Are Pen Names Ethical For Review Bloggers ? |
Are Pen Names Ethical For Review Bloggers ?
Most of the times, they are. A lot depends on your intent and motive - if your purpose is to cheat Uncle Sam, slander someone or otherwise go against every principle you publicly stand for, then morally it would be wrong - no bones about it! If you merely want to use a pen name because you're afraid of confusing your readers by mixing your posts on green products with reviews of rat rods (old classic cars deliberately customized to look "rough" around the edges), well… you're doing them a service!
You're also in good company. For example, have you ever heard of these writers?
A. M. Barnard Flora Fairfield Aunt Weedy Tribulation Periwinkle Oranthy Bluggage Minerva Moody
I'm betting "not" (unless you're a writer, that is). Nope, it's not a group of characters from J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series (though it certainly does sound like it!). These are all the different pen names used by Louisa May Alcott, the beloved 19th century American writer whose children's book "Little Women" resides forever among the ranks of other classics, alongside Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.
Why did she do this? Well, at first it was to protect her reputation (women just weren't supposed to be writers, in those days). And she adopted the pen name "A. M. Barnard" to write lurid, racy melodramas - for cash.
And she's not the first author to have done so (though many were not motivated by descending into lurid, racy melodrama!)
What Does That Have to Do with Review Blogging?
There's a far sounder psychological reason to use a pen name, if you're reviewing products in a niche far afield from your usual one, however: And that has everything to do with the way peoples' brains work.
Ever watched a movie from a totally different culture? Ever found the plot "poor", or the ending too abrupt and unsatisfying? People from those particular cultures would most likely roundly disagree with you. You see, it all comes from conditioning.
We humans think in "patterns". Our brains want everything to progress in an orderly, logical progression - but not just any old orderly progression: One we're used to. If you were to stick the odd post on Rat Rods in the middle of a bunch of green cleaning product reviews (maybe throwing in an article you wrote on ski wax, because you think it's a fine one), your readers would not only be confused, you'd lose your "branding" power - it would weaken what you are known for. I guarantee you'd soon begin to lose readers, when people expecting articles on green laundry detergent found themselves reading about the virtues of hemis.
If readers want "Little Women", they pick up Louisa May Alcott. If they want steamy Victorian stories of forbidden relationships and revenge, they fall back on A. M. Barnard.
An even simpler example? The game of Tic Tac Toe. You're used to seeing "X" and "O" in the little squares… If someone sticks a "P" in there, it simply doesn't compute, stops the game cold and creates confusion.
Sticking to your main area of expertise works under your own name, and creating a separate blog under a pen name (even a variation of your own name) for any other subject that "changes the subject" - is the most effective way to use a pen name.
Comments, anyone?
|
Ad Tracking Your Clickbank links It's no secret that there's a lot of money involved with affiliate marketing and promoting ... read more
Affiliate Marketing Basics If you are new to Internet marketing and just getting started out as an affiliate I highly ... read more
Affiliate Marketing Reviews And SEO I can see you shaking your head already at the idea of writing a review ... read more
Affiliate Marketing Reviews You've checked out a product and got all excited, because it's perfect for your list... But there's ... read more
Are Pen Names Ethical For Review Bloggers ? Most of the times, they are. A lot depends on your intent ... read more
Clickbank Affiliate Cash The thing that is so great for you when you sign on to be an affiliate in ... read more
Clickbank Affiliate Drawbacks While overall Clickbank is a great place to make money as an affiliate there are a few ... read more
Clickbank Affiliate Pro One thing many merchants love about putting product out on the Clickbank market is they really don't ... read more
Clickbank Affiliate Tips The "buzz" about Clickbank could convince you that you can virtually fall backward into money using this ... read more
Clickbank Marketing Reviews More and more people these days are turning to one of the most popular businesses around - ... read more
Clickbank Affiliate Tools Before the world of the internet, you made money by offering services to customers. And part of ... read more
Clickbanks Refund Policy Getting a new product out on Clickbank is always a moment of supreme optimism. What we envision ... read more
Discouraging ClickBank Review Readers You naturally want people to read your reviews and buy the product you're recommending... but if ... read more
Driving the Customers to Clickbank Clickbank is a great marketplace and it's worth the work and small expense to get ... read more
Hidden ClickBank Drawbacks Don't waste your time reviewing Clickbank products if... ...you live in a country that is not on ... read more
How Readers Perceive Your Reviews You're about to set up a new review blog. You probably even have a favorite ... read more
Promoting your Review Blog It's not enough to write great posts for affiliate products you are reviewing: You want to ... read more
Review Blog Success There's been a great deal said on what makes a successful affiliate review blog, and all that ... read more
Reviews in Affiliate Marketing You write a review for your affiliate marketing product, publish it, promote it a little, and ... read more
Picking Products on Clickbank When you are setting yourself up to be an affiliate on Clickbank, you almost go through ... read more
Some Clickbank Basics You have to be somewhat in the know to even have heard the name "Clickbank" much less ... read more
Success as an Affiliate on Clickbank There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs out there, all of which claim ... read more
Give Pros and Cons in Affiliate Reviews Okay, I was just being a smarty with my title. The truth is, ... read more
Video Blogging Clickbank reviews Video blogging has a lot of advantages over text-based blogging, and it is little wonder that ... read more
Working With The Product Creators Contacting the product creator of any products that you are promoting is an ideal way ... read more
|
|
|
Disclaimer:
The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in
the creation of this website, notwithstanding the fact that he does not
warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate
due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.
This site
is a common sense guide to Are Pen Names Ethical For Review Bloggers ?. In practical advice websites,
like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made.
Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their
individual circumstances to act accordingly.
This site
is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or
financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent
professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field.
Any
perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.
|