Writing your About Me page for your website is hard, but these tips can help inspire you and get you writing unique and thoughtful content that will have you connecting with your audience.
I’m in a lot of online photography communities and I review a lot of photography websites. Like, A LOT. There are a whole bunch of photography websites out there that don’t even have an About Me page or a bio of the photographer anywhere! 😲 Then some About Me pages only have two sentences about the photographer’s equipment while others are like the photographer’s entire life story. So what is the right way; what should you include?
There are four main tips to writing a great About Me page for your website as a photographer.
1. Your About Me page needs to include who you are, where you are and what you do.
This is important for pretty much one big reason: SEO. Your about me is on a website and if you aren’t explaining your location and purpose than you are losing out on web traffic, clients or collectors, and therefore money. It also clarifies for the reader whether or not you are indeed the right service provider for what they’re looking for.
2. Write in the first person and write multiple versions.
Unless your photography business is a large studio with multiple photographers, you need to use your About Me page to make a personal connection with potential clients and collectors. This means speaking directly to them from you with your voice by writing in first person. Third person artist bios have their place in your business and I do recommend having at least one third person version on hand for websites or galleries that require it to be written in that format. In general, I think it’s a good idea to have multiple versions of your About Me/bio so that you don’t need to have identical text in every place that you would have it and your client/collector audience doesn’t feel like they’re reading a robot if they come across your different profiles. This is also useful since sometimes you have a different purpose for where you write your bios. I’ve linked my first-person About Me page here and provided an example of a third-person bio at the end of this post. Can you spot the differences and similarities?
3. It needs to be a Goldilocks length.
As I mentioned above, some About Me pages are two sentences and some feel like an endless scroll of TMI. Your About Me page needs to be short enough to retain people’s attention so that they read through it all but not so short that they can’t get any sense of who you are. Anything longer than half a Word Doc page is too long. Save the really lengthy and in-depth about me stories for a blog post.
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4. Show your personality with unique facts about you and actually write about them!
This one is so important! Because your About Me page is about making connections with your audience, open up to them and let them know what is important to you and about your likes and loves. In all my website reviews I come across so many of the same “fun facts” about photographers. Saying that one of your favorite activities is binge-watching Netflix is not actually that special. Even less relatable: writing generic fun facts about you in a bullet point list. Choose unique things about you that would be considered core facets of your personality and elaborate on them. Don’t just say “I love hiking.” Talk about why you love hiking because that kind of elaboration is what is going to bridge that gap between your About Me and the person reading it.
Bonus Tip: Use photos of yourself!
There are a lot of About Me pages out there on photographers’ websites that have NO photos at all or the reader can’t really be sure if the photo is of the photographer or just an example of their work. Definitely make sure to use a photo (because you’re trying to build a connection!) and make sure it’s a photo that is clearly of you. I like to use a few different ones that show off my personality and my family life.
Emma Thurgood is a Connecticut wedding photographer with BFA in painting, an MFA in studio art and a passion for helping emerging artists. Before starting her own business she worked for several years as a non-profit arts gallery curator and an independent artists’ agent. During that time she helped numerous artists refine their portfolios and secure exhibit, sales and teaching opportunities. When she’s not mentoring emerging artists and photographers or serving her clients, she’s spending time in her yard with her four-year-old daughter in a never-ending quest to make it an Eden or she’s exploring parts of New England previously unknown to her.
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