personal name sacrifice

S

serialfish

New member
Apr 22, 2010
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I am a newb looking at getting into the world of affiliate marketing (duh).

I am interested in starting with a site much like John Chow or Jonathan Volk or Michael Dunlop; however, I am a bit weary about sacrificing my personal name (even if it's wildly successful. I am considering a few options and would like to know your thoughts:

1) Fake name/picture. Finding a headshot should be easy enough. Making a fake name the same. Obviously, the cons would be inability to do video. Always could use a fake name and my real picture?

2) Cartoon character. Using a tool like this could work for brand recognition, but trust may be an issue. People may trust a real person more than a character (what are you hiding?), but then again, maybe not.

3) Anonymous on purpose. State from the get-go that you will remain anonymous. I can't think of much upside to this one.

What is your experience? Are you using your personal facebook and twitter to promote something your selling through friends and family? Have you tried anything like this? Have an idea for a different method? Let me know. I'm curious as to everyone's experiences with this type of thing.
 


What do you want to brand yourself for? You could register joeblow.com and put your photo on it, but for what? Do you have a product or service or specific type of resource in mind? There's no reason to brand yourself if it doesn't serve a specific purpose. Please don't tell me your first project will be a "how to make money online" site when you don't know how to make money online yet.

To answer you more directly, some people use their real name, some people use their online nickname, some people make up something catchy. Some people use a photo, some use a caricature, some don't use an image. Which of those you use, if any at all, depends on what kind of business you want it to be. I personally wouldn't use my real name or photo, but that's me. I don't like people being all up in my business.
 
Thanks for the reply. I am still new, so not exactly sure what I am going to be marketing; however, looking at a particular article on John Chow's website about creating a customer base as opposed to hit and run made sense to me. Most websites I've seen, niche ones not poised specifically at 'how to get rich' have an about me section. I guess I could just skip that, but...

Say I want to market Clickbank products to personal trainers. I want to have a site/blog that will have content appealing to them, as well as specifically drawing them to get on an email list so I can market specific products. 'Who is this guy?' seemingly would be a common question.

I'm sure there are tons of ways to make money online without branding, but branding seems to be the best long-term method that isn't hit and run. Building a customer/client base rather than finding a bunch of one time sales on a constant basis.
 
LOL, reminds me of when I started IM and I wanted to play the Guru-wannabe game

Don't worry about personal branding, you can make a nice living even without exposing your real name.

Make some money first, then worry about personal branding later.
 
Just brand another name / fake identity.

Here I am known as emp, for example.

I market my blog as the blind ape.

You can build a brand out of anything. "Nike", "Adidas", "Amazon",...

The reasoning behind branding your personal name is that whenever someone talks of you, they will also be talking of your brand.

The bad side of this is that your brand and personal rep get interlocked. One spurned customer can burn your personal brand.

If I fuck up on the blind ape, my professional surroundings will not know.

::emp::
 
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