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Something people often ask is what makes people comment on my blog. You can have the BEST content and even have return visitors, but something that makes blogging different is the conversation between the writer and the readers. Without that conversation, how is the blog any different than an article site?

So how do you encourage that conversation? Well I think the big thing people need to do is show their personality! By nature, we are more apt to trust people that we know, so don’t feel like you have to make everything professional! Let your reader’s get to know you a bit better. This is pretty easy if you have an all-in-one blog or already write about your life. But what if you have a “professional” or niche blog? Here are some ideas:

• Have an About Me page that tells your readers more about you.
• Even if you are blogging about a very dry topic, try to make it fun. Add some humor once in a while. Feel free to use sarcasm!
• Give examples that your readers can relate to. Even better would be to give an example of your own. Doing that adds to the topic as well as gives readers a little bit of insight into your personality!
• Create clever titles! Your titles don’t all have to be dry: “10 ways to get rid of acne” but even something like “I just popped my last pimple!” is a little different but also describes what your post is about!
• Every once in a while participate in those meme’s and tell people 5 things they don’t know about you!
• Provide a Q&A section to let your visitors ask you questions. This would give you a good opportunity to show your personality in your answers.
• Create a “Fun Fact Friday” and give your visitors fun facts about your niche that they probably didn’t know!

There are really plenty of ways to show your personality you just need to take them. You can have a VERY successful blog in your niche AND be personal. In fact, it’s usually those blogs where you feel like you know the blogger that are most successful!

What kind of things do YOU do to infuse personality into your blog?

Last month, Neil Patel wrote a great article on quick sprout outlining why websites need an “About Me” page and I think that is even more important for bloggers!

One of the things that really set a blog apart from an article site is the personality of the writer(s). Just from a curiosity point of view, people will want to know more about the writer of the site they read. I know if I like what I’m reading, one of the first things I do is click to read more about the author. If I don’t see a page devoted to that, I look for a category that might be called “Personal” or something else. I am going to guess that the majority of people do this.

Another reason to have a page telling your readers about you is it helps you to establish credibility. When you write a blog you expect your audience to blindly trust you. You are giving out information, and sure, overtime, you will demonstrate your expertise in your field. But when you feel like you know someone a little better, you are willing to trust them more. Letting your readers know more about you on a personal level will endear them to you and could help build that connection which in turn could lead to return visitors and they would be more likely to refer people your way.

Let’s look at a real world example. I’m shopping at my grocery store and I drop something and someone comes over to help m pick it up. I notice he is wearing a mechanic’s uniform and I make a mental note of the place he works. If I don’t already have a mechanic to work on my car, I will go to his place and I would tell other’s about his place too. Why? I don’t know him more than I know any other mechanic but in that brief moment in time I made that connection with him so I am at least willing to try him out over his competitors. That is exactly what you want to do with your readers; make that connection. Taking the time to write a page about you can do that for you!

I may get a lot of flack for this but, I also agree with Neil when he says that you need a picture on your “About” page. I realize a lot of people don’t like to show pictures of themselves, but again it’s another way for your readers to form that connection with you. Some people don’t want to put a picture up for privacy reasons. Let me break it to you…you are on the web, you really don’t have that privacy. We all expect a certain amount of privacy in our lives and certain things that we hold onto, but is what you look like one of them? Do you wear a mask when you go to the gas station? Well what about all the crazy people on the web? There are crazy people off the web too that I guarantee we all run into every day and they all see what we look like.

Another reason people don’t like to show what they look like is they aren’t comfortable with the way they look. Neil says, “I don’t care if you are the ugliest person in the world, you need to place an image of yourself on the about me page”, and I completely agree with that statement. We are all people and we all think we look awful from time to time. To prove it to you, I just took a picture of myself looking like I just woke up from a 10-day drunk fest. I’m not wearing makeup, I haven’t brushed my hair, my shirt is one i picked up off the floor when I woke up and put it on inside out. I think I look pretty damn awful right now and you wouldn’t find me outside like that. But no, you’ll find me on the web like that. I showed my girlfriend this picture and she told me i should definitely not put it on the web and I looked like I just came out of a “week-long depression.” So I replied, well yeah, i look pretty miserable there..but that’s what I look like right now. I would advise you to try and smile in your picture or not look as awful as I did or you might scare people away. But the point I’m trying to make is, that is me. That picture may let people connect with me that wouldn’t have before. Even if you think you look awful, your readers really don’t really care. We just like to see the person behind the blog no matter what they look like!

