The importance of having an author bio box at the end of your blog posts cannot be understated.
Prime Real Estate
The area at the end of a blog post is vital “real estate” that, if used correctly, can further engage your readers and encourage them to participate more with your blog.
As you read your favorite blogs, take a look at what each one has displayed in this area. You will notice that many of them have various combinations of an author bio box, links to related blog posts, social media icons and calls-to-action (email signup, details about services or products).
Personal Branding
Your “about me” page and your name at the beginning of each of your blog posts is all fine ‘n dandy, but it’s not enough. When it comes to your own personal brand, it’s important to help people know who you are and where else they can connect with you … as much as possible!
Enter The Fancier Author Box plugin
Fancier Author Box is a free WordPress plugin that enables you to quickly and easily add author bios above or below your posts, pages or custom post types. It features some nice functionality and design tweaks through the admin interface so you can match the look of the author bio box to your blog design.
I use it on this site. Scroll to the bottom to see it in action.
As of this writing, the plugin allows you to connect your social profiles from all of the major “players” in social media:
- Youtube
- Google+ & automatic Google Authorship verification (rel=author)
- Vimeo
- Company/Blog URL
You’ll find a lot of free WordPress plugins that enable you to add an author bio to the end of each post on your blog. This is a great feature for blogs with both single authors and multiple contributors. By highlighting the author of a post – who they are, what social networks they are active in – at the bottom of each article, readers get a sense of your blog authority and authors get an opportunity to promote themselves.
There is also a premium version called Fanciest Author Box. For a whopping $10 you can get the upgrade which comes with a few more bells and whistles.