Anonymous Online

Taking inspiration from Belle de Jour, RIH explores the world of anonymously penned blogs and their mysterious authors…
http://runninginheels.co.uk/articles/anonymous-blogs/





Belle de Jour’s blog, detailing her life as a high-class call girl, became a widespread sensation due to its controversial content and the mystery surrounding its author. Diary of a London Call Girl went from online blog to published bestseller and popular TV series, yet the blogger behind it all was unknown – even to her literary agent for six whole years.

Whilst Belle de Jour is one of the more famous examples of anonymous bloggers, there are many more unidentified bloggers in the blogosphere writing about everything from sex to sandwiches with varying degrees of popularity and anonymity. The reasons that these bloggers choose to stay anonymous are as varied as their blogs.

For some, it gives them a place to openly express their opinions. For others, it can build mystique or simply keep them entertained. Having maintained her anonymity for six years, Belle chose to reveal her identity via an interview with The Times newspaper citing a desire to stop hiding and a vindictive ex-boyfriend as her reasons for coming clean, but other bloggers haven’t always been so forthcoming…

Sex Sells

Belle might have been one of the first prolific sex bloggers, but there are plenty of contenders for her crown now that she no longer blogs.

Girl With a One-Track Mind intended to remain anonymous, and although aware of Belle de Jour’s notoriety, she presumed that that no one would be interested in the sex life of a non prostitute. Unfortunately for her, public appetite for unmasking sex bloggers was at a high when her first book was published under a pseudonym. Whilst some of the more gripping blog entries relate to how her life changed after she was unwillingly revealed, she has continued with her blog (although this may be due to necessity as she claims that she can’t get hired within her previous field following the revelations).

Sex at Oxbridge chronicles the life of a student at either Oxford or Cambridge University and, yes you’ve guessed it, her sex life. These brief details and just a few entries were all it took for her to become notorious, and so far, she’s managed to keep her anonymity underwraps.

TGIF?

We’ve all moaned about work but some people have picked a more public forum to air their views.

For anyone who’s ever been a waiter or been served by one, Waiter Rant – with its posts about rude customers, bad tippers and random conversations – is well worth a visit. Initially authored anonymously by ‘The Waiter’, Steve Dublanica eventually revealed his identity when he landed a publishing deal.

Billed as a blog containing ‘Observations and opinions on fashion, lifestyle trends and popular culture from an anonymous fashion insider’, Disney Roller Girl provides a glimpse into the world of fashion that may disappoint those expecting scandalous revelations. Instead you’ll find intelligent musings on the business of fashion, the latest trends and industry events.

‘XO XO Gossip Girl’

Gossip Girl might make it look glamorous but the reality behind gossiping in the blogosphere doesn’t always follow the same script…

In August 2008, a blog was created on Google titled Skanks in New York containing insults directed at Canadian model Liskula Cohen. These insults were supplemented by photos of the model with degrading captions. All entries were created by an anonymous user and in her effort to find out who created the blog and prevent further posting, Cohen sued Google citing defamation. Following a court order, Rosemary Port – an acquaintance of Cohen’s – was exposed as the blogger, motivated by a personal grudge against Cohen. The saga continued with Port claiming that she would sue Google for revealing her identity…

A lesson for anonymous bloggers everywhere, you may not be anonymous forever and what price will you pay for your posts? Or should that be, what price can you charge for your posts?

15/03/10: Contributor to Running In Heel's Web Love feature

The RIH team share the strange, funny, amazing, inspirational sites we’re loving on the web this month.

http://runninginheels.co.uk/articles/web-love-march

Very Mary Kate

'Hey, will you hold my water bottle while I drink from it like a…’ Like a hamster, I know.’

Created by comedian Elaine Carroll this video blog claims to be the unofficial biography of Mary Kate Olsen. Its one minute webisodes depict the trials and tribulations of Mary Kate as she struggles to survive in the big bad world, with the help of her long suffering bodyguard of course. Satire for the celebrity obsessed generation with a Twitter-sized attention span and, unless you’re Mary Kate, essential viewing. There are new videos posted every Monday.

