All Entries Tagged With: "pen names"

Should You Use A Pen Name For Article Submissions?

Many writers prefer to submit articles under a pen name to protect their privacy. Is this a good practice? According to EzineArticles owner Chris Knight, articles written under pen names achieve less in the trust department. It’s easy to see why.

Here’s why Chris Knight says pen names are bad:

• The majority of thin & crappy article vomit submissions come from members who are clearly using a pen-name.
• Undesirable or high risk content topics (Casino/Poker/P Enlargement/Get Rich Quick/Name brand mentioners) are almost always under pen-names.
• There is a lack of accountability that comes from hiding behind a pen name.
• Often times pen names are rejected because they include related descriptors to the content topic that a person writes about. Ex: Star wars movie writer’s pen name “Jedi Walker.”
• Pen-name submitted content is often ghost written. Yes, it’s that easy to tell. Ghost written articles are almost always 2nd class vs. original content written by a true genuine expert author (our ideal member profile.)

Some of these points are hard to argue with. The first two points, for instance, are almost a given. We’ve all received enough spam from these people that to question whether or not Chris Knight is telling the truth is almost like questioning the weather as it is happening right now. That’s not to say that some gambling site owners do not write good articles or that articles written under pen names are always substandard. Generalities, however, are generally true.

As for accountability, writing under a pen name can offer some lack of accountability, but if you have an account under your real name and you write and submit articles under a pen name then the accountability is still there.

I understand the reason behind rejecting pen names that stand out as descriptive names rather than real human names. Who wants to read an article on the history of baseball by First Baseman? It’s not personal and everyone knows it’s not your real name. As a publisher, I’d wonder why you didn’t use your real name and I would likely not use your article even if it was well-written.

As for the final comment, that articles written under pen names are usually ghostwritten, all I can say is, OK, so what? Of course, I understand Chris Knight’s point in light of his first point: The majority of thin & crappy article vomit submissions come from members who are clearly using a pen-name.

It’s really sad that most ghostwritten articles are lousy articles. But not all of them are. The reason many of these ghostwritten articles are so under par is because website owners spend $1-$5 for the articles. If that is all you are paying for an article then you are overpaying. Yes, that’s right – overpaying. You are getting 0 quality articles for a cheap price, but that price is inflated for the quality that you get. It’s like buying gasoline for your automobile at 25 cents per gallon then wondering why your car’s engine blows up when you try to start it.

Ghostwritten articles are not inherently bad. Gad ghostwriters give good ghostwriters a bad name. Because of that, article directories like EzineArticles implement strict guidelines that shut us out. If your ghostwriter is any good at all then Chris Knight’s staff will not be able to tell your article is ghostwritten. If a pen name looks and sounds like a real name, such as Peter Spangler (doesn’t that sound like a real name?), and your article is as well written as the best articles written by real humans then EzineArticles, and every other article directory, will treat your article just like any other article. In that case, a pen name won’t hurt you. Still, I recommend using your real name unless you have a compelling reason not to.

Write Articles Under Several Aliases For More Effective Marketing

Do you write articles on more than one topic? If so then you should seriously consider publishing your articles under an alias. Actually, you could call it a semi-alias.

Almost every article directory allows you to set up pen names under your accounts. It’s not hard to do and your pen name can be a variation of your real name, or publishing name. In other words, if you publish your articles under the name of Brandon Joe Knapp and all of your article directory accounts are set up in that name, you can publish your articles under variations of that name.

Let’s say you are an auto mechanic who writes about car maintenance tips, but you also are a hobby gardener and woodworker and you write articles about gardening and woodworking. That’s three topics. You can write all of your car maintenance articles under your real name and articles on gardening and woodworking under a “semi-alias,” which is a variation of your real name. You can count the variations that Brandon Joe Knapp can be broken into:

• Brandon Knapp
• Joe Knapp
• B.J. Knapp
• B. Joe Knapp
• B. Jo Knapp
• Brandon J. Knapp
• Brandon Jo Knapp
• Brandon Joe
• B.J.K.
• B.J.
• Bran Knapp
• Bran J. Knapp
• Bran Joe Knapp
• Brand Jo Knapp

You get the idea. The possibilities are endless. And you can add pen names, or aliases, as necessary for tracking purposes.

Let’s say you want to write about a sub-niche within your specialty area, or one of your hobbies. You write car maintenance articles under Brandon Joe Knapp, gardening articles under B.J. Knapp because you don’t want to be categorized as gender-specific, and woodworking articles under Brandon J. Knapp. You get the idea to write articles on woodworking targeted toward a female audience – “Woodworking for Women”. You can continue to write general woodworking articles under Brandon J. Knapp, but you can also start publishing articles on the topic targeted specifically for women under the pen name Jo Knapp.

By writing and publishing articles under pen names this way, you allow readers at the various article directories a way to search for your articles by name without watering down your brand. An e-zine editor or webmaster searching for articles by Jo Knapp (because she likes your writing style) can search for articles by that specific author and she won’t find your gardening or car maintenance articles. You can maintain a consistency of brand for each of your author pen names and niches more easily and be a more effective article marketer.