A letter to the actors

I've found that the fastest way to get into the search engines, is to have a link from my site. I found that out one day when I accidentally listed something a few days, and then removed it - it was already on Google by then!

For those who are already listed on NativeCelebs:

The most important part of this website these days is probably the e-mail newsletter. It comes out every week, and is the way to get news out quickly (over 1200 subscribers last I checked). If you have done something interesting, send me a note about it so I can include it in the newsletter.

I'm especially interested in news about movies and TV appearances.

The easiest way to get me to put a link to your site in the newsletter is to put plenty of pictures on your site - featuring other actors as well as yourself. I'm a real pushover that way... So be sure to let me know about new batches of photos.

For those who are not yet listed:

I'll include your name, tribal affiliation and a link, as well as your photo in the casting section.

If the fans demand it, I'll do a profile page. Sometimes I should but don't because there's no material available. But I no longer use as much time building profiles as I once did, and if you're starting out, you really should make your own website, or pay someone to do it. A Yahoo profile with links to photo albums (for instance Webshots) will also work in the beginning. For established actors - your TV tome profile is also a place to start.

General advice:

Blogging:

Short for Weblog. Essentially an online diary (but written a bit differently) that you can write from any computer, as long as you remember your password.

This is a good tool for actors who have trouble updating their sites often - maybe busy or expensive webmasters. With a blog they have the chance to update their site with news whenever they like without any hassle.

An alternative is of course a message board, newsletter or discussion list. But blogging is the new in tool, they say. It all depends on your personality and support people (you'll write a weblog yourself, while a newsletter is more immediate and can be written by someone else. Also, a weblog works better if it's added to more often. A newsletter will probably work better if you send something very infrequently).

Also, a weblog works well for rants and rambling narrative - don't do that with a newsletter!

• Example - also a good choice for software

• Eh... I've taken my own medicine, and started a blog!

Photos from movies/TV:

Some actors have very few photos, and the fans like to see them in their roles. That can be solved by using captures. By now it seems that it's tolerated by Hollywood, even for official actor sites to use them.

I often record movies and TV on to the computer, and do many captures when I've recorded something. I also do captures of the extras. If you tell me how to spot you (whether your part was big or uncredited), I'll see if I happened to get a capture or two. I'll send them to you and you can put them on your site. However, I only use captures on NativeCelebs very sparingly. I have hundreds more archived - just waiting for some actor to ask for them.

If you do your own captures, I'd advice caution - don't blanket capture a movie, so you can "see" it by viewing page after page of captures. But some captures seem to be tolerated without any cease and desist notices.

Submissions:

Please send me an e-mail prior to sending me material. Preferably prior to having stuff scanned as well. I've got a FAQ with a section about scanning, and it might help you out - and me too. My net connection isn't all that great, and I get a bit irritated when I get really big e-mails, especially when the pictures are in the wrong format (never ever send me BMP or TIFF files! And please remove any photos inside word documents before sending them to me. Attach photos separately).

Casting notices:

A lot of people ask me to send casting notices to all the actors. I did that in the beginning, but quickly realized that if I kept that going, they'd tune me out (probably blacklist me). So I stopped. The really big names are usually not that interested in small pay or no pay acting gigs, while some are. The best way to reach out with casting notices is to post them on the message board. I'll sometimes send stuff on to actors if you name who you want me to send them to, and I happen to have their e-mail addresses. But only if I think they might be interested. This is sort of an unresolved area for now. Maybe I'll do something more interesting later, but for now - you'll reach the most people by posting on the board.

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