6 Reasons It Pays To Use Your Real Identity As a Business Blogger

Posted by Adam_Gottlieb under Social Media
From http://frugalentrepreneur.com 4650 days ago
Made Hot by: sannwood on August 4, 2011 3:14 pm

Being a business blogger isn't always so easy. Aside from having to produce quality content and build up a dedicated following within a saturated business blogoshere, once you decide to express yourself online you are taking a risk.

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Comments

Written by Authopublisher
4639 days ago

People will always appreciate sincerity more, one might think that you're not convinced of your own ideas if you can't take responsibility for your words and choose to hide behind a fake persona!

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Written by MrsZeus
4642 days ago

I still heavily use the pen name I chose for myself about 6-7 years ago, and think that it might be time to change it up - use my real name. However, there will always be some hesitation regarding privacy, but I guess I should have chosen a different career :)

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Written by yoni67
4650 days ago

David,

Another good point spawned by Adam's fine article. As you could see from my voting record here, without an avatar = generic avatar, I seldom read an article and therefore don't vote.

To me it means, the likelihood it is spammy increases and it's a sign of laziness. It takes a mere 30 seconds to upload one. What's the issue?

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Written by yoni67
4650 days ago

Great advice Adam!

Duncan, speaking of made-up handles, they worked pretty well for the 18-wheeler truckers, speaking of which...

...when I had just turned 16, we were driving in my buddy Jeff M's car, his Dad's car actually which had a CB radio. We switched to Channel 39, the trucker's channel, where we proceeded to barrage one of the on-air trucker's with verbal insults. We made up a tough sounding handle for ourselves.

When the trucker got very lippy with us (In retrospect, he had a right to) we invited him to come to the McDonalds parking lot just off of Route 22 in our hometown of Easton. We went to the lot several hours later at the specified time only to see the lot almost entirely filled up with big rigs and a shitload of mean-ass truckers milling about. All as far as the eye could see...

In any case, on the internet, I lend little credibility to criticism or ratings where the writer does not identify his or himself. It is easy to say things when hiding behind a wall of anonymity. There is a time and place for criticism and contesting, but it is only truly effective when one does so out in the open.

Yoni

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Written by Adam_Gottlieb
4650 days ago

Yoni,

I don't know what was crazier: messing with a truck driver or actually showing up at the specified time and place...

And in defense of those who have chosen a pen name... there *are* many valid reasons for not revealing one's identity, such as that one may be using that wall of anonymity to say things that he or she may not be able to say otherwise because of the possible backlash.

In any case, I think it really depends on the blogger's needs and goals.

Adam

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Written by yoni67
4650 days ago

BTW, Translation: Tangent alert!

I saw an article a few months back that if someone wants to become a Serial Killer, the #1 profession to be in is long-haul trucker: easy access to prostitutes, privacy in the sleeper compartments of the rig and a myriad of places to dump a body on the sides of the interstate highway system. Many serial killers have proven to be truckers and the FBI suspects that many unsolved cases might be attributed to them. That being said, trucking is an honorable profession and most truckers are probably law-abiding citizens.

This tangential though has been bought to you by Pepsi. Pop one open today and savor the flavor.

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Written by amabaie
4650 days ago

Agreed. It is 100% a matter of credibility. If the person isn't real, can anything he says or does be real? I would add that this applies as much to avatars on social websites. Yoni, your avatar shows me that you are you. Mine shows you that I am me. Adam's shows that he is him. But a logo could be anybody, maybe a different person each time, maybe outsourced to cheap labor overseas. It's bot that these are bad things, just that they do not inspire personal credibility.

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