If you’ve been sitting in front of a blank Google doc for hours, “writing” your About page (cough cough scrolling TikTok cough cough), asking yourself ‘why is writing about yourself so freaking hard?’ after every sentence you type (and promptly delete), I have some exciting news for you:

I’m gonna tell you how to make writing your About page suck less. And I’m gonna break it down in 3 easy steps:

1. Don’t be afraid to actually be yourself. 
2. Recognize that telling people how great you are is you being helpful, not salesy.
3. Embrace your “you”-ness.

And, if you make it to the bottom of this post, I’ll even tell you exactly what to include on your About page.

I have to warn you, though—after you read this, you won’t be able to keep putting off “write my About page” in the name of not knowing what to do… so if you’re up for actually getting it done, keep reading.

1. Don’t be afraid to actually be yourself. It’s what (the right) people want.

If you’re being honest with yourself, a big reason you feel nervous about sharing personal details is because you’re afraid that people either don’t care, or don’t relate. Right?

And you’re nervous that if you’re ‘too specific’ about something, it might be polarizing and potentially turn off some people?

But let me ask you this: have you considered that NOT sharing those details might be causing you to lose out on connecting with the people who do care, and definitely relate?

When you take the time to add personal information to your About page, you’re simultaneously attracting the type of people you want to work with, and repelling the types of people that you don’t.

The easiest way to improve your chances of getting inquiries from dream clients only is to give them as many specifics (about you, about your process, about your services, about your pricing…) as possible, up front, before your discovery call.

And if you’re worried sharing a particular detail about yourself or your experience might deter someone from reaching out, why do you want to work with them, anyway? 

(This is the part where I insert my favorite Cheesy Encouragement Statement.)

“You could be the ripest, juiciest peach in the entire world, but some people still just don’t like peaches.”

Talk to the people who like peaches. Not the people who don’t.

Now, story time: this one’s a win for the “be authentically you!” cheerleaders.

Last year, I worked with a very sweet client that I felt lucky to connect with. She loved the first project we worked on together, so she kept hiring me for more (ideal situation, if you ask me!) and we were fast friends.

During one VIP day, she mentioned having downloaded a resource from a different copywriter—someone who offers exactly the same services as me, at a very similar price point.

This other copywriter would have actually been a great fit for Sweet Client, because that copywriter openly talks about loving the product that Sweet Client sells.

So, I decided to ask Sweet Client why she chose me over that other copywriter.

“Your personality!” she said. “I loved how much you shared about yourself, and how it was so obvious that you’re unapologetically YOU, especially in a space that traditionally doesn’t have too much of that.”

Now, I look up to this other copywriter a lot. That’s why I asked Sweet Client what made her choose me instead of that person—because I couldn’t believe that someone wouldn’t choose them, given the option. I thought she was going to say something like “she was unavailable.” I never expected her to choose me, just… for the sake of choosing ME.

This was when the “damn, I’m good enough not only because of my work ethic and work product, but because I’m MYSELF.” 

So often we as service providers compare ourselves to other similar business owners, solely based on the services we provide, how much we charge for them, and the work product delivered at the end of a project. But there’s much more to it than that.

This conversation with Sweet Client is one of my favorite compliments I’ve ever received, because it affirmed the idea that the best way to reach the right people is to confidently show up as yourself. 

2. You’re not annoying, you’re helpful.

You’re quite literally doing your website’s readers a disservice if you don’t tell them how great you are.

The number-one complaint about writing your own copy? “I feel annoying.”

You’re not annoying. But you know what IS annoying?

Searching for the perfect personal trainer, and struggling to learn any details about them that help you decide if you’re a good fit.

Scouring the Internet for a brand photographer that you can feel comfortable with, but only finding boring information about what’s included in their packages.

Looking for an online business manager who is really passionate about helping service providers like you, but having a hard time figuring out what they’re actually like as a person.

You catch my drift here?

People want to buy from PEOPLE, not businesses—especially if you’re providing a service. 

They want to get to know you first, before investing in you, so they can determine whether or not you’d work well together. Who’s going to spend top dollar to hire someone they don’t even know if they’ll LIKE?!

(Hint: not any type of client you’d want to work with, that’s for sure.)

(Another hint: keep scrolling for some ideas about what to share about yourself to make your About page feel more human.)

I totally get that writing about yourself and sharing how great you are can feel salesy and sleazy and weird… but it’s only salesy and sleazy and weird if you make it that way.

If you show up, authentically and unapologetically, to tell people about who you are, why you want to help them, what makes you qualified, and what you can accomplish together if they choose to invest in you—that’s you telling them information that they WANT to hear. That’s not you “being salesy.”

