NO ACTOR WEBSITE IS WITHOUT A SIN

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Your actor website should load fast

Actor Website sin #13

Thy site should load sometime this century

Listen, I understand the phrase "less is more", but this ain't it.

Google's homepage may have just a big search bar and nothing else, but this shouldn't be true of your website showcasing your work. Your actor website should impress your visitors, otherwise it looks broken...

This is what I thought as I started to contact the owner of this website on Twitter to let her know that something looks off. I got to the second sentence when the blank space of her website was replaced by a background image. It took about 2 minutes to load on a ultra fast internet connection. That's bad!

If I want to look at a semi blank page, I'll just go to google and admire their pretty search bar.

P.S. Black on Red is the title of a book about experiences in the communist Soviet Union. It should not be a design instruction for any element on your website.

If your website is not ready for people to see it, it's just not ready

Actor Website sin #12

Thou shalt not confuse me on how to sin your website

What-a-what?

I just gotta say, if your website is not there yet, don't share it with the world. Then again... who knows, maybe you're okay with misspelling of menu items. Maybe you're okay with broken images. Maybe you're okay with links that shouldn't be there being there. Maybe you're okay with a missing resume on a resume page. In that case I just need to ask one thing - what's the point of this website exactly?

I suppose I can click on the social media links... that's of course if they're linked up to anything.

Ay chihuahua!

Mislabeling your main menu

Actor Website sin #11

Thou shalt know definition of the word "News"

Imagine going to an ice cream store and requesting a scoop of frosty delight below the cover clearly labeled "blueberry". How would you feel if the salesperson reached beneath the cover and handed you a corn dog? Hey, maybe you like corn dogs. That's fine, but it ain't no blueberry ice cream.

Also note that it's not corndog nor icecream, I get that some people write voicereel as a single word, but you will not find that in any thesaurus, regardless of whether we know what you meant by it or not... but I digress.

Random tweets that you're mentioned in along with bunch of other guys IS NOT news! If you're not sure what your "News" page should have, you can take a look at the heading image that actually depicts article cut outs. If you don't have any news, change the name of the tab to "Twitter" or "Feed" or "Social", or better yet, remove it from your menu.

And since we're on the topic of the menu, CV would go better with your "About Me" page, not "Contact" page. The way it's set up doesn't flow together. Not to mention that by all web standards, contact page is usually the last option in the menu.

Great! Now I really want a blueberry ice cream.

Using 3rd party plugins might break your pages

Actor Website sin #10

Thy shalt be careful with thy 3rd party plugins

Another acting website hosting company giant has taken a "break"... the best part - it's on the website they use as a main example of their actors website, and it's been there for at least a week.

Here's what I think the message will say as I scroll to the right:

  1. Whoops, looks like something we did broke this page, but we will blame it on somebody else so that we're not accountable for your visitors not being able to listen to your voice clips
  2. Whoops, looks like something we just said gave us an idea. It was trolls. Trolls broke your voice clips. It's their fault. It's always the trolls.
  3. Whoops, looks like something is way more important than fixing this... umm... we're on a lunch break... we'll be back in 2018

Mmm, I just love the smell of errors in the morning.

List titles of your videos

Actor Website sin #9

Thou shalt use words

When I came to this website, I was so glad that "Video #1" was listed first. It's a huge pet peeve of mine when "Video #71" is listed first. What happened to the first 70 videos? Were they abducted and the ransom is pending? Did YouTube say "No, you can't use the first 70 videos, you have to start with 71".

But seriously, when I came to this page, I faced a huge dilemma. I wasn't sure if I was interested in watching Video #1, Video Link Here, Video Link Here, Video Link Here, Video Link Here, Video Link Here, Video Link Here or maybe perhaps Video Link Here. So many options! If I knew that Video Link Here is covering the topics I'm not at all interested in, I would watch Video Link Here instead.

I'm so glad that "Other Videos" page had such a great variety. It really kept me busy (contemplating) for minutes.

Be careful what you put on your image backgrounds

Actor Website sin #8

Thou shalt not make me squint

I visited a virtual mountain.

While there, among other things, I found a teal bird, a teal square-circle, and some other teal objects.

I can't really teal what they are, because of how teal they are.

I'm sure it won't be long teal I figure this out, but I need to squint really really hard.

Is it teal? Or is teal more green than blue?

In any case, I feel that this page will rank well for "teal" on google.

Okay, maybe not.

