Creating an Effective 'Start Here' Page for a Blog

Darren: Hey there and welcome to episode 111 of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind ProBlogger. A blog that’s really all about trying to help you as a blogger and online influencer to build sustainable, profitable businesses around the web properties that you have. You can find all the things that are ProBlogger at problogger.com and you can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/111.

Today, I want to talk about start here pages and this topic comes as a result of a question from John at theresourcefulcommunity.com.

John: Hi Darren, this is John from theresourcefulcommunity.com. I have a question I’m hoping you can help me with. I’ve noticed that more and more bloggers are putting “start here” tabs in their main navigation menus and I see that you have a start here page on your redesigned website, which looks great by the way. My two-part question is this, first, what are the most important elements of a start here page, particularly for someone like me who doesn’t have a lot of content up yet?

Second, is there a particular program or plugin I should use to create a start here page? Is this a job for Leadpages, WordPress Page Builder, or some other program? Thank you so much for your great work. Your blog and podcast offer both practical and inspirational help, always when I seem to need it the most. Thanks again. Bye.

Darren: Thanks for your question, John. I really appreciate your listening and your kind words. You are correct, we have put a new start here page on the brand new ProBlogger design, which you can see if you go over to problogger.com and it is a new thing for us and it’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve always had a very prominently displayed about page on my blog and really the start here page for us has kind of replaced that. I think most bloggers do have an about page and I think that’s a really good thing to have and you can have an about page and a start here page if you want, but in some ways for us, I guess, we just decided to go with the one.

Most WordPress things come with an about page kind of already built into them and most bloggers do have them, but I think a start here page can be even more effective than an about page and there’s a number of reasons for this. I think a lot of it boils down to the fact that when you have a blog and particularly as you’ve been blogging for awhile, it can be very challenging for a new reader coming to your blog to find the right stuff for them. Anyone who’s been blogging for awhile—I know, John, you say you perhaps haven’t been at it for as long and don’t have as much content there—as you develop more and more content on your blog, your archives become something of a rabid war room for your readers.

It can be really difficult to find the relevant content for them. Someone arriving on your blog for the first time will likely see if they clicked your homepage, the most recent post, but you most recent post may not be the right post for them. It may not be relevant for them and your most recent post is probably unlikely to effectively communicate to your reader who you are, what your blog is about, who your blog is for and how to use the site.

They’re going to have to click around from post to post to post and kind of stumble upon the right stuff. A start here page can be really effective at doing those things that I just said, getting your readers to the right page, communicating very quickly into simply who you are, what you’re on about, and how this all is going to help them.

We know for a fact that people make decisions very quickly about whether your blog is for them within seconds of being on the site. Having a page that they got to click on and find the right information for them is going to help to speed up that connection that you might have between you and your reader and increase the chances of them hitting that subscribe button and starting that ongoing relationship with you.

The other thing I’ll say about a start here page or a start here call to action in your menu bar is that it’s very, very clickable. We have already found within (I think) less than two weeks since we did our redesign. The start here page is already the number one page that people are clicking in our menu bar. It’s not the most viewed page on our site. We’ve got a few blog posts that get more search traffic, but once people are on the site, it is the thing that they tend to end up on more than any of the pages. It’s outranking everything except for our front page and a few of those really hot posts, there’s something about those words “start here” that certainly calls people to go, “I’m going to click that.”

Within a few seconds of them being on your site, they’re probably clicking that link and then you have this amazing opportunity to get the right content in front of them and your message in front of them and your calls to action as well, so I think it is really important. There are a number of things that I think you should incorporate into your start here page. It’s going to vary a little depending upon the goals of your blog, the type of your blog, what you’re trying to get your readers to do. I want to run through seven things that you should probably consider adding to your start here page. You should probably add at least four of these, maybe all of them, if you can incorporate them, although I think it’s also something to be said for not having too overwhelming start page as well.

Some of the examples that I’ve looked at today and even thinking about this podcast, I’m like, “Yeah, there’s probably a lot going on this page and maybe it’s a bit overwhelming,” you might want to just sort of hit three or four of these types of things. Anyway, here are the things that I would encourage you to put into your start here page.

