Do you associate your name with your blog?
One of the choices that face bloggers when starting out is one around their own name and whether they will use it on their blog (and to what extent).
There’s a range of options open to bloggers:
- Blog under your personal name and promote it prominently on your blog (this is what I’ve done here on ProBlogger)
- Blog under your personal name but don’t really promote yourself (this is what I’ve done on DPS – my name is on the about page but not much more)
- Blog under an alias and promote that name (Skellie does this on Skelliewag)
- Blog without any name on your blog at all – letting the content speak for itself
I’m sure there are other options – but these would be the most common.
So which is the best option?
I heard a speaker recently answer this question and they argued strongly that the best way to build a blog is to associate your name with it. In answering the question they used me and ProBlogger as an example saying something like ‘when you think of blogging for money, who do you think of? Darren Rowse’.
It’s nice to have you name associated with a niche and it certainly can be a smart move – but it’s not the only way to build a successful blog.
Let me use myself as an example of this.
Here on ProBlogger I’ve always blogging under my name, included it in the byline of my posts, had a prominent about page, written in a personal tone, included personal details of my life and included video and pictures of myself in numerous places.
As the blogger I mentioned earlier suggests – it’s paid off. Having my name associated with the blog has opened opportunities for me to speak at conferences, pick up consulting work, meet partners to start a business and write a book. Some of these things might have come to be without promoting my name – but I suspect less so than they did.
But what impact has it had on traffic? Let’s look at the stats:
- ProBlogger has had just over 7 million readers since it started a three and a half years ago. It currently averages around 14,000 unique visitors a day.
- RSS readers osilate between 43,000 – 46,000 depending upon the day of the week.
The growth has been steady since I began blogging with different peaks and and troughs along the way.
But what about my other blog Digital Photography School
DPS is a blog that I don’t really associate my name with very much. Like I mentioned above I mention myself on my About page and use it in passing on weekly newsletter emails but my approach on this blog is much less about aligning my name with it and letting content speak for itself. It is a step up from anonymous blogging – but it’s much much less than I do here on ProBlogger.
If anything these days the names of other writers (those who I employ to write weekly posts) are more associated with DPS than my own name.
What impact has this had on traffic? Lets go to the stats (note, these are just for the blog and don’t include the forum stats):
- DPS started almost exactly two years ago (it’ll be our 2nd birthday later this week).
- As you can see from the Sitemeter stats it’s now over taken ProBlogger in it’s visitor levels with 8.5 million uniques in that time.
- It currently averages 20,000 readers a day
- It’s RSS feed subscriber numbers hovers between 41,000 – 44,000 readers a day
So despite it being a a younger blog with no one name behind it DPS has overtaken ProBlogger and continues to pull away.
Some might argue that if I’d associated my name more with DPS that it could have grown faster but I’m not so sure. My feeling is that some topics and styles of blogging probably do lend themselves more to associating your name with them.
I guess the point of this post is really to present the options and to point out that there’s no one way to building a successful blog in terms of aligning your own personal brand with your writing.
A Couple of After Thoughts:
As I go to hit publish on this post a few other thoughts come to mind.
An Advantage of Not Aligning Your Name with Your Blog – one of the advantages of not associating your name with your blog prominently that springs to mind is that if you ever choose to step away from your blog and sell it it can be quite helpful. One of the challenges facing many blog purchasers is that to buy a blog written by someone else is to transition the audience from one blogger to another. Obviously not having your name associated with a blog makes this easier.
A less Glamorous Pursuit – I always have to chuckle when I hear myself introduced as the guy behind ProBlogger. While this is true and I’m very proud of this blog DPS is obviously a blog that is doing better when it comes to traffic and readership. Choosing not to associate your name with your blog is not a glamorous approach. You might never appear on the top list of bloggers for your work or get written up in mainstream media… but then again that is something that I know is attractive to many.
Do You Associate Your Name with Your Blog?
I’d love to hear your approach to whether you associate your name with your blog. What do you do? How did you come to your decision? What are the Pros and Cons of the approach you’ve taken in your experience?
My blog is specifically about my life in Second Life™ and the metaverse, so I use my avatar’s name, Princess Ivory. I write as her. She is me. She is just my virtual self. I have found over time that the blog has evolved (this is actually it’s second incarnation, as one that existed under a previous name became too personal), and I do write about things outside of Second Life™ specifically, including my personal life. But I try to keep it relevant, and I do not use real life names, to protect myself and others from the wackos out there.
