www.inkthinkerblog.com — Few things in life bug me as much as crappy websites, and I’m sorry to report that a huge proportion of the crappy websites out there belong to writers. It’s a shame, really, because as professional communicators, we really have no excuse.
One of the biggest offenses I see on a regular basis is total anonymity. If your About Us page doesn’t have your name on it and describe your background, you’re not really telling me much about you at all. Why would I click “Contact Me” when I don’t even know who “Me” refers to? How can I trust a mysterious, nameless writer to do a good job on my project?
Another major offense is telling too much information — and I’m not just talking about glam-tastically inappropriate photos. I do not need to know the following:
- Your marital status, unless you write exclusively about marriage and romantic relationships
- Your height and weight, unless you write exclusively about dieting and bodybuilding
- Your religion, unless you write exclusively about topics in your religion
- The full names and ages of your children (with photos), unless you write about parenting issues (and really want the entire WWW to have access to your kids)
- Your likes and dislikes, unless you write about them exclusively or as a major portion of your work
- The title, publication date and venue, and full content of everything you’ve ever published starting with sixth grade and going to the present, for any reason, ever
The purpose of an About page is to give people a sense of who they’ll be working with, not to make they wonder (a) what’s wrong with you that you’re hiding so much or (b) what’s wrong with you that you’re revealing so much.
The purpose of work samples is not to give everything away. Putting up everything makes it seem like you don’t really have that much. Pick a few pieces that highlight the skills you’re most interested in selling and stick with those. Really, that’s all you need.
Don’t believe me? Check out what Rico had to say about this on Contract Worker.
Tags: freelance writing, professional website, website content, about me, selling your services online, Contract Worker
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
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Ah yes, it’s quite irritating to not even be able to find out the name of the blogger. I’m sure some people want it that way, but this lack still makes me feel incomplete in some way!
Rico, I feel the same way!!!
kk
I don’t agree. I think lots of personal information on an About page tells the potential client/reader the type of person you are and why that information could be of importance to them as they interpret your writing style, use of humor, etc. Sure, I agree that it needs to be “relevant”, but often, information like this lends itself to the readers understanding WHO you are, WHY you write the way you do, WHAT your messages are saying to them, WHO the messages are for, so on and so forth. For instance, I am a religious person. So references to religious figures, events or history in my material could possibly have a person nodding in agreement or understanding instead of them looking for the delete button because they were offended by my beliefs. They don’t have to like it or even agree with me. It just helps them understand ME. See?
Bridget, if it’s RELEVANT, I think it’s fine. But your professional site is just that — a professional site. What I’m seeing are about pages that are more like confessions than bios, something you might expect to hear from a drunk stranger at a bar around closing time. Grammatically they’re (mostly) better, but the content is embarrassingly similar. Giving people context for who you are and what you write and HOW you write is a good thing. Freaking them out is not. I’m opposed to freaking out potential clients by being overly personal.
I also think it’s important to recognize that what magazine editors are looking for in their freelancers is probably different from what companies are looking for in their new copywriter. If you’re a diehard pro-lifer and the company who finds your site is a nonprofit dedicated to the pro-life cause, that works out great. But most large companies don’t care about your stance on abortion or your favorite color or how much you love (or hate!) your husband or any of that other stuff. They want to know you can do the job, not how you voted in the last election. And if you’re giving way too much personal info on your professional website, how can they trust you to be appropriate and professional working on their project?
You dig?
kk