Dare Dreamer Entertainment

The Sites & Sounds of Creative Expression

The Evolution of an About Page

By

Tell me if this sounds familiar to you:

I just love taking pictures, and there’s nothing more important to me than capturing the images of your wedding day, the most important day of your life. Blah, blah, blah.

I added the blah, blah, blah, part, but I think you get the point. I can’t tell you how many About pages I’ve read that all sound alike. I love what I do. I love your wedding day. I love you. I love love. Etc. An About page should make you stand OUT from the crowd, not sound like everyone else. Whenever I engage in business coaching with a photog or filmmaker, this is one of the first topics I address.

I recently finished up a round of business coaching for Becky Sharpe, a British photographer and filmmaker located in Spain who specializes in weddings. I’m so proud of how far she’s come and I wanted to share with you how her About page evolved. Hopefully you can be inspired.

The Original

Her original page was this one you see below (click image to enlarge it).

The problem with it? Too long and no photo of her. Becky is on the higher end of the fee spectrum, and when you get in that range, clients want to know the person they’re hiring. But even the photo she did include was not very appealing or intriguing. A silhouette of a women putting on mascara with rollers in her hair is not very interesting.

Round 2

After our first coaching call, I talked to her about her About page and gave some suggestions on improving it. The main suggestion was adding a photo of herself. This is what she came up with (click image to enlarge it).

This was better, but we still had work to do. The copy was still too long. Also, the photo really did not do her justice. First, it looked like a friend’s snap shot on holiday. Second, it didn’t illustrate her personality. Becky has this vibrant, energetic and rather irreverent and fun personality (made all the more charming by her British accent. I kept thinking I was talking to Minnie Driver from “Good Will Hunting”.) This photo makes her look like a soccer mom.

Third Time’s a Charm

This is what she finally ended up with (click image to enlarge it).

Bingo! IMHO she got it perfect. The copy is great. Short. Sweet. Interesting to read. Engaging. And the collage of photos from her life is perfect. This is an About page people will remember; one that illustrates Becky’s personality, charm, and gives a client the idea of what it may be like to work with her.

The other thing she got right was that she actually hired a designer (Jan Lewis) to make the page for her. As much as we creatives complain about clients trying to do things on their own and that they should be hiring a professional to do, it’s funny how many of us try to do web design on our own. Just because you’re creative and have an eye for photography don’t mean you can design a web page.

Great work Becky! I look forward to seeing how your studio continues to evolve as you rock the wedding market on the coast of Spain.

Be my friend on FacebookFollow me on TwitterMy Vimeo ChannelLet's connect on LinkedIn

Comments

  1. Thats a great, short, sweet article, on an area many of us need help on. I want people to hire me, because of me, because I’m wonderful and fun, and awesome. My about page doesn’t show that.
    Thanks Ron, this was helpful!

  7. Hey Ron… we need a book called “About Page – How to Revolutionize Your Business by Simply Being You”

    Who’s going to write it first?

    • Love that idea Tim. Great title. Be my guest. I’ll write the Foreword.

      As far as your inquiry regarding Chris Brogan’s post on the topic, check the third comment down on that post. 🙂

  10. Hey, Ron – came across this via the good folks at Photoshelter, but just wondering; isn’t this going to cause a certain amount of SEO confusion, rather than help people find Becky based on what she does? I mean, if you’re searching for Sharpie, Don McCullin, or long-haired rabbits, you’ll wind up here instead. No?

    Cheers for the insight, it’s still a great page – just wondered about that point.
    R!

    • That is an excellent question Robert. If this were the only page on her website I’d agree with you. But, she has five or six other web pages, plus her blog. Chances are, her blog will get way more traffic than her main site, as is usually the case with most creative artists who frequently blog, me included. Plus there’s the web page title, description, and meta tags. A good SEO strategy go far, far beyond one’s About page.

      Thanks for asking such a great question.

Trackbacks