Lose the visitor counter on your actor website

Actor Website sin #7

Thou shalt stop counting visitors

Besides the big gap between this counter and the huge ad for Wix on this page, I'm curious about the message that is hidden underneath the counter itself. If it's hidden, it must be great, right? It's like the Atlantis of actor websites. Oh wait, whatever the last thing is, it's a link, because the "m" is underlined. I will click it and I will know for sure the meaning of life, universe and everything.

*click*

Oh wait, it's just another link to Wix. Way to build up the tension.

Anyways, that's not why we're here. If you're putting a number on your website and not labeling it, I will assume that you're counting visitors. I reloaded the page. Sure enough, the number went up. If I were to reload a page 917 times and give you 1000 views, will I get a prize? Or does that happen once I reach one million? (maniacal laughter)...

If you ask me, you should invert it instead. List the number of human beings on our planet, and each time someone visits your website, decrease the number by one. That will definitely be impressive once you get down to 83.

Be careful with your actor website menu

Actor Website sin #6

Thou shalt not let thy menu collide with thy message

I came. I saw. I serevvieceeys.

I scrolled through this page and I saw a hidden message in the menu.

I think it was put there by Satan himself, or maybe it was a lazy developer? Not sure, in either case, I kept scrolling and more hidden messages kept unveiling. I'm also not quite sure what language they were in, something Scandinavian I want to say. Whatever it is, I'm sure that website was cursing me out... or putting a curse on me. I'm so lost.

What happens when I click on the word "Saturday" that's on top of the word "VLOG" will I get v-logs that were recorded on Saturday? Or maybe I got it all backwards, maybe "Saturday" is on the bottom. Does it matter?

Endless scrolling on your actor website

Actor Website sin #5

Thou shalt stop thy website from endless scrolling

Now, I understand that some of you love the clicking sound of your mouse wheel as you scroll through the endless blank space of your website, or better yet, you might be an enthusiast of upward swiping motion on your mobile devices. You know the motion right? It's the same motion for "making it rain".

I however on the other hand am never too pleased when 5 minutes later I get to the bottom of the page and just see the big logo "powered by XYZ", I guess I was expecting a reward for doing that manual labor of swiping, but all I get is that and two horizontal lines. Yay. Now, let me swipe it downward. I prefer that motion more. It's the "destroy the pigs in angry birds" motion.

Don't ever autoplay your actor reel

Actor Website sin #4

Thou shalt not force thy actor reel onto thy neighbor

While doing some late night browsing, my speakers were possessed by not one, not two, but three voice-over actors.

One spoke about his past cartoons he was involved in, another mentioned a film that is currently playing in a festival some place far away, and the last one pleaded that I should hire her for any futureprojects.

That's right, I got scrooged by auto-play! Just as any sane person I ignored it all and closed them as soon as I could, hopefully never to have them possess my speakers ever again. That will probably make me a better person, so I suppose it all worked out just fine.

Too many ADS take focus from YOU

Actor Website sin #3

Thou shalt not have any ads on thy website

This WIX website is brought to you by some actor, but pay no attention to him, because for only $5 you can get a professional log! #professionallog

Oh and did we say it was a WIX website, yes indeedy, but just in case you didn't notice, hey, this is a WIX website which was built 7 years from now, because all actor websites in 2023 will have at least three ads on a contact page along with a weird arrow with #5, because 5 is the number of times you have to look at this page to realise that there's text under the person's name.

Not optimizing your website for a mobile experience

Actor Website sin #2

Thou shalt use font large enough to read

Somebody get me a magnifying glass, pronto! I need to read this actor's bio.

This website was in Flash, so of course I right clicked it and clicked "zoom in" and it was all broken. So I decided to see if it has a mobile version, luckily it did, but.. it's as simple as this: if I can't read it, I won't read it. if your actor website is not optimized for mobile viewing, you're loosing over 55% of audience. Make your website stand out on all screen sizes.

Unpublished SquareSpace website

Actor Website sin #1

Thou shalt not link to unpublished website

WARNING: this website exploded into a million little pieces. If you'd like to view it's actual content click refresh 27 times at the rate of 3 refreshes per second. Not slower! Not faster!

We dig it that you're trying to build your actor website on SquareSpace even if it's not as easy as IADB. However, if you're not yet completely ready to roll with your website, don't put a link to it in your profile.

List your actual name in titles on all of your pages

Actor Website sin #0

Thou shalt optimize thy keywords

I searched for "I <3 NY" and I found this actor website.

The least you can do is list your name in all your titles. If people are looking for you, there's a chance they won't find you if your title is "new-york-actor". These are great keywords, granted. You should keep those as well, but you have 60 characters of wiggle room in the title. Use it to list your stage name or your real name.

