Do you want to blog anonymously using WordPress? There are many users who want to start a blog but don't know what to put their real name on. In this beginner's guide, we'll show you how to easily blog anonymously using WordPress while keeping your personal information safe.
Note: This guide is not for journalists or whistleblowers doing high-risk work. They must use something like TOR or other tools. This is for the average blogger who wants to blog anonymously.
There are many users who simply want to blog anonymously to express their opinions. Most of them want to remain anonymous because they fear it might affect how people see them in real life. Some want to do it just to be more creative.
There are pros and cons to blogging anonymously, and it's important that you understand them before you start blogging.
Advantages of anonymous blogs with WordPress
Cons of anonymous blogs with WordPress
With that said, let's see how to blog anonymously using WordPress.
There are two types of WordPress websites. First, there is WordPress.com, which is a hosted blogging service, and then you have WordPress.org, also known as self-hosted WordPress. For a comparison, see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
There are other blogging platforms as well. However, we recommend using self-hosted WordPress.org to have complete control over the privacy and ownership of your website.
You will need a domain name and website hosting account to start your self-hosted WordPress blog.
We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider. They are offering our users a free domain and a 60% discount on their web hosting.
For more information, check out our article on how to start a WordPress blog with full step-by-step instructions.
After we have installed WordPress, we are going to make it anonymous.
When you purchase a domain name, you must provide contact information such as your name, address, phone number, and email address. This information is publicly accessible and anyone can search for it.
To protect customer privacy, many domain name providers offer a service called Whois privacy. For a small fee, this service displays their contact information instead of yours. If someone sends an email to the address on the WHOIS privacy page, we'll send it to you.
You can purchase domain privacy during setup at most hosting companies. For example, Bluehost offers you an option to do so during registration. We don't normally recommend this because of the extra cost, but since you want to create an anonymous blog, you should check this option.
If you didn't purchase it during setup, you can always enable it from your hosting account's control panel in the domains section.
The next step is to create a new email account to use for your WordPress website and your WordPress author profile. You can use a free email service provider like Gmail, or use a more private email service like Proton Mail.
After creating an email account, you need to add it as a WordPress administrative email address. This email address is used to send WordPress notification emails.
You can do this by going to Settings »General page in the WordPress admin area and add your new email address there.
Don't forget to click the Save Changes button to store your settings.
Next, you need to add the same email address to your author profile page. Simply go to the Users »Your Profile page and add the email address below your contact information.
Don't forget to click the Update Profile button to save your changes.
You can also use gravatar to display an anonymous profile picture next to your author bio on your blog posts.
Tip: If you're not receiving emails from WordPress, check out our guide on how to fix WordPress email sending issues.
You will need to choose and use a pseudonym on your blog. For better WordPress security, you cannot use admin as your username or author name. You'll need to think of a different nickname that you can use to sign your posts.
To add your pseudonym, you must visit Users »Your Profile page and add the name next to the Nickname field. After entering your nickname, click the dropdown menu next to the 'Display Public Name As' option and select your nickname.
It is important that you do not add your real first and last name to this user profile.
Don't forget to click the Update Profile button to save your changes.
VPN is a virtual private network that helps you secure your Internet connection and protect your identity.
Normally, all your internet traffic travels through different servers spread all over the world. Hackers and governments can spy on this traffic and see what it is doing online.
VPN acts as a network between your computer and the outside world. All your internet traffic goes to a VPN service where it is encrypted and sent to the destination by a random server in a different geographic location.
Here is a list of the best VPN service providers. We recommend the use of IPVanish. They offer military-grade encryption with hundreds of servers. They also have the easiest software to activate VPN with the click of a button on any device, including laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.
We hope this article has helped you learn how to blog anonymously using WordPress. You may also want to see our step-by-step guide to WordPress SEO for beginners.
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