I came across Alyssa Milano's official website recently, and it was quite an interesting time. There's a lot of advice for celebrities who are concerned about their image online. Alyssa's problem was lots of fake nude photos (manipulated). Her mom decided to strike back. One of the things they did was decide to "take back" Alyssa's image online by making their own official website where Alyssa is in control and can tell her side of the story and present herself however she wants.

Her mom has made a case for celebrities controlling their own official websites. While this is especially important in the case of female stars with lots of fake nude pictures online, I believe it's a good idea even for Native actors - simply because a good official site will help them take care of their fans better and help convert the curious into fans. One actor who did his own site is Frankie Avina. I knew nothing about him until I saw his website, and now I sure will recognize him next time I see him on TV. Right now there's a new site for him instead, a lot smaller than the one he did himself. I actually think his own was better, but what do I know?

I still get questions about whether Eric Schweig really cut his hair? Yes, he did. More than once, and really short. The thing is, Alyssa Milano made it into an event when she cut hers. She actually has pictures of the event on her site. No questions there. She looks really scared on the photos, but glad when it was over. We're still guessing about what made Eric cut his hair. The only thing I know is that his agent wasn't pleased when he cut his hair a second time...

There are so many things a celebrity can do to build his image online. The best thing is to take a look at what other celebrities are doing on their sites.

OK, the precise things you can do:

Also, see this page for a rant on the difference between a resume that would make sense for a casting director and a fan.

I had a conversation with Duane Loken recently (May 5th 1999) about the importance of a good filmography online:

I asked him about the two new movie pictures on the gallery page, and he couldn't see the use of having info on his old parts in movies and films on the net. It's like, it happened a long time ago, and only what's happened recently counts in the industry. Well, Duane knows the industry while I don't, so I'm not going to argue over what is important with industry people. What Duane and other actors need to understand is that the fans want to know, and they will track down old movies and films their favorites have appeared in. If info about these earlier appearances aren't there, the fans won't know about them, and can't see them. Some fans build video libraries over their favorites. I know it won't matter to industry people what an actor did in the past, if he looks completely different today, but it does matter to the fans! Their support will in turn mean something in the marketplace when a new production is released. Wes Studi's fans sent his agent the results of the April fave actor vote, because he won. Apparently the agent is going to put it to good use!

Publicity photos is something actors usually keep around just in case there's a need, or send out to fans. Well, you can double the use of your money by putting them on the web as well. Pato put lots of those on the net, already autographed. I don't know if you'll consider it a good idea, but it is possible to put a downloadable photo on the net that actually print satisfactorily enough so that they can put the printout on the wall. Buffalo Child sent me some really big ones that print relatively well, at least the one time I tried it (as an example).

Personal photos is something fan sites put up if they can find them. Usually photos taken at a festival or pow wow with some fan. With your own site, you can put up the photos you want people to see. Alyssa Milano bought herself a digital camera, and she's snapping lots of photos for her site. While her camera isn't exactly the best I've seen technically, it works for her. Robert Beltran contributed photos and wrote the captions (more like small stories) on lots of pages (the self portrait section). Actually a lot of shots from theatre work! Many celebrities have turned the tables on the paparazzi, and taken photos of them. I'm sure that with some creativity you could do a story about what it's like being in this business. Fans standing in line for an autograph. The security at some event. Some even like having their photo taken with bigger stars than themselves. Producers, directors, whatever.

Chats

I'm not completely sure how to address this, but I still need to tell you about some possible sources of trouble. I've asked around, and variations of the theme have happened with different celebrities.

Let's say you are a celebrity. You have found someone to build a site for you. Fans who you believe will do a good job of taking care of your fans. Things progress well for a long time. They do a very good job, and the fans flock to the site. In fact, your popularity on the internet is rising, or maybe it is that the fans have found a way to congregate and learn more. Then some of these fans decide they want a site about you as well. They are building their own homepage, and want to include sections about their interests. One of those interests happen to be you. OK, how to deal with that? Oh, it's flattering, and in the interest of making sure the information is correct you get in touch with them to iron out some things. Maybe some photos as well? Sure, can do.

