Your choice.
I prefer blogging using my name to add credibility to my blog and brand. But you can build credibility using a pen name too if you remain aligned with the name and brand. I knew a few successful bloggers who used a pen name. Why did said bloggers succeed? Allowing the fake name to become the dominant brand image and doing everything in alignment with the brand voice built credibility.
Be careful about blogging under the name,”anonymous”. You know what I mean; simply never adding any name – pen or your birth name – to your blog back office. Beware taking this route because being lazy and not transparent scares off most readers.
Analyze why you fear associating any name with your blog; what do you fear? What do you want to hide? Why do you want to hide it? Who do you hide from? I love being open because being transparent makes it easy to build credibility. People know who I am and why I blog. People can see me. People can get to know me. All good things if you plan to become a successful blogger.
I also require all guest bloggers on Blogging From Paradise to use a name for readers to be able to connect with readers. Few humans connect deeply with a generic user name.
I strongly advise blogging under your birth name most of the time because setting up personas or pen names makes it a bit difficult to be you, to be authentic and to be unique. How do you act under your pen name persona? How do you write? Does acting and writing this way feel natural to you? Most times, of course not. Perhaps you can pull off an Oscar-worthy acting job and eventually you may embody your persona but these cases seem rare to me.
Who genuinely wants to act every second you spend blogging? Being another person, or, an online persona, takes genuine effort because you act to be the persona. Unless you build your online persona on your genuine personality, this acting deal requires quite a bit of mental gymnastics and effort not needed if you blogged under your birth name.
Blogging under your name makes it easier to gain credibility because people know you. People can see you. People feel like you are a real human being who connects with them on a deeper level. Why add layers of division between yourself and humanity when you connect quickly and easily with human beings by being an actual human being and by blogging under your birth name?
Make your job easier, not harder. But again; you choose. Just know that blogging under your name makes it easier to gain cred, to be trusted, and to succeed because before people trust your advice, they check the source and need to trust the source. Googling “Ryan Biddulph” directs you to my blog and all types of interviews, guest posts, and to my social media accounts, too. Easy way to get to know me so you trust me.
Imagine if I built a carefully thought out online persona? Any time I interviewed or guest posted, I would need to blog under the persona to maintain brand continuity and credibility. How many bloggers interview online personas and invite online personas to guest post on their blogs? Not too many. Big time resistance, moving in the online persona direction because you’ve many barriers to face and release, in order to succeed.
Unless you feel super clear on blogging under an online persona or pen name, go with your birth name. Less effort to build credibility because you can just be yourself and go by your name wherever you pop up online.
eBook
Do you have a difficult time *finding* time to work online?
Buy my eBook:
