Many of the articles, blogs, or research papers that you read online contain only the name of the author. With no additional information about the author, you may have found yourself questioning the authenticity of the literature. Without any knowledge of who the writer is, what his background is, why he does what he does, and most importantly, why he is an expert in the field, you can’t be sure if the information contained in the piece you are reading is reliable.
When a person reads a piece of literature, it is basically an interaction between two human beings- the author and the reader. When a reader knows a thing or two about the author, they will feel a personal connection and they will be able to relate and connect to the piece they are reading. An author profile is very important, especially if your content is available on a multi-author website.
However, what is the point of giving a user profile at the end of every article when nobody would even notice it? Having an author profile at the end of every article is not enough. What you need is an author profile that catches the eye of the readers when they are casually scrolling down the webpage.
Your author profile should have colors and fonts that are not just eye-catching but also blend well with the overall theme of the webpage. Anything that looks unpleasant to the eye of the reader will be a major turn-off.
If you are wondering how to set up an author profile that is right in all aspects, you have landed yourself at the right place. We have listed down 10 of the best author profile plugins for WordPress websites.
If you are a WordPress user, you should know that the use of plugins and themes can make your website more efficient and attractive. As far as an author profile is concerned, with the help of plugins, you can design and incorporate super catchy author boxes to your websites! As mentioned earlier, the addition of author profile will improve the legitimacy of your content and of you as an author.
Let’s have a look at the best WordPress plugins for author profiles that can be used:
1. Fancier Author Box
Fancier Author Box is a free plugin, offered by the ThematoSoup. It is one of the best plugins for author profiles. It displays the essential information about the author which includes:
- Author’s name
- Photograph
- Short biography
- Links to the author’s social media
- Latest posts under the content tab.
In one quick glance, the reader would know precisely who the author is, where to find more information about them, and access the latest posts by them as well.
Features:
After the plugin has been activated, you need to set some settings. You will select whether you want the author profile to be displayed on the top or bottom of the page and if you want the author profile to appear on pages, posts, or projects.
You can select the colors, borders, design, and backgrounds from the available options. Click ‘Save Changes’ after you are done. You can also link your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts to your author profile using Fancier Author Box.
2. Fanciest Author Box
Fanciest Author Box is the premium, paid version of Fancier Author Box. Fanciest Author Box offers a lot more than Fancier Author Box in just $17.
Features:
You get more control over your bio and a lot of handy features including:
- Retina ready display
- Co-author plugin support
- Random author options
- Lazy load for improved speed
The two features that stand out include the one that allows you to load the author bio as a widget. It lets you place your author bio anywhere on the website instead of being limited to either top or bottom of the page or within the post of the page. The other feature includes the lazy loading social tabs. With this feature, you maximize the speed at which your page loads. Each social tab loads the recent posts by the author along with a link to the author’s social media. It not only encourages social engagement but also gives a quick summary of the recently shared content.
Installation of Fanciest Author Box is the same as for the Fancier Author Box.
3. Starbox- The Author Box For Humans
When setting up your website, your objective should be to get maximum viewer engagement. You wouldn’t want the reader to visit your website and never return. You can do this by allowing your readers to get to know you personally, connect with you on social media platforms, and stay updated about your recent posts.
With Starbox-The Author Box for Humans, you can achieve all of it!
When you install the Starbox plugin, you will an additional section in the standard WordPress settings that will enable you to add the following information for your author profile:
- Custom profile photo
- Job settings including your job title, the name of the company, and the company URL
- Custom bio
You can link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your author profile or author box. The best thing about this feature in Starbox is, you can make the links to your social media accounts ‘nofollow’ links. Starbox is a free plugin but if you are willing to enjoy more features, and make your author profile more detailed and prominent, you can switch to the premium version.
Features:
Starbox offers numerous attractive features which makes it one of the best plugins for an author profile. You can select the theme and colors of your choice to make the author profile blend well with the theme of the website. It allows you to add shortcodes to place Starbox as a widget or in the content of the post. If you are running a multi-author website, you can add a customized bio for each author. It allows you to preview your author profile before saving it. Last but definitely not least, you can decide where you want to place it, on top of the page or bottom.
4. WP Author Box
WP Author Box is one of the most popular plugins for author profiles. With WP Author Box, you have full control over the author box. The amazing range of features that WP Author Box offers make it one of the top-ranking plugin in the category.
Features:
WP Author Box allows you to add unlimited responsive custom tabs. You can increase the reader interaction by linking your social media profiles to your author profile so that the reader can get to know more about you. It lets you have a custom avatar image. This is not it. You can choose a skin from available skins in 6 colors or you can pick a custom color as per your liking. You can change the colors of ‘Active’ tabs and ‘Inactive’ tabs.
