Blogger Anonymity: Does this hurt blog credibility?

I’ve wondered this when I started this and a few other blogs of mine: To be anonymous or not.

I have to admit, putting my personal information tied to my blog carries several risks and responsibilities. There’s always identity theft (although I would doubt anyone would take interest in stealing mine), there’s also the risk of getting sued if I make disparaging remarks.

But of course, having a blog as your digital identity give your blog a face and life– the posts are now thoughts and opinions, rather that formatted text.

Which bring me to another question: Would you trust a blog with an anonymous author? Anonymity of writers and creators have long been used to create a sense of mystery and controversy. To a certain extent, a writer’s safety can be ensured by anonymity. And there are a few notable blogs with anonymous authors.

As for me, I used to hide my personal information in my blogs. I experimented with opening thinngs up and I noticed that traffic to my blog grew– people visited and interacted more. Based on my personal experience, associating myself openly to my blog helped me get read and heard by more people.

I’m starting a poll to ge the blogosphere’s pulse on this matter. Please feel free to share your thoughts, anonymously or not.

[poll=2]

This entry was written by Regnard and posted on March 25, 2007 at 1:55 pm and filed under Cyberculture and Blogging, Web. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • Well, there's two sides of this. Being anonymous, gives you personal safety, but it also gives you no credibility. I think it depends on how much exposure you'd like to have.
  • yes sure, anonymously is fine. i know thats good for protect our blog if you build the Blog Network.
  • This is something I have thought about I use my User name and that gets recognized all over the place and if you want to increase your branding then the branding is you so you put your name out there to get some credibility. When you sign up to EzineArticles, Squidoo and Twitter for instance you have to register with your real name and details.

    What happens is I write an article or do a tweet and it finds my name and my articles on Google and builds up a repository of all my articles, Forum posts, tweets, Squidoo lens posts etc and you wind up having a very high profile which can be daunting as there is no way you can ever have anonymity? For the record I have a pen name, but that article finds its way to the repository or page in Google where all your stuff goes. Catch 22?

    Anonymity is fine if you got a great way to make money under the radar and you can stay there
  • Personally I would always take more notice of a blog with a "face" so to speak.
  • I both agree and disagree with you. I think in certain aspects and certain situations that anonymity is not very desirable. In something such as a health-related topic, that may definitely hurt your credibility. On some topics though, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. For something such as technology related, I think anonymous would not be a bad thing. If you were really concerned, one method you could use would be to take a pen name and image.
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The Author

Regnard Raquedan

Regnard Raquedan: I'm a web & usability consultant from the Philippines. I help companies build their websites, make their sites easy to use, and ensure they reach their intended audience online via internet marketing.