Real Name or Pen Name
The debate rages on! OK, maybe not that intensely but it will be a “back & forth” for a long long time to come. Should you use a real name or “pen” name, when doing business online? Especially with article writing…
Some will say that fake names are better for a variety or reasons, such as; it’s harder for your competition to find you or they’re afraid people might not take them seriously because there name is Becki or Bobbi or Chrissy, etc etc, you get the idea.
To this I say BAH!…
I am one that disagrees wholeheartedly with using “pen” or fake names. Now, I’m not saying these fears are foolish or stupid, they truly believe them, and from time to time they may run across it; BUT, these folks are not looking at the BIG PICTURE…
Looking at the whole picture; sure your competitors can find you easier, but ya know what? If they want ya they’re gonna git ya; period. Aside from that, you’re also “hiding” from those you WANT to find you, and especially with articles.
It’s all about name branding, building confidence and trust among your readers and customers.
If you write well, provide good content and information; you can brand yourself nicely. Honestly speaking, if you do that, it really makes no-nevermind to people whether you’re Bobby or Robert; Chrissy or Christina.
Promote yourself as an expert in your field and the rest will fall into place – practice deceit and your reputation will be demolished before it even starts.
My good friend and colleague Patty Gale wrote a similar short & sweet piece on this very topic, I personally agree 100% and left it intact; I’d love for you to read it…
“Some people say as long as the content is quality, then it doesn’t really matter if you use a pen name or your real name when writing articles, and others disagree.
I am in the category that disagrees and here’s why.
While I agree that visitors are looking for the quality of the content, they are also looking for credibility and validation. In real-world journalism and non-fiction publishing, the source IS what validates the information.
Remember Dan Rather a few years ago?
When you see an article of interest… take health for example, wouldn’t you want to know that the source of the health topic is actually someone who has a great deal of knowledge or is perhaps an expert in that field?
To further make the point, if you walk into a gym looking for a personal trainer to help you with your fitness goals, wouldn’t you expect the trainer to actually have the knowledge and credentials?
The expertise of the source is what validates the information and creates credibility..
Why wouldn’t you want to establish trust and credibility to your readers so that they’ll come back again and again? Isn’t being in business about solving a problem for our visitors and customers and creating long-term loyalty?
You simply cannot do that under a false identity and hiding behind a ”www” or pen name when writing non-fiction. Leave the pretending to Hollywood movies and give your visitors nothing less than what you would expect for yourself.
What about fiction writers and pen names? Fiction doesn’t need validation.
Fiction doesn’t need to establish credibility because it isn’t real.”
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Note: After writing this, I did run across ONE example where I believe a pen name might be at least partially acceptable. A friend of mine wrote a very informative medical article on a particular disease. She did however use a pen name as she did not want it associated with her normal marketing niche. If you do something outside of what you are “known for”, a pen name is justified.
Never stop pushing forward!
Dennis
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Tags: branding, competition, content, credibility, name branding, pen names, self promotion
Jaq @ Net Age Web Design
Kev
Latief@AnotherBlogger
sherry
December 30th, 2007 at 3:00 am
I always leave my real name…Jacquelyn, although this year I decided to shorten it to Jackie for the simple fact that almost ALL my domains have ‘Jackie’ in them. I think it is important also to brand your username in every forum, so that people who know you from one place recognize you in another…which also builds more credibility
December 30th, 2007 at 6:49 am
Great to hear Jackie. I too use my name as all user-names…forums, membership sites, pretty much everywhere
January 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Me too. Some of my friends tell me that I might end up being the target of some kook. So far, that has not happened.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Ya know, here’s the thing. With the ‘net the way it is, if someone WANTS to find ya, they’re GONNA. End of story.
“Hiding” is pointless, and will just hurt your business if your main goal is to be seen and branded; as it should be.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:52 am
But what about the branding issue?
I want my real name to be connected to my high-end brand efforts and I use pen names for other ventures. I don’t want someone searching on my name to see everything I am doing.
It’s not so much a matter of secrecy or hiding, or what my competitors think, but rather what my intended reader/consumer thinks.
Tracy’s last blog post..Traditional Foods Provide Comfort
April 30th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Very well put Tracy. I’ve spoken to a lot of folks, online and off about this since I posted it.
That seems to be the ONE good example for using a “fake” name.
If you venture into “off topic” areas, other then what you are “known” for already.
I totally agree
Thanks so much for dropping by; hope to see you ’round more often!
October 16th, 2008 at 3:49 am
I agree with you to a certain extent, if you feel the topic you are talking about is a sensitive one, yet you feel strongly enough to write about it, using a pen name in my opinion is a sensible thing to do. Certain topics like religion or politics draw strong views from readers and its not always wise to use your name.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Khaled - exactly right. I couldn’t have said it better.
Welcome to the blog and thanks for commenting, I hope to see you ’round more often
Nice site btw, I sure wish I had the spare cash for a new truck!
October 27th, 2008 at 7:20 am
[...] isn’t going to be another Real name vs. Pen name post, although it surely fits as we pointed [...]
