Urgent: Should I Be Anonymous?
In the spirit of half having fun, I’ve started an eBay auction… For me.
That’s right, you can buy, well, me.
Having some conversations with friends and some folk are saying this “anonymous blogger” in the listing shouldn’t be anonymous.
What do you think?
One friend, a prominent business blogger, even thinks the Buy It Now price is too low. After all, the company is buying 3 months of writing and consulting for as little as 5K. Not bad.
What do you think?
The auction’s only been live for a bit, so I’m happy to change things. Let me know your thoughts, and feel free to blog this.
POSTED IN: Blogging, Ensight News
8 opinions for Urgent: Should I Be Anonymous?
Chuck Conway
Nov 23, 2004 at 9:11 am
Your either crazy or living on the cutting edge. ;)
Jeff Clark
Nov 23, 2004 at 11:58 am
I think you’re doing something rather smart, but whoever buys you is an idiot.
Why would someone hire a blogger? That kinda kills the point of having a blogger! I would want to hear someone’s perspective from somebody inside the company about company stuff - not some random guy (sorry) they bought on eBay.
That would be like me having my best friend write about my life in my blog.
Jeremy C. Wright
Nov 23, 2004 at 12:22 pm
Isn’t that a bit like saying that a designer should only be from inside the company, or that a copy writer should?
Isn’t blogging just an extension of branding, most of which is outsourced?
Jeff Clark
Nov 23, 2004 at 1:56 pm
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I read the Google blog and Microsoft blogs (amongst others) to get insight into the company; To see what makes the people that create the certain things I use daily tick. To me, the appeal of blogs are that they are more voyueristic than journalism. It just seems wrong that you can hire someone to create some kind of spirit or voice about the company, from outside the company.
If you want to hire someone to make your company look better, don’t do it with a medium that people trust. Do it with advertising ;-)
Jeremy C. Wright
Nov 23, 2004 at 1:59 pm
I’m not arguing that that wouldnt’ be the ideal. But I can think of nearly a dozen bloggers who are paid, and they express the company and industry quite well.
Remember, part of this is companies finding out if blogging works for them. Transparency can be scary. Having a helping hand can be comforting.
Oliver Thylmann
Nov 23, 2004 at 2:11 pm
Jeremy wouldn’t need to blog personally, but he can write from the input he receives. This will be able to make internal people understand how the system works, how you blog, what you blog, how you write, how unimportant “style” is but how important “voice” is. As a corporation you might not just want to go out and blog without at least making sure that you have a few pitfalls settled that will not be yours ;)
BlogosphereRadio.com
Nov 25, 2004 at 8:32 pm
Blogosphere News for 11/25/2004
In this episode we cover some blogosphere statistics, two new sets of blog awards, a new blog from Apple, an eBay blogger auction, some new blogging related software, and we check in with BlogPulse for the blogosphere’s key people and phrases.
Business Opportunities Weblog
Dec 1, 2004 at 9:57 am
A Blogger for Bid
I have a confession to make. Selfishly, I have held off mentioning that Jeremy Wright is auctioning off his we blogging talents on Ebay. For the winning bidder, Jeremy will post five to ten times per week for three months…