Hopefully I have illustrated some reasons to have an About Me page. I’d love to hear other’s opinions on the matter. If you don’t want the traditional “About Me” page, feel free to add personality to yours? I didn’t want that for my personal blog so I created my Ask Me page. You can download the Ask Me plugin for Wordpress if you want something similar!

I have two questions for you!

1. Do you have an “About Me” page? Please provide the link if you do!
2. Do you like to read other’s “About Me” pages?

P.S. Here is the site’s About Page.

This is a true story. I was reading my feeds and saw that my girlfriend made a couple new posts that I wanted to comment on. So I clicked through to read them and go to make a comment and see the phrase

You must login to comment!

So I leave and send her a message telling her to turn that crap off. It was quicker for me to send her a message than retrieve my lost password so I could login and make a comment. Notice I said “retrieve my lost password” which will let you know I have registered to comment before. She is the only person I have registered for and the probably the only one I will register for.

I’m lazy. I don’t want to have to work for it and I know that the majority of people are like me. If I have to register, or login to comment, you won’t get my comment. It all comes down to laziness. If you have some crazy captcha, I probably won’t comment. You need to make it easy for people like me to say what they have to say and move on to your next post.

Another pet peeve of mine is a lot people who use blogger will only allow comments from other bloggers.

I like to interact with people, not just read articles or blog posts and if you don’t make it easy for me to comment, I’ll probably leave and you could risk losing other visitors as well. Just remember, people are lazy. They are there reading your post and you want to make it easy for them. Don’t make them do any extra work than necessary!

Everyone always says that for a blog, content is what’s important. I’m going to disagree a little bit here. Yes, you need good content to run a successful blog. But how important is the design of your blog? I think for getting new readers, it is VERY important.

Let’s try to look at a real world example. Your friend told you about this AWESOME cafe down the street that has the BEST coffee so you decide to stop by on your way home from work. You open the door and the first thing you see is there is trash and used cups all over the tables, chairs are moved around and not where you expect them to be, you don’t see anyone behind the counter, but you do see a place to leave a comment…but there isn’t a pen there. So you leave. They may in fact have the best coffee in town, but you won’t ever try it because you were so put off with the appearance of the cafe and the complete lack of concern for it’s appearance.

The exact same thing can happen when someone visits your blog. Someone has found you through google (so there is a good chance you have what they are looking for already) and are going to read your post. When they get to your page however, your design may be a mess, or things aren’t where they should be. You may not provide an easy way for people to contact you. These factors certainly do make a first impression and a first impression is everything!

You need a good design for plenty of reasons:

• So you don’t scare people away immediately - I’m sure you think I’m kidding but I have left sites without even browsing the content because the page was THAT ugly or the layout was completely awful and unfamiliar. People will leave your site if they don’t like the way it looks. It’s a sad fact.
• Set yourself apart from others - There are millions of blogs out there and you do not want to get lost in the sea of them. You need to stand out in the crowd at first site. Your content will keep people there, but you need to make sure you have your own look and feel. Even if you use a free theme you really need to customize it to make it different than all the others.
• It shows you care - Back to that store example, it really didn’t seem like they cared if new customers came in as they never tried to clear the tables to make room for them, and no one was there behind the counter to take their order. They obviously didn’t care if they got another customer or not. Taking the time to set up a good design and layout will show people you really do care and want them to come in and browse around.
• Maintain your identity - For businesses, it is crucial that you maintain your business identity. If you have a website for your business that links to your blog, and your design is different, that will only serve to confuse your customers. They will wonder, “Is it really their blog? Did I just go to someone else’s site?” and you don’t want to confuse your customers. You should ensure that the brand you created flows from your website to your blog as seamlessly as possible.
• Make it easy on your visitors - A good layout (not speaking colors and graphics) will make your user’s visit very natural. People expect a navigation to be a certain spot and if your navigation is at the bottom, then people will just leave rather than hunt and peck for it.

I’d love to hear more reasons on why a blog design is important and hear any stories of people who have left a blog because of how it looked!