So, Princess Ivory IS my name, and that is the name that people know me as, whether through blogging, Flickr, Second Life™, etc. If you meet me through your computer, that is who I am.
next STEPH is my business name. I first came to the decision of the name because I got tired of people teasing me about my real name. Most people can figure out that its me.
I didn’t use my name on my first blog, which was just a personal blog, but on StudentBloggers.org I have. The site encourages community and bloggers who identify their college are listed higher on the directory, so I figured I should lead the way with openness and disclosure.
I have several blogs and I always use my name on all of them although Mike Ramm is not my real name. But on my personal blog (mikeramm.blogspot.com) I promote my name more prominently than on my professional blogs like PM Stories where I try to build a community in a specific niche. So I make use from “the best of both worlds” :-)
Hi Darren, since many of us do multiple things (especially online), I guess we all have to think about this eventually.
Actually I’ve been thinking about it for the past few weeks now because I have an art website, a marketing blog and I’m in the process of launching 2 more sites and a 2nd blog.
The thing is, they’re all in some way interconnected so I’ve decided that the one thing that will never change is me, my name so…
I’m following you’re lead and branding myself under my own name, everything else will just be a tag associated with or added onto my name. It took me awhile to figure this out but it feels like the right thing to do.
I have a couple of humorous/frivolous blogs that I run anonymously/on the downlow. But my professional blog is one of my ways of building my brand, so it features my name prominently.
I use my first name as part of the title of my blog. I like using my name to underscore the fact that it is full of my thoughts, point-of-view and interests.
I’ve got two blog’s !
And since Soderblom ( http://www.soderblom.dk )is not Smith, it’s pretty personal…
Even though freedom of speach is Fundamental, and not ever to be lost I hope, there are topics that ignites acute aggression in some people, if you write in a way those poor bastards don’t like.
And since those people don’t distingues between me, my brother, my father or any other with the same last name, there are topics that I dare not write about on my personal blog.
Thats the reason I have another anonymous Blog, to deal with controversial political, religious, environmental and so on, issues…
I do have my name on it, but only my first name. I’m not shure why, but I just started my blog and I think I want it to look a bit more mature first, and then I’ll tell my friends about it and put a link on my other website. Until then I’ll just see how it slowly grows. I’ll just wait till I feel a bit more confident about it.
I do associate my name with my blog and I did that because I think it makes it more personal, esp. since much of what I blog about is based on my experience, as well as research and such.
I think a main reason for this was because the first time I really started interacting online was in a weight loss support forum, and I didn’t connect so much with folks who didn’t use their name. I’ve wanted my readers to feel like I am a real person (which I am, just like anyone else) who they can relate to.
I also don’t feel as much of a connection with bloggers who don’t use even a first name, but maybe that’s just me and it’s no big deal to anyone else. I simply want to relate to people as much as is possible in this online world and knowing a person’s name makes it easier, but again that could just be me. ;)
My answer is: yes and no. My site is called Puppet Kaos, where “Kaos” can be interpreted as a variation of my last name “Kao” or to mean “chaos”. I also happen to like the real name approach though. For example, when I leave people comments, I use “Kelvin” instead of “Puppet Kaos” as my name. And when I subscribe to feeds, I mark them as “Wendy Piersall” instead of “eMoms at Home” (well… not anymore), and Kelly Phillips Erb instead of “TaxGirl”. I guess I like to associate the actual human names.
I use my name, no my last name isn’t “Fu” lol. That’s a play on my name, basically a little nickname I had back when I was younger, sorta playful. My last name is just a bit too long to use for a .com.
Although, I do use my name on my main site (other than that .com), yet I leave my other blogs nameless due to being a bit paraonid. Short version, they are quasi-successful, making some nice pocket money, but they are in medium sized niches that don’t have a lot of that particular site type so it’s not congested, which means it’s making me some nice money from that. I just don’t want other people tracking my other sites down. I just don’t want to mess with a good thing.