Number one, do something to make a personal connection. I think people are very suspicious of brands. They’re very suspicious of new sites and perhaps this comes from operating in the make money blogging space where there is a lot of suspicion, because there is a number of, let’s say dodgy characters out there who lead people down […], taking the money out of their pockets as they go.

Certainly, not everyone is in that category and there’s the vast majority of people writing about how to make money online are doing a great job and have great motives and very helpful, but there is, unfortunately, some people in our particular niche who don’t do the right thing, so people come to ProBlogger with some suspicion, and they should.

I think a personal connection can help to break down that suspicion. It’s not just the make money blogging space where there’s suspicion. People are wary in the way that they use the web. People are wary when they meet new people in real life. It takes a little while to warm up, so personal connection can really help with that. Talk about who you are, what your story is, what are your values, why might they listen to you, express your personality. I guess write that page in your voice, so you give them some hints as to what they’re going to get out of your site.

I think you can use storytelling. Story works really well on a start here page, works really well on an about page as well. I’m going to talk a little bit more about the format that you should use with your start page later, but certainly having an image of yourself, if you’re comfortable with that, having a video can be very powerful. It need not be a video of you, it could be a different type of video and I will show you an example of that in a moment as well. Anything that’s a little bit multimedia can certainly help if your voice, if your picture, if your image, if a video of you is on there as well. Making a personal connection is one of the most important things.

Number two, you want to communicate who your blog is for. Number one was about showing who you are. Number two, you want to show your readers that you know them. You know their needs and you know their dreams as well.

I think it’s really important to do the exercise that I talked about in episode 105, where I got you to brainstorm the pain of your readers and the gains that you want your readers to have. If you haven’t listened to that episode, I really would recommend after this one, going back to episode 105.

It’s just a great exercise to get in touch with who you readers are and you want to communicate that you understand your readers in that. I’m going to give you some examples at the end of this podcast of some great start here pages that I think do these particularly well.

Now, this is not about saying to your readers, you are […], you are 34, you are from America. It’s about showing your readers that you know you their needs, that you know you the dreams that they have and who they are.

Number three, you want to communicate (and this can be woven into number two, really), what your blog is about, so how does your blog help change the life of your reader. Now, it might sound a bit grandiose, but even if it’s just, I’m going to make you laugh then that’s a change in your reader.

You want to signal to your readers that you’re going to take them on a bit of a journey. You might teach them something, you might inform them, you might inspire them, you might into tying them, you might encourage them, there’s all of these things that you can do for readers. You want to communicate that to your readers. What are they going to get out of reading your blog? I think communicating that in different ways can really be a powerful thing. It motivates people to subscribe, if you show them that there’s going to be some benefit of doing so.

Now, this can be really woven into number two, communicating who your blog is for. If you might say to your readers, “I know that you get migraines.” If your blog is about health and helping people be relieved from migraines, you might talk about the pain of your readers, a very physical pain, and then in your next breath say, “And this blog is all about helping you to get through these migraines.” Actually show your readers you understand their pain and you’re going to help them with that.

Number four, you want to be pointing people to the right content for them. You want to get people to content on your blog in your archives that is going to give your readers a quick win, that’s going to help to relieve a pain that they have or help them to achieve a gain that they are dreaming of. This I think is really important.

As I was saying before, it’s tough to do this, because you end up with thousands of posts. ProBlogger has almost 8000 posts in it and I know in the archives, there are posts that are going to help all of our readers. We’ve written about everything there is to do with blogging, but how do I help my readers to find that?

I’m going to show you in a moment some examples of some start here pages that attempt to do this. You want to find the best content that you’ve got and be pointing people to that content that is going to help them to take their first step towards that win you’re trying to bring in their life, that change you’re trying to bring in their life. You want to get people eyeballing that content.

Number five is some kind of call to connect with you. I think it’s really important to get a connection with first time readers. Most people who are ending up on your start here page are new to your blog. You really do need to find a way to get a connection with them. To get them to subscribe to your email list, to get them to connect with you in your primary social media place, where you’re building a presence whether that be Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Pinterest, or somewhere else. A call to connection is really important and you may want to do this in a couple of places on your start here page. Maybe top and […], that’s certainly what I’m doing on mine.

