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Fake Fred Wilson Dot Com
I just bought fakefredwilson.com. It's pointing to this blog although it may take a few hours for the DNS records to update.
I think this fakeperson.com thing has legs. I love reading fake steve jobs and this Alexa chart shows that Fake Steve Jobs already has more traffic than Jeff Jarvis' Buzzmachine, a top 100 weblog.
Like everyone else, I've been wondering who Fake Steve Jobs is. My money is on Nick Denton. It would be just like Nick to create a fake blogger and then engage in a hunt to find out the real identity. Or possibly John Heilemann who clearly has Steve Jobs on his mind and this post almost outs John as FSJ.
But beyond the identity of Fake Steve Jobs, there lies a bigger question. Can this fake person dot com thing turn into a real media opportunity? I believe that Federated Media and FeedBurner together can make FSJ over $200k per year. But is there an even bigger opportunity?
I remember in th early days of Weblogs Inc, they had the Official Apple weblog, The Official Microsoft weblog, The Official Google weblog, etc. Those blogs had/have some readership but not anything like FSJ.
Would it be better to build a network of company specific weblogs with Fake Steve Jobs, Fake Steve Ballmer, Fake Sergey Brin, etc, etc. I suspect that would be a much more popular set of weblogs if they were written as well as FSJ. Of course, that is a big if.
So back to what I did this morning. I don't think that fakefredwilson.com is a particularly interesting media opportunity but given that I was going to write this post, I figured it would be smart to own the domain.
Look at fakejasoncalacanis.com. Here's the domain name record. Maybe Jason owns it. Maybe not.
Bottom line. fake person dot com is something to pay attention to. If you don't want someone blogging as a fake you, buy the domain.
Comments (9) | Posted June 19, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
The last time that "fake" or "character" blogs were a big topic of discussion, a couple of years ago now, a lot of people (most notably Steve Rubel) seemed to feel that they were incompatible with the "real and transparent" spirit of blogging. I didn't (and still don't) agree, believing that a well-written "character" can be as good a blogger as anyone else, but it'll be interesting to see whether the discussion picks up again on the topic, and what people's feelings are two years later.
Posted by: W.B. McNamara | Jun 19, 2007 9:08:36 AM
You know you've made it when someone starts a blog as a fake-you.
I'm leaving fakeandyswan.com available. :)
Posted by: Andy Swan | Jun 19, 2007 10:12:54 AM
I think this needs some branding in the Phish sense to do better:
PhakeSteveJobs.com, PhakeFredWilson.com, etc.
I think everyone should secure their (Ph) domain also, and what about those vowel substitutions.. and l33tspeak... my renewal bill just went up 10x.
;)
Posted by: Cyanbane | Jun 19, 2007 11:57:08 AM
Lets not go there, what next Psuedo , sham, the list goes on.
Regardless, there are tons of folks creating a "character" when they blog.
My opinion is that unless you know a person personally, there is really not much in the way you can tell if what they do online personifies them.
You can browse and read through their entire blog archive but that doesn't mean you can truly them.
Of course they are always exceptions
Posted by: Jacob Pang | Jun 20, 2007 6:34:22 AM
Note that fakeperson.com is taken (it points to Joomla.com ...hmm?)
But imagine a new startup: FakePerson.com -- you buy the subdomain (fredwilson.fakeperson.com), they host your blog, and away you go! :-)
Posted by: brian | Jun 20, 2007 2:21:09 PM
Did you see that someone started a (fake?) Bono Blog?
I don't think it's real, but then again Bono is pro DRM.
Posted by: Carly | Jun 21, 2007 8:48:36 AM
No kidding Rubel doesn't go for the F as in Fake. He was the object of a merciless (and hilarious) dissection on FSJ this year after he had to reverse his stand on a product.
Posted by: Solo500 | Jun 22, 2007 5:47:30 PM
I haven't seen a single fake blog remotely as well written as FSJ. It's really a virtuoso performance. I've wondered about the Denton possibility too--but mostly, I just don't want to know.
It's like reading Dave Barry and wondering... does that idea have legs? It's an art form.
Posted by: yet another steve | Jun 23, 2007 3:54:37 AM
Forget that FSJ crap! I'm into blogging now, learn the truth!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Posted by: Steve Ballmer | Jun 26, 2007 1:17:05 AM
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