I use a combination, my real first name and then a psuedonom for my last name, this is mostly because this is my bussiness name. The nice thing is people can connect to me as Brooklynne IRL, but my last name is still kept anon. I like it…
One thing that I’m curious about when comparing the success of problogger vs the photography blog is the level of competition in the two niches. I suspect there are many more money making/copywriting blogs out there than ones dealing with digital photography. I suspect this is the main reason for it’s success, as opposed to the lack of having Darren’s name.
I think it pays to have your own name associated with your first blog. Blogging is personal, I think, and people want to get to know you. The only advantage I can see to not associating your name is if your long term plan is to sell the blog.
Thanks for the post!
– Dave
My personal blog AlleNation obviously carries my name.
Because I previously launched 3-4 blogs before that and had 2 years of experience in blogging, I was well aware of the consequences, such as the inability to possibly sell this blog in the future, even though it does contain some worthwhile content.
As for identifying yourself or blogging under an alias, I’m strictly against that on a commercial blogs, supported by ads – you really don’t know when you’re gonna lose interest in a specific niche…and of course after blogging for months your visitors are going to relate this blog to you, which can harm the new owner if that’s the reason they’ve been sticking with the blog.
I think that’s one of the obstacles the new owner of JohnCow.com will have to deal with when he first gets into John’s shoes; It’s a prefect example of a wonderfully branded blog that’s been enjoying a huge success, mostly I think due to the laid-back style it’s written with, but the fact that John’s writing style is deeply embedded in the blog’s posts may come as a boomerang for the new coming owner.
Cheers,
Allen
I use a pseudonym much like young Skellie.
Spanish Fry’s the name…
Darren: Thanks for your insight on the commercial pros & cons of associating your own name with your blog.
I struggled with the idea of having a blog with my own name. I have a very unique name. On one hand, I wanted to use my name for branding purposes because I plan to be an author and a speaker in the future. I plan to do many great things and want name recognition. On the other hand, I knew that if I associated my real name with the blog, everyone who knew me could find it with very little effort (google my name and it is the first result). I know that all this information will be archived somewhere and will be cached and attributed to me even if I delete it from my website.
I weighed the pros and cons of this. I thought about it for awhile. In the end, I decided to use my real name. I’m not talking about anything bad or negative in my blog, and I don’t mention people I know by name in the blog. Maybe this is being over-cautious, but I know I’ll alienate some people. It’s inevitable.
I want to have a forum to say what I have to say, but I know that all of my friends and even enemies can find it easily anytime they want to. It’s a double edged sword. A great tool for promoting myself and what I am about, but it could also hurt me if I am not careful. People I meet or people that I go on dates with (I am single) will find it and read it, I am sure of this, and people have told me they have. I’m no longer anonymous, anyone in the world who wants to know what I am about can find out in a matter of minutes. I don’t have any delusions of being a celebrity, but for all intents and purposes, I am a public figure now.
Deciding weather or not to post in your own name is a very personal decision. The topics you decide to write about will also influence your decision greatly. You must analyze all the pros and cons of the situation, think about it and decide what is right for you.
I use a made-up name on my Nine Clouds blog – for fun, really.
But I use my real name on my main blog – partly because the topic is relatively weird, so it needs a “real person” behind it to give it more substance, I think, but mainly because I am very new in the blog world and need to use my real name so I can connect with people.
I associate my name with my blog (heck, my name is in the url). I made this decision because I figured that this will help me in “branding” myself on the blogger. While it has been a great decision, I do have to be careful.
If one were to Google my full name, my blog comes up in the top search results. So I try to avoid writing things that might offend my current/future employers and others.
When I first start blogging I decided to use an alias instead of my name for it. I use the same alias for many other services online and it is integrated in the url of my blog. I am satisfied with the results I achieved that way.
At the same time using an alias gives me some privacy – which I think is useful especially if one blogs about personal things .
My blog started out as a personal blog so my name has been associated with it from the beginning. Besides, we Filipinos prefer to call each other by our nicknames or first names so we often associate names with the owner’s respective blogs.
I thought long and hard before writing under my alias “squawkfox” at http://www.squawkfox.com. My name is really common and therefore forgettable. It’s hard to forget about a squawking fox. ;)
I also decided to go the alias route since I didn’t want a bad google to haunt me one day. Excellent post as usual Darren!
