about YOU as a person. Yes, you can write about your credentials, but when it comes down to it, if I’m going to admire you and look up to your expertise and perhaps buy your product or service, I wanna know the real you.
I want to know how old you are, your relationship status, if you have kids. I want to know if you have skeletons in your closet, if you overcame some crazy obstacles to get where you are today. And you know what? If your spiritual life is important to you, be it Christian, Buddhist or Jewish, I wanna know about that too. I respect that kind of stuff, b/c it makes you seem more personal and accessible.
An About page that reads like an awards page, or a resume is…well, it’s boring. And yeah, I understand if you’re going for a very professional image, you don’t want to include that stuff. That’s fine, it’s your choice, but you just lost some points in my eyes.
I suppose I’m writing this with the Internet/Search Marketing and SEO world in mind. Anyone whose blog or site I come across, be sure that I’ll read your About page. And to those whose pages I leave feeling as though I know a little bit about you as a person, THANK YOU!
I thought I’d include my list of favorite and least favorite About pages in the world of Search.
The Least Interesting About Page Awards Go To:
#3: ShoeMoney’s Bio – To be honest, the main reason ShoeMoney made the list is cuz his writing style is pretty damn entertaining, but his bio seems a bit lacking. However, I will give him props for having some personal posts up.
#2: Graywolf AKA Michael Gray – Graywolf cracks me up, especially when he rips into Google, so I know his About page could be a bit juicier.
And the award for the #1 least interesting About page (to me at least) goes to…
Mr. Andy Beal (& Marketing Pilgrim) – Cool accent & great writing aside, Mr. Beal’s About pages read a bit too much like a resume.
But don’t sweat it guys, I still love (and read) your sites!
Now let’s move on to the best!
The Most Interesting About Page Awards Go To:
#3 Rae Hoffman AKA Sugarrae – Her About page has some cool personal info, but what really makes her #3 on the list was sharing her very personal story of how/why she got into internet marketing in the first place. It’s impossible not to respect her for her strength and fortitude after reading that!
#2 Jonathan Volk – Okay, so I just love that he mentions his girl. I’m a chick, so sue me. Also, I may be biased, since I’m very openly Christian as well and love when people aren’t ashamed to admit it in public!
And the award for the #1 most interesting About page goes to…
Mr. Aaron Wall! – A bit on the longish side, but it keeps you hooked. Aaron has definitely led a hard knock life at times, and I gotta say it’s refreshing to see that even successful people have made some stupid decisions or mistakes in their lives.
There you have it…the best and the worst About pages in the SEO world. These also happen to be some of my favorite sites, but hey, that’s just a coincidence, I promise….
I know I missed some good ones though…any About pages you all can think of that are either great or suck?
Heh, gotta admit that after reading this, I wondered about my own About page(s). I haven’t looked at them in a while, so I figured I’d better revisit them. As it turns out, the one for SEO Scoop is actually titled “About SEO Scoop”, so I guess that makes it ok to be mostly boring, and not too personal, right?
At least my DazzlinDonna blog has some personal stuff there on the About page. Hopefully that makes up for the lack of personality on the scoop blog. But those are definitely valid points, and I’m glad you made me curious enough to recheck my own about page.
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You make a very good point – I always enjoy it when I learn something interesting about a person on their About page. If I wasn’t interested in them I wouldn’t have gone to the About page in the first place.
So…I took a look at my utterly boring About page, and decided I would rework it this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration!
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Looks like I’ve got a bit of work to do on my page to catch up to Aaron. It’s not that I can’t write that much. The usual complaint I get from people is that I write too much!
I’ve changed over to a hosted WordPress blog recently, but I could get into the thousands of words on blog posts at my old blog.
I’m trying to restrain myself in my new one so readers won’t fall asleep.
And my page does read like a resume!! Egad! I suppose I’ll have to put in some juicy gossip about myself to make this list on the most interesting side.
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Oh come on now. I thought long and hard about headlines that would be different.
“does he know anything about internet marketing?”
“can he put two sentences together?”
Maybe I should hold a new contest: Re-write my bio page.
Joking aside, the reason why my bio is more stuffy than my normal writing is because it IS my resume. I work with a lot of big companies and they’d freak if my bio read: “Likes to kick ass most days – Taekwondo” or “Has been known to shoot dogs – photography”
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I just sent a constructive email to a friend describing the credibility an about us page can give a company/site.
I almost always review an about us page before buying a product or service. If there are pictures, a personal story, anything I can relate to besides corporate business garbage jargon…I’m more likely to buy.
Good thought provoking post…we should all revisit our about pages!
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yeah… I am editing my about us page this weekend… Thanks Ashley!
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This makes an interesting point. Teaches us to think twice about what to write on our pages.
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Great list. I spent the weekend building a really great looking About Us page for one of my sites and was quite proud of it.
I’m a big fan of Aaron’s, but I’d never read his About page before. It’s awesome. Very open, full of information. It is long, but it’s easily scannable, so it works.
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Judging from my stats next to nobody reads about pages, just a few blog readers who click on author-links by accident. As for the content … well, it should be totally boring telling potential employers to [since you'll probably censor everything I'd put here I better leave this tiny piece of screen real estate somewhat blank myself].
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Wow. Definite food for thought. I certainly will be beefing up my about me page ASAP.
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