Image by Marina & Enrique

Your Uncle Fat Dude does his best not to be a snob. In fact,  I usually have very inexpensive tastes. Designer clothes? Meh. Expensive car? Nah.  My eyeglasses were bought at a huge discount online, the one suit I do own is decidedly not custom-tailored, and I probably haven’t paid more than $20 for a plate of food in over five years.

But there are a few finer things in life that the Dude has come to appreciate, not the least of which is good coffee. Before relocating to Los Angeles, I made a weekly visit to a fine little coffee house and micro-roastery in the NW ‘burbs of Chicago called Concious Cup. There, I’d peruse their collection of a dozen or more single-estate roasts, delighting in the dark aroma of the beans and making my selection for the week.

By far, my favorite roast of theirs was the Nepalese. Mike, our regular “guy” there who always helped us out, painted a wonderful picture when he described this roast. He talked about how the coffee fields in Nepal grew up the side of the Himalayas, and about how their production was so limited (and thus the coffee so rare) because there were limited sherpas available to assist with the trek up and down the mountains, and a limited window of time to make the trips, supplies up the slope and coffee back down.

Now, that Nepalese was some special coffee in its own right. A coffee snob your Uncle Fat Dude may be, but a poet he is not, so you’ll have to take my weak praise when I say simply that it was some great stuff. Even if I didn’t know where it came from at all, it made a superior cup.

But that story. Imagining the coffee fields, separate from the rest of civilization, so remote they could not be safely accessed without a guide… Imagining the sherpas leading teams up and down the mountain just so they could harvest what limited amount of this special bean they were able, before the picking season came to an end… Imagining that this perfect cup of coffee was so rare, and I was lucky enough to enjoy it… Well, that’s some powerful stuff. And to be honest, I don’t even care if it’s true or not.

Believe it or not, I’m actually about to reach my point here: stories sell. A great product or service, or a talented entertainer, can only become more interesting and desirable with a great story attached. More specifically, you should be telling your story, each and every time you pitch to a potential new customer/audience member/reader/etc.

I understand you probably don’t require a Sherpa for your day-to-day work, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an interesting story to tell. If you’ve put any time at all into selling something, you’ve probably come up with benefits and features and selling points, and that’s great, it’s good to know why one product is superior when compared to another. But don’t forget to his us in our imaginations. Maybe it’s interesting how your product came to be, or how it is made. Maybe it’s something about your industry, or the building you work in, or about how you came to do the work you do. Somewhere, hiding from your customers, is a story they’d love to hear. Find it, and tell it to them.

You can start by telling it to me. What’s your story? Let me know in the comments below.

Here on FatBlog, we (that’s the royal we, meaning just your Uncle Fat Dude) try to add new tools to your online networking and marketing arsenal with what we call Friday Firsts. It’s about time for another, and today we’re going to discuss Google Analytics.

What is it?

When your Uncle Fat Dude wanted to open a coffee shop, he parked his car in the lot across the street from the location he had picked out, and counted the number of cars that passed by at different times on different days to determine the amount of traffic the site got. He did research into local demographics to see who his potential customers would be, and he enjoyed many a cup of espresso or single-estate Sumatran coffee as he checked out the local competition.

The coffee shop didn’t happen (yet), but the principal of what I did is still a very important one. Here’s where I get all melodramatic: Knowledge is power. And if knowledge is power, data like I collected, or like Google Analytics can collect for you, is like a 50,000 volt transmission line.

Google Analytics is just like your Uncle Fat Dude, counting passing cars, in a sort of literal sense. It will track the traffic in and out of your site with much more accuracy than the Fat Dude ever could, but it will give you a ton of other information. How many of those visitors are new visitors? How long, on average, do they stay on your site? What pages do they look at? What sites do they come from? Google Analytics can tell you all of this, and more.

Getting Started

There’s only one way to begin, and that is by browsing over to Google Analytics and signing in with your Google account. I am not even going to consider the fact that you don’t have a Google account, because that would mean you are not using Gmail or Google Reader. So. Sign in so we can get started.

Beginning is simple enough: enter the URL of the site you want to track and give the account a name. Entering your time zone will ensure every visit to your site is logged in your local time.

