5 Must-Do’s of a Successful Fan Website

">Making a fan website is a great way to show appreciation to actors, musicians, athletes, artists or any other remarkable person that made an impact on your life. If you play your cards right, your website can become a hub for communication and conversation with fellow fans. And if you’re an artist or entrepreneur, you can take your fan website one step further and turn it into a side-income:  offering unique merchandise and collectibles will do the trick.
But how do you actually create a good fan website? Here’s a short guide we put together to help you create and design a strong fan website:

1) Tell Their Story

You’re obviously interested in a celebrity because they achieved something great. Use your website to present their biography in a compelling way. Don’t just copy what you read on Wikipedia – do some research, add quotes from interviews, share little-known tidbits, and most importantly, make it clear why this person is so amazing. It will be fun for you too, because you’ll get to learn more about the person you admire.

2) Get Visual

Perhaps the most important part in any serious fan site are images and videos. You definitely need good visuals on your website, and diversity is a keyword here. If you only display head-shots, for instance, or if you play only videos from a specific event, your website won’t draw a lot of attention. If you can show different aspects of the celebrity’s life – behind the scenes, commercials, family life, hobbies, charity work etc – other people who are interested in this person are much more likely to spend time on your site.

3) Think Copyrights

Remember, you are dedicating a website to a high-profile personality, but that doesn’t give you the right to use any type of content related to them. When you use photos, make sure you give credit to the photographers, add links to the source and do not use images whose reproduction and publication are prohibited. If your site is dedicated to musicians or artists, don’t put any content available for download without explicit permission from their representation.

4) Be a Host

As we mentioned earlier, a fan site is a great meeting spot for people with similar interests. The fans of a certain star are basically a community built around their shared admiration. Your site can give this community a place to exchange opinions and talk about the things that matter most to you – best album, hottest scandal, latest performance, favorite photos and more.

5) Promote Your Site

What’s a fan site without fans, right? Once your website is live, go ahead and spread the word. You can use your own social accounts to invite friends and followers, but you should also post the link on forums and pages that are dedicated to your idols. Go to websites where fellow fans hang out and let them know that they should not miss out on yours. Fan sites often have link exchange with other sites devoted to the same people, so you should inquire with other webmasters if they’ll be open to do that with you.