Who is Mike Wewerka? It’s me, Michael Blake… “Do whaa..” you say…read on.
For those of you who’ve been coming to the site for the past two years, I feel like I owe you a slight explanation as to why this name change has suddenly popped up. Prior to founding TechHog.com, I wrote for some other small sites, some non-tech related, and in the beginning, I wasn’t sure I wanted to have my name—my real name—plastered all over the net. So in order to protect my privacy I adopted a “pseudonym” or “pen name,” thus allowing me to keep both my personal life and my “online” life separate. When I decided to found TechHog two years ago, I simply decided to carry the name over, it had worked well in the past and if people did a Google search, perhaps the name would relate to the new site. All was well, until about 7 months ago or so, when something happened, something I didn’t think would… or at least so quickly. TechHog had caught on in some circles, the site was being picked up on sites like Engadget or The Verge and my name—my pen name—was being cataloged throughout the net, Michael Blake was becoming more than a pseudonym, it was become its own identity, the name was becoming more well known then my real name. To add to the confusion, earlier this year, I began contributing to the magazine, iPhone Life and again, Michael Blake was being used, but this time my picture was being used too, friends and relatives, unfamiliar with the site and the situation, where obviously confused.
This past weekend, I sat down and thought long and hard. Then it hit me, this [TechHog] is real now. If want this site, my writing career (or whatever this is) to be real, then I have to eliminate Michael Blake and create one identity, one name. So I decided to change every instance that was Michael or Mike Blake to Mike Wewerka (We-wer-ka). Is it as common as Blake, no. Is it as easy to say, definitely not. Is it more distinct and memorable, absolutely. Sort of like the old saying, any publicity, is good publicity. While people may laugh at it, mispronounce it, or simply choose to call me “Mike W” in an effort not to say it, they never forget it, that much I’ve learned.
So that’s the short version of the story, I’ll spare you the rest of the details so as not to bore you, and so I can get back to work. I hope I haven’t caused too much confusion and I hope you all can understand my reasoning, after all, some of you are partially to blame (seeing how the sites gained more popularity this year).
Thanks for visiting the site and helping us to grow!
Michael Wewerka
mike @ techhog.com
@MikeWewerka