Adela Belin

Whether you’re writing a blog post for your own blog or contributing a guest post if there’s one element that often gets neglected, it is the author bio.

“Are people even looking at it?” you might wonder.

The answer is —

7 Best Practices to Write a Short Author Bio

Believe it or not: your author bio does not go unnoticed. It’s one of the things people look at before or after reading your content. 

Not only does it give you the opportunity to introduce readers to what you do but it’s a good space to establish trust and credibility.

What’s important to remember is that an author bio is not an ‘About Me’ page on your website. Considering that you have 50-100 words to write your author bio, you need to make it punchy and valuable. 

Let’s take a look at the seven best practices to help you craft compelling author bios. 

Keep it brief, impactful, and interesting

Even though your readers are interested to know about you and learn more about your experience, you don’t want to bore them with a long and extensive author bio.

This will in turn make you lose your credibility and turn your readers off.

Keep your bio short, crisp and interesting, typically under 150 words. Only list your major accomplishments and other relevant and important information. 

Even if you have won a lot of awards, or have multiple published works, put down your most impressive ones.

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Write in third-person

It is a good practice to write your author bio in the third person instead of first because the former makes it look more professional.

Writing your author bio in the third person makes it look like it has been written by an objective observer, making it easier for readers to trust. 

So, instead of writing “I have been a photographer for 4 years”, you should write “[Your Name] has been a photographer for 4 years”.

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State your area of expertise or niche

It is important to establish your skills and the values you provide for the niche you write on, to let your readers understand that you have authority on your subject and there’s a reason why they would be interested in what you have to say. 

Consider telling readers about:

• What do you write about? 
• What is your area of expertise?
• What niche do you specialize in?

Don’t sway your readers away by sharing your dreams and hopes. The idea is to write an author bio that helps the reader gain confidence in your knowledge and writing.

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Mention your credentials and achievements

You should also include major achievements and accolades that you have accomplished in your life, even if you don’t have direct credentials to your subject matter or niche. 

If there is something unusual or new in your accomplishments, even if not completely relevant, you should still consider adding it to your bio. 

Put yourself in the shoes of your readers and ask yourself: Does this point add any value to anyone else but me? If it doesn’t, it’s advisable to remove it. 

Don’t ramble on about your achievements. Pick the best ones and add them up to your bio.

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Add a personal touch

Add a little bit of your personality, some personal interests, or hobbies into your bio for your readers to feel a sense of familiarity and relatability to you as a person. 

This brings color and life into words and can lead them to imagine who the author is. Be appropriate, witty, and specific, as this works wonders for your audience and makes you a more interesting person.

Keep these extra personal tidbits broad enough for a larger number of people to associate with them. 

For example, if you play the tambourine, state that you have been playing a musical instrument for X number of years.

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Give them a way to connect with you

It’s a good idea to mention your website link and social media channels, giving people a way to connect with you if they want to.

Adding social media links to your author bio makes it easier for your readers to form a bond with you. This can potentially lead to referrals and can help build your network which is great for online content creators.

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Use a professional photograph

To capture the attention of your target readers, use a high-quality, smiling, and professional image in your bio that doesn’t have a distracting background. 

This will put a face to your name. Your readers will now know who’s work they are reading and if they trust you enough to spend money and time on your blog. Furthermore, it adds a human touch to your author bio.

Your picture sets the tone and genre of your stories, promotes a message to your readers, and emits your personality as well as your body language.

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Conclusion

To conclude, knowing how to write a short author bio is a very important part of having a blog. 

Through your author bios, your readers get to familiarise themselves with you and trust you with your knowledge or opinions.