Clashing colors, ads and more

Actor Website sin #-1

Thou shalt not use clashing colors on thy outdated actor website

1990s called. They want their website back. Oh wait, they couldn't call, they were using the phone line for the dial-up. Maybe they faxed? Yes, they faxed.

This one is all squished in the upper left corner, which means it was probably designed in the 20 years ago. Clashing colors of purple on pink make things difficult to read for most and then the things that pop the most on the website are not your resume, not the "contact me" link, not the "hire me" link, but the twitter links and an ad.

Picking a horrid design

Actor Website sin #-2

Thou shalt spare my eyes from further suffering

Lights! Shiny things! Dots! Sparkly! Where are my sunglasses?

This design just screams "GO ELSEWHERE". I had to tone my blur way down, because things are barely readable as it is. The horrible background is clashing with everything. The only images are tiny thumbnails in the sidebar. Just what I'd expect from webs.

Add an overlay to make text visible on your actor website

Actor Website sin #-3

Thou shalt use overlays for thy headings

We interrupt this website to bring you a breaking headline. Get it? Headline? Breaking? Ahh, never mind.

Here's a great example of a good design, nice menu, great photo, but wait, did you see that text over her shoulder? Yes, there's text there. Adding a transparent dark background box to hold your headings might be a way to eliminate these problems.

Fonts. Fonts. Fonts.

Actor Website sin #-4

Thou shalt use a font designed within the last 4 score and 7 years

My fair lady, thy website wast clearly not design'd in this century. Thou shalt hire a new e-scribe!

There's absolutely no reason for anyone to pick a funky font for the bio on your actor website. You want funky fonts for logo. Sure. Funky fonts for your headings? Okay, fine, but the second you use a funky font for your navigation or for your bio, you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Invisible links

Actor Website sin #-5

Thou shalt fill in the blanks thyself

Something, something, A VERB, something something A NOUN. Am I reading an actor bio or playing Mad Libs?

Believe it or not, this is an example of a website one of my competitors is using. That's right, I do my research. I did not modify any of these colors. If you don't see a problem with this, I'm truly jealous of your eyesight.

Your actor website should look professional.

Actor Website sin #-6

Thou shalt not scare thy visitors

What in the world am I looking at? I'm actually a little scared right now. Did your website just hex me?!!

Your actor website should look professional, yet, I have no clue what in the world I'm looking at here. This "actor website" example features a winged skull with a pink arrow shooting through it's cheek, and there are blue wheeled snow flakes falling into a grass where Mickey Mouse is hiding? The thing is, it's not just a background. It's a theme. Even the heading has a skull on it. Hmm, to be or not to be? Not to be!

Outdated look on your actor website

Actor Website sin #-7

Thou shalt not repeat thyself

This website was probably built at the same time this photo was taken, but can you spot another issue here?

Does this actor website look outdated? Yes. Does it feel I could print it and use it as sand paper? Yes. But there's another issue there, can you spot it? **The Jeopardy melody plays in the background** Okay, time's up. See, what happened here is Oprah showed up and screamed "you get a menu, and YOU get a menu!" What in the world's going on in here?

Incomplete designs on your actor website.

Actor Website sin #-8

Thou shalt follow through with thy designs

Incomplete designs on your actor website look unprofessional, and if people see anything like that it will be hard to unsee it. Let's take a look. There's a border on the right hand side of the menu, but nothing on the left. The video is shifted to the right making it look off-center. Navigation arrows are almost not visible the way they are positioned. Navigation buttons are huge (pronounce it like Donald Trump would pronounce it). Huge! and there are little white bullets on the left hand side. Just dark and gloomy.

Improperly cropped images and empty sidebars

Actor Website sin #-9

Thou shalt not lose thy head

Here's the last example from this particular competitor. The image that is cropped improperly with the head cut off demonstrating that you will be beheaded after you get that website. The sidebar looks empty and makes the page look unbalanced. Uneven contact form fields help make everything unbalanced by alternating in width. Some fields are white, some dark gray. Disabled fields? Can I not contact you? Fine then.

Add some personality to your actor website

Actor Website sin #-10

Thou shalt add content to thy website

No shoes, no service. No text, no search engines

Simple is good, but sometimes you need more than just 2 videos. I actually like the design a bit. Not sure what clouds have to do with acting, but it's cute, and has a good use of colors. The problem is there's just nothing there on this actor website. The lack of keywords and text will render this page unusable by search engines. In other words, search engines will think that this actor webpage is empty. There has to be 20% ratio of text. The other pages on this website are almost as empty.