In most cases it'll be OK, the two or several sites coexist happily. Maybe they all link to the other sites and make a webring. What may happen in extreme cases is that one of those sites decide they have an exclusive, or their site is better than the other, that they have a better relationship with you or whatever. Intimidation and cattyness is relatively common - you may never hear about it unless it gets really bad.

There are also those cases where one site is selling items that have to do with you or movies you've been involved in. Money is a powerful motive, even if the money involved is minor. People will protect what they perceive as theirs, and most people are not saints... Hence, some cat fights may ensue!

How do you avoid problems? I don't know an ironclad solution. There are so many pranksters on the internet, I don't think there's a way to safeguard against it completely.

Anyway, you should probably not promise anyone exclusivity unless you really know them personally. At least not promise them eternal exclusivity. Hiring professionals may be a great idea, but not affordable for everyone. You also need to make sure you can fire professionals if they go on a power trip. There was one case where someone I was told was a professional web designer went on a power trip and eventually deleted the whole web - among other things (I think the part about it being a professional web designer was probably not correct, I saw plenty of mistakes one of those never would have made...).

There are sometimes more than one message board dedicated to a specific actor. The problem with that is that sometimes there's a competition as to which message board is more popular. What is allowed on what board, what is the better board etc. There is a growing tendency that every site starts its own message board. Pretty soon we'll have a jungle and it'll be very hard for the fans to keep up with maybe five boards... I'm seeing lots of cat fights between the boards, over everything there is to be catty about (in the near future, I mean). I wish we could agree that there should be only one message board per actor. If there is a fan board, and an actor starts or commision an official site, then the official site's board should take over the role the fan board had.

Well, I started talking about exclusivity, and soon got sidetracked. The problem is that cat fights over who has exclusivity, who can do what, who are - whatever, it will drive some fans away. Even cat fights about who knows the celebrity! They just won't be able to handle it, and go away, possibly never to return. I've seen that happen over and over. Sometimes they come back six months later, sometimes - I guess not? Anyway, I've also seen sites that were pulled down by their creators because they were harassed. I've been tempted myself to quit working on certain projects. People have tried to intimidate me into pulling out on several occasions.

I believe you as a celebrity can do a lot by being clear what you want. People can still decide to ignore your wishes, but I have seen situations where the fans have battled it out because there was no clear direction from the celebrity/management. Power struggles are nasty, and something that should be avoided if possible.

OK, hope this "chapter" wasn't too disjointed, too stream-of-consciousness. Tell me if this hit the spot, OK?

How to make sure you retain control over your website, even if you get into trouble with the people who build it for you? Well, one way you can be sure people will know it's your own site, is if you get your own domain name. Robert Beltran has his own site at http://www.robertbeltran.com/ and nobody is going to dispute that this is his official site. At this point I'll ask every fan with a fansite to respect that a celebrity may want his own site in the future, even if he's not anywhere near the internet today. Don't reserve that domain name. There is another way, as Michaela did. She uses the domain name http://www.billywirth.net/. It's not an official site, and http://www.billywirth.com is still free for Billy to use at a later date. The domain name she uses is descriptive, and still doesn't use the typical official domain name. Having your own domain name means parting with some money, but it is probably worth it in the long run, because it means you're in control. If you're strapped for cash, it can probably wait, or you can reserve the name, then wait till you have more money to actually use it.

So what do you do when you've got the domain name? You can rent place on a server, how much it costs depends on how much space you need (be sure you can start out small and rent more place as your site grows) and the speed of the server. Also how reliable the service is (how little downtime they guarantee).

Note: Alyssa Milano, Pamela Anderson and Christina Applegate was mentioned because of what they did with their hompages, they are not Native as far as I know.