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To Be or Not To Be Anonymous

I just wanted to touch on this topic because even though I use my name “Adnan” on this blog and in my other internet ventures, I don’t like putting my full name on the internet. Now call me mad, paranoid or simply foolish, but I am still cautious about putting my information on the net. You might also say, well I can lookup your full name anyway from the Whois on the site. But still, I would prefer to keep using Adnan in my emails, PM’s and in the various forums I participate in.

But am I at a disadvantage by doing this. Every single one of the young entrepreneurs I know use their full names in all of their businesses whether they be offline or on the World Wide Web. As a result they are able to build a brand associated with their name. By building up readership and traffic to their blogs and sites, they are making more people aware of themselves, and ultimately in business isn’t this what we all want?

At the same time however, I have come across a few bloggers who don’t use their full names or in fact any part of their name in business. This anonymous effect has created a buzz in the blogosphere, and as a result, they have managed to create a high amount of traffic due to their unknownness. Take for example The Manolo from shoeblogs.com, he does not tell his readers his name and instead refers to himself in the third person,

“Manolo says, these attractive shoes from the Isaac Mizrahi, which come in the wide variety of the colors and the materials, they are on the sale!”

I like this approach and at the same time, The Manolo is also creating a brand for himself! Another person who doesn’t give out his name is

The Anonymous Blogger. I am assuming because of his high Google ranking that he must be doing something right.

A few reasons against anonymous blogging would include however losing the sense of a relationship with your reader. Normally, once your visitors know a bit about you and your goals and aims as a blogger and entrepreneur, they may feel attached to your sites, and this could form a true friendship. It is this networking which could be lost through anonymity.
Also, you may become less searchable by being unknown on the internet. I have know people to search for a site through Google by name if they have forgotten a certain URL. By being anonymous, this makes searching very difficult, and as a result, you lose a form of traffic through search engines.

My advice is to at least include your first name in all of your entrepreneurial endeavours. By having an unusual name like Adnan, I am also ensuring that more people remember and recognize me if I happen to venture into different niches. Being anonymous can help bring in quick visitors if you are a novel blogger and have a certain appeal about your “unknownness”, however in the long-term, you will be definitely putting yourself at a disadvantage.

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