Is this cheaper/easier than using anonsteem?
This is actually a free service provided by busy. The account creation fee (.5 Steem) is decided upon by the witnesses. The ~30k in vests is a delegation from your account to the created account. I believe it's required for bandwidth purposes. You can take it back whenever you want tho.
Cool, I will setup a few accounts once I am back in London next week. There are a few people who registered via steemit and never got their registrations approved.
Thanks for your help!