8/03/2010: Top 5 Twitterers to Follow for Gossip

Is celebrity gossip your guilty pleasure? Or maybe you don’t mind admitting to not just following, but actually reading Stephanie from The Hills’ updates on Twitter! Our definitive list of the five Twitters you need…

http://runninginheels.co.uk/articles/twitter-gossip-picks/

Everyone from Obama to Jessica Simpson has a Twitter account nowadays making it easy to keep up to date with everything from the daily musings of political leaders to the minutiae of celebrity’s lives. But if, like me, your interests veer more towards Rev. Run’s daily words of wisdom than the Dali Lama’s, here’s a list if the five essential twitters to keep yourself up to date on the world of celebrity.

TMZ

An online celebrity gossip and investigative reporting site with a reputation for breaking celebrity news, this site broke the stories of Michael Jackson’s and Brittany Murphy’s deaths and is where other sites go for material. Whilst their coverage, especially their use of video, is sometimes criticised, there’s no doubt that the site is fulfilling its mission statement to ‘feed the current American obsession with celebrities.’

Follow either @TMZonline or managing editor @HarveyLevinTMZ on Twitter for a constant feed of celebrity gossip.

E! Online

Describing itself as the source for entertainment news, celebrity gossip and pictures, this site is one of the more comprehensive gossip sites out there offering gossip, videos, photos, fashion and movie reviews. E! Online also hosts Ted Casablancas, one of Entertainment Weekly’s top ranked gossip columnists.

Follow E! Online @eonline.

Holy Moly News

For gossip with a UK perspective look no further than Holy Moly News, an entertainment website with a weekly email element. The material is sourced from industry insiders and their scoops are often copied by the tabloids. The site also contains an opinion area with sections like The Corner where users can rant about what annoys them.

Follow at @HolyMolyNews.

Perez Hilton

Perez might not be the most reliable nor impartial of celebrity commentators but with 1.8 million followers his amusing and equally infuriating posts certainly have an audience. While his pursuit of personal fame and recognition seems to have clouded his celebrity observations, it was never especially objective to begin with so follow his twitter for the sensation for being partial to one man’s extremely subjective, gossipy insight into the celebrity world.

Follow Perez @PerezHilton 

Gossip Cop

The antithesis to Perez and his ilk, Gossip Cop policies other gossip websites stories and rates them on a scale of 1 to 10 – 1 being rumour and 10 being real. Websites listed as being under surveillance include Perez Hilton, E!, The Sun and The National Enquirer. The website also includes a feed called Twit Happens which follows hundreds of celebrity tweets. This is the site to consult before you repeat gossip to anyone else.

Follow Gossip Cop @GossipCop

Or follow the entire list on Twitter here.

8/03/2010: Online Comedy

Running in Heels looks at some of best comedy on offer online. Free comedy? Now that’s laughable….

http://runninginheels.co.uk/articles/online-comedy/

Comedy isn’t just gross-out movies, festivals and stand ups. If you’re still battling an overdraft and grey weather depression there’s plenty of free comedy online in case you’ve got an extended case of the winter blues…

Funny or Die

Funny or Die is a comedy video site that combines both user-generated content with original exclusive content. You can find anything and everything here but the beauty of the site is that bad comedy doesn’t get to stay. Users get to vote on whether a video is funny or whether it deserves to die, once ‘dead’ the video goes to the site’s crypt to rest for eternity or until it is resurrected, if users consider it worthy of a second chance.

Co-founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay – the comedy geniuses (genii?!) behind Anchorman – and Chris Hency (writer and producer for the brilliant Entourage and – pause for useless celebrity fact – husband of Brooke Shields), the site’s very first video The Landlord featuring McKay’s baby daughter as a beer swilling, foul mouthed landlord harassing Will Ferrell for his rent, has amassed over 69 millions views to date.

 

Being a celebrity junkie, The Red Carpet Club is my favourite area of the site, with celebrities like Zac Efron, Rachel Bilson and Lindsay Lohan guest-starring in the sites videos. Some of my favourites are:

• Paris gets presidential with Martin Sheen: This video series was a response to an ill advised McCain campaign commercial, and focused on Paris’s campaign to become America’s next fake president demonstrating a more self aware and witty side to the heiress than anyone expected. Paris queries America’s ‘greatest fake president’ about the issues she plans to tackle including the economic crisis – ‘the biggest depression since The Notebook’. 
• Lindsay Lohan’s eHarmony profile: Lindsay Lohan looking for someone to spend the rest of her life, or at least the rest of her parole, with. 
• Zac Efron’s pool Party: Just because he’s hot and because the video also features Brody Jenner discussing economics (no really).

