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Stock photos for pen names and review sites?

by xiaophil
10 replies
A lot of people publish articles and reviews under pen names but how about photos of the author?

I am told that having a picture of a real person can increase click-through but all the stock sites I have visited specifically disallow product endorsement for the models.

I am pretty sure that a review page would be considered a product endorsement.

What are your thoughts on this?
#names #pen #photos #review #sites #stock
  • Profile picture of the author captivereef
    i am curious to as i have been looking for a womens photo for one of my pen names.
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  • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
    I don't believe it really matters in this specific case what the sites say, however illegal these pics use may be for the sake of this argument.

    But usually when there are stock photos being used that just hurts the credibility of the person using them. Users are smart and will see through the stock photo... so in the end it hurts the credibility of the person using them.

    However, it could still be used if they went out and hired their own model, or possibly used friends or family as pics for a pen name, providing those people ok'd the use of their pic. These would be more realistic and unable to be tracked down on any of the stock photo sites. In this case it would help their credibility instead of hurting it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Ambrose
    Female pen names do work. I only found out today that Sara Brown of Laycock publishing was a stock photo bought by Tony Shephard (who you can find on this forum every now and again).

    It was because he wanted to keep his wifes identity secret and it worked extremely well (had us all fooled!).. many ebayers who worked in the ebook circles a few years back will know who she is.
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    • Profile picture of the author dorothydot
      Ummm, why not take your digital camera and photo some of your friends? Do silohettes, back-of-heads, whatever and disguise the identifying features.

      Then you don't have to worry about permissions or anything else... assuming your friend approves, of course!

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  • Profile picture of the author keivn2
    I wonder, if you're into a US market, isn't it a logical move to post a American's photo instead of Asian's photo.

    But what if the affiliate marketer is Asian or non-America? It would be extremely pointless even if he took his friend's photo as his friends probably was a same kins as him.

    So how? What is the solution for this kind of situation?
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  • Profile picture of the author Kelly Verge
    Outside of the MMO niche, I always use images from iStockphoto. The odds of someone in non-technical niches finding the picture are almost nil. Even if they do and call me on it, it's just a pen name. It's not as if I'm posing as a doctor.

    For me, it's really more about helping to form common ground with my customer. If she's a 30-something soccer mom, that's the persona I use.
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    • Profile picture of the author xiaophil
      Thanks for all your feedback,

      Originally Posted by jjpmarketing View Post

      Users are smart and will see through the stock photo... so in the end it hurts the credibility of the person using them.
      Most stock photos look like stock photos but I was assuming one would use a natural looking image.


      Originally Posted by mm365 View Post

      I only found out today that Sara Brown of Laycock publishing was a stock photo....
      I remember buying some of Sarah's products from eBay years ago. Finding out she was a pseudonym with a stock photo didn't change anything, I'm still happy to have purchased her products and in my eyes nobody lost any credibility.


      Originally Posted by dorothydot View Post

      Do silohettes, back-of-heads, whatever and disguise the identifying features.
      Thanks Dot, I'm not sure that people would really relate well to a silhouette or the back of someones head.


      Originally Posted by keivn2 View Post

      I wonder, if you're into a US market, isn't it a logical move to post a American's photo instead of Asian's photo.
      I think you may be confusing nationality with ethnicity. You can't tell someones nationality by the way they look. I do however think it makes sense to align a campaign's image with the dominant demographic of the market which may include age, gender and yes, ethnicity.


      Originally Posted by Kelly Verge View Post

      For me, it's really more about helping to form common ground with my customer.
      That's exactly where I'm coming from.


      In summary, isn't this really just an aspect of effective advertising?

      Creating an appropriate image that fits the customer's perception of a member of the same social group, for the purpose of establishing rapport.

      After all, people like people who are like themselves.

      What do you think?
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  • Profile picture of the author Hoops4me
    Maybe this is a little underhanded, but I would just go to yahoo personals and grab some photos. Of course I wouldn't use there name or anything, just the picture. I think pen names are very common on the internet.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ram
      Most stock photo sites prohibit using the photos for endorsements of a product. That means using a stock photo to represent a pen name would violate TOS and could leave you open to legal liability. Chances are you won't get caught. But why risk it?

      We use a lot of pen names. And we create our own stock photos.

      Juts put an ad for advertising models in the local paper or college paper (even better.) Be clear there is no nudity or such involved. Get your attorney to prepare a rock-solid release and have the models you like sign it. We generally pay $50 for an hour of posing and you can shoot a lot of photos in that time and use them as you want.

      College students are always good bets for this. $50 is a lot of money when you're running low on beer!
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  • Profile picture of the author Shane Watson
    Is it like one of the marketing with the use of image? Because statistics say that image response is very much higher than words.
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