Number six, depending upon the goals for your blog, you might want to highlight your products or your services or an affiliate promotion that you’ve got going. Now, this is going to vary from blog to blog. This is not an essential one, but if your main business is about selling your services, then you want to highlight that on your start here page. You want to signal to people that this is what you offer. Even if they don’t take action on that right in the first moment, you want them to know your agenda right upfront, and that can actually build some credibility, too.

If you say, “This is a blog about legal advice, and I offer legal advice, I’m a practicing lawyer,” then that builds credibility for you as well, but it also signals to them that, one day, when they do need that legal advice, they may come to you. I think offering your services or at least pointing out that you do offer services can be a worthwhile thing. Also if you have a product, maybe an eBook, a course, or a physical product, you probably want to highlight that on your start here page.

Now, you don’t want your whole start here page to be about that. You probably don’t want right upfront, “Hi.” You want to make a personal connection first, you want to get them to subscribe first, you want to begin that relationship, but certainly weaving into that page. Maybe a little further down the page that you offer something, then that’s a good thing to do.

I’m also going to show you an example later (or a couple of examples, actually) of where people have woven affiliate marketing into their start here page. I think that can be quite effective as well if you have something that you recommend that is a main source of income for you, I would be recommending that on your start here page. Particularly if it helps people to take first steps.

The last thing you might want to include in your start here page is some kind of social proof. There’s a number of different approaches that you can take here, but if there’s good things already happening on your blog, whether it be lots of readers, or good comments, people who are experiencing change as a result of your content, then you want to highlight that in some way on your start here page.

If you’ve got a lot of readers already, you might want to talk about how many readers you have. If you’ve got 1000 people every month landing on our blog, then highlight that. That’s a sign to new readers that something good is happening on your blog. If you can get some testimonials perhaps.

Someone of note in your industry has said something nice about you, perhaps include that on your start here page. It builds a bit of credibility for you. It makes people look twice. If you’ve got readers who are really being transformed in some way as a result of being a part of your community, you might want to have some testimonials from them. If you’ve been highlighted in some mainstream media, then you might want to include a video clip of you speaking on television or perhaps even some icons of some other blogs or mainstream media that you’ve appeared on.

These types of things are probably not what you want to have right up the top, but they can reinforce that you are a credible source of information. That would be one thing that I would be considering as well.

Now, a question that wasn’t asked in the question from John but one that I think is worth pondering is what sort of content should you have on your page? What format should it be in? Should it be written? Should it be audio? Should it be visual content? Should it be something else? What I would say here is that there are no rules, but what I would say is consider using the medium that you are going to continue to talk to your readers in.

If you are going to primarily use text, blog posts, written content in your blog, then you would want to include some text on your about page. If you’re going to do a lot of podcasting, then maybe you want to imbed some podcast episodes into your about page. If you’re going to do video, then you use video. I think you want to signal to your readers the kind of content that you’re going to produce, and you want to write your about page, create your about page in the voice that you’re going to produce that content on.

You don’t want that to be too disjointed, you don’t want a very formally written about page or start page and then have a very humorously written content on your blog. You want those two to meld together. Now, having said all that, I think video is a very powerful thing. In fact, most of the examples I’m going to give you in a moment use video in their start here pages. I think this is just really powerful because it does create a personal connection with people and it communicates who you are very clearly.

I will say you don’t have to have the most professional video. I’m going to give you some examples of people who are using very beautiful videos, but also some people who obviously just stood in front of their camera or their webcam and added maybe a little preroll with their logo and a little bit of music, but the bulk of their video is quite a simple one. I think that can be very effective as well.

I know it takes you out of your comfort zone to jump in front of a camera, but I would encourage you to consider doing that for your start here page, but again, even a written one can be very effective if you do it well.

John asked about how you create that start here page and again, there’s no rules here. Many of the start here pages that I’ve seen over the years are purely just pages that have been created in WordPress and that used the normal template of the site.

In fact, the about page that I had on ProBlogger up until our redesign was done just that way. Instead of creating a post, I created a page and I just used the header, the footer, and the sidebar. That wasn’t customized in any way and perhaps I could have done some cooler things with it. It was still effective and it was still a page that worked really well for us.

