Wouter GroeneveldWhat to put on that /about page? Just your professional history, making it more like a boring résumé, hoping the blog will help you land a job? Your hobbies and coordinates? Your martial status? A complete summary of the technical tools wielded and endless prowess showcased when building your custom blog engine? A list of social media links where people can also find you? How many years you’ve been uploading words onto a server? A selection of the most popular articles you’ve written so far? A lovely photo of you in a suit presenting something at an important conference?
Your Blog Should Have an About Page by Wouter Groeneveld
Wouter, I have long wondered what should go in my ‘about’ page and how to approach the challenge of telling my story. Sometimes I wonder if I have a story to tell? If so, is it that unique or even important? Groeneveld talks about selling your brand, does everyone have a ‘brand’? I have explored different ways of telling before. This has included Amy Burvall’s #3ofMe project, unofficial CV, my connected story, the story of my domain and Story of Connection. I feel I have always grappled with the balance between my identity associated with work, family, professional and personal interests.
I have been many things in my life. An English teacher. An ICT specialist. An EdTech coach. A primary teacher. An administrator. A student. A functional consultant. A functional specialist. This makes me many things to many people, let alone to myself. I fear that this means that if people come to my blog that they are disappointed as they will always meet with a different identity to the one they expected as it is not a space that can necessarily be everything to everyone. Maybe Adrian Camm’s idea of a ‘user manual‘ is useful?
Absolutely one should have about-ness, it’s a first thing I look for in finding a link to a blog I have not seen before.
I am curious to about this different concept of a “/now” page an updated detail on one’s current focus, interests. It looks like it’s always re-written, so not an archive, but just a snapshot.
https://nownownow.com/about
I see it asn interesting but also yet another thing that can turn into a chore — hard enough to just blog these days, so your posts most appreciated, Aaron, a delight to see an indicator in the feed reader.
Hi Alan,
I agree about your fear about the chore that a ‘now’ page could / would become. I was also left thinking about the archival aspect of it. When I was writing my newsletter, I felt like my introduction was something of a ‘now’ update, but felt that an ideal setup would be to create the newsletter from different categories, therefore creating an archive of the ‘now’ pages. In some ways, this is what I like about the ‘On This Day‘ idea, it is something that works in the background.
Aaron