Business blogging tips and news for professional bloggers

Our About/Contact page on 2Dolphins is pretty spartan, but it does at least include 2 different means by which the reader can contact us. Blogs that have no way to directly contact the author(s) is a real pet peeve of mine.

I'm very interested in seeing what some others consider essential elements for a good "About" page so I can update mine...

Yes, Rob! Direct contact in as many formats as possible is important. Anyone else want to add a suggestion/thought here?

Easton - I think it is incredibly important to have full details or a link to full details of the blogger on the about page.

So let me address specifically your question of the about the blogger page.

In the case of business blogs where most of us are blogging to express our expertise, if you want to position yourself as the expert in your field, then one of the things you are likely to want to do is be sought out as a speaker, presenter and as a resource for the media.

My proposition with our business blogs for building our corporate brand or personal brand online is that our blog will enable us to make us "easy to do business with".

Journalists, event managers and researcher in the media want to have easy access to information.

Therefore make sure that your about page is current. You need to be confident that when people search for information about you on line that it is relevant and up to date.

For example I have often found jouralists taking infomation from my about page when mentioning me in articles. Do you really want to put being mis-represented to chance?

I therefore recommend that you update this frequently to reflect your area of expertise and key projects you are engaged in. At a minimum I would make sure that you review it every 90 days.

Key elements on your about page that I recommend:

- your photograph if it is no where else on the blog template - people want to see who you are - in pther words who is the person behind the blog?
- a summary of your expertise
- a link to where people can find a full bio
- a link to where people can access your professional photo
- how people can contact you - not just using a contact form.

I have the following information on my about page on my business blog which I keep short and succinct but with plenty of links for more information:

- a summary of what my blog is about - who I am serving and the areas I focus on on my business blog
- a link to a page that has all my details and biography
- a link to my appearances in the media or news
- a link to how people can meet me live through my events
- a link to my media room for reporters and journalists
- a link to resources for event organisers and speakers
- a link to testimonials
- a link to how to ask me a question about branding and business development
- a link to an interview with me
- a link to how to contact me.

I look forward to your recommendations so that I can further enhance the representation of my personal brand online through my business blog.

Important questions.

1. I find it really difficult to understand why some people go to all the trouble of maintaining blog and leave their links on forums, but when you go to the blog you can't find out anything real about them. In one conversation about this it emerged that at least one person had just overlooked putting something about themself on the blog. And if someone has to remain anonymous, say because of their work position, then tell us that - I would still provide some sort of form to enable contact: some communications are not right for comments

2. No schedule on updating and realistically probably about every few months - quite inadequate.

3. Hate it when you read through the whole page and look in vain for who wrote it, or who the "I" is or "we" are - see my answer to q 1 above. Probably my ideal is a fairly brief "about" page linked to other pages for more details.

Of course, Krishna's response should be grabbed, studied and implemented by any business blogger who wants their blog to generate business!