You could just create a page. I have even seen bloggers just write a blog post and use the blog post itself as a start here page or you could take things up a notch as well. You’ve mentioned a few things there, John, in your question. There’s definitely some templates in Leadpages that you could use as a start here page. You could sort of tweak them a little bit.

One I saw just as I was preparing for this was a testimonials landing page that Leadpages have in there. You could very easily turn that into a start here page just by changing the heading really. There’s a number of templates in there, or you could use their template builder and build your own.

There are many other landing page tools out there that you could use to create a start here page, or you could find someone to customize it for you. I’m sure if you dug around, you’ll find people who could create a page for you and that’s how we created ours, our development team. We’ve got some guys who work with us and did the whole redesign of ProBlogger. They customized our start here page and widgetized it as well so we can actually drag and drop some different things into it.

Speaking of our start here page, I thought maybe I just run through what we’ve done on ours. This is new and it’s a bit of a work in progress even in preparing for this particular podcast. There’s a few things I’ll probably change on this at some point. If you want to have a look at ours, you go to problogger.net/start-here and you’ll find that we’ll link to that in today’s show notes as well.

You can see on our start here page, there’s a number of things that I’ve already really mentioned. We do have a statement of what the site is about. That’s the number one thing we have. Quite a prominent call to subscribe button. A big orange button right up the top there. And people click that quite a bit. I’ve done some click tracking on this particular page and that’s one of the most clicked on things. It works very well.

Next to that, I have a video and this is a video of me standing in front of a camera and doing a number of things that I’ve talked about there. In the video, I talk a little bit about who I am, why I started ProBlogger. I talk about the content areas on the site, the portals that we have and how to find the right content. I talk a little bit about the benefits of reading and then give a call to connect, a call to subscribe, which is why I guess people connect, hit that orange button next to the video and also mentioned our social profile.

I found by using video on this page and a number of other pages on the site, our portals, those videos are being clicked a lot. We’re getting a lot of views on those. Some people just prefer to watch. Most of what I’ve got in that video is also replicated underneath. Underneath the video, I’ve got a little bit more information in written form.

I tell my story, I actually start with the dream underneath that. I ask the question, “Do you dream of making money from your blog?” I’m getting my readers to think about the end result that they want. And then underneath that, I’m telling my story of starting my first blog and building it from a hobby into a full time income. I know for a fact that when I tell that story in the past that people get a little bit inspired, they get a little bit interested. Very short version of the story there. 

Then I talk about why I started the site. I talk about the main sections of the site, and point people to the podcast, the blog, the job boards, the ebook. And then I tap into the dream of making a living from blogging. Talk about some of the pain points of our readers. And then point people to our portal pages. This is where I know if someone clicks some of the links to my portal pages (and we’ve got at least of those portal pages in the written content), I know they’re going to start seeing some content that has a quick win. They’ll also see a second video from me. It deepens that relationship with people. And then there’s a call to action, to subscribe, and mention of our social pages there as well as some links to other parts of the site. 

That’s our portal page. I’d love to hear your feedback on it. It’s a bit of an evolution. I’ve got some ideas of things that I would like to change on that particular page, but it’s where we’ve started. I think this is the most important thing. You’re never going to get that perfect start here page right out front. It’s just not going to happen. It’s really important that you have something, though. Whether it’s a start here page or an about page, you want a page like this where you link to it prominently in your menu bar, in your navigation, invite people to learn more about the site, and do these things with it. 

Let me give you a few examples of some other start here pages that you might want to check out. I really like Marco Hyatt’s start here page. I’ll link to it in today’s show notes. I particularly like how he starts his start here page. I’ll read the first paragraph to you. He says, “If you’re like most of my readers, you’re a successful, high-achiever. You are committed to winning at work, and equally important, succeeding at life. You strive to grow, get better, and reach your potential. You want to leave a lasting impact on your world, but something keeps getting in the way. There just seems to be too much to do and too little time. Maybe you feel like this reader,” and then he uses a comment, a question from a reader that identifies the pain of many of his readers.

