How many of you have a generic call to action at the end of your articles? Something along the lines of: “Tell us what you think in the comment section,” or “check out these other posts.”
Most of the time, they simply aren’t enough to stand out in the reader’s eyes. Not like an author box bio, at least.
You might not give enough importance to this section, but it definitely has an impact on your readership. It’s how Expertvagabond.com writer Matthew Karsten got their fame outside of the website.
But I Already Have an About Page! Isn’t That Enough?
About pages are useful if people already want to do business with you. They’ve already made up their mind. They like what you do, what you write. For those who aren’t familiar with you yet, it’s a little different.
Not everyone will read the “About” section of your site after they’re done with your article. But they can’t help but notice your author bio at the end of it.
This small section helps give a human face to your content. It also builds your credibility if you consistently put out great content on a site with multiple authors.
People like to learn about those they find interesting. It’s why you probably check the Wikipedia pages of your favorite movie or TV stars.
Not only that, but you have to look at the act of reading an article as an interaction between two people. The more you know about the author, the more you trust them.
Picture this: someone on the street wants to tell you about a type of bubblegum that cleans your teeth. You’re interested in the subject, but you don’t really trust a stranger to tell you about it.
The same principle applies to article authors who only show you their name at the end. No info, nothing to make you feel that a real person wrote the piece. They might as well have attributed the column to Walter White.
Even if you don’t share your blog with one or more authors, you can benefit from a well-written author bio.
The Benefits of a Cool Author Box on Your Site
1. More traffic to your writing
When somebody’s finished reading one of your well-written pieces, the general idea is that they will crave more.
Your author bio can include a link to a list of all your articles. Or, it can have two or three titles you know will attract attention.
It’s much easier for the user to find your other pieces if you include them after (or before) every post. You’re basically “cutting the middleman.”
Allowing your visitors to check out your work without frantically searching it is a big plus in website optimization.
2. Collaboration possibilities
Other viewers might be interested in collaborating with you, or have you do a guest post on their own blog. Or maybe just to write some fan mail? Either way, your author bio can include all your social media accounts for quick communication.
An author box plugin is especially useful for your guest posts. Who knows, the readers on the host’s website might be interested in your work.
3. You need humans to click through
Site crawlers and search engines only care about your robots.txt file. It takes real people to read your content and spread the word about it.
We are all drawn to beauty, more than anything else. Having a cool-looking author bio will increase the chance someone will check out your info and other content.
Besides, if you don’t make your bio stand out, what makes you think people will read it?
4. It showcases your confidence
Many people like to write under a pen name and never show their face. Without ever leaving the mask of anonymity, they never show the world their real potential.
That could be because they are shy, or just don’t want all the attention. But then they shouldn’t expect a nameless, featureless blog to be famous, should they?
By getting a shiny author box under your posts, you show more courage than quite a significant portion of bloggers and content writers. It shows you are not afraid to stand by what you write.
Where Do You Get One Worth Your Time?
All of those benefits sound fantastic until you realize that some author boxes don’t look all that great.
Some might even damage your reputation. Nobody wants to be known as “that guy/girl with the ugly bio.” At least not in the online community.
People like to customize every website feature they can get their hands on. Why should the author box be any different?
You shouldn’t settle for any basic scheme, especially if you’ve put in a lot of work for the rest of your page. It would look really out of place.
Of course, you could spend some time and learn how to code it yourself. Which is just a massive time sink when you think about it.
You’d also need to go back to each of your posts and insert the code at the beginning or the end of the columns. Another waste of time you can’t afford.
After all, you need all that time to write excellent articles for your fan-base! If you put out content regularly, it would be unfair to keep them waiting.
How do you resolve all these problems? Enter Starbox. This simple-to-use WordPress plugin allows you to make an author box for each of your writers.
You can set a personalized theme for each of them. You’ll get to show your website is run by different people with different styles.
Besides, you resolve a problem we discussed above. The plugin adds an author bio after every one of your posts. You no longer have to browse through hundreds of posts to add the code.
You can also use the plugin as a widget and add your bio on the side of the page. Some page designs work better that way.
It has many other cool features. You’re doing yourself a disservice by not trying it out. Check it out here, see what you think!
