Web Design and Development
Should You Blog Anonymously?
When you write a blog online, your posts can be read by anyone with an internet connection, regardless of where they are. And now, with free on-demand translation services, language is no longer a barrier.
This is great news for those of us who are looking for more visitors to find us, but this also creates a few important concerns which include:
1. Privacy
Privacy is probably the most common reason for not wanting to disclose your identity online. Having people know that you are writing a blog might present problems in your personal or professional life. Many bloggers, for example, write disclaimers that attempt to separate their personal blog from their professional identity. Still, anything that could potentially jeopardize job security remains an important concern.
2. Safety
Whether or not you divulge your identity online, people can easily find out who you are. All it takes is a trip to a whois database, assuming that you haven’t opted for domain privacy.
What this means is that visitors to your website can find you. They can find your address, your phone number, and your full name. And depending on the subject matter that you write about, knowing that visitors can find you may not be a pleasant idea.
Recently, for example, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch revealed that safety was a big concern, and that he had actually been paying for a security detail. In his recent article, Some Things Need To Change, Arrington reveals that he has had death threats, minor assaults, and finally an incident in which he was spat on!
3. Spam
Another quite annoying feature of displaying your name, email address, or other details on your website (or in the whois) is spam. For example, I regularly get solicitationed by phone, email, and postal mail for all kinds of services. And I receive all kinds of fraudulent messages, stemming directly from information retrieved from the web.
4. Personal Attacks
And lastly, some people are concerned about defamation of character.
One of the worst things about the internet is that once someone writes about you online, it stays online. And unless you hire a professional or sue (or threaten to sue) the person that is defaming your name, the information might never go away. So many bloggers blog anonymously for this reason alone.
So, Should You Blog Anonymously?
Because of the concerns listed above, many bloggers do opt to hide their identity. They often blog anonymously under the name of their blog or under a pseudonym (or tag name). And while this does offer a degree of protection, there are reasons why this might not be effective for your blog.
As we all know, trust is a huge thing online. By blogging anonymously, your visitors will undoubtedly trust you less than they might if you had revealed your identity. And, depending on industry, this lack of trust might limit the effectiveness or profitability of your blog.
What do you think? Do Visitors Care About Your Identity?
Do you visit the about pages of the blogs that you read? And based on your statistics, do users visit your about page?
Tags: blogs, privacy, spam5 Responses to “Should You Blog Anonymously?”
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First: I know an about page is important but I dont have one for specific reasons.
I first started blogging with a nickname Kurt Avish which is ofcourse not my real name
But its my nickname that I have always been using everywhere.
Recently a rival…well not exactly a rival…but maybe someone who cannot see my blog progress lol… started a campaign of defamation against my nickname and he even got a photo of me which I were using for the rss promotion on the DBT Blog idol competition. He made a splog with blogspot talking all sort of scrap against me and he even create a forum post on an OFFICIAL news website he managed for the defamation stuff. I got him to removed that though.
Well I guess the effect went inverse as readers of a blog I think can differentiate who is a real blogger and who is a defamer
I think blogging anonymously under a nickname is fun as there is some sense of mystery
Kurt Avish’s last blog post..Mauritius HSC Result 2008 – 2009 – The Laureates
In fact, anonymous blogging is not a bad idea if you talk about a lot of controversial topics. In countries where freedom of speech is not there, it is a good idea to go anonymous especially when taking on powerful criminals, politicians etc.
(In fact, I wanted to have an anonymous blog to talk about bad politics and religious fanaticsm etc)
Sometimes people even hide behind some big and popular person’s name (may be with their permission as well but not as a ghost writer). Even that won’t be a bad idea.
Ajith Edassery | DollarShower’s last blog post..SEO – Link Building Series: Page Rank and Search Engine Optimization
Ajith raises a good point of it being necessary for people is some countries to blog anonymously – otherwise they could go to jail or worse.
As an American I don’t believe we have really have any privacy. We rant about wanting it but it really doesn’t exist. The only way is to not have a social security # and live completely “off the grid”. For this reason, I don’t even try to blog anonymously and I simply assume that I have no privacy at all.
On an unrelated note I missed you last week and was starting to worry a little bit. If I hadn’t seen this new post when I visited today I was going to email you. I hope you were just really busy and not sick or anything.
Kim Woodbridge’s last blog post..Using Conditionals with WordPress 2.7 Sticky Posts
Nice post. My blog name has my name in it. But, i don’t like to give much more information. This is the reason, i don’t have about me page. But some of them have asked me in the past that why don’t have the about me page.
What do you think? Is about me page really required?
Nihar’s last blog post..Microsoft Vista Answers – Find solution to Windows Vista problems
@Kurt: Yes, in your case, using a nickname definitely helped to protect your real identity. I am glad to hear that the negative information and photo were removed.
But yes, using an alias does give a bit of mystery. AND it enables you to write about more topics than you might otherwise write.
@Ajith: That is a great idea, and very important. I take for granted that there is virtually no censorship in our country when compared to others. Blogging under a real name could potentially get a lot of bloggers in trouble!
@Kim: You are definitely right. There really isn’t any privacy at all. Even without a SSN, we are tied to an IP address and that IP address can be used to find us… Actually, unless we blog at several random public computers, and use a free blog, and never give any hint to reveal our identity, privacy might not be possible.
And yes, I’m just started to get back in the pace of things. I had some unexpected things pop up which took me away from everything. Thanks for asking.
@Nihar: As for an about me page, I don’t know that one is truly necessary. But sometimes I do find them useful, especially if the subject matter makes me want to meet the blogger…