I just think that’s a brilliant start here page. It taps right into the dreams of his readers and who they are and what they want to achieve. The high-achieving type people. And then he goes immediately into the pain of his readers. He does exactly what I talked about before, talking about the dreams, the gains that they want and the pain, the things that are stopping them from achieving their dreams. This really builds very quickly a connection with his reader and probably filters away people who won’t be a good fit for his site as well. Someone reading that and going, “No, I’m not like that type of reader at all.” He’s probably going to not find as much value from his blog. He’s helping himself to find the right type of readers. 

Really, in those first two paragraphs, he’s signalling to his potential reader what his blog is about. He follows that with a section which is titled, I Know How You Feel. This gives him an opportunity to tell his personal story and he does it through the written word. He’s actually one of the few examples I’m going to give you who doesn’t use video. I think a video would work really well as well, and I know he uses a lot of videos on his site.

He tells his story, he has his photo in there, and creates a personal connection. Then, he tells his readers his goals for writing the blog and I suspect some of Michael’s readers are goal-oriented type of people. He outlines exactly what his goals are and then he pushes people to his most popular posts on the site in different categories. He gets people to the best stuff in his archives and that’s really important. 

He does highlight his products and services at the bottom. It’s not the priority of his page, but he’s certainly upfront about it. And then he calls people to subscribe, which is really important. I probably would also add a subscribe button somewhere up the top of that page as well, but I think it’s certainly a logical place to have it right at the bottom because people get to the end of a page like this and they are looking for something to do. A subscribe button can work quite well. 

Having said that, I think he does have a pop-up that greets people when they arrive on his blog as well. They probably already had an invitation to subscribe. Maybe just having it at the bottom works as well. That’s one good example.

Another one that you can check out and I’ll link to in the show notes is Caz & Craig from Y Travel Blog. They’re Aussie bloggers, they’re travel bloggers, and they’re all about helping parents and families to take great trips, and overcome some of those obstacles that face us when we’ve got young kids. I will link to their start here page in the show notes today.

I think it’s really great. It has this statement right up front. It’s a big statement. Start here. How to plan your perfect trip. And immediately this statement says what the blog is about and taps into that dream that many of us have of having a perfect trip.

First paragraph, again, really effectively written. It is, “Is lack of money and time stopping you from taking your dream trip? Do you get overwhelmed and suffer information overload? Not sure how to find the best deals on flights, accommodation, and car rentals?” And Michael did this, too. Asking questions is a very powerful way to make a connection with readers. 

Again, this first paragraph is all about pain, it’s all about the obstacles that we face. Second paragraph moves into how Caz & Craig can help. They say, “We created this page to help you plan your perfect trip. We know from 17 years of experience that smart planning can save you money and time. We’ve learned the lessons so you can avoid the same mistakes.” There they’re signalling they’ve got 17 years of experience, but they’re also making some promises there to help people to overcome those pain points.

You scroll down that about start here page and you find that they are pointing you to effectively portals of their best content around some of the main pain points that their readers have as well. And then, at the bottom of the page, very simple, quite a short page, there is a call to subscribe. 

The next one I’ll point out and this one you’ve probably seen this Pat Flynn’s. Pat just recently redesigned his site as well. There’s actually some really interesting similarities between what he’s done and what we’ve done. His start here page has always been good and the new one is particularly good.

I particularly like how he uses multimedia. There’s a play button right up the top to bring a pop-up video. He uses embedded podcasts in his about page. It basically says, “Here’s the required listening. Here’s three podcasts you really should listen to.” That gets people used to listening to his podcast, which is a very important part of what Pat does, but it also gets people really good content that helps them to understand what he’s on about.

He has a section there, defining his main thing which is passive income. He has a section on busting myths, which I think is really great as well. He gets the expectations of his readers right. Right there on his about page, there’s obviously a lot of false expectations that people have to this particular topic. So he uses his start here page to get his readers aligned with his vision for them and what he’s on about. I think that’s really important. You want to get people to understand your values and the reality of what you’re trying to teach them.