They came to your website to read about you and your services. They willingly entered this conversation when they waltzed through the wide-open door to your business’s digital Internet home.

And then they clicked on your About page. On purpose. For more information. About YOU. Because they want to know you. They’re seriously considering working with you.

And now it’s your job to show up and show out—to give ’em your all—because why would you half-ass such a meaningful introduction?

[Please, for the love of God, actually tell people about you on your ‘ABOUT’ PAGE. That’s what it’s for.]

3. Remember that being you IS enough.

I’m really sorry that this tip sounds like a secondhand Hallmark coaster your Aunt Gerdy bought at a yard sale. I recognize that the whole “no one is you and that is your superpower!” sentiment is a little cheesy and a lot cliche, but I am 100% positive that if the reason you’re struggling to write about yourself is because you don’t know what makes you different from your competition—you needed this reminder.

Here, I’ll even say it again, for dramatic effect: BEING YOU IS ENOUGH.

I have written website copy for 12 different brand designers in the last 9 months. They all offer the same exact thing—custom branding and web design services—and I was tasked with (obviously) making every single website (and person!) sound completely different.

The one way I was able to do that? You guessed it. Focusing on who they are as a person and using that to differentiate them from the rest of the brand + web designers out there.

Now, of course, some of them were able to differentiate themselves from their competition with other things, such as offering an extra service like SEO, or specializing in a certain area of , or niching down to a specific type of industry/client…

But at the end of the day, what makes these websites so different from each other is the person behind it. 

No two people are the same—even if they do the exact same thing—and using this to your advantage is going to make writing about yourself a lot easier.

And before you give me the “I’m not interesting or cool or different” speech that I know you’re mentally preparing right now, to be served to me on a platter with an attitude-filled eye roll, stop.

Yes, you are interesting.

Yes, you are cool.

Yes, you are definitely different.

What you’re likely meaning to say is this: “I’m having trouble thinking of how to identify what’s interesting, or cool, or different about myself” or “I’m not sure how to convey the interesting, cool, or different things about me, because I don’t know which information to share” or “how do I know if these random fun facts are even relevant?”

That’s more like it. And, of course, I can help.

Let’s chat about your ideal client for a sec. Who are they? What do they do in their free time? What do they search for in a friend? 

Most importantly: what would they want to know about you—unrelated to what you do for work/what you can help them with (you’ve already told them that by this point)—that would help them build a deeper, more friend-level connection with you?

Is your ideal client a huge cat lover with a Great Gatsby obsession, who would love to know that you named your persian cat Daisy Buchanan?

Are they fellow former D1 college athletes, who know how much dedication and motivation it takes to excel in sports, and really value working with people who share that same level of drive?

Are they interested in working with people who know the difference between an Enneagram 1 and an Enneagram 9, and why that matters?

Are they introverted and camera shy, hoping to work with someone like you who also hates meetings that should’ve been an email?

Are they big Red Sox fans, who may want to know your spend your summer weeknights shoveling Fenway franks into your mouth with your season-ticket-holder grandpa? Or that your favorite movie is Fever Pitch?

Are they a chocolate addict with no intent on seeking recovery, like me?

I think you get the point. Before writing your About page, know your desired audience well enough to know which information they’ll find interesting, and know your competition well enough to know what may be missing from your industry.

Your website is YOURS, your About page is yours, your business is yours. Even though this IS about getting hired, this ISN’T a job interview.

There aren’t any rules.

Tell people the quirky things about you that will make them want to know you more, so they like you more, and trust you more. You can’t fake a meaningful connection, and the only way to foster community is to let people in a little. 

Now, just because I’m telling you there are “no rules” to writing your About page—that doesn’t mean there isn’t a strategy. Let’s move on to what every conversion-friendly About page should look like:

The Easy About Page Checklist

While your About page will—and should!—be different from anything else out there on the Internet, that doesn’t mean you can’t use a checklist of must-have sections to your advantage.

Whenever I’m writing a client’s About page, I always reference the following list of what I call Definitely Includers (aka the things we definitely need to include).

Here’s what to include on your About page:

1. Attention-grabbing headline.
2. Value proposition.
3. A nod to your readers’ current struggle.
4. A reassurance that you understand them, and that you can improve that situation with your unique solution.
5. Relevant info about yourself / why they should choose you / your qualifications.
6. Fun facts that make you sound like an actual human (not just a business).
7. Call to action.