I blog under my nickname, “e”, which is enough for me. I am a high school teacher, so I try to keep the blog as far from my real life as possible. Even tho it is PG in every sense of the rating, the media is always looking for ways to slam and degrade teachers, and I don’t want to give them any ammunition. :-(
Weird. I commented earlier today on this but it appears it was eaten.
I don’t use my real name. I prefer the option to remain anonymous. Plus, I seem to attract too many weirdos online that I don’t particularly want to know any more than I already put out there.
I would love to blog under my full real name, but I write about personal finance and I don’t really want anyone who googles me to be able to find out the financial stuff I post on my blog.
I started out using my real first name, but soon after launch got a link from a site that was closely related to my day job and decided it was safer to blog under a pseudonym.
I run a political blog and I use an alias for personal reasons, but I think there are advantages to using your name but also advantages to staying anonymous. In the political arena, it’s more advantageous to remain anonymous until one day I am fully involved in politics in which then I will go public.
In my opinion, DPS will always continue to outpace ProBlogger because there are for more people that take pictures than try to make money on a blog.
I think it has nothing to do with your name association.
If you intend to use a blog’s content for further marketing, ie for sale in one capacity or another, it certainly helps if you have made a name for yourself with the intellectual property.
On the other hand, the anon approach offers our ego some time off and the opportunity to serve.
I have my name on my page, but not in the title of the blog.
Thanks for a great discussion everyone!
No right answer (I’m marketingbean), although I’ll say that Seth Godin’s blog got my attention and I remembered his bald dome after my first visit there. At the time, I didn’t know how much stature he held in the blogsphere. I just liked his posts — and (key) remembered his name. Great content+memorable touchstone(s) = an RSS subscription. Same holds true for your blog Darren. Very topical, timely and enjoyable.
Darren, the time of this post is uncanny. I just had a conversation about this very topic today with a fellow blogger who is at times a source of very valuable wisdom. He just changed his blog name to his name and actually saw his rankings go up in search engines with a corresponding jump in traffic.
The question I was unsure of was conversion, but traffic is most certainly not a bad thing provided you continually adjust to achieve conversion.
Great post and always a little thought-provoking. I suppose to your point there are more photographers in the world than bloggers ;-)
Warmest Regards,
Ken Stewart
ChangeForge
I think your blog name should be something people will remember, so when you post at other sites they are familiar with your name. Maybe by doing this they will come and see what you wrote. I have a hard time remembering people’s names but I remember nicknames, that is why I call myself Waggdogg.
Hi Darren – great topic, as evidenced by the big response. I have a website that’s my name, and then a blog that’s QuietRebelWriter. I did this for a couple reasons. As a professional writer without a company name, my name is where people will search for a writing portfolio and other hiring info. My blog, on the other hand, is more writer-oriented and personal. Within my blog, I have my name and website, but I don’t feature it too prominently. There’s the dual issues of protecting oneself (especially for women, as others have said here) and authenticity. I think I tackle the latter with good content, and address the former with a blog not named specifically after myself.
Thanks Darren!
Right now I am in category 2, but I want to move to Category 1 when my blog gets some traction. My blog is still at a very early stage.
In my view, the decision to publicize your name on the blog depends heavily on the topic you write about.
I have complied some of the Pros and Cons of each type, in post at my blog
http://www.webspear.com/blogging/your-name-and-your-blog/
I associate my name with my blog and so does my partner. That is because we’re trying to get people to connect with us and I think that happens more if they know you’re name (or alias).
I’m also setting us up for our, hopefully, more public racing careers.
I think putting your real name out there makes the readers trust you more as you’re willing to try and put a face to your content too. Intriguing post (I am one of those 14,000 a day).
Right now I am in category 2, but I want to move to Category 1 when my blog gets some traction. My blog is still at a very early stage.
In my view, the decision to publicize your name on the blog depends heavily on the topic you write about.
I have complied some of the Pros and Cons of each type, in a post at my blog
http://www.webspear.com/blogging/your-name-and-your-blog/
I made the decision not to use my name on my blog. I am a very big believer in branding. My brand is “The Masked Millionaire.” Easy to say…Easy to remember. And a little quirky.
I don’t think my name would make much of a brand. In truth I don’t think Darren’s name is what makes this blog one that people remember. I believe it is “ProBlogger”. Great name and people remember it.
