Autor box, when you say these two words, it’s pretty simple to understand from the context what we are talking about, but for those of you who didn’t catch it at first glance and who are generally unfamiliar with this type of terminology, don’t panic we got you. We are going to take a look at what an author box is and what they are used for.
An author box, as we stated in the very first sentence, is a box which you mostly see at the bottom of a webpage, explaining who the author is, some biographical information about him or her, even sharing their socials, and much more. An author box is a great way to gain recognition, not only for you but also for your brand or company.
Exposing yourself to the big world is scary, but it builds a better connection between you and the audience. Let’s see the other benefits of an author box.
Table of Contents
The benefits of author boxes
1. An emphasis should be put on this one, but gaining recognition is the number one benefit. Recognition for your hard work and dedication can lead to enormous new opportunities your way.
2. Building a bond with your audience plays a huge role in your conversion rates. The higher the conversion rates, the bigger the audience.
3. If there are multiple authors, give them the recognition they deserve, and gain respect not only from them but from your audience.
4. Make your site trustworthy and gain authenticity.
5. Improve SEO by having an author box, the easiest way to capture people.
6. Give your visitors the chance to talk to you by sharing your socials. They can have compliments, even critiques which can make you improve your site. The people have a better eye on what’s missing. This can step up your game, putting you ahead of your competition.
7. Make space for the new visitors, as they also need to know who you are.
8. Give a brief example of what you do
Okay, now that you are convinced of why author boxes are so amazing, let’s get to the point of how to create one.
How to create an author box?
Well, here comes the part where some people back out; just stay with us; trust us here. If you currently are not in the position to invest in a plugin, you can create an author box by manually putting it in. If you are familiar with the basic concepts of PHP, through some lines of code, not many, an author box can be achieved. But being in this type of industry, everything you invest in comes back to you; so, many people invest in a good plugin.
This is just the preferred way. Nobody has all day to first and foremost learn how to code or explore the depths of WordPress. Taking all of this into consideration, the best solution is the Simple Author Box plugin.
Introducing Simple Author Box
As we can see, this is a WordPress plugin that allows you to add an author box which will automatically be inserted at the end of your posts, with your name, information, bio, and author gravatar. You can create your author box in a way where it matches the theme of your webpage through the color, style, text options with fully customizable size.
Your author box can be inserted anywhere on your site; you don’t need to feel the obligation to put it at the bottom of your page.
By having this plugin, you can easily add guest authors; you can give credibility to multiple authors and make accepting contributions easier. These features are pretty simple to use; they don’t require you to learn any type of coding.
This plugin has over 60,000+ users, and by looking at the reviews, they are pretty happy users; they gave an average rating of 4.4 stars. When you go to the plugin’s menu, you can get shocked as the principle of the preview box is quite simple, only containing the colors black and white. But when you set up everything, you will see that everything is in its place and will quickly match up with your site.
You have tons of social media icons available and presented to you. This is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on; gaining recognition is necessary, as we mentioned before.
For you to have a smooth and better experience with this plugin, the team who created this plugin is here to help you if you need something.
We mentioned that some of you may be on a budget; luckily, we have great news even for you. The starting price of the personal package is $39 a year. Continuing on, the team package is $69 a year, and the agency package is $99.
How to use this plugin?
By logically looking at things, the process of activating your account simply starts from the point of creating and registering on the SAB dashboard. Head over to the webpage, enter your username and the email you used when purchasing SAB, set up your password, and then you are logged in.
After logging in, on your left side, there is a menu where “Download Plugin” will be presented to you. Now you get to the point where you should successfully install and activate this plugin on your WP site.
You activate it by following the simple rules of going to your WordPress admin, clicking on Plugins. From that point, you click Add New Plugin, and you upload it. You open up your WordPress admin, go to Appearance, and you can see the Simple Author Box plugin.
Then you should activate this plugin with your license key and completely let the plugin guide you through the whole setup process. This is the whole logic behind the activation process of the plugin. Now that we are fully set to take a look at how to change the style of your author box, you should click on SAB and open up the Appearance tab.
There are some key features; we will explain what every feature presents. You have the top margin, bottom margin, the padding of the top and bottom, and the left and right padding of the author box. To move the upper margin, you just move the slider.
The concept is pretty much the same for all margins and paddings.
If you are in need of a border for your author box, just move the slider inwards.
When making author boxes, the most fun part is the avatar. With this plugin, you can get the perfect avatar image style. You can make it however you like, from it being square to a circle, ellipse, fancy, shear, and speed. To make you seem cooler, an option is available that whenever someone goes over your author box, your avatar image rotates to the left, but just slightly, it doesn’t go crazy. By adding your socials, you can also adjust them to whatever suits you best. To keep some of it fun and for you to explore, you should totally check this plugin out. It is one of the best on the market, providing you with so much for so little.
Conclusion
Well, here comes the end to this article. From my standpoint, personally, we went through every single detail, explaining everything to make your life easier and get you on the right track. To sum things up, an author box is pretty much a necessity when it comes to having a webpage; everyone deserves recognition, and you deserve traffic for your hardworking site.
The easiest, fastest way to do that is by letting the users know your story.
Make your life easier and install a great plugin such as Simple Author Box. Also, you have a free version; keep that in mind!