From here, you’ll enter a few personal details and agree to everyone’s favorite thing to read: the Terms of Service. You’re already almost done!

The most complicated part of the setup process on Google Analytics is adding your Google Analytics code to your website. Basically, Google doesn’t want to provide just anyone with just any site’s analytics data, so you’ll have to insert a block of code into every page on your website that you want Google to be able to track.

In general terms, it works like this (and those who are HTML-savvy, please excuse me while I talk to those who aren’t): every web page is built with code called HTML, and the beginning of every HTML document is the header, which tells the web browser some important things about the web page that follows immediately after. Every header has an open tag:

<head>

and a close tag:

</head>

Right inbetwen those two tags is where you need to paste your Google Analytics code. Preferably, as the last thing before the close tag, so you don’t mess up anything else that’s going on in your header.

It is a good idea to at least save a backup copy of the  file(s) you need to edit, in case something goes wrong. If you’re not comfortable with this step, it’s time to bribe your friendly neighborhood web designer/coder with tasty treats!

Set It and Forget It

Once you enter your code into your site and move on, you’ll end up on your Website Profiles page, and it will look much like this. See the yellow triangle with the exclamation mark? This is a warning, and it means Google Analytics has not yet been able to connect to my site. You might have this too. If so, it’s okay. Check back in an hour or two and it should turn into a green checkmark.

And now… we wait. Unfortunately, for a long time. You see, Google Analytics begins collecting data only once you have entered the Google Analytics code into your website. You won’t really have a lot of meaningful data for a couple of months, but check back in about 3-4 weeks just to peek around under the hood and see what’s there.

Wait! Don’t Go Quite Yet!

True, you won’t be able to do anything with your Analytics account until you rack up some data, but let’s take a look around in mine so you can get an idea of what to expect, and just how much this tool can do for you.

Okay kids, don’t laugh too hard at your Uncle Fat Dude’s number of visits for the last month. That’s not polite.

Here’s a quick glossary of everything that appears on this shot of my Dashboard.

• Visits- The number of times someone came to my site in the date range displayed.
• Bounce Rate- Of those visitors, the number that left the site without interacting with it in any way (clicking on link, etc)
• Pageviews- The number of times one of my pages on my site was viewed (there can be [and ideally should be] multiple Pageviews per Visit).
• Avg. Time on Site- On average, how long my visitors look at my site before moving on.
• Pages/Visit- The average number of pages each visitor views.
• % New Visits- Of those visits, the percentage that were new viewers (hello new viewers!)

And this is just the tip of the iceberg! The Visitors, Traffic Solurces, and Content Overview pages are just brimming with useful information. Let your data roll in for a while and check this space for more tips and tutorials about getting the most out of Google Analytics.

In the meantime, stop in at the comments section with your questions!

Image by WTL photos

Recently, I talked to myself about blogging to build credibility, and posted the results here for your fun and enjoyment. Now, Annabel over at Copyblogger has written  a great post about using social proof on your blog. One of the things she advocates is soliciting comments on each and every blog post:

In the early days, a blog post that has no comments is like a party without people: no one wants to be the first one to show up.

A lively comment discussion shows new readers that your blog has an engaged community to interact with — that other cool people are at this party. The problem is, nobody wants to be first to comment, even if plenty of people are comfortable being second, third, and fourth.

One way to get readers over the hurdle is to specifically ask for comments. You can also end every post with a great question that encourages response. Some blogs even offer prizes for the best commenters.

But if you’re still having a hard time getting comments going on your posts, there’s an easy way to break the ice.

Get yourself a blog buddy who will comment on every post you write (you can do the same for them). Reply to each of their comments promptly.

When you respond to comments, others are encouraged to join in. Now that your blog buddy has broken the ice, others will be more comfortable about joining the conversation.

You may want to extend this to a small blog pack, a group of bloggers in a related topic who support one another’s work. It’s a great way to boost your traffic and subscriptions.

You may have noticed that at the end of every blog post, your Uncle Fat Dude solicits comment responses with phrases like “How will you leverage this idea on your blog?” “Let me know how this works out for you!” and “Let me know what you think in the comments section.”

