Every single blogger on ActiveRain should be utilizing the blog signature feature. A blog signature is a block of text that appears in the "Posted By" section of every blog post. Imagine a visitor has found their way to their post and just made it all the way to the bottom. They are very impressed by what they just read! You should take advantage of this opportunity! Tell them first of all who you are and what you do! Give them ways to contact you. Give them links to other things that you'd like to share with them so you don't lose them. Let's talk in this post how to create an effective blog signature.
The best blog signatures are the ones that are just the right size, not too small, not too big. I like to think of a postcard as a good analogy to the right-sized blog signature. (i.e. if you are scrolling to view the entire blog signature, that is not a blog signature, but a blog POST size... too large)
And if you have ever tried to design a postcard, you would have quickly learned that you have to pick only the most important information. You may start with an idea of all kinds of things to say, but when you realize it won't fit, some of it gets the chopping block. Pick only your best things to share.
My suggestion to you is to answer these questions for your readers:
- WHO are you? (you need to give your name and I also suggest your photo so they can connect a friendly face with the name)
- WHERE are you? (if you are selling real estate in a specific location, if they are on the other side of the country, then it means they won't need to call you)
- HOW can you benefit me? (give them a big picture of what you do... let's hope that aligns with their need... and why they just found your post)
- HOW can I contact you? (call, text, and email/contact form)
- What if I want to read more from you first before I've decided I want to contact you? (share your blog page link, website link, social links)
In order to set your blog signature, you need to go to your "My Home" page. From there, go to the left side navigation. Choose My Blog > Blog Settings then scroll down until you see the Signature edit box (shown below).
However, at the time of this writing (January 2022), I suggest that you do NOT use this page in order to create your blog signature layout. What? Let me explain.
I say this because of two reasons: the editing box is too small and the toolbar has only a limited set of tools (Tip: while it is true that you can use the handle at the lower right corner of the edit box to make it taller vertically, it still is not the best place to initially create your signature.)
I suggest instead that you create a new draft blog POST (a post that will never actually be published, but only to create a layout). In this view, you will then have a large editing area and a full set of tools to work with while you create it.
I have written posts in the past about creating more complex blog signatures. In this post I want to show that it can be very simple also. I want to demonstrate a sort of "template" that anyone can use if you follow along.
Let's take a look at how the blog signature will look when completed and then afterward we'll dive into the pieces of the puzzle that you'll need.
We are going to cover my 5 basic points outlined above. However, the first thing to do is create a layout "container" called a table. In the table we will have two cells in a single row - which in essence gives us two columns for our text. One column is on the left, one on the right.
Websites are created in a language known as HTML. One of the primary elements of HTML that we use all the time is called a paragraph. Paragraphs are typically styled as having white space before and after so that one paragraph of text does not run into the next which would make it harder to read. But there is a technique you should know that we will put to use here. If instead of pressing the Enter key, you press the Shift+Enter combo, you will be doing what is called a line break. In other words, you will have a new line of text BUT it will be in the SAME paragraph. This means your two lines of text will be held tighter vertically without extra space in between. Let's take a look at our signature and see where that technique will make our signature look nicer.
In our signature template, let's format the text in such a way as to make certain things pop out. We'll make the name a larger font and also the telephone number a larger font. We can make some of the text bold also. We can add a horizontal line in the left column as a visual styling element.
You should share whatever social sites you are active on. If you are NOT active on a site, don't put it! (for example if you did one tweet to try twitter in 2014, don't put your twitter icon! Another PSA, everywhere that you are showing a link to your Google+ page, please remove that asap!!) In this tutorial, I'm only showing you how to do social links with text labels. Stay tuned for an updated post soon on how to easily do social media icons. But let's keep it simpler for now so you can get a signature created and in use!
If you saw my recent zoom presentation, you'll know my strategies on creating a fantastic "About Me" page. If you don't have an about me page yet, you can also link to your profile page (for now).
People love to read blogs. If someone just dropped in from a google search, they will not realize the easiest path to your own blog home page. Give them a link here!
If you have a website outside of ActiveRain... link to it!
When you show your telephone number, and if it is your mobile, I highly suggest you caption it as CALL OR TEXT. Some people will much rather make first contact in text message as an introduction and ask you to call them back. At least you should give them the option.
Finally, let them be able to email you. However, putting your email address in plain text on any web page is asking for your email address to be harvested for spam lists. That's why the preferred method to get an email message is for you to use a contact form (ideally with a captcha type spam block so you can make sure you are getting contacted by a human and not a spam robot).
You can link to a contact page that you already have on your website, or you can use the AR contact page for you. There's a little "hack" to get to a plain contact page that you can use. Go to your "My Blog" page on AR and on the right sidebar contact widget, click "send message." When you leave the message box blank, the system will redirect you to a new page asking you to fill in the message details. This page is the one you should grab the URL from and use in in your "Email Me" link in your signature.
And that's it! I look forward to seeing a round of new signatures out there. Please come back here and post and comment update when you've done one so we can check it out!
I step you through the entire process in the video below in case you prefer to watch to learn instead of reading about it. Creating a signature does not take that long but the ROI is great. Grab a cup off coffee and join me in a Craig's Classroom video below.
Video tip: press the F key after starting the video to watch in full screen
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