Changing author name...

This has probably been asked before…

I was wondering if it’s a bad idea changing your author name on here. I want to change it to my real name instead of ‘WildeMedia’. Don’t think it’s quite professional using your name in a company name, makes it kind of restricted. As I’m a ‘one woman band’ do you think it would make it more personal for customers. Such as when people say to use a mug shot instead of a logo in an avatar.

What does everyone else think?

What are your thoughts?

I think if you want to brand yourself rather than a company more power to you, I don’t think changing your name will affect many of your current customers may cause some confusion but its better to do it now than when you’re at 100K plus or a top author

OrganicBeeMedia said
I think if you want to brand yourself rather than a company more power to you, I don’t think changing your name will affect many of your current customers may cause some confusion but its better to do it now than when you’re at 100K plus or a top author

Agreed.

Personally, I like WildeMedia – taking advantage of your name in your branding – I think it sounds cool.

As for the avatar, I think it probably depends on the customer. This is just conjecture, but I expect some customers are going to feel more comfortable purchasing from an author with a commercial face (logo avatar rather than headshot/photo avatar), while others appreciate the personal touch of knowing they are dealing with an individual. However, I think it probably matters very little in comparison to the quality of your products – just look at the top sellers

I’ve used WildeMedia everywhere for the past 6 years or so, but would like it to be more personal by using my name as it is just me at the moment.

Hi WildeMedia,

Can I ask you how do you intend to change your author name as I didn’t see any option about this on my settings page? I want to change mine from agurghis to AlexGurghis but I don’t know how and I don’t want to create a new profile.

Thank you,
Alex

agurghis said
Hi WildeMedia,

Can I ask you how do you intend to change your author name as I didn’t see any option about this on my settings page? I want to change mine from agurghis to AlexGurghis but I don’t know how and I don’t want to create a new profile.

Thank you,
Alex

You can contact support and they will change it for you (there is no way to do this yourself in your settings). I believe you are only allowed to change your username once.

I think the face thing only works for Orman Clark

From a buyer’s perspective, I like the feeling that I’m getting a product from an actual person. I enjoy the personal touch of a real name (and face). Of course, I can understand the other side of that too. There can be times that using a name that appears to be a larger organization comes off as more professional or trustworthy.

But the thing is, it’s all too common for one person to disguise themselves as a larger company these days. Even if they give the best service and product, I still have this little nagging feeling that it’s one person pretending to be a company. To me that just feels dishonest.

This is totally all my personal opinion and I’m not saying that anyone who does that is dishonest in any way, it’s just the reason that I chose to market myself with my own name and not a company name.

Oh, and you do have a pretty rad name, Christine. You’re one of the lucky few that can have a killer company name (like WildeMedia) and also have a killer personal name (ChristineWilde). Jealous.

I think it’s cool it has that double meaning (I.e. “Wilde” being your name and that it sounds like wild). Unless you pronounce your name “will-dee”

JamiGibbs said
From a buyer’s perspective, I like the feeling that I’m getting a product from an actual person. I enjoy the personal touch of a real name (and face). Of course, I can understand the other side of that too. There can be times that using a name that appears to be a larger organization comes off as more professional or trustworthy.

But the thing is, it’s all too common for one person to disguise themselves as a larger company these days. Even if they give the best service and product, I still have this little nagging feeling that it’s one person pretending to be a company. To me that just feels dishonest.

This is totally all my personal opinion and I’m not saying that anyone who does that is dishonest in any way, it’s just the reason that I chose to market myself with my own name and not a company name.

Oh, and you do have a pretty rad name, Christine. You’re one of the lucky few that can have a killer company name (like WildeMedia) and also have a killer personal name (ChristineWilde). Jealous.

Thanks for that Jami. Maybe I could use both? Keep my website as WildeMedia but have my name on here as ChristineWilde. I’ve also got a Tumblr account showcasing all my Tumblr themes called WildeThemes, which I quite like.

I think it is better to use your name if your a one person band so it feels more personal to the customer.