Now, let me elaborate on all that…

Attention-grabbing headline. No, “Meet The Team” doesn’t cut it. Neither does “About Me.” (Pro tip: write this last, when you’ve determined the overall vibe for the page, and use the headline to sum up the overall message once it’s done.)

Value proposition. Kick things off by telling them what you do and why you’re unique. (This could also serve as your headline!)

Here are a few examples of client About page headline-and-value-props I’ve written recently:

Address the elephant. What’s the thing they’re hoping to gain; the problem of theirs that you’re qualified to solve? The reason that they’re spending the time searching for someone who does what you do? Mention that. Help them feel like you understand what they’re going through.

Differentiate. Now, tell them what makes you different from your competitors. Is it your specific approach? Is it your client process? Is it your unique first-hand experience dealing with what they’re dealing with? Is it your experience in the field? Identify your differentiator, and make it simple. 

The you-and-me intro. Share introductory details about yourself—but make it the ones that your readers actually care about learning up front (aka tell them things like what

The more-about-me stuff. Continue on to tell them more about your background / expertise / why you love what you do… anything still-important-but-kinda-secondary to what you already shared.

Testimonials. Back up your ‘I’m cool you should hire me’ speech with some good old-fashioned social proof. 89% of customers check online reviews before making a purchase—the stats are basically begging you to include testimonials.

The fun stuff. Personal detail time, baby. Hit them with some quirky facts, or an engaging timeline story of your biz, or a funny, relevant story…

Call to action. Your About page’s job is to direct your reader to the next step. They’ve checked “get to know the human behind the screen” off their list, now they have two options: X out of your site, or move onto where you want them to go. I recommend sending them to Services or Contact.

(P.S. I also have a checklist for your Homepage, if you’re interested in downloading it! It’s called the Homepage How-To Guide, and it covers all the things you should be including on your website’s homepage, why it deserves a spot there, and my best tips on how to write it. Click here to grab yours!)

Of course, there are other things you can include on your About page, like core values/key pillars, portfolio projects, featured blog posts, the story behind your biz name choice, your entire astrological chart, a glossary… make it your own, as long as you’re not making it too crowded.

Remember to make paragraphs small, sentences on the short side (or at least separated by the appropriate punctuation if you’re perpetually long-winded as hell, like me), and include lots of visual break-up (with images, different text sizes, new sections, etc).

Good Design Matters Here, Too

Beyond all the copy must-haves, a solid (and, preferably, beautiful) website design also plays a huge role in whether or not your readers will be interested in your About page.

To put it bluntly: if your website design isn’t that great, your website viewers will assume your website copy isn’t amazing, either, because why would you put effort into one element of your website and not the other?

Here’s my choice for the best-of-the-best website designs. Use code “BTLCOPY” for 15% off.

Bonus About Page Tip!

Whatever you do, don’t make it sound like LinkedIn. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—websites are like first dates, and you wouldn’t go out with your crush for the first time and immediately begin reading off your resume, so why would you do that on your About page?

LinkedIn-ish info has a place: on LinkedIn. Leave it there. You can—and should, if it’s relevant!— still tell people about your professional background and experience, but you don’t have to button it up all proper and perfect and stuffy like you do over there.

Remember: your site, your rules! (Within reason, and with great care in thinking about what your ideal clients will appreciate and resonate with.)

Yay! You made it all the way to the end!

You know what that means, though… remember what I said at the beginning: I gave you easy-to-implement tips for making writing about yourself not-so-bad, and I told you EXACTLY what to include on your About page… so you no longer have an excuse to push it to the bottom of your to-do list.

Unless—and this is only for the really serious learners—you feel like you need this same level of hand-holding for every page on your site, and then some advice about how to actually get people to GO to your site, using blog, email, and SEO strategy…

And in that case, I give you a free pass to extend the ‘write my About page’ task. But ONLY if you sign up for the waitlist for my upcoming course, where I’m teaching you how to do all of the above. (And then, once you’re finished with your site, auditing it for you myself, to make sure it’s perfect before you launch it.)

Trust me: if you’re interested in learning about how to write bomb website copy that actually turns into more sales, more dream clients, more traffic—AND actually sounds like YOU—you won’t want to miss out on Site Series when the doors open so soon.

If you have questions about the course, or about any of the tips mentioned in this blog post, please feel free to send me an email at sara@betweenthelinescopy.com, or if audio messages are more your thing (me, too!) let’s chat on Instagram.

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If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hi! I’m Sara Noel—website copywriter and marketing mentor for creatives, copywriters, and all-around cool people. If you like my content and you want even more BTL in your life, here are a few ways you can connect with me:

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