Anonymous Blogging

I discussed in another post the negative effects that blogging can have on your personal life and career and the importance of boundaries. One way that some bloggers prevent these dangers and others (such as stalkers, threats, or identity theft) is to remain completely anonymous.

It's certainly easy enough to do. Don't mention your real name, where you live, or too many details about yourself. Create an e-mail that you only use for blogging and uses a nickname. Make sure the anonymous blog is not linked to your other social media that may reveal more about you.

Blogging without revealing who you are has a lot of benefits. You can say just about anything you want (within reason) without damaging your career or personal relationships. This allows you to express views you may have but don't normally share and take on controversial topics. It also means you do not have to share your blogging habit with anyone who might not approve.

On the other hand, people may take you less seriously if you take advantage of the anonymity that the Internet offers you. You will most likely be challenged for it. Also, it makes writing personal blogs more difficult because not only do you have to change names, you will have to omit a lot of information that might reveal your location or identity.

Either way, it is a judgement call of how much you are willing to reveal. Plenty of bloggers do use their full name, but these are mostly professional bloggers. The best thing to do might be a balance of the two. Use a fake name, but for everything else use general information.

Personal Blogs

It seems that, despite criticism, personal blogs are the ones that do the best. They have the most subscribers, they are most likely to be on the Blogs of Note if they are a Blogger blog, and they get the most coverage. Why is that? Afterall, we're constantly told that no one wants to know what our day is like, we're not important enough. But I'm thinking, yes, we are important enough. And that's not being arrogant.

Look at it this way: as bloggers we are often told that the key to getting more readers and comments is to be personal. We should write our posts in first person and include an about me page saying who we  are, not just what the blog is about. I think this has to do with how blogs are seen. They have become a way for the average person to share his or her opinions. Readers also expect to be able to ask questions and have discussions with the author and get their questions answered. They have an easier time doing this if they can relate to the author and the author is seen as an actual person, not just a screenname.

So the moral of this story is, even if your blog is not a personal blog, find a way to connect with the readers. Offer assistance, come through with your promises, and share information about yourself while still keeping safety in mind.