The bottom line is, there was something for everyone. So, no excuses for your blog not to be awesome.

Seth, I think I love you.

Alia

Ok, I respect that you want your privacy, but I wasn’t talking about what was good on a personal level, but what was good for a blog author. Believe me, I use my nick all the time (except here though) and I don’t have any problems with presenting myself as who I am. I’ve seen to many people hide behind their nicknames on forums, chats and so on, so somebody who says something but doesn’t want to say who he is, just doesn’t have my respect… For example, someone may write a bad review of for example a product of some sort. How do I know that just isn’t a competitor trying to make the product look bad? I can’t.

Privacy and so on is good, but for online publishing, I just think people trust authors that come clean, that have the respect for their readership to say: “Yes, I’m xxx, I want to tell you something because I think it will help you!”.

@rob

I just picked that nick randomly, don’t know why :)

I know that I for one will be having a wider thought patten over the next few days about what is important or not for my blog.

The idea of anonimity has come up a few times in thes comments and I believe that Darren has written quite a bit about it in the past and the fact that you need to put a name to your opinions. I guess I had better do that sooner rather than later.

For many types of blogs, anonymity is a strike against you. People are more likely to trust you, as it was pointed out, if you are willing to put your name on your words.

But there are other types of blogs, such as mine, for which anonymity is quite useful and possibly vital. I wouldn’t expect Iranian bloggers writing about their repressive government to use their real names, for instance. (Then again, few or none of them are trying to make money from such blogs.) And in my field, there is a significant risk of the name simply getting in the way, as people focus more on who said something than on what was said.

Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, not the Man. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle. — Thomas Paine, Common Sense

That’s why, for the longest time, I published under a pseudonym. One might say I still do, and you may never know for sure. :)

Hi name is Rob Elam. While I do understand why you would be apprehensive about giving out your last name, I think if one is really serious about being a “problogger” and they want a real bond with their readers there is nothing more connecting than giving a full name and a picture.

I think of A-List Bloggers as Blog Celebrities. How far will a celebrity get if they don’t want anyone to see them? There are some writers that have very few pictures (like one of my personal faves Carlos Castaneda), but the writers that are larger than life are celebs (King, J.K. Rowling, Maya Angelou ect).

P.S.:”Wow, I’m hurt, Anti-BlackMama.” —
Ivan Brezak Brkan wrote Black MamBA one of the world’s most deadly snakes. (is that the one that will kill you in five minutes? better google it.)

I was hoping there would be some key techniques and tools, so it was kind of a let-down. Kind of “duh-ish”…

Cheers,

JP

100047. Talk about popular topics

100048. Use “the Secret” it actually works for any part of your life.

100049. Create a podcast/vid cast featuring your content as an ad for your site.

100050. Advertise on different parts of the Internet. Not just the “Web” portion of the Internet.

Advertise on email (don’t spam), Groups, Forums, P2P, Bittorents ect.

100051. Make a Introduction to your site on MySpace and Tagworld.

100052. Adverstise OFFLINE. This guy at my job has a blog called NewsBlab and he actually drives

around with website information on his car like a network marketer. The local newspaper, friends

he had me baffled too.

can someone please clarify this, should I be having kids or not?

I disagree, personally, with using full names for my own reasons (I might regret being famous someday, I don’t want to be discovered by people I used to know, and I love the personality and uniqueness nicknames bring) and also for safety.

But I also feel annoyed that so many bloggers I see linked to from Pro Blogger are very Name Important, like Seth Godin, himself. Although Seth tries to sell his work, so he sells himself. Many of these blogs use full names in descriptions, but that tells nothing. To me it tells of arrogance. Still, is this a blogging blog, a business blog? Sounds like a personal blog, but we still don’t know, and don’t yet care.

When I visit blogs, I get nervous with full names. I was always taught about safety, I suppose. I would never dare publish my last name. I don’t understand why it’s the norm, nowadays. I’m quite puzzled.

Then there’s Harrod’s and Barney’s girl … their blog does extremely well, imho. And we’re all mystified by Manolo the ShoeBlogger. Alex the ShoeBlogger wouldn’t be the same.

I also discovered months ago that I absolutely refuse to work for anybody else. I tried freelance for a company, and I got one criticism and knew I was through after that. If I like my work, I am complete. (Yet I still do fine in my college creative writing workshops. For fiction, I’m still learning.) So I don’t want to sell my name to companies to write for them.

If I want to publish a book, I don’t need my name on a blog to do it, either.