My goal as a Super-Affiliate-to-be includes the idea of creating multiple websites for promoting products. And I want to do as many other marketers do, including Lynn, to show my face and name to make my promotions more believable and trustworthy.
The problem I am having is this, though: if I manage SEVERAL websites, each in a completely different niche, and I use my original name on all of them, might that not make some people suspicious of me (if they check up on me with, for example, a Google search)? Their argument would be, approximately this: How can ONE man be an expert on, say, five, or ten, or fifteen diffferent topics?
Any suggestions on how to plan for this? Pen-names? Avatars? Anyone having live examples of multiple websites in very different niches that are run by the same person?
I know that Lynn does not use her real name on most (all?) of her affiliate marketing sites. She uses a pen name. I don't know about photos.
I also think it's going to be very difficult to get people to show you their AM websites. Too much of a risk of people copying successful businesses. That is one of the reasons that the Elite group on this forum exists. It's private, thus limiting that risk to the members, which isn't a risk at all, so far as I can determine.
(I think Lynn has taken the weekend off, but I'm sure she will reply to you later. I just wanted to give you a bit of information from another wanna-be)
Intuitively, pen names sound good. But is it legal? Do I have to DECLARE it somewhere, that it IS a pen name? And if I should use a pen name, would I still use my own photos? Or should I have a photo showing someone else? Or maybe I should even create a "digital person" with the help of some 3D graphics program, so that no-one can say I have STOLEN someone else's identity? Or maybe I should photoshop my own pictures RADICALLY, so that I become some sort of VERSION of me. Hmmmm...? )
As far as the "sharing" issue is concerned, I would agree, in principle, that many people would hesitate to disclose many of their websites if they used "multiple identities". But I honestly don't think that the reason for their non-disclosure is that it is "too much of a risk of people copying successful businesses", for it is fairly easy to locate successful businesses online in ANY niche anyway. Rather, I think the main reason is that they want to keep their multiple personalities as low profile as possible.
In any case: Thanks again, and have a GREAT day! )
I'd be interested in hearing what Lynn and others have to say about this as well.
My take on it though is that while your intentions are admirable, I think you may be overthinking this.
Assuming you have your domains (affiliate marketing sites) all on one IP address, then someone could do a search and connect the dots and see that you have "Bob" on one and "David" on the other, etc.
I'm a firm believer in the use of pen names. It just makes sense to keep from having all your eggs in one basket. At the very least, if one pen name's reputation tanks, then you can use another. You could register them with your local city office as a DBA (doing business as) if you really want to, but there's a fee involved each time you register one. Although this may even be going too far.
But regarding the photo, I would avoid doing any 3D representation or trying to modify a photo of yourself. That would look too shady to me. Whether or not you should use a photo of yourself for all pen names is up to you. If you have totally different affiliate markets, what are the chances that someone is going to say, "Hey, I recognize that guy from that other site." If you're keeping your subscriber lists separate, then the risk of that happening is greatly reduced.
I registered on dba and use it for all my affiliate relationships. This required one $10 fee to the state, on $20 fee to my home city and a business checking account, which was free. Any checks or direct deposits would go into that checking account. This could later be turned into an LLC without a lot of hassle, if I wanted. all my domain names were registered in the dba name (but I keep the registrations private anyway.)
The business checking also got me a business credit card, which makes it easy to ease my anal (ex)accountant roots and keep the income and expenses completely separate from my personal funds.
So at least in my state, there was no need for separate dba's for every different pen name. Just one and they all flow up to that dba.
I ran into this very same problem. When I first started online, I felt uncomfortable about using my real name. So I used a childhood nickname for my username at a high profile Internet Marketing forum. Then, several months later, when I decided to "come out of the closet" and start using my real name on my own IM website/blog - some guy started posting links back to my blog on the forum stating that I was a fake/phony.
I felt awful.
I explained (on my blog and in the forum) my personal reasons for using a nickname instead of my real name in the early days. But I didn't like people thinking I was fake/phony. So this has prompted me to feel uneasy about using a pen name anywhere.
This was in the same niche. So I guess discovery was inevitable. But I was shaken by the "phony" claims. I know that may seem like I am being overly sensitive, and I need to toughen up. Perhaps that is true. But it doesn't feel nice having your name and reputation tarnished in person or online.
I am very interested to hear from marketers who do this successfully. How do you handle it specifically?
Using pen names is not illegal, and it's very common. Not all affiliate sites require a photo, so I don't use one on every site. On some of my sites I use older or more obscure photos of myself when that's a match for the niche, and I've even used stock photos before. But more often than not a photo isn't really necessary.
There's a difference between blogging as a personality, and selling strawberry shortcake dolls - where the goal is to get the clickthrough and the visitor is more interested in the product and the price than they are the person running the site. In that case, a contact page with basic info will suffice.
How to Manage Identities for Multiple Sites?
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