This is a really interesting debate which always causes a discussion in forums.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with using pen names, provided you're not doing so in order to deceive or fraud or anything.

I'm in a slightly unusual situation, I guess. Before I got 'into' IM, I set up an offline business working as a hypnotist and NLP trainer under my birth name. That means that I have all of those domains and that branding set up for my offline hypnosis business (which is my passion and I still run today).

So when I started online, I decided to use a pen name in order to keep my businesses totally separate.

I didn't want people searching for me as a hypnotist (under my birth name) and finding all of this stuff about internet marketing and getting confused. The same applies in the other direction.

I guess as long as you're honest about it then using a pen name is fine. So if someone found my hypnosis stuff then found my IM stuff and asked... then I'd happily explain the situation. Like I am here.

In my IM stuff I appear on camera and record videos and attend live events, so provided you don't use a pen name to 'hide' behind or deceive anyone, I think it's fine.

But that's my opinion
Marc (aka Bob, Sue, Jim, Dorothy... Just kidding!).