Warning! Plugin overload!!!!

Actor Website sin #-11

Thou shalt not overwhelm thy visitors

Wow. The only plugin missing here is the big abort button.

I know you want people to find you on your social media, but don't just stick all the plugins on one page and expect everything to look beautiful. This page is louder than an Offspring concert. The Twitter feed is virtually unreadable and the black on blue contrast with bright yellow accents makes it look very...1995. Aren't these the actual colors for Windows 95? I think they are.

Be careful with the background usage

Actor Website sin #-12

Thou shalt be careful about thy bio placement

Disclaimer: I normally don't do this, but I reached out to this girl and let her know that this is happening, because... well, you can see why.

I didn't even have to manipulate and blur the bio, because you can't read it. If she's trying to book the role of Invisible Woman in Fantastic 4, her bio is up to par.

P.S. That "Webmaster Login" link in the footer's got to go too.

Contact a who?

Actor Website sin #-13

Thou shalt be more specific

If you don't have a contact form at least list the full name of your talent agencies.

Contact a who?

I swear that I did not edit the names of the companies I need to contact to book this lady.

NTA might stand for "No Talent Agency" and WME might stand for "Without Main Expositor" but in case these are actual talent agent companies, why not list full name and a phone number?

Hmm, maybe it's "Nothing to announce" or "Never try approaching".

P.S. I "entered" the blog. It hasn't been updated for over a year. Yup.

Disappearing menu

Actor Website sin #-14

Thou shalt offer clearer guidance

Now you see me, now you don't. The magic trick of a disappearing menu.

When I first landed on this actor website I thought there was no menu, just a slideshow. Then I saw the menu. Then I didn't see the menu. Umm, what? Yes, the menu is there, but it looks like the designer swapped the active and inactive colors. White on light gray and black on dark gray is a big no-no. It's okay for Batman to hide in the shadows, it's not okay for the menu on your actor website to do the same.

The sneaky Weebly

Actor Website sin #-15

Thou shalt not allow Weebly to take advantage of thou

Most attractive thing on your actor website shouldn't be a form to register for a website!

I was going to pick on the menu on this website which wasn't very visible. Then I saw that on mobile there's a huge blank space between paragraphs which make it seem like the page ends abruptly, but then I saw this.

The prettiest element on this page is a form that Weebly inserts on the bottom for other people to get a website. Eeeek. Is that how you spell "eeeek"? "It's a surprisingly easy creator" that will insert it's own ads and large forms into your website. Yay, you now work for Weebly.

Navigation is Important!

Actor Website sin #-16

Thou shalt not hide your navigation!

Someone on Twitter said, what do you think of my Actor Website. I click on the videos section first and... I guess I'm done.

Hmm... what should I compare this to... Imagine you go to a restaurant and you get a menu which has all pages stuck and all you can see is the list of vodka drinks. Well, you're probably glad that it's not a list of desserts because you're off the carbs for the past 3 weeks, but hell, vodka is not a drink!

Can people click back to see the menu? Well, only if they didn't get a direct link to this page, but even then, I dunno. Sufficed to say I gave up after seeing this video page overlaying the menu.

"Clueless" is a title of a movie, not a designer skill!

Actor Website sin #-67

Thou shalt spellcheck thyself before thou wreck thyself

This actor website was found on Instagram and I'm actually a bit angry with the designer. 

Design is quite nice, BUT at the very moment I read "Contact With Me" I started to Laugh On My Inside Head. "Contact Informations" was a fun phrase, but I really dig that this actor has 8.6M Likes and... wait for it... 5000 +awards from 300 film where he did 60 (not 10, not 20... 60!) hour of extra time. I gotta be honest, 5000 +awards is not as impressive to me 60HR. Extra Time. That's like... so many hour extra time. Wow!

So don't wait a second longer, make sure you Contact With this Miami based actor and make sure to read his "Biographie" and "Filmographie". Yes, I had to check twice. The designer is also from Miami, so no excuse for the website being international or something. I'm not saying to spellcheck everything you do... just the stuff that I can screenshot and poke fun of.

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Niche professional websites for people in the film and TV industry.

Weeee, you found me!

I'm your buddy Bottie, I was hiding behind the scenes, but now that you've found me I'd be happy to tell you what I'm doing.

Actor Website helper: Bottie

I just wrote a few fun facts about Web For Actors

Would you like to take a look?
Click here to check them out. I hope it will cause involuntary audible response.