Marketing

Is My ‘About Me’ Page Costing Me Freelance Writing Clients?

The state of the About Me page on your writer’s website can often be the difference between a potential client getting in touch or clicking away. It’s a tricky one to get right too.

You need to achieve a tight balance between showing off your personality and keeping the focus on reeling those clients in.

Is My ‘About Me’ Page Costing Me Freelance Writing Clients?

 Your About Me page can often be the difference between a potential client getting in touch or clicking away.

Here’s how to make your About Me page so compelling, potential freelance writing clients will be falling over themselves to get in touch.

Keep It Interesting (And Keep It In the First Person)

Even the most creative of freelance writers fall at this first hurdle. Day in, day out, they write unique and fascinating content for their clients, but when it comes to the About Me page of their very own website, they panic and go into themselves.

They write boring copy about how they worked at a magazine as an intern once, how they made the tea there for a while before moving on to work in the postal department, before moving on to… You get the picture.

It’s a well-known business phenomenon that people buy from people they like, and this goes for hiring people as their freelance writer too. If you want clients to get in touch, you need to be honest, interesting and unique.

How? By keeping the tone friendly yet professional.

People buy from people they like, and this goes for hiring people as their freelance writer too.

Perhaps don’t mention that story involving the tequila and the traffic cone, but certainly throw in something unique about your career or your lifestyle. No stuffy corporate jargon and no writing about yourself in the third person. Period.

Don’t Talk About Yourself (Much)

I don’t wish to contradict the information in the first point here, but this needs to be said. It’s tricky because, as the name clearly suggests, your About Me page is meant to be about, well, you.

The thing is, it’s not. Not really. OK, it is a little bit about you. Clients need something about your background story and personality, as explained above. But after that, it’s really all about them.

Your About Me page should actually be less about you and more about what your background, your experience and your skills can do for the client.

All you need to do is find a way to weave your story into that basic premise. Highlight your writing experience and your success stories but keep the focus on what you can offer the client.

Stay Focused On the Call to Action

Sales schmucks call this ABC – Always Be Closing. It basically means that you always need to be thinking and talking about the end goal – the final action you want readers to take.

In this case, you want clients to get in touch and hire you as a freelance writer. This means you need to have this focus in mind the entire time you plan, write and edit your About Me page.

Don’t veer off on wild tangents, and only include relevant information. Remember, less is more when it comes to this sort of thing. In many cases omitting words, sentences, or even huge chunks of paragraph, is usually way more effective than adding things in.

That’s how I constructed the About Me page on my own writer’s website. What about you? What have I missed?

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9 Comments

Interesting and relevant topic Kirsty! I may need to revisit the “voice” of my ” About Me” page.Reply to Debra
Thanks Debra. It’s certainly worth revisiting. I certainly tweak and update mine all the time.Reply to Kirsty
Lol Philippa! Can’t wait to see your new site! Make your About page shine and show those prospects they need YOU for their content needs (of whatever you plan to market!) I found looking at other freelance writers’ About pages to really help with my copy. Take a look at Alicia Rades, Kirsty’s, (mine), and Sophie’s from Beafreelanceblogger. Look at how these ladies talk about themselves, but still angle it as a benefit for the client. Good luck!Reply to Elna
And there was me going to finally publish my site today. I now need to go and rethink some things… Thanks for the great advice!Reply to Philippa
Sorry to cause you more work Philippa… It will be worth it though! 😉Reply to Kirsty
Kirsty, Perfect advice for new freelance writers. I think for people breaking into freelance writing, it’s hard to come up with a good About page. People end up just talking about their passion and why they like writing. If you want to make money writing, then you need to treat your About page as another marketing piece that highlights why clients need to hire you over someone else. I think you have a good point on having a CTA. I think for a while my About page didn’t have a CTA and I realized if potential clients are viewing my About page, I should have a link to my contact page or something! Alicia, I found when I did interviews locally, the owner or marketing director of the business would pull up my website and the first thing they’d go to was my About page. They would read it in front of me! Ha! And then that would open the doors for conversation.Reply to Elna
Yep, and a large part of marketing is the CTA, so it’s so important. Thanks for having me Elna!Reply to Kirsty
Thanks Alicia! Yes, me too. You have to know what you’re getting into, right? Glad you found the post helpful.Reply to Kirsty
Great tips, Kirsty. I actually find that few people read my About page, but I’m one of those people who will always read that page if I want to work with someone. Everything you’ve mentioned is so true!Reply to Alicia