He points people to his resources that he recommends and he uses some affiliate products there. I think he points people to hosting and that type of thing. I have a suspicion there that, depending on how many times you’ve been on the site and where else you’ve been on the site, that you’re probably seeing some different resources recommended there. Then he has some calls to subscribe as well. And then finishes the page with just a personal thank you. Pat’s really great at this. He really values his readers and he signals that. His signature at the bottom of that page and just in a heartfelt way thanks his readers for coming to his site. 

I’ve got two more really quick examples for you. These both actually come from speakers from our event this year. Natalie Sisson from The Suitcase Entrepreneur. Her start page is really great. I think it’s got a lot of good things and we can probably spend 20 minutes really pulling apart, but I love the opening.

She uses asking questions again. She says, “Have you always known you shouldn’t be working for someone else? You know, doing something that doesn’t really float your boat in the 9-5 world? Do you rebel against conforming, against authority, and believe things can be different and you can set your own rules and create your own lifestyle choices?” And then she says, “You’re my kinda person!”

I love the way she writes it. It’s very conversational. Uses words like “kinda” and kind of a brief humor in there and very conversational. This is the way she communicates. This is Natalie through and through. But she’s asking questions there to get people to say yes to her questions and to put them in the right state to really begin that journey with her.

Her about page is all about joining her on her mission. It’s about being part of her tribe, it’s about being her friend. She uses the word freedom again and again and again. Obviously, freedom is the dream that people want here. She uses a great video here and this is an example of a video that’s not a talking head video. She appears halfway through the video for about five seconds and speaks, but the rest of it is more inspiration-based and it’s showcasing what she does, some of her retreats that she runs, shows her travelling the world, having fun, having freedom, teaching people. She’s showcasing what she does there as well. 

There’s also elements of social proof in her video as well, as we see some of her clients, their updates on Facebook and Instagram with the freedom lifestyle they have developed. She offers a free starter kit here. I think this is really a great place on your start here page is to have an opt-in and she does that there. Through and through, it is Natalie and it showcases what she does and who she is and I think that’s really important. There is a whole hit more on that about page as well. 

Last one I will just briefly mention is Lisa Corduff who’s another of our speakers this year. She’s going to be talking at our event this year about creating online products. I’ll link to hers as well. I love Lisa’s because it’s quite a simple page. She has a video at the top and it’s a very simple video. It’s her standing in front of a webcam or just a simple camera and it has just a nice little intro and outro with her branding and some music, but the video itself just shows her personality.

It talks about the why of her site. It talks about the fact that she’s a mom and that she’s been really journeying with her topic, which is healthy, real food. The signals there that it’s a slow hard process that she’s been through. I think this really just builds up a connection with her readers as well. Underneath that video, there’s links to the best stuff on her site and points people throughout the site. Very simple start here page, but I think very effectively communicates who she is, what she’s on about. I felt like I wanted to click a lot of links as I looked at their page as well. 

They are the examples. Again, I’m going to link to all of those examples on today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/111. I know there’s a lot of information to digest there, but I would love to hear and see examples of your start here page. If you’ve got a start here page or if you’re seeing someone else’s that you think is effective, please head over to those show notes, leave a link to it, and talk about why you designed yours the way you did or what you like about other people’s as well. 

Today’s podcast has been sponsored by the ProBlogger Event. We have just in the last week released tickets to the event and for the next month or so, until the first of July, you can save $100 on the event. You’ll find all the details of this year’s event, which is on the 9th and 10th of September here in Australia at probloggerevents.com.

We have had quite a few questions from people asking about virtual tickets for the event. We will be releasing virtual tickets on the first of July. If that is of interest to you, you can sign up to get notified of when those tickets go on sale over at probloggerevents.com. 

Thanks so much for listening today. I hope you found this particular podcast helpful. Thanks, John, for your question, and if you have a question you’d like me to tackle in our future episode, you can find a little green button on the show notes today where you can press record and send me a message. Even if it’s not a question, I love to hear back from you and what you think about the podcast. It’s just a simple way you can leave me a voice message. Again, you can find that at problogger.com/podcast/111.

You’ve been listening to ProBlogger. If you like to comment on any of today’s topics or subscribe to the series, find us at problogger.com/podcast, tweet us @ProBlogger, find us at facebook.com/problogger, or search ProBlogger on iTunes.