Now, there’s no reason not to mention the elephant in the room: Your Uncle Fat Dude does not currently get a lot of comments on his blog. It’s okay. I’m actually not looking for them quite yet. In my previous post, I also discuss building up a decent amount of content before making a big public push, and that is the phase that I’m currently at right now with this blog.

However, when I am ready to start building up some traffic and soliciting some comments, I could hardly dream up a better plan than what Annabel suggests in her post: blog buddies.

This may seem a little disingenuous to you, artificially bulking up your comments by striking up a reciprocal deal with another blogger. Maybe this method of starting the comments conversation on your blog isn’t 100% organic, but I think it’s honest. So long as the comments you and your blog buddy leave for one another are honest, I-really-mean-it comments, it’s okay that you also happen to be friends.

Annabel has some other great suggestions in her post about building a reputation with social proof. Be sure to check out her post, but come back to let your Uncle Fat Dude know what steps you’ll be taking to increase your presence online!

4 Ways to Use Social Proof
(Before Anyone Knows Who You Are) – Copyblogger

You may have already spotted “Everything is a Remix”, as it’s gone somewhat viral by now. If not, it is definitely worth a view, please browse over to everythingisaremix.info and check it out.

The idea, which is only partially explored in this first part of a multi-part series, is just what it says on the tin: Everything is a Remix. The video’s creator, Kirby, begins with the world of music and talks about how remixing in the music industry began with hip hop, sampling bass beats from earlier recordings to incorporate into their own. Kirby goes on to make mention of this phenomenon, sampling earlier works, in the film industry and says that will be the focus of the next installment.

The idea that every creative work is a new version of an already existing work.. Well, that’s not original either. Famous amongst writers is Georges Polti, who theorized that there are only thirty-six possible dramatic situations, and every work of literature throughout mankind could be linked to one of those 36 stories. It’s fun to play “which story number is that movie?” Clash of the Titans? 31. Pulp Fiction? 36. Saving Private Ryan? 37.

Anyway, the point is this: when you are working on a new project, or determining  a marketing strategy, the idea isn’t to come up with something that has never been done before; once the round wheel was invented, there was no point trying to replace it with something else. Instead, think about what multiple influences you can draw upon, and filter through your own creative sensibilities, to portray those classic ideas in a new light, or in a unique way. Which of your influences can you remix in your next project?

I also pointed out Everything is a Remix for another reason: near the end of the movie, Kirby comes on screen and gives a very sincere, no-pressure request for support. This is the sort of thing that people really balk at doing because it’s uncomfortable and sort of embarrassing. Kirby is a master at it though, and I imagine it has been a big success for him. Don’t be afraid to ask your viewers/readers/ect to do what you want them to do!

Eventually, throughout all of your blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, and whatever else you’re doing to promote yourself online (not to mention all the work you’re doing on whatever it is that you’d like to promote!), eventually you’ll begin to draw some attention.

The bad news is that, much like when you were in Miss Gillis’s eighth grade English class, you usually won’t be looped in when someone is talking about you. The good news is that your Uncle Fat Dude is here with three (and a half) tools that will help you keep track of just who is talking about you, and what is being said.

One Caveat

For any of this to be useful, you really need to have a business, product, or service that has a unique name, where most if not all search results will be about you. Or, this searchable term could be your name itself. Your Uncle Fat Dude’s real name is Scott Smith, which is exactly why I go by The Fat Dude in most circles. Do a Google search for “Scott Smith” and if you find one hit that has anything to do with me, you win a cookie. My name would not work so well with this method. “The Fat Dude” or “Fat Dude Design” are better. Ideally, a completely unique name like the old Seinfeld classic “Vandalay Industries” will ensure that you can keep a close eye on your brand.

The Social Results

This tip is brought to you by my wife Kelly, over at A Perfectly Paper Blog. For a quick picture of social network hits on your name, browse over to Whos Talkin and punch in your search term.

Whos Talkin is a nifty little search engine designed specifically with social media in mind and will give you hits from networking sites, blogs, forums, etc. Whos Talkin gives a nice, no frills or distractions view of where you are being mentioned. A long list of drop-down options on the sidebar allow you to filter your results by popular networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but also a wider selection of sites like Ning, Metacafe, and Xanga, which is a nice touch.

