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When you first joined Compose.ly, we asked you to add a bio to your profile. Now that you’re active on the platform and we’re matching you with clients, it’s time to update your bio.
We use the information on your profile page in two main ways. Our Community Manager references your experience, expertise, and preferences when adding you to client teams, and some of our clients choose to run the content you create with your byline. (Most only publish writer names — we know, editors are often co-creators! — but a few are interested in crediting editors, as well.)
We’ve created this resource to help you understand how to craft a great profile that will highlight your expertise, encourage readers and clients to trust your content, and help you grow your online presence and credibility as a writer, editor, or subject-matter expert in your niche.
You can update your bio at any time by clicking on your image in the top right corner of your platform screen and choosing “Profile” from the drop-down menu.
Tips for Writing a Great Bio
Write your bio in third-person perspective (Jane Doe is a CPA and finance writer). Save your first-person commentary for the “Anything else we should know” section.
Use the name you want to appear in your publication credits. If you write under a pen name, use that here. If you’re married but publish under your original family name instead of married name, use that.
Your bio should be professional and aim to build trust with your readers. This isn’t the place to pitch yourself to potential clients, so steer clear of salesy language. (Janelle Doe is a talented and proficient content writer who can create brilliant, well-researched content.)
Don’t include links to personal websites or portfolios, social media handles, or email addresses.
Showcase your expertise. Include any relevant education (degrees and school names are OK to mention but not necessary), certifications (if applicable), awards (if relevant), or other credentials along with a brief list of notable previous publications (no more than 5), if they were published with your byline.
If you’re a true subject-matter expert — whether academic, self-taught, or professional — in any field (such as legal, medical, finance, real estate, student loans), aim to make that clear in your bio. Include information that clarifies how you became an expert (formal training, education, years of experience in the industry and/or writing about it), professional roles you’ve held in your industry, any particular industry specializations (as in, dermatology within the medical field or home mortgage loans within the finance field), and any notable publications with your byline on industry sites or other well-known publications.
Your clients can request your bio at any time, and sometimes they publish it alongside your byline on articles you create. Published bios aim to build the website’s credibility and trustworthiness by demonstrating the relevant experience and expertise of the people who write the articles, so readers know they can trust the information you’re sharing. As you update your profile, keep these guiding principles in mind to send yourself up for success.
Bonus Tip: Consider your primary niche and the norms for writers in that field. Writers in fields with higher stakes — what Google considers "Your Money, Your Life," including things like finance, medical, and legal — foreground their qualifications to speak on their topics and tend to take a more serious tone. For writers in marketing and SaaS, on the other hand, highlighting voice, knowledge, and experience — in a tone that communicates curiosity and playfulness — may be more attractive to some brands.
Try taking a look at your dream publication and see if it's running bylines. If yes, what do they look like? Can you emulate them? Or look up a writer you admire, and see how they've crafted their bio. Try rewriting yours to follow a similar structure and include those types of information. This exercise can also be really useful in revealing areas of weakness in your experience, which might show you what opportunities to pursue to beef up your street cred!
Take a look at the bios below from writers in different fields to note the variety of approaches.
Emily Editor is an editorial professional currently living and working in Denver, CO. Her areas of editorial focus include B2B content for SaaS and marketing consultancy firms as well as medical and financial content. As an editor, she has worked on staff for the Denver Post and Denver Westword, and she's collaborated with digital publishing clients like WebMD, GOBanking Rates, Money.com, and more. She holds a bachelors degree in English composition and a copyediting certificate from UC San Diego. She is a member of ACES and the Editorial Freelancers Association.
Franny Finance is a financial expert specializing in debt management and retirement planning. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Purdue University and earned her CFP from the American College of Financial Services, and she works as a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual. Her published articles appear in Forbes, Yahoo! Money, and Money.com. In addition to finance, Franny has significant experience writing on legal and marketing-related topics.
Hailey Health is a professional health writer with a background in allied health care as an herbalist and clinical aromatherapist. She is based in Canada and holds a BA from Athabasca University. Hailey is the writer and producer of the top-ranking podcast The Aromatherapist and the author of two books. She writes for leading health websites with a focus in health, wellness, and consumer products.
Lucy Legal is a freelance writer and lawyer with a background in legal, historical, and sociological research. She received her B.A. from the University of Toronto at St. George and her Juris Doctor (JD) from Osgoode Law School, York University. After graduating from law school, she interned at Sony Music Entertainment, where her research focused on tech and legal topics, with a special interest in copyright.
Martin Marketing has been creating digital content for over a decade. Drawing on his background in event marketing for a Fortune 500 company, his work spans several industries, including marketing, law, automotive, and travel, to provide valuable insights on improving experiential, social media, and email campaign ROI.
Sunil SaaS is a technology, finance, and game writer with over a decade of writing experience and too many blogs to count. A San Francisco-based software engineer by day and an interdisciplinary writer by night, he brings wide experience in multiple fields together on the page.
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