Creating Fake Identities For Fun And Profit
The need for a “fake identity” happens to most AdSense publishers at one time or another. There are good reasons for using a pseudonym of some kind. Sometimes it’s just because you’re discussing something embarrassing that you don’t want to associate with your own identity. Or it can be something controversial. Or something stupid. Or something that doesn’t fit with what your current audience expects. (Many popular authors, Stephen King being a case in point, have published books under pseudonyms just for that reason.) So how do you go about and do it? Here are some tips.
The Name
You’ll want to start by choosing a name for yourself. There are many random name generators online that can be used for this purpose, but this random name generator is the one that I like best because of it’s simplicity. Most of these sites pull their names from census data or from genealogical data. (Of course, you’ll want to find a name generator that works for the language and ethnicity you’re targeting… most of the name generators are English-based.)
Don’t be afraid to use the opposite gender, too. It can be more appropriate for certain purposes.
Run the name generator to generate some likely possibilities. Then do a search on Google — put the entire name in quotes to do phrase search — and see how popular they are. You probably want to stay away from names that are identical or similar to those of well-known figures. An easy way to make a name unique is to add a middle initial or two, although I don’t think you usually have to go that far.
The Email Address
Next you need an email address. There are two ways to do this:
- A free email service like GMail. This is the simplest and cheapest option. It may be hard to find a good email address, however, and some services frown on individuals having multiple email identities.
- Your own hosted domain. Any half-decent hosting package includes email access for the domain, ideally with unlimited email addresses. You can create as many email addresses as you want and you get to choose exactly the ones that appeal to you.
If you’re going to use a hosted domain, however, you must use privacy protection on the domain. Otherwise all your personal details will be revealed for all the world to see and it won’t take someone long to figure out that “John Kershit” is really “Lina Joergensen at 123 Whatever Avenue, Santa Clara, California”. Or that there’s some kind of relationship there. Adding privacy protection to a domain usually costs extra, but some domain registrars offer it for free. I like 1 & 1 for that reason — no extra charge.
The Picture
Getting a picture for your fake identity is tricky, and in general it’s best to avoid it if at all possible. It’s one thing to have a name that’s the same as someone else’s, it’s another to take someone else’s picture and pass it off as your own. I don’t normally go that far. If you need to do it, do it carefully is all I can say…
That’s it! Remember, though, that often you can get away without having any kind of special identity. Hide your private information using domain privacy and create generic email addresses like “info@whatever.com” that simply forward to another email address. That’s enough for most purposes.
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Eric Giguere is the author of several printed books and knows a thing or two about content monetization. Subscribe to his AdSense blog today and never miss any of his insightful comments. And the not-so-insightful ones, for that matter.
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Comments
2 Responses to “Creating Fake Identities For Fun And Profit”
Interesting… I understand how this would work if you were just doing something to protect your identity.
But how could/would you go about profiting from that? When it comes time for the checks to roll in, wouldn’t your “real” identity have to become visible to the person writing the check, no? Can you legally cash a check that’s not in your name?
No, we’re not talking about that kind of fake identity. Just an online identity. You would register with your real name with any affiliate program you use, for example. That doesn’t mean you have to choose an affiliate ID that matches your name, though!