The cornerstone of any great thought leadership career is a personal brand website no one will ever visit. To make sure your personal brand website stands out while also being exactly like everyone else’s, make sure it has these 12 key components.
1. An awkwardly happy picture of yourself
The first thing users should see when they arrive at your personal brand website is a large smiling photo of you. This photo should make you look relatable, but also serious, and fun, but also like someone who commands thousands of dollars in speaking fees.
2. A catch phrase
To combat most people’s 3-second attention span, distill what you do down to a 10 word sentence. There’s a good chance this will be the only thing 98% of your audience ever reads about you.
Here are a few examples:
- Hi! I’m Jake. I love helping people remake their paradigms.
- Hey, I’m Allison. I tell stories that feed our collective subconscious.
- My name is Bob Johnson and I’m a changemaker.
3. A few vague titles
A quick run-down of all the things you do is another great way to combat people’s short attention span.
List things such as: evangelist, coach, creator, thinker, ideator, finder, winner.
4. Logos
Put a bunch of logos of all the reputable places you wish you were featured (don’t worry, no one will check).
5. Your story
This is the last thing anyone wants to read about you so don’t worry too much about it. Just spend about an hour doing a stream-of-consciousness dump of your life story encompassing the past 30-40 years. Make sure all the low points of your life are followed by high points where you triumphed and succeeded.
6. A toolkit, guidebook, blueprint, online course or webinar you’re selling
As a thought leader, your ultimate goal should be to teach your followers what you know. If you don’t have one, just say it’s launching soon, then ask people for their email so they’ll be the first to hear about it
7. Blog posts about random thoughts you’ve had
It’s important to post blog posts about the thoughts and feelings you have so you can let people into your thought process as a thought leader and also get some search traffic by packing them with keywords.
Here are some blog post ideas:
- “Some Thoughts on the Future of Technology”
- “How to Win Tomorrow, Today”
- “10 Secrets of Making Up Secrets”
8. Links to your 92 different social media accounts
Make sure you’re on every single social media account there is and list all of them here.
9. A passive aggressive popup trying to get people to sign up for your newsletter
Your newsletter is key to keeping in touch with your followers, and a passive aggressive popup that completely obscures your entire website is sure to make people want to sign up. Make your popup appear whenever your website visitor arrives at your page, leaves your page, moves their mouse or doesn’t move their mouse. Include a question like, “Would you like to keep in touch?” with buttons that say “Yes I would!” and “No I’m a loser.”
10. An drawer popup trying to get people to sign up for your newsletter
A drawer popup in the corner will attract visitors who’ve already tried closing your overlay popup 18 times.
11. A sidebar trying to get people to sign up for your newsletter
Just in case they miss the overlay.
12. A banner trying to get people to sign up for your newsletter
Just in case they miss the overlay, sidebar and drawer.