I like being anonymous. It’s a feeling of complete freedom to say what I need to say. That being say, it’s harder for me to change the names of people I’m talking about and keeping them constant, but I feel it’s worth it.
At the same time, I suppose placing your name to your blog could make it feel more yours. I’ve never had a blog with my name on it, though, so I wouldn’t know.
I associate my “profile” with my blog, but not my name. My blog is called CodeSpanish. It makes sense as I am a software developer with Spanish background. The main idea is to promote the work of Hispanic IT professionals in English.
I recently started the blog, don’t write much myself. It is a kind of hobby/business at the moment.
In regards of associating your name with your blog, it depends on your goals. If you are pursuing financial goals, it is not advisable to use your name. You can sell your space, get a business partner, etc, with ease if the name of the blog refers to an idea and not to a person.
In the other hand, if you want to promote yourself for career purposes outside the online world, it is better to use your own name. For example, if you are a researcher in science, you might want to promote your own name.
In some countries, you have only a limited choice.
Here in Germany, you might blog under a pseudomyn, but in the aboutpage (“Imprint”) you need to give away your real name and adress.
So, you have to associate your name to your blog/website. Your choice is how strong you associate them.
I use my own name for my personal blog. However, I also run two other blogs, where one has a pseudonym associated with it, and the other is anonymous.
For me, the blog with the pseudonym gets way more traffic than the other two, but that is also due to the focus of the blog. I think you can’t compare blogs on different topics based on whether or not you use your personal name associated with it. It’s more important with the content and value you provide your readers.
On my personal blog, I write about my professional experience in Internet Marketing, so it gets less frequently updated (a few times a week, based on my spare time) than the more focused blog where I use a pseudonym.
This is quite a relief. I want to start blogging but cannot afford that my current employer spot me as a regular blogger. Now to find a good marketable anonymous name!
I use my name for my internet marketing blog. For my other blogs I use a pseudonym. The internet marketing blog is just my journey to financial freedom and independence, so I can blog about anything there – and stop at any time.
I think using your own name is good for building your personal brand but probably bad for building traffic unless you’re already well known.
If you aren’t known, then the question arises: “Why do I care who you are? Just show me what I want to know!”
i don’t hide my real name. though on the internet i use my nickname and i asociate my blog with it.
I blog using my real name and I have a brief about me page with a photo of me and the twins but the blog title that I hope is catchy enough to be remembered is “In between The tapas and Tantrums” as it sums up the content of my blog. A light hearted mixture of short stories about life on the Costa del Sol and the ups and downs and so often funny side to Raising Twins as seen through the eyes of a devoted but very tired father!
Since my blog is about my experiences as an actor living in Hollywood, the name is my blog *IS* simply my name. I felt this was a better way to get my name out there and could serve multiple purposes at the same time.
Interesting to see what other people do regarding this. For many years I’ve used my own name (Leah Whitehorse) on the net because of being published under that name. When I started In Love With Lisbon however, I wanted to make a distinction between that and other projects so used ‘Lily’.
On my other blog (This Dreaming Heart) I use my own name as I do on various social media sites. I prefer being known by my real name – except in the day job where I asked them to remove my surname as I am too easily traced on the internet!
I blog using my real name and use my real name for my blog. As a pastor sharing my thoughts on God and life, I believe this adds a healthy level of accountability to what I write that would be missing if I remained anonymous.
Logically, the answer to this question will have to do with each individual creating a blog.
However, it should not be underestimated how much care and consideration should be placed in the decision making process of this question.
The consequential impacts to turn out to be either beneficial of detrimental.
I’ve made a move away from my name recently for a different reason than most. As a writer, I used to work everything under a URL that was my name, but since I write mostly about TV, it only made sense to develop a TV brand (TV of the Absurd). Originally, I highlighted the fact that it was all me, but it felt too personal and I thought studios, etc. would take me more seriously if if felt like a TV Blog and not Cynthia’s TV Blog.
I’m not sure I made the right move there because I recently saw a discussion of a popular interview I wrote and they were saying, “whoever wrote this” and “he” and “I wonder.” Even though my name was on the article, obviously many people missed it.
Nope. My blog takes view points on current events and issues that aren’t popular sometimes and adds satire (on purpose) in the hopes of generating dialog amoung readers. I’d rather not have people easily looking me up— even though I know they could and how they could do it. ;-)