While I would like to see Whos Talkin include an option to turn your search into an RSS feed (like the two other options below), it does provide a much clearer view of social network hits than Google’s “Blogs”, “Updates”, and “Discussions” search options. At the beginning of your online marketing/networking campaign, your first new “hits” will start to trickle in via social networking sites, so Whos Talkin may be the only option you need early in the game.

Auto-Searching Twitter

Even if you’re not currently tweeting (which you should be), you can still benefit from having an account on Twitter.com. It’s hard to overestimate the amount of data that is pouring into Twitter, and it’s actually very interesting to set up an automated search that will send you any new hits on your name (or any term you desire), so you’re not stuck combing through all of that information.

On the sidebar over to the right of the main Twitter page (once you’ve logged in), there is a handy little search bar. Simply type in your search terms (quotation marks help immensely for multiple-word phrases)…

Et, Voilà, your search results. This works just like your normal Twitter feed, and will update as new tweets roll in that match your terms. From here, you can simply click “Save this search,” and your results will be waiting for you every time you log in to twitter.com

However, I would suggest, instead, clicking “RSS feed for this query.” If you’re familiar with RSS feeds, you already know what to do with this. If not, make note of the URL of the page chock full o’ code that this link brings you to, and we’ll be back to this shortly.

Google Brings New Results to You

We’ve found how to search the social net, and focus in specifically on Twitter. As a general catch-all to find anything that doesn’t appear on either of those searches, we’ll turn to good old Google, to see a feature you may not have seen before.

Don’t browse to www.google.com, instead, we’ll be heading to http://www.google.com/alerts.

The purpose of Google Alerts is to monitor the whole web (or the portion that Google is watching, anyway) for new hits on the search terms you feed it. The setup is really very intuitive. Enter your search term (Google lets you preview what hits it currently sees for that term, in case you need to tweak a bit), and you’re practically done already.

You can also filter by the type of search result, just like during a normal Google search. I suggest that you change the “Deliver to:” field to “Feed,” and then you can ignore the rest of the Options. Click “Create Alert” when you’re finished.

On the new screen, you’ll have a “Feed” button just like you had from Twitter. Save that address too. Now that you have both, it’s time to…

Automate Your Self-Search

Browse over to Google Reader and set yourself up with an account if you don’t already have one.  If you’re not familiar with Google Reader, it is an RSS reader. That means that it decodes RSS feeds (like the two you’ve saved from Twitter and Google Alerts) and creates a one-stop shop where you can see new updates from any site that has its own feed. FatBlog has one, as do most blogs. Many sites also allow you to create an RSS feed out of search results and track any new hits on your reader, which is what we are doing today.

Here’s a picture of my Reader. Yes, my name is Uncle Fat Dude and I am a feed-aholic. I know I have a problem. Try to think no less of me.

Once you’ve set up an account, you’ll have a screen much like this (minus the ridiculous amounts of feeds). All you have to do is click “Add subscription” and paste in one of the two addresses you’ve entered. Google Reader will do its magic and add a feed to your list. Rinse and repeat for the second feed, and you now have one place to go to that will constantly update with any new mentions you have online.

(As I mentioned earlier, Whos Talkin unfortunately hasn’t implemented RSS feeds for their search results yet. Let them know you’re interested!)

It’s important to know what’s being said, if only so you can interact with your audience and turn a one-time visitor into a long-term fan. Following the steps I’ve outlined will help you do it without letting it suck all of your free time.

Find any interesting hits? Questions? Comments? Pats on the back? Share them all in the comments!

Photo by RobertFrancis

If you are anything like your Uncle Fat Dude, you have a lot of projects, goals, to-dos, and tasks to juggle. trying to stay on top of promoting yourself online, while also staying on top of the skill, service, or product you’re trying to promote in the first place can be… well, overwhelming.

Kelly over at A Perfectly Paper Blog recently had a few words to say about staying organized. Here are her tips regarding an oldie-but-a-goodie, the good ol’ To-Do List:

Weekly To-Do Lists – in my office area I have a whiteboard attached to the wall.  I have to say it has been one of my best purchases.  I make myself a to-do list each week for the things I need to accomplish.  Most of it is business related, but sometimes I also include personal stuff so I don’t forget.  This allows me to add everything I need to accomplish without forgetting anything.  It also gives me a way to check something off when I’m done.  I think this is very important.  Especially when you are juggling multiple things at once, you need to give yourself a little pat on the back when you finish an item.

