Set Up The Genesis Author Box And Add It To Your Blog

Last updated on August 1st, 2018 at 06:21 pm

Once you’ve installed and set up the Genesis Framework there’s one vital step you need to take if you want people to start following you and seeing you as an expert. In this tutorial we are going to learn how to set up the Genesis author box.

You might be thinking, why do I need to set up an author box? I’ve taken the time to setup a gravatar for my WordPress blog.

What Is The Genesis Author Box?

Your author box is vital if you want to blogging to build a business. It helps your blog look more professional. As you start writing amazing content that helps people solve problems, people will start seeing you as the expert in your niche.

As you can see from mine, I let people know that I am a WordPress freelancer. This lets people know that I am indeed familiar with WordPress, therefore I might be someone that they want to listen to.

We want people to start seeing you as the expert in your niche.

If you’re using the Genesis Framework, it won’t take long to set up the Genesis author box. It’s a very easy task and the great thing is that you only have to do it once and it will be set up forever.

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Related: Social Warfare Plugin Why I Use Setup And Customization Tips

Let’s Set Up The Genesis Author Box

Before you can set up the Genesis author box with your smiley face, you first have to create a Gravatar, if you still need to do that, read this. Once you get your Gravatar set up, come back and set up the Genesis author box.

Step 1: Log Into Your WordPress Dashboard

Scroll down until you see users>>your profile

Related: How to Login to WordPress and Changing the URL

Step 2: Scroll Down To Biographical Info

This is where you will be sharing some biographical information to help people know who you are and why they should listen to you. The author image is a Gravatar or Globally Recognized Avatar.

Your Bio image is pulled from the image you used when you setup your Gravatar. If you want to change it in the future, all you have to do is log into your Gravatar account and replace your current default photo.

Once you’ve created a simple profile that you can start with, you’ll want to make sure that you enable the author box on Genesis.

What Do I Write In My Author Box?

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t like talking about yourself, you might find this a little difficult. We tend to avoid calling ourselves “experts” because deep down inside we don’t feel like we have what it takes.

Whether your WordPress blog is about web design, organizational skills or you offer consulting services. Chances are you know more than someone else in your niche.

You are the expert and it’s important to let people know that you’re the expert. You will convey this in your author box. To do this you just go to Users >> Your Profile and scroll down until you see Author box. You’ll have the option to enable it on:

• User’s posts
• User’s archives

I went ahead and checked both on my blog. Now when people visit my blog posts they can actually see a snippet about me and why I started this blog.

What If I Get It Wrong?

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to it perfectly the first time around. The truth is that this is one of those things that you can always go back and change later on.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have changed my author profile. In fact, it’s probably time for me to update it again, especially, since I have been blogging for over a year now.

As a blogger the one thing that you’re going to notice is that things are constantly changing. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get it done right the first time around.

Genesis makes it so easy to remove your old snippet and replace it with a more updated one. What you use on day one will probably look different once you’ve been blogging for a couple of years.

Don’t Forget To Link To Your Social Profiles

Don’t spend all day trying to set up your author profile. If you don’t get it right the first time, you can always come back and change it later.

It’s extremely important that you link to your social profiles. As your new blog starts to grow people will want to read your bio box. They are more likely to follow you and see you as an expert in your field if you have social profiles.

Don’t forget to add a social sharing plugin that makes it easy for people to share your content.

Related: Steal My Pinterest Image Creation System For Social Warfare

How to Link to Social Profiles

If you’re new to HTML, you may not know how to add an HTML link tag. If you need some help, read this. I recommend putting the social links after your bio.

Here’s how mine looks like.

If you have several social accounts, I would only put 2-3 of them in your bio. You don’t want to stuff it with 5-6 social profile links.

Remember, your main goal with your bio box is to let people know who you are and why they should listen to you.

Now that you’ve set up an awesome bio box on your Genesis blog it’s time to show it to the world.

Adding It To Your Blog

Once you’ve set up the author box in your profile you need to activate it. Scroll down until you see the author box section. Check “enable author box on this user’s posts.”

Your author bio should show up automatically, however if it doesn’t give it some time.

Adding Your Author Box to Your Sidebar

You might want to consider adding your author box to your sidebar. This will help people find it without having to scroll all the way down the blog post. If you don’t know how widgets look, read this tutorial on Genesis text widgets, so you can have a better understanding of how they work.

So lets head on over to widgets, by going to appearance >> widgets

I am going to assume that you only want the author profile to show up on your blog, not on your home page.

Open up the primary sidebar tab and drag the Genesis-user Profile to your sidebar.

This is how I have mine set up and you can feel free to set up your settings the same or play around with them till you are happy with the way it looks.

Let’s run through these settings so you know what each one does and how it will look like on your blog.

Title: Whatever you put in here will show up on your sidebar.

Select User: I only have one user on my blog so it is pulling my author info

Gravatar Size: Choose the size of the Gravatar picture you want to display.

Gravatar Alignment: Choose whether you want to align it left or right.

Author Description: Here you have the option to enter a brand new author bio or you can choose to display the author bio we set up earlier.

Extended About Me: You can have your bio linked to your about me page if you choose. When someone clicks on your profile, they will be taken to your about page.

Extended Page Link: If you choose to link it to another page, your author bio will have a “Read More” link. You can change the wording if you choose to.

Author Archive Link: Use this if you have multiple authors on your blog.

Now that you have your profile set up, it’s time to start looking at your Genesis footer, I’ve a tutorial to help you get started with styling your WordPress footer on Genesis.

Genesis comes with a little bit of a learning curve, but then so does everything else in blogging. If you are completely new to Genesis, I recommend reading starting here.

Don’t forget to visit the StudioPress forums, that’s what I’ve done whenever I have any issues that I need help with. I’ve never had any problems getting my questions resolved.

Oh and don’t forget to check out YouTube, they have tons of tutorials that will help you navigate your new theme, even if you’re a non-techie.

Final Take Away

Setting up the author box didn’t take long. It may seem like it’s NOT that important. However, if you’re not blogging for a hobby and want to acquire business or eventually make money, you need to set up an author box.

No one is going to want to hire you or follow your blog if it doesn’t have an author box with a friendly face.

Now that you’ve set up your author box, you might still need to create your favicon for your new blog?

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Have you set up your author box on your blog? Did you have a hard time getting it set up the way you want? How many social profiles did you link to?