An author bio is a short, descriptive paragraph about you and your expertise. Generally, anyone who submits articles to article directories will be given the option to include two or three sentences about themselves at the end of the article. An example would be:

Jane Doe, a graduate of Harvard Business University, is the founder and CEO of Acme Corp., a worldwide business and technology consulting firm. Jane shares her expertise in business management and technology at her technoblog, www.janescooltechnoblog.com.

Writing an author bio about yourself is one of the hardest things we ever do! Despite the fact that it’s just a few words, it’s very difficult to objectively describes ourselves and our talents in the third person. But as with so many of the exercises I like to throw out there, this one is not only useful in case you ever actually need an author bio, but it also causes you to stretch a muscle you may not use very often. Which muscle is that? Well, let’s call it the self-confidence muscle in your brain.

In order to succeed, especially in a self-employed one-person business, you need all the self-confidence you can get. You will have to put yourself “out there” on occasion, and you’ll need to put any shyness you might have off in the corner of a closet somewhere. Whether you are giving information to your readers, or networking with your peers, you’ll need to present yourself as a self-confident, knowledgeable person. And before you can convince others of your self-worth, you need to be able to convince yourself! So if you don’t already have an author bio, create one for yourself. If you ever need it, you’ll have it handy. But even if you don’t need to use it later, it’s a great little exercise for that self-confidence muscle of yours.