Feb | 08 | 2010

Blogger Photo: When NOT to post

Posted by Jimmy as Tips

I have said several times that an About Page is important for every blog. Your About Page gives new readers an easy way to check what your blog is supposed to be about, who the blogger(s) is/are behind the blog, and figure out the blog’s trustworthiness. In short, the About Page is your introduction; your chance to make a good impression.

When deciding on the contents of an About Page I’m pretty sure that almost all bloggers put much effort on the text portion – the information to be shared, the wording, the tone, and the length. However, when it comes to the photo what most people do is either simply use the current profile photo or just forgo posting a profile pic. The question now is: Should you post your photo or not?

As in all things this depends on the type of blog you maintain as well as you personality. There are three cases when I recommend NOT posting a profile pic:

Privacy issues – Some people do not post their photos because of privacy issues. In that case I wouldn’t push anyone to post anything they are not comfortable with, however, remember that the presence of a photo helps readers identify more with the blogger thus contributing to a sense of trust. Another legitimate privacy issue would be “anonymous” bloggers that have blog posts that could compromise them, whether at work or their personal lives, if anyone finds out their true identity. Obviously anonymous bloggers should not post their pictures in their About Page!

Corporate blog – Corporate blogs where the blog serves more as a venue for press releases and where the poster can be anyone from a team need not post the photo of each and every “blogger”. This is especially important if your company’s blog is very formal. Instead use the company logo for a profile picture so as to help in brand recognition. Note that this is different from en employee having a blog centered on the company, in which case I would caution the employee on editing EVERYTHING he posts.

Comment (1)

One Response

Tom | Build That List
08|Feb|2010

I am still working on my about page, but will not be adding a photo. I don’t feel comfortable doing so.

Our Features

Design and Themes

Is Your Blog W3C Compliant?

Last night I checked my personal blog’s code hoping I can proudly display the W3C Validated Button. Since I use Blogger and do not really do anything to clean up the code (beyond adding Alt-tags to the images I embed) I wasn’t surprised at all to find that my blog contained lots of errors – [...]
Read on
More Design and Themes Features
Software and Widgets

Wordpress Plug-ins

If you blog using Wordpress and can’t do something that you want done like adding Sphere-related content at the end of your blog posts you might be surprised to find out that there are already plug-ins available that make it happen.
To find good Wordpress plug-ins all you need to do is search for “wordpress [...]
Read on
More Software and Widgets Features
Reviews

A Friend In Need

I’m helping out my friends from the UA&P – IShareHappiness Blog Team.
Whenever you feel pessimistic, angry, troubled, frustrated, and depressed – what have you – you need someone to talk to. Someone who could help you be more optimistic and help make you feel that there is hope. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to someone [...]
Read on
More Blog Reviews
Monetization

Review: Logical Media

Logical Media is one of the innovative services that pay for ad placement within blogs. Do you have a blog and are you seeking a way to make additional money from the blog? Are you seeking a way to offset other programs with the use of ads? Through the registration with Logical Media, the blogger [...]
Read on
More Monetization Features
Marketing and Search Optimization

Search Rank Drop and False Alarms

Happy Holidays!
What are the chances of someone being concerned about their blog’s search ranking dropping on Christmas Eve? I have no idea but then again if I’m writing about it right now then there’s probably someone somewhere around the world doing SEO at this very minute.
If you have experienced a sudden drop in ranking, [...]
Read on
More Marketing and SEO Features
Blog Resources