Hi Erin, (You don't know me yet) but I wanted to ask you about running a fan-site. I read your tumblr posts often and trust your judgement and admire what you have done for Idina. There is an actress that i've admired for some time now and she does not even have an official website. I'm wanting to just make a simple fan-site and was wondering what you would recommend I start with? Is there any specific platform I should follow? Curious on your advice. Thanks so much.
Hi! I hope you don't mind me answering this publicly, especially since your blog is brand new. I'd like to tag/archive it for future similar questions or for anyone else interested.
I myself have never built a fan site from nothing. I inherited Idina-Here from its creator. So, I can't speak to what it really takes to build a site.
In regards to the actress herself, I would not approach her about building a fan site for her. Not to say that you would, but fan sites are (and should be) thankless jobs. The gratitude comes from your fellow fans.
WordPress is probably the most popular method of building a site. Idina-Here is (mostly) run through WordPress, as are two of the three official sites I run. It's very user-friendly, customizable, and FREE.
If you've never built a site before and feel intimidated, I would recommend sweet-revelation.net to assist you. She has built dozens upon dozens of WordPress-based fan sites - including the current version of Idina-Here. Several of her sites are listed at that link so you can see her work. She's also my expert developer when I have trouble with my official sites.
In the meantime, I would draw out a site map of what you have in mind, start compiling the media, articles, etc. that you're going to include, and think about how you want it to look from a theme standpoint.
Good luck to you!