Youtube it!

Whilist funnyordie finds the best of comedy videos, great comedy can also be found by trawling through youtube. Here are two of my youtube favourites.

Chortle

Chortle is the online guide to comedy in Britain. Their youtube page has some great stand up videos. I’m currently obsessed with David O’Doherty’s Text Song but that’s just one of the many videos waiting to amuse you.

Summer Heights High

Created by and starring by comedian Chris Lilley, Summer Heights High is a mockumentary about life in an Australian public school which deals with typical high school issues. The main characters – Jonah Takalua, Mr. G, and J’aime King – the school boy, the teacher and the exchange student respectively, are all played by Lilley.

Whilst the entire show cannot be watched on youtube legally there are enough teasers to keep you giggling. Within Europe the show has screened on BBC3 but with a mere eight episodes in existence prepare to watch those youtube clips over and over again…

  

Tweet Comedy Club

One of the more innovative ideas to come out of twitter so far (and certainly more creative than the fake RIP Johnny Depp tag that keeps upsetting me lately), Tweet Comedy Club (@tweetcomedyclub) was conceived by comedian Tiernan Douieb. Described as an online comedy club/experiment, the club had their first gig last June gathering nine comedians together via twitter.

Whilst the gig itself was rife with problems; comedians forgetting to use the hash tag, slow typing and a particularly poor effort by Carl Donnelly who simply provided a link to a youtube video of him performing, it is an idea which has great potential if developed. A repeat performance in front of a both a live and virtual audience at Edinburgh Fringe in August was the last that has been seen of twitter comedy club but follow their twitter for developments as there may be another in the pipeline. It’s not going to put comedy clubs out of business anytime soon but it’s definitely one to watch.

10/02/10: Contributor to Running In Heel's Web Love feature

For the first time, we’d like to share the strange, funny, amazing, inspirational sites we’re loving on the web this month.

http://runninginheels.co.uk/articles/web-love-1/

Toy-A-Day

http://toy-a-day.blogspot.com/

I love this website. Toy-A-Day has been around since 2008 and its creator, Joe Chiang, initially planned to make and post a paper toy every day for a year. However, two and a half years on he’s still working away on the site so whilst it may have not gone according to plan, that’s definitely a good thing! Toys featured range from The Beatles, to Jay and Silent Bob to Barack Obama and everything in between. The toy is designed on a PDF which you print out and construct. Even if you haven’t got the patience to make one (and I admit I’ve only tried once) it’s still adorable to look at!

1/12/09 - Sartorial Salaries

We look at the success of The Sartorialist and see how other street style bloggers can follow in his fashionable footsteps and convert their blogs into profitable businesses….

http://runninginheels.co.uk/articles/sartorial-salaries/

Scott Schuman, better known as The Sartorialist, is one of the most famous street style bloggers out there. He is also the leader in demonstrating how street style bloggers can convert their blog’s popularity into a presumably profitable business model.

Aside from the ubiquitous advertising banners which feature on his website he also works on projects outside of his blog to monetise on his success. He writes for style.com and has a monthly page in men’s magazine, GQ.

Schuman has taken the simple street style concept off the pages of the internet, past the glossy mag and onto our coffee tables; he has published a book of his favourite shots featured on his website, The Sartorialist. Furthermore, his indisputable success as a fashion commentator – both of commercial fashion and street style – has gotten the fashion houses interested and several have incorporated Schuman into their advertising campaigns in a bid to use his blog’s popularity and photographic skills to enhance their brand.

In 2008 he featured in Gap’s autumn/winter advertising campaign as a model; he shot DKNY’S spring/summer advertising campaign 2009, and this year he shot images for Burberry’s trench campaign.

The Sartorialist for Gap

As the example of The Sartorialist shows, street style bloggers are in a position to reap the benefits of their popularity and monetise their enterprises as other websites, fashion brands, publishing houses, and even tourist boards are starting to recognise their influence. With street style blogs from Copenhagen to Tel Aviv, there’s never been a better time for bloggers to look to Schumann and learn.

Advertising

This is perhaps the most obvious way street style bloggers can make money simply by featuring advertising on their websites. However beyond featuring advertisements for clothing lines or fashion websites, street style blogs may be able to capitalise on technology which enables readers to identify where they can buy similar clothes to those they like in their photos.