1. Tip: Don’t make your to-do items too big.  If I list “Make 5 dozen roses”, well that includes multiple steps and about 35 hours of work, I’m never going to cross that off.  Instead, I list things like this: Cut petals for 5 dozen roses, assemble 5 dozen roses, paint 5 dozen roses, curl 5 dozen roses, write 5 blog posts, post on Etsy forums 3 days, etc.  This allows me to have small chunks to check off which helps me feel like I’m accomplishing more.

Long Term To-Do Lists – off to one side of my whiteboard I also have a “Future Projects” list.  Here is where I capture things I need to accomplish in my business, but that I’m not necessarily going to get done in this next week.  Currently I have items like: design Christmas items, figure out centerpieces, create wedding brochures, SEO research, Google AdWords.  I try to take one piece of one of my long term items to incorporate in each week’s list.  This allows me to start working on new items or new pieces of my business while also having my weekly list full of the items I need to do in order to maintain my business.

I can’t stress enough how important keeping your long-term and short-term goals separate is. During an office remodel earlier this year, I satisfied my inner office-supply geek by installing a big ol’ whiteboard directly over my desk. I immediately filled it with a To-Do list that looked like this:

1. Write Etsy Promotion Guide
2. Write Novel
3. Redesign Website
4. Launch Etsy Store
5. Launch Etsy Store 2
6. Launch Etsy Store 3

Anyone else see a problem here? Why didn’t I just write down “Build up Retirement Fund/Retire”? Those are HUGE projects. How many of those did I expect to scratch off on a daily basis? Luckily, clearer minds prevailed and I soon wiped the board clean to begin a short-term list that I could actually check items off of every single day. Imagine that!

(The long term goals are important too.. don’t lose those. Just don’t stare at them and depress yourself on a daily basis.)

Check out the rest of Kelly’s post for more thoughts on organization. Kelly is an Etsy crafter extraordinare, and her blog may be of particular interest to you crafters out there who are looking for an edge on the social networking front.

Staying Organized (A Perfectly Paper Blog)

Creating art can be expensive. Paint and canvas, creativity software, floral supplies, or –god help you– stone blocks can be prohibitively expensive. This week, I want to highlight an artist who is creating with only garbage bags, tape, and the New York subway.

Have a project in mind that you haven’t started because it is too costly? Joshua Allen Harris creates engaging, unique public art using very little.. How can you modify your vision to do the same?

Happy weekend, everyone. Let me know what you’re up to in the comments.

Bye-Bye MySpace?

At first glance, this seems like a MySpace killer. Easily the most powerful feature that MySpace retains, now that the largest portion of the social networking crowd has long since migrated to Facebook, is MySpace Music. Even though MySpace’s overall spotlight has considerably dimmed, MySpace Music is still one of the premiere places to build a social networking profile for your band, connect with your fans, and find more. It’s a place where I discovered a lot of my favorite bands and artists. If Apple were to build a more usable, more hip, more popular music tool, it could push MySpace even further into obscurity.

The good news is that isn’t likely to happen. Not yet, anyway.

A Rough First Impression

I downloaded Ping and set up an account just hours after iTunes 10 was released for download, but I was mostly disappointed with what I see so far. It must be said that Ping is somewhat of a wasteland just now. It’s understandable that the early adopter crowd should be small, but I’m not just talking about the user-base. There aren’t even that many artists to follow just yet.

Ping’s home page offers about a baker’s dozen of suggested artists for you to follow, ranging from Yo Yo Ma to Lady Gaga to U2. “You can do better than that,” I thought, and I started typing artists’ names into the search bar to see who I could find. Now, admittedly, I started searching for some of my favorite artists, who are not exactly huge in a mainstream way, but I also peppered in some Billboard Top 100 artists, and here were my results:

On Ping: Brittney Spears, Taylor Swift, Weezer, Seal, Justin Bieber

Not on Ping: Gnarles Barkley, Regina Spektor, Tom Waits, Sigur Ros, Silversun Pickups, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Usher, the Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Rise Against, and Phoenix.

