My Life as a Man - From a Female Marketer

[cosmokid]

Hi everyone. It's Cosmokid, back from a much-needed break. I missed you guys and just couldn't keep away! Seriously, I appreciated everyone's support when I was freaking out about a few bad apples I'd encountered last fall. It really meant a lot to me.

I still visit WF every day, and I recently saw a thread about the use of pen names and the discussion pro/con. I thought I'd chime in to mention a few juicy things I've been discovering this past five months when I've been "off the radar" quietly doing affiliate marketing.

There is incredible power in pen names!

Also - it's fun being a boy!

I've been really looking carefully at my market research lately and discovered that in some markets using a male persona is not only helpful, it can be the difference between raking in the dough and sitting around, hoping that sales will trickle in.

And vice versa. I've penetrated into some "female" niches under a pen name and cross tested with a male persona as well - and sometimes the female pen name is the only way to go. We women can be fiercely protective of female dominated niches and forums - and it's truly a "no boys allowed" situation with some of them.

Now I know that some Warriors who have a more traditional service based business where they are selling stuff under their real name disapprove of the whole idea of pen names, but just to clarify, I never misrepresented a product, I just simply used pseudonyms on some of my sites or when I posted on some forums. And I was only marketing as an affiliate, which makes it so much easier to use a pen name. Most of what you're writing as an affiliate is just sales copy or articles, and people don't care much about who you are.

I've also been experimenting with a couple of new ebook projects and have discovered that pen names have been really fun to use with those. Although I'm a professional writer who still has columns in various newspapers, there's too much "baggage" around that persona - I write mostly New Age stuff and astrology based columns for the mainstream - so it's great to be able to "control" people's perceptions somewhat as I publish other ebooks that are outside that older niche I've established myself in. I totally respect that more conservative, mainstream markets might not approve of the fact that I'm a syndicated love horoscope writer. (By the way, this is a good week for Aries

One thing I love about the male dominated niches is that you can generally be a bit more salty and down to earth with your language - we girls are still way too "nice" sometimes! (Or maybe we just feel the pressure to be nice?)

Anyway, I wanted to ask other Warriors if they've been exploring not just different pen names as their same gender, but if they've experimented with becoming "cross-gendered" as I have with some of my sites. And were the results good, bad, or indifferent? I'd love to hear your stories.

Jennifer

[Jeff Hope]

Great to see you back posting again Jennifer

[Frank Donovan]

Hi Jennifer

Good to see you back. I never had the chance to tell you how much I enjoyed your last WSO. Hope there'll be more on the way.

I have to say I'm not into all that horoscope nonsense, but I understand that's typical Aries


Best,


Frank

[brucerby]

Jennifer, I was always hoping you would start posting again!....great to see you back.

As a very happy purchaser of your last product I hope you come up with some new stuff in the future.

On the pen names issue, I've used male names alot, but it has never occurred to me to write in a woman's name. I guess I thought I would not be able to carry off a convincing female 'voice'.
_____
Bruce

[kuma1234]

Hi Jennifer......Great to have you back. Like I said before....IM needs you.

[cosmokid]

Hey everyone, thanks so much for the welcome back. I forgot to respond here the other day. And *shh* you didn't hear it from me - but there could be a new report cooking up very soon - stay tuned.

Jennifer