Like.com pioneers visual search

Street style blogs tend not to feature where the subject’s clothes come from but with Like.com you can find similar clothing to what you’re admiring online. Like.com allows you to shop using a visual search tool – you draw a box around the specific detail, shape,colour or pattern you like. Then you conduct a visual search to find items which match the criteria. So if you find yourself craving the sneakers worn by some random person in Barcelona instead of searching the internet yourself you can enter a cropped picture of said sneakers and let them do the hard work.

This is one website that shows the potential that exists for street style bloggers to make money from their website content. By connecting to a search engine like this sales could be traced back to their site and they could charge for the advertising provided. Savvy bloggers and businesses that experiment with ideas such as these may reap the benefits in the years to come.

Fashion partnerships

Partnerships between street style bloggers and the fashion industry are not surprising. After all street style bloggers write because they love fashion. Often, however street style blogs provide a stark contrast to the typical view of the fashion world as the preserve of the rich, excessively thin and beautiful as they focus on capturing the style of real people in the street going about their everyday lives. Street style blogs are inclusive; anyone can appear on their pages or read and comment on them. This inclusivity is a major part of their appeal. The popularity and unstoppable growth of these blogs provides an irresistible lure for fashion brands who want to use this popularity to their brand’s advantage.

Additionally, from a business perspective, drawing attention to your brand is always a positive. Ungaro’s use of Lindsay Lohan as a fashion designer is debatable but her success as a marketing tool, drawing attention to the brand is indisputable. But if you want to bring attention to the brand in a more positive way, why not team up with someone who actually knows and loves fashion? A partnership with a well known street style blogger may well be the answer. The Sartorialist’s partnership with Burberry is an interesting example of this.

Art of the Trench by Burberry

Burberry, recognising the popularity of street style and the power of social media, has launched an advertising campaign titled Art of the Trench dedicated to its iconic trench coat. The campaign features photos from Schuman, with photographs from more street style bloggers to follow. It invites followers to submit stories to demonstrate both how much they love their trench and how they wear it, through the brand’s interactive website. Burberry then selects its favourites to be featured on the site. As per the street style model, photographs must be taken outside and must, of course, feature a Burberry trench coat. Readers of the site can leave a comment or share the image. They can also click to ‘like’ the image and the photographs can be sorted by popularity, style, colour, gender or even weather!

Simply by interacting with customers through social media, Burberry has made a genius marketing move by letting their customers participate in their advertising campaign as they now seem more approachable as a brand. An engaged audience is far better than a passive audience however only time will tell whether their 705,000 facebook fans and numerous user-submitted photos will translate into higher sales for both the trench and the brand

Putting Antwerp on the shopping map

Given that the majority of street style blogs provide a snapshot of life in any particular city it’s no surprise that the appeal of street style bloggers has been latched onto by tourism marketers.

In October a group of eight street style/fashion bloggers from the UK, France, and Netherlands travelled to Antwerp for a weekend trip to participate in a Fashion Treasure Hunt themed event around the city. The bloggers were invited by the Antwerp Tourist Board and their trip features on the website designed to attract tourists to Antwerp’s shopping district. From the organisers perspective the objective of their visit was to showcase Antwerp as a stylish tourist and shopping destination and the coverage provided by these bloggers is far reaching in terms of their audience as all bloggers are relatively well known within the street style world.

So does this mean that we will be soon seeing partnerships between street style bloggers and their respective tourism boards, will Dublin Streets soon by sponsored by Dublin Tourism? Again, we can only speculate but for tourism boards it’s an interesting way to spread your products message especially to consumers you may not usually reach.

Enterprising bloggers

Of course some bloggers have taken matters into their own hands, rather than wait for offers to come to them; they are actively trying to monetise their blogs. A number of street style bloggers offer their services as photographers but the most interesting proposition I’ve seen so far was from Style and the City. The French blogger proposed a project to Starbucks in which she hoped to organise a worldwide Style and the City contest which would feature Starbucks in the background of street style photographs with a prize of a year’s worth of free Starbucks for the subject of the winning photo. Whilst her proposal was rejected by Starbucks, her original idea and initiative demonstrates just how many different ways there are for bloggers to diversify.

But where will it stop? Fashion, tourism, coffee, what next? There’s no doubt that street style bloggers are coming out of the internet and into the mainstream in droves, but only time will tell how many manage to convert their blogs into businesses and sustain them.