I believe every blogger should have a clearly written bio for a number of reasons.

  • It provides potential readers with a clear indication of what you and your material is about.
  • Its good for SEO. Bio's get translated into site descriptions in Postach.io. Site descriptions are heavily weighted in Google these days, more so than keywords.
  • It's great for networking and self promotion. When I was a recruiter I used to search for people by reading their blogs and you can bet others are doing it as well.

Keep it short

I prefer to keep bio's short and punchy. It's not a resume it's a concise synopsis of you as a writer and person. A short description of your interests, background, job or subject matter you'll be writing about is perfect. Shorter bios seem more impressive as well.

Consider this bio for Leonardo Da Vinci:

Renaissance man, vegetarian, inventor of the helicopter in 1512 and painter of the Mona Lisa.

vs.

A multi disciplined individual with a strong interest in science, art, anatomy, civil engineering and mechanical design. Commissioned to paint several pieces of art for the Catholic Church, designed several mechanical devices some of which have entered the manufacturing industry with widespread adoption........

Write for the audience you are addressing

Just like you should imagine the people you are writing for in your blog, the same goes for your bio. Only worry about the readers that are relevant to you, if you need to be highly technical or explain a philosophical stance then do it. Otherwise don't try to please everyone by being too generic or vanilla.

Interesting stuff first

There's a saying in the advertising world. What's the purpose of the first line of text in any copy? To make you want to read the next one. This principle should apply to everything you write but also works for your bio. Give up something really interesting about yourself right off the hop. Don't build up to it, just say it and imagine the reader is only going to read the next line if the first one interests them.

Don't do this with your bio:

These day's people seem to be taking liberties with their online profiles in what I'm sure is only an attempt to standout from the masses. While I love creativity and original writing there are some things you shouldn't do. Don't try and be a comedian unless you are one. It's hard to be witty when describing ones self and much of the time it just confuses people. Take this bad example, "Herder of digital cats, connoisseur of CSS and caffeine fueled web hero." We can guess at what it might mean, but much of it only makes sense to the writer and it certainly won't be useful to search engines like Google.

Check out some truly witty & Hilarious Twitter Bio's. here.