3 tips for writing a great About Me page

Oh, the mighty About Me page!

How you humble us with your simple demands.

For many business owners – especially those running serviced based or coaching businesses, the About Me page on their website is an especially ferocious hairy beast.

Even if you’ve done a “good enough” job on your Homepage and laying out your top 3 ways you work with people on your Services (or Programs) pages… the About Me poses a special challenge:

  • How do I show my credentials, without sounding braggy?
  • How do I come across as who I really am?
  • There’s a big gap in my resume – how do I talk about THAT?

And so on and so forth.

The good news is, there are a lot of really bad About Me pages out there on the interwebs. How is that GOOD news?

Well, it leaves a lot of room for you to shine.

And to stand out as a real, grounded, and competent human being who the right people are drawn to and want to buy from.

So, what’s the secret sauce?

Tell a powerful story about how you came to do the work you do, and why that experience has positioned you perfectly to do it.

In my Write Your Website production lab, I walk my students through this process, using one of two bio arcs. Bio arcs are patterns for story telling. And in my experience, business owns fall into one of two arc patterns. The “I’ve been where you are” arc… or the “I’ve always had the knack” arc.

Now, every year, I get students who, after I teach this say, Stella! I’m both arcs. Now what?!

And I say, oh you Glorious Contrarian. If our clients are reflections of us (as a handsome man with a salt and pepper beard recently told me at a recent talk I gave in Boston), then it is little wonder that you are in my lab. And that I used to teach the naughty boys in alternative high school with oppositional defiance.

As Sister Sledge sings it: We are Family.

My answer is: yes, yes, each of us is different. And I don’t mean to be reductive. But just do me a favor and pick one bio arc. Usually, one is stronger than the other anyway. Don’t fight me on this, sweet pea. I know what I’m talking about.

Anyhoo. Here are my tips for writing a great About Me page:

1)   Tell a story. Sophisticated clients – aka “gourmet clients” who can afford to pay more and who aren’t weird about spending money on what they want to get the results they want – want to know WHO YOU ARE. Not in the “I just read a page from your journal” way. They want to read a thought out, semi-polished story about how you came to do your work, and why it makes YOU the one for them.

2)   Use specific details to make the story feel real—but don’t overdo it. When you were broke before you made the decision to really go for it in your business, tell them how much was in your bank account ($7.24). When you wife left you for another woman, tell us that you were sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the NY Times. These little details ground your story, and help us picture it in our minds eye. This helps capture our attention… and keep it.

3)   Bring it back to why this makes YOU awesome at the work you do. After you tell your story, bring the focus back to your reader. “So now I work with _____ who are dealing with ____… just like I did… and I help them __________.”

The truth is, stories pull the right people in more than a recitation of your trainings and credentials ever will. In fact, I advise most of my clients to let go of the white knuckle death grip on reciting all their trainings and credentials – in most lines of work, potential clients care more about RESULTS and WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON than the letters behind your name.

(Two exceptions to this rule: if you are working with people’s brains or their money. Therapists and financial adviser types – please ignore this suggestion and include your trainings and credentials. This will separate you from the crazies and the hucksters.)

Don’t be afraid of sharing who you really are online – it’s actually the biggest asset you’ve got online. And the ONLY way to stand out in a marketplace saturated with people who do what you do, but who are hiding out behind the fast food promises of cheap, fast, and easy.

Mighty thanks to Wonderlane flickr photostream for the Hairy Beast.

Working on writing your website? Get it done with Stella in her upcoming Write Your Website production lab. Write your Homepage, About Me page, and Services page – plus get trained in other essential online marketing and business building topics. Get on the mailing list to get the announcement when registration opens the first week in May, plus Early Birds get $100 off (the 5 week lab is regularly $597). 

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

2 Comments


  1. Kathy Magnusson

    Stella thanks for the advise on how to write an “About Me” page. I wrote my rough draft of my “About Me” page using your “Craft Your Message” course and the bio arc was very helpful. I am wondering about length of the about me page. I dislike when the story goes on and on. Just get to the point please! I am looking forward to the announcement of your “Write Your Website” course.

  2. Stella

    Hi Kathy — Cool! Saw you posted this in the neighborhood forum too. Length really varies — it’s a style thing. I had one client who was comfy putting 3 pages worth of a word doc up on her site, but that makes sense for her + her brand + how she talks to her people. I’d say 1-1.5 pages is about right for most people, but feel free to do shorter too… we’ll talk more about this in Write Your Website, so bring your questions to me live + we’ll get you on the right track.

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