How to Remain Anonymous
/I received an email from someone who was considering starting a magic blog and wanted to know how to remain anonymous.
The thing is, I don't know that it's really possible to be a one-man operation and remain completely anonymous. Just for logistics you need a couple of people who will assist you under their own name (especially if you're going to be selling anything). I had help when I wrote my old blog and I have more help now. Ideally you want people who will be willing to take credit for the site if someone suggests they're the person behind it.
That's the key.
How do you keep the method to a magic trick secret? You can try and make it so clever and impossible to guess that no one ever figures it out, but that's pretty unlikely. Instead, lead people to think it's another method. They'll be satisfied they have the answer and your secret is still safe.
But if you're considering starting a blog and want to remain anonymous, my real advice is "don't bother." If you get big enough that anyone actually cares who you are, it will require way too much work to remain anonymous (having stuff mailed to a third party, doing your communication through a proxy, etc). I only do it now because I've had systems in place for so long to deal with it. But I don't really care. As I've said before, I'm not trying to remain anonymous to keep magicians from knowing who I am in real life, but to keep people who know me in real life from knowing who I am in the magic world.
Coming in the JAMM #1
I review the OX Bender by Menny Lindenfeld.
Is this the best way to bend an ox? We'll find out.