Pruning Flowers with a Male Yeast Infection
June 4, 2008 · Print This Article
As an Internet marketer, I’m a big fan of using pen names for the different markets I’m promoting. There’s a very legitimate and honest reason for doing so. Some people feel that using a pen name is dishonest, but I disagree.
If you look at it from your customer’s point of view. Just pretend for a minute that you’re a gardener looking for information on pruning flowers. As someone who’s looking for information on pruning flowers, you jump on the computer and do a search for pruning flowers in Google.
The first result you find is a very nice squidoo lens all about prunning flowers. The article is so interesting and informative you just have to know what other articles this person has written. A few clicks later you’re on the profile page for this writer expecting to find other flower or gardening related articles.
To your surprise you find articles titled “10 Steps to Getting Rid of Male Yeast Infection”, “The Ultimate Guide to Underwater Kickboxing”, and “Speed Reading Tips for Ed ‘mankini’ Dale”.
Now what would be your first thought if you came across a writer who writes everything from pruning flowers to male yeast infection?
I know personally my trust level will suddenly drop and I would be more cautious. I would certainly think twice about any product or service that this writer had recommended. Nine chances out of 10, I would probably not buy the product they were recommending just because something seems fishy.
I would much rather just use pen names to keep each market separate. I would rather John to write articles on male yeast infection and Debra write articles on prunning flowers.
That’s just my opinion, what are you thoughts?
~Shannon
“Now what would be your first thought if you came across a writer who writes everything from pruning flowers to male yeast infection?”
My first thought would be “Wow, that guy has a lot of interests / interesting hobbies!”.
So, you’re basically saying that if someone writes about pruning flowers they would write about nothing else but flowers and gardening? That would come across as unnatural and maybe even boring. Personally I don’t trust people that hide their true selves.
But I still like to use pen names! My approach is to use a pen name but still come across as someone you can relate to, a real person… not a name with a single interesting.
Oliver, I don’t think this is what Shannon is saying at all. This post is talking more about building trust not about what a person’s interests are. If someone searches online and finds a whole lot of articles written about the same thing by the same person the searcher is more likely to think of the writer as an ‘expert’ rather than a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’.
I agree that there is cause for keeping different niches separate but I also think there is a fine line to walk when doing this so you don’t actually cross to the dark side and confuse potential customers/clients or, worse, alienate them.
Come over to the dark side *queue evil laugh* LOL
Thanks for the comments!!!