My favorite Halloween costume when I was a kid was the year I dressed up as Darth Vader.
Once we were outside, no one knew who I was. It was fun to be mysterious and I felt kind of free knowing that no matter what I did, no one could judge me for it. Because they didn’t even know it was me!
It’s the same with blogging anonymously. The idea of blogging sounds appealing to you but the idea of people knowing that it’s you who is writing the blog might not sound as appealing.
You then wonder if you blog anonymously or under a pen name can the blog still be successful and more importantly can it make money?
The quick answer: yes.
The long answer…
Why Blogs Make Money
Bloggers have this weird habit of thinking that everything is about them.
When they create a blog they often believe that the people that come to the blog care who is behind it. They spend a lot of time crafting a crazy about page and even pay to have professional pictures taken.
But if we really think about blogs and why people visit them initially then we can understand that people generally don’t give a shit who is writing the blog.
Just as long as the blog doesn’t waste their time and it gives them the information that they came for all will be good.
So based on this logic, it’s safe to write a blog anonymously because nobody is going to care.
In fact, there was a time when my old health blog didn’t have my name anywhere on it so you had no clue who was doing the writing.
Did that matter?
Not at all when you see the site averages hundreds of thousands of pageviews every single month.
Most people simply visit a site because they have a problem and they believe that there is a chance the blog will have the solution.
That’s why blogs make money.
Offer a solution to a problem and you’re good and yes, that means your content as well.
If you really want to dive deeper into how to make money blogging then check out How to Make Money Blogging.
However, there is a time when blogging anonymously can hurt you.
The Brand Blog
First, what is a brand blog?
This site you’re on now is what I would call a Brand Blog. A Brand Blog is a blog that is meant to enhance the brand of the business so that it can make more money.
There is a ceiling when it comes to making money with ads.
You can still make a couple of thousand dollars a month with ads but you aren’t hitting 5 figures unless you’re churning out an insane amount of content and pulling in a ton of traffic.
So instead, if you want to increase your revenue you look for other revenue streams.
My favorite is information products.
Because I like to create and sell information products I don’t have the option to blog anonymously.
Why?
Because people want to know who they are buying from.
There is a lot of shady shit that happens on the Internet and someone on a random website asking you to spend $49 on a product but you don’t get to know anything about them is bound to set off some alarms.
While it’s probably not impossible to sell information products anonymously, I don’t need to make it more challenging than it already is.
So you get to know who I am on this site because I want you to trust me. I want you to understand and fully believe that I’m an authority on blogging.
I’m the person who can show you how to create a successful blog.
That’s the drawback of blogging anonymously. You don’t get all of the benefits that bloggers who let the world know who they are get.
The Pros and Cons of Blogging Anonymously
It can go both ways with regards to blogging anonymously so let’s start with the cons.
Cons
It might take a little bit more work to get people to trust you which isn’t that big of a deal if you’re only sources of revenue are ads and affiliate marketing. But those come with their own cons.
Once you introduce digital products then it becomes an uphill battle unless you can show results.
Another issue comes from Google. Over time it’s nice to throw your authority around, but if your blog is anonymous then there is no authority you can associate with.
Again, this might not be something that you care about down the road, but it can be a valuable tool in the future.
Pros
The obvious pro is that you get to stay hidden and this really comes down to how you feel about people knowing who you are. It’s easy to think about the worst-case scenario if people know who you are, but what’s the best case?
It also might be easier for you to create content as you don’t feel you have to present yourself in a certain way.
Selective Information
If you don’t blog anonymously, that doesn’t mean you need to share all of your information with the world.
At this moment, all you know is that my name is Paul Scrivens and I run a number of successful blogs.
You don’t need to know what school I went to, when I lost my virginity, or why my nose is a little crooked (a guy broke a bottle over my face).
When people think they can’t blog anonymously they tend to go to the other extreme and believe that people need to know everything about their lives.
They only need to know what you feel will give you a better chance of building a connection with them.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
So the decision is up to you.
Luckily the answer isn’t just yes or no. It’s the always awesome “it depends”.