I could follow every last artist on this list on Twitter, and most of them on Facebook, both places I already go to for a number of other purposes. So, what’s the draw of Ping, exactly?

Socializing or Selling?

If your uncle Fat Dude were a cynic, he might tell you that the only current purpose of Ping seems to be to help you find things to spend your money on in the iTunes store. And of course, we all know that is the ultimate purpose. But it could be a useful tool, too. Where can I search artists who are on Ping by popularity? Or genre? Where can I pull contacts from my Gmail account, or my Facebook friends? Why can’t I choose to share my currently playing song? Are you serious that I can’t “like” the Beatles because they’re not available on the iTunes Store? And does the lack of any “create an artist account on Ping” option mean that little guys who don’t sell on iTunes aren’t welcome either?

Some potential, But Not a Great Start.

I’ll admit it, I loved Ping as a concept. I wasn’t sure that I needed another social network, but I was excited for a great music social network that I could use to find some new artists, share music with my friends, and help some of my clients find new fans. Ping, unfortunately isn’t that great for any of those things yet. This could definitely be the worst product release that Apple has had in recent memory, worse than all of the first-gen iPod battery complaints. Can Apple take some constructive criticism and create a new must-visit network? Time will tell…

Have you checked out Ping yet? Let me know what you think in the comments!

It’s happened to all of us. You are sitting in complete silence, maybe drinking your morning coffee, maybe checking email for the first time, when it first appears.

“Po- Po- Po- Poker Face, Po- Po- Poker Face…”

You do your best to ignore it, to think about other things, to distract yourself, but before long, it’s fully lodged in your brain.

“Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah! Roma-roma-mamaa! Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!”

You, my friend, have an earworm, and a brand new website called Unhearit wants to help. You go to the site, and click a button, and the embedded player plays a random song. The new song is supposed to help you get your mind off the one you’ve been humming all day.

Unhearit is a dead-simple application. The songs are  already there, stored on parent site SoundCloud. The player seems to be basically the same as what is found on their site as well. I’m guessing this page took them no more than a day or two to throw up, most of that time spent on making sure it wouldn’t come crashing down under the load of viral traffic.

Oh… and they have 2,575 Tweets and over 16,000 Facebook Likes as of when I’m writing this.

This week’s inspiration: SoundCloud cleverly re-purposed existing content to create a viral success with Unhearit. How are you going to do the same?

Let me know in the comments.

Image by: Roberto Verzo

You’ve noticed it as one of those ubiquitous links that is always at the top of blogs and websites. You may have even clicked on it at some point. If you have one of your own, chances are you aren’t quite sure what to make of it or how to put it to use.

I’m talking of course, about the good old About Us page. Too often is the About Us page filled with some meaningless corporate-speak about how the site will “synergistically systemise excellent catalysts for change and simulate paradigms to improve value-added content”. Or, on the smaller individual-blogger level, a quick one-paragraph description of the author next to a generic silhouette picture that means the author never uploaded a picture of his or her own.

If either of these sounds a little familiar (or if you don’t have an About Us page at all), don’t fear. Today, we’re going to discuss how to create an About Us page that will be a valuable asset to your website or blog.

Our Model- The Dust Jacket Blurb

So, what exactly should an About Us page be used for? (And let me say just once that the page could be called “About Us”, “About Me”, “About This Site”, “About Fat Dude”, or any number of things). What exactly is the point of even having this page? And what should we put in there?

I want you to take a trip with me. Imagine getting in your car and driving to your favorite place to pick up a new book; your local library, Borders, that funky little second-hand bookshop downtown, whatever. We’re going to wander through the stacks until you find your favorite section, and then we’re going to pick a new book. And here’s the catch, you only get one; Uncle Fat Dude says so.

How exactly do you go about it? You might find an author you already know, or find titles and cover art that you find interesting. But you only get one, so you’d better be sure. How do you know what the book is really about, or whether the author is someone you might connect with? You crack the cover and check out the… dust jacket blurbs. Bingo.