It comes with custom widgets that can be used anywhere- on the sidebar or footer. WP Author Box is specifically useful for you if you are running a multi-author website. The widget will automatically feature the current author. Moreover, you can even use a Top Author Widget that displays the author profile of anyone author who has the maximum posts or views.
The best feature of WP Author Box is that it can integrate contact forms like Gravity Forms or Contact Form 7 that lets you create contact tabs. With WP Author Box, you can place your author profile on the top or bottom of the page, and design it the way you like!
5. Simple Author Box
Simple Author Box is a free plugin for author profile for WordPress websites that allows you to incorporate a responsive author box at the end of a post on your website. It shows the following information about an author:
- Name of author
- Author gravatar
- Author description
Features:
Simple Author Box enables you to make a fully customized author profile. You can select the size, color, design, and the theme as per your liking. It adds your author profile at the end of your post automatically. Simple Author Box provides an option to its users to insert the author box manually on your template file. Simple Author box has AMP and RTL support.
If the features of Simple Author Box are not enough for you, you can switch to the paid Simple Author Box Pro that has added benefits and a greater number of features.
6. WP Author Bio [Formerly Sexy Author Bio]
WP Author Bio plugin for author profiles on WordPress websites is an advanced plugin for you if you want your author profile to look attractive. It comes with tons of options for you to customize your author profile according to your wishes.
Features:
Your author box with WP Author Bio is not just responsive but it includes 5 social icon sets for you to choose from. It supports numerous social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Vimeo, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and many more. It adds your author profile at the end of the posts. It works great for multi-author websites as well. It allows you to control the visibility and layout of the author box. It can be displayed on the Homepage, posts or both. With AP Author Bio, you have complete control on the appearance, style, and the design of your author box.
7. Author Bio Box
Author Bio Box is a free WordPress plugin for incorporating author profiles in your posts. It is a lot similar to WP Author Box in features and works in fairly the same way.
Features:
Some of the major features of Author Bio Box include a fully customizable author box. You can change the color, size, borders, and text style. You can change the size of the gravatar. It enables you to integrate links to your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that ensures an efficient reader engagement and interaction. You can have a custom author bio. In short, Author Bio Box caters to all your needs related to an author profile.
8. Attractive Author Box
Attractive Author Box is a premium plugin. It is one of the best plugins for the author box. Are you wondering why? It offers you an amazing 24 skin types for your author profile!
Features:
As the name indicates, Amazing Author Box is truly amazing with its expansive range of skins, currently standing at 24. Not just that, it creates extremely attractive and eye-catching author profiles that are sure to persuade the user to get to know you more.
It provides gorgeous designs and an outstanding performance that makes it worth the fee, that is, $15. It has been designed specifically to suit blogs and it does an exceptional job. Other features include shortcodes, live preview, and templates. You can know exactly how the author box will look like on your webpage before even implementing it, thanks to the live preview feature.
It comes with social media support, Google authorship, placement options, and widgets. What else can you ask for?
9. Ultimate Author Box
Ultimate Author Box is a premium plugin for your WordPress website. If you want to showcase the author as the rock star, Ultimate Author Box should be your choice. It highlights the content writer and makes them look important like we said earlier a rock star!
Features:
With Ultimate Author Box, your author profile can contain numerous tabs. These tabs include author posts, contact forms (in-built or external), company description, profile integration (LinkedIn), social media feeds (Twitter and RSS), co-authors, guest authors, and custom tabs.
It comes with more than 15 templates that are all equally beautiful and attractive. You are given unlimited choices for color schemes and the best feature is, upon clicking an author, an author summary pops up on the screen! It also has two built-in widgets which include one that detects the author automatically, and the second is Author Box List Widget with Slider, List and Grid view.
10. Meks Smart Author Widget
Meks Smart Author Widget is an excellent plugin for anyone who wants to add an author box to their posts or WebPages. The best thing about this plugin is that it does not create any complexities on the settings page. By that, we mean that there is no separate settings page for the plugin. It gets incorporated into the standard settings page on WordPress.
Features:
Meks Smart Author Widget is truly smart. It uses the theme and styling of your webpage to create an author box that fits right in! it does not mean that it will go unnoticed. When it fits right in, it looks well-blended with the WordPress theme and colors and gives an attractive appearance overall.
It works great for multi-author websites. It can detect the author automatically and display their information in the author box. It works very smoothly. There is no messing up with the layout. It is simple, efficient, and has just the right features you would want in a basic, attractive author box!
With the 10 bets author profile plugin in front of you, you can now decide easily which plugin would suit your WordPress site the most!
Jon Dykstra is a six figure niche site creator with 10+ years of experience. His willingness to openly share his wins and losses in the email newsletter he publishes has made him a go-to source of guidance and motivation for many. His popular “Niche site profits” course has helped thousands follow his footsteps in creating simple niche sites that earn big.
