Author question

For my blog, I am doing it anonymously, so there's no names.
The author is always (blogname)

I'm currently writing an ebook and its purpose is to used as an offer in a squeeze page.
My question is, do I have to use a name as the author is still using my blog name fine?

Use whatever name you like. There's no ebook law against it.

Check this out: http://www.namegenerator.biz/pseudonym-generator.php

If it so, you can use more marketable name that can be easily remembered.

its purpose is to used as an offer in a squeeze page.

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And yes, there is no ebook law against it as Treeofl1 said.

using your blogname or "blogname"-team is fine. but I think the offer would perform better if you come up with a fake name. People like to read ebooks from other people/experts. Putting a name or even a picture will always perform better.

It's a good practice to write article with a authoritative name, also preferred by Google.

DaQuark said:

using your blogname or "blogname"-team is fine. but I think the offer would perform better if you come up with a fake name. People like to read ebooks from other people/experts. Putting a name or even a picture will always perform better.

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I agree with this.

While it's acceptable to continue using your blog name as the author name, it is not the best practice. Google prefers when a real name is used and the average person who reads ebooks does, too. By using the site name, you make it obvious that you're a brand....not a person. You're likely trying to sell something instead of legitimately wanting to connect with people. People pick up on this type of thing.

For SEO, use a real name.

Authors write and use pen names all the time, it is widely acceptable

Ok so now I'm looking into using a persona.
I have a fake facebook profile complete with pictures, friends, etc.. (pictures were shared here)

Should I use that persona or make up a completely new different one? (also using fake pictures)

Here's a few thoughts.

Names aren't copyrightable in the usual sense but there are trademarks and fraud is an issue. Put another way, if you look through all the phone books in the country you will probably find a dozen or more "Rush Limbaugh"s. But you can get into lots of trouble if you publish something claiming to be THE Rush Limbaugh.

There isn't a hard contradiction between using a personal name and "blogname." You can think of "blogname" as a collective of sorts. So you can publish as "Mike Smith at 'blogname'" or "Mike Smith ('blogname'), etc.

Flappy Moose said:

Here's a few thoughts.

Names aren't copyrightable in the usual sense but there are trademarks and fraud is an issue. Put another way, if you look through all the phone books in the country you will probably find a dozen or more "Rush Limbaugh"s. But you can get into lots of trouble if you publish something claiming to be THE Rush Limbaugh.

There isn't a hard contradiction between using a personal name and "blogname." You can think of "blogname" as a collective of sorts. So you can publish as "Mike Smith at 'blogname'" or "Mike Smith ('blogname'), etc.

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What about using people's images?

lpsierra said:

What about using people's images?

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Sticky question. My thoughts are that you can normally get away with using images as part of what is called "editorial comment." Write something, good or bad about Rush Limbaugh and you can probably use his image. Commercial issues are more complex, I seem to recall. This is especially true if the image is going to be associated with a product. And there you run into two problems. The first is with the owner of the image. The second is over some customer charging fraud.

There's a saying in Latin that "the Eagle does not strain at gnats." If somebody uses Limbaugh's image without his permission my bet is that he'd consider it beneath his dignity to complain and his lawyer would probably tell him that the costs to sue would be greater than the return. My guess is, given the commercial scope of most SEO work, that law enforcement wouldn't be bothered if some customer complained of fraud in buying, for example, a fishing cap that Limbaugh didn't really endorse even if some ad said he did.

In summary -- as a non-lawyer of course -- try to stay within editorial comment if you're going to use an image.