Okay, time to come back. We found what we need. The dust jacket blurbs! Knowing what section of the store we’re in helps, and seeing the titles, the art, the authors’ names, it all helped us zero in on a few choices, but it was the blurbs inside the dust jacket that helped us pick our book.

And that’s our About Us page.

A good About Us page begins by taking the model of the typical dust jacket blurb. Well, blurbs, actually. You usually see two, right? In the front of the book, some text about the book itself; and in the back, about the author. This is where we’ll make our start as well.

About Your Site

The front flap of a book’s dust jacket is usually devoted to a blurb about the subject of the book, and we’re going to follow that model. Use the first section of your About Us page to tell your visitor exactly what your site is about.

Remember that less is more. Take a look at a dust jacket blurb and you’ll see it will usually run 2-4 short, descriptive paragraphs. Remember this is just a quick introduction to your site… if the visitor was interested in reading a large block of text, she would simply browse through your site to find out what it’s about.

Also remember that  you have the full potential of an interactive medium at your disposal. Include links to your most popular content. Issue a call to action and get the customer to sign up for your newsletter.  Provide a link to your site’s RSS feed. Include images of any relevant features that you’d like to point out. More than anything else, this is your elevator pitch for your site: sell your visitor on why she should stick around and check out your site… and why she should keep returning for more.

About You

Flip to the back dust jacket flap, and you’ll find a blurb about the author: afew notes about what makes him interesting, maybe a line about some other books he’s written or why he’s qualified to write this one. And… you guessed right, that’s what we’re going to do here too.

As you write a brief biography of yourself here’s a few questions you should answer:

• Why should I listen to this person? Just as you sold your blog’s content, so should you sell your own expertise. You don’t need to be an expert to write a blog or maintain a website, but you should give your reader some reason to listen to what you have to say. If you’re not experienced, maybe you’re inquisitive, or outgoing, or funny, or ready to make (and document) a bunch of mis-steps. Whatever it is, find your hook and let us know what it is.
• Why should I care about this person? While you’re selling yourself, don’t forget to be yourself. It’s okay to include your own personality and some information about yourself in your About Us page. In fact: I’d say it’s essential. A sometimes-reader is more likely to become a Constant Reader if they feel like they know (and like) not just your content, but you. Go ahead and let us know about your cats or your kayaking hobby, just keep this last question in mind…
• Why am I still reading this? If there is any chance whatsoever that your visitor may have occasion to think this thought, your bio has become a full fledged, capital-B, Biography. Don’t go crazy here. Keep this section short, but memorable, and personal
• What’s a good question about writing in the first person? Okay, I honestly couldn’t think of one, but this needs to be said: Write this section in the first person. “Sarah is an accountant at Earnst and Young who moonlights as a violin player…” has already put us to sleep because it sounds like a bad Playbill bio. “I’m an accountant, but what I really love to do is play the violin,” is the beginning of an engaging personal story that you are telling to your audience.

You, Beautiful You

That personal connection I mentioned for your bio section can be strengthened tenfold by including a warm, personable photograph of yourself. Don’t be shy about this. Yes, it’s the internet and we all love our anonymity, but if you want to be anonymous, you shouldn’t be reaching out to an online audience. Being able to see your face is huge in strengthening your reader’s feeling of familiarity with you and will go a long way towards drawing in your audience.

Bells and Whistles

Once you’ve accomplished all the above (no small feat in and of itself, I know!), you have a very respectable About Us page that is certainly better than 70% of what you’ll find out there, but why not spiff it up a little more? Here’s some ideas:

• Video/Audio: A picture goes a long way but multimedia, especially video, is an almost unfair advantage. Consider filming a brief introduction to yourself and post it along with, or instead of, your headshot.
• A Social Media Hub: I’ve gotten this far without linking to my own About Us page, but there you go. The three-column layout I set up gave me a lot of empty space beneath my picture, the perfect place to drop all my relevant social media links, as well as links to my other websites. You might want to even consider adding your blog or Twitter feed if your site is not already content-heavy.

It is really easy to just slap up an About Us page that is filled with nothing but so much filler, so you can get on to the more interesting parts of blogging or website development. But, if you can take some time to follow these tips and build a useful About Us page, it will be a true asset to your site.

What other opportunities are commonly wasted? Give me some ideas in the comments!