October 28th, 2008 at 3:08 am
I built up quite a reputation for my pen name within a number of groups… but thats where it ends. The reputation goes to a pen name and stops. Thus for the last year or so I’ve been slowly linking the pen name and my real name together. As far as matters of faith and politics, folks can go too far…. I’ve done a fair amount of work with law enforcement in said arenas and the stories I could tell LOL. Otoh, knowing what I know now, in hindsight, I really wish I had used my real name rather than the pen one.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:50 am
Okay, I have to say that it is a personal choice, I for one would not feel any loss of credibility for or trust in or disappointment if I found out that my favorite bloggers were using pen names.
I don’t care about their names I care about their content and I do not think that the source’s name changes anything about that person’s content.
A good example is Joel Comm, his “name” is so big, he is supposed to be such a guru, well I spent $15 on his new book, Click Here, and it was the BIGGEST PIECE OF CRAP, that I would have rather burnt the money.
Joel is a best selling author and an IM guru, his “name” is supposed to mean a lot didn’t help him with that useless book, that promised everything and delivered nothing. And this could be said for a lot of the so called gurus as well.
I will vote for the nickname unknown blogger any day who provides me with useful information and relevant content, that is all that matters, the name is just what you call someone, their reputation is built by action.
Just my 2 cents
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s last blog post..How-To Measure Your SEO Efforts
October 28th, 2008 at 3:54 am
By the way, one more good example is John Cow, who had named his blog as a parody of John Chow, and a great controversial tool and for a long time no one knew his real name, Jason Katzenback, and when it was revealed this never destroyed him.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s last blog post..How-To Measure Your SEO Efforts
October 28th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Ron - Welcome! It’s awesome to see fresh “faces” (sorry no Gravatar) and I hope to see yours more as well
I see you learned one of the main points first hand. Pen names rarely if ever work long term in your primary niche because you are eventually going to want to be known for who you are.
With that said, I am off to respond in regard to John Cow - JR is a master of curve balls, lets see how far I can hit it
October 28th, 2008 at 7:33 am
JR - Oh boy, lots of good stuff goin’ on here
It is a personal choice, yes, and really shouldn’t matter…but I dare to say, I still betcha that it is more scammers & spammers then legits…..not so dissimilar to *private registrations* on domain names.
Now, you mention blogs. I was mainly referring to articles. IF one was planning to go long term with the pen name, then all is fine and dandy…please read or reread Ron’s comment.
Guru’s - First let me say, I agree 100000000000000% on the “guru” issue and if anyone ever called me a guru I would punch him (or even her) squarely in the nose.
This is nothing more then, “‘I’ve made it, now I don’t care” and can be done with any name…long term.
OK lets get into the Cow, so to speak. This is a really weird example for 2 reasons (in my opinion anyway).
1. A total fluke. I don’t think he ever expected it to go even half the way that it has.
2. Once it was pretty well set in history, I’m not entirely convinced that he planned to “come out” (I’ve heard he was outed)…so he was planning to go long term.
Excellent discussion my friend, and I agree almost completely
I stick by my first paragraph though…
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 am
In general, you know I’m all about using one’s real name myself. However, we have our friend Sire who is known by that name for a long time now, and I just can’t imagine seeing his real name suddenly showing prominently anywhere, although I know what it is.
What I absolutely hate are those folks who use the name of their company as their name in comments. I’ll often go in and edit that name to initials; however, I’ve also noticed that most of those people aren’t recurring posters either, so they won’t know the difference.
Mitch´s last blog post..Thoughts On Facebook - The Followup
Dennis Edell Reply:
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
@Mitch, I get what you get in comments; I think everyone does.
This post here however is discussing it overall…like entire sites or articles using nothing but fake names.
Mitch Reply:
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
@Dennis Edell, Ah, extrapolating it bigger than even where I took it. Well, same kind of thing, but in this instance I can see where, sometimes, using a pen name can be very important. Women writers in some genre’s used to have to use pen names to be accepted, so I understand how that works. I’m hoping we’re beyond that kind of thing, though.
Mitch´s last blog post..Six Things I’ve Learned About Affiliate Marketing
Dennis Edell Reply:
May 4th, 2009 at 9:23 am
@Mitch, Offline literature is a totally different scenario in my eyes, although I still don’t get why they really do it. It’s really annoying trying to follow an author and then find out there’s 10 more books. LOL
No, online unfortunately a fake name most times means someone is trying to get away with something.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
If I am not mistaken, Sidney Omarr’s real name was Sidney Kimmelman. He changed it. Yet he became famous.
All literatures are just plain ideas, whether true or false, fiction or non fiction. No one has an exclusive right to ideas. Ideas must be a universal property.
In writing what is importamt is the content of the literature not the writer. Whether it is under a pen name, the reader will find and can find out who wrote it if one really wants to.
The real test of the literature is, if its substance is not influenced by the name of the writer.
Joe S. Posado´s last blog post..The Shaping of a Dream
Dennis Edell Reply:
May 8th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
@Joe S. Posado, Offline literature and online marketing are two separate animals.
“No one has an exclusive right to ideas. Ideas must be a universal property. ”
Untrue, Intellectual Property Rights are not only real but prosecutable under law.
“The real test of the literature is, if its substance is not influenced by the name of the writer.”
Again untrue when speaking of an online nature, as your name is ALL YOU HAVE. You must use it to build trust and confidence.
December 24th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
[...] isn’t going to be another Real name vs. Pen name post, although it surely fits as we pointed [...]