Why I do what I do and other reflections...

I've been asked by a couple of execs and producers before why I do what I do. Why do I spend all day working and then spend the rest of my free time on a set of fansites for actresses? Is it obsessive fannishness? Is it boredom? Is it craziness? Is it ever embarrassing? Those types of questions have been asked before and time and time again I find myself reflecting on those questions, churning the answers given. So, I figured I'd take the time out to talk a bit about why I do what I do.

First of all, answers to the questions above are: no (well maybe a little), started out that way, not at all, never. Respectively. But its so much more than that, to be honest.

A Hobby was Born
When I first got into the whole fansite thing, I was enrolled into a small amount of courses at my university in order to complete my degree. As a result of going to school (as many know) I could only work so many hours. Back in the day, my title was "Technical Response Center Lead" which means I managed about 10-15 people (TAs, student tech assistants) as well as responded to on-campus technical issues with computers. I built them from the ground up regularly. I've cleaned more viruses than you really even know exists. We won't even get into how many times I've had to install Windows XP (or in many cases, RE-install Windows XP) or crack into the system to change an admin password for some student who simply forgot what it was. Anyway, enough about what I did back then, its not relevent anyway. The point being, I went to school part time, and only worked 20 hours a week. I had a lot of free time on my hands. I had only began watching Smallville the spring before, and Season 4 was amazing. As I perused message boards, I started to see some of them that were in severe need of updating or maintaining. I was going to email the webmasters to offer my services but then thought that that could be perceived as a bit snotty.

So, finally, while playing around on televisionwithoutpity.com someone mentioned that the fansite that was for Allison Mack hadn't been updated in a while, and that they wished there was an up-to-date fansite. Great! Challenges! So, within three days of that discussion, AMO's pre-launch site was up and running and I was tweaking layoutst and adding content.

At first, it was a bit hard to get any sort of recognition beyond TWOP, in part due to many defunct sites linking to the defunct (but gorgeous!) allison-mack.com. Then there were those who were loyal and good friends with the webmaster and weren't sure if linking to me would be some sort of betrayal or not. Then there were the sites that wouldn't link to me because certain other sites linked to me and it all just became so crazy and political and it made my head spin and I shouted to the ceiling "THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!!!"

Google didn't like AMO at first. It took about 8 months for google to really start registering AMO and even then the listing was usually on page 32 if even that.

And then, I fell into a groove. I have some amazing staff there and I ignored the politics going on within the fandom and just decided AMO was going to be about Allison. It was going to be a publicity portal and a place where her fans can gather without dealing with obnoxious message board posters or reading negative harsh stuff about real people.

Suddenly, AMO made six on Google, page 1. And the world was suddenly right. Or at least the AMO world.

I remember my first attempt to do an interview. I'd been told by