Not everyone is comfortable showing their face on their blog. Some bloggers don’t want readers of their blog to have a clue of their identity. Welcome to the world of anonymous blogging.
There are thousands of successful anonymous blogs online. A blogger who chooses not to show his face can still be successful although there will be unavoidable drawbacks.
Either way, showing your face on your blog too has its drawbacks. It all comes down to the personality of the blogger rather than what is right or wrong.
Here are four aspects you need to know about blogging anonymously:
1. Picking a Name for your Anonymous Blog
Blogging anonymously begins with picking a suitable name. There is no way your blog will have your name in it if you are serious about anonymous blogging.
In the blogging jargon it is called a pseudo name.
The name you pick for your blog has to be made up. It should be a name that tells more about the purpose of the blog rather than the owner of the blog.
Think of a blog name like ‘succulents and sunshine’. I could never have known who the person behind that blog was until when I heard a lady in a podcast say she was the blogger behind it.
The name gave no clue of her identity. All you know when you visit her blog is that she blogs about growing succulents.
An anonymous name is the first step to building a successful faceless blog.
Pros
With an anonymous blog name, you can afford to hire people to write for you without tainting your name. Also, you can sell your blog if you want to. Blog buyers prefer blogs that have made up names to those with real people’s names.
Cons
It is difficult to pass opinionated messages to your readers. Why should readers listen to your opinion when they can’t see your face? Blog readers follow the person behind the blog in most cases.
2. Writing Content for an Anonymous Blog
With a faceless blog, you must make sure your writing doesn’t give off your identity. This means that you can’t give personal observations, personal opinion and your life stories.
Unfortunately, great fulfillment in blogging comes when your readers appreciate your opinion, observations and stories.
Blog readers are humans and humans connect with humans.
Writing on an anonymous blog takes the professional angle. You will need to be pushing out facts and evidence without adding your voice in them.
Also, your writing should be as plain as possible in terms of its tone. Emotions in your writing will give off your identity.
If people read your blog and they see in most of your articles you are angry, they can tell that you are angry at a particular thing.
Some people who like talking a lot show it in their blog by writing a lot. The length of your articles can still show some aspect of your personality.
If you want to be truly anonymous, you will need to learn to give as few clues as possible. I once got a comment on my blog and the person said she can tell I am a jovial person even though she had never met me.
Her observation was true. Thankfully, I wasn’t trying to hide my identity.
3. Marketing an Anonymous Blog
Marketing an anonymous blog is tough. Since marketing involves interacting with people, you will find it hard to reach out to people without exposing your identity.
However, you can still get thousands of readers on your blog anonymously by optimizing your blog for search engines.
The beauty with search engines is that you can get thousands of readers without showing your face on your blog.
When people search for articles to read on Google and they find your blog, they don’t have to know you for them to click on them.
Provided you have written good articles, you will get readers.
Therefore, if you want to market your blog without showing your face and revealing your identity, you have to master search engine optimization.
I know many bloggers who run anonymous blogs and almost all of them use search engine optimization to get readers to their blogs.
Pros
Readers are more likely to share an anonymous blog than a personal blog. For an anonymous blog, readers feel more in charge of the content than for personal blogs.
Articles from news blogs which are an example of anonymous blogs get shared widely. Blog posts from personal blogs are not shared much especially if the opinion expressed in the blog post is extreme.
The neutral nature of blog posts on anonymous blogs make readers feel they can share them without deadly consequences.
Cons
You have limited places where you can market your blog anonymously. If you can’t get traffic from search engines, your anonymous blog is virtually dead.
4. Building a Brand
Blogs can turn into powerful brands. But the actual process of turning a blog into a brand takes a lot of work. If you run an anonymous blog, you will have several advantages if you want to turn your blog into a brand.
Brands usually have their own character independent from an individual. With an anonymous blog, you can easily turn it into a brand.
You can set specific rules about articles that get published on your blog; the frequency, the length, the depth of research etc.
You can as well hire a team of writers and give them specific instructions on how to write articles. Since the articles don’t need personal opinion, it is easier to get other people to help you write on your blog.
If you used a catchy name for your anonymous blog, it will be easier to get people excited about your blog.
With an exciting name, it becomes easier to turn your faceless blog into a brand.
Anonymous Blogging Conclusion
Creating a faceless blog is still possible today. You will experience a few challenges but you will also enjoy huge advantages.
If you want to start a blog but not show your face, make sure you get the name of the blog right and the other aspects discussed above.
With that in mind, you are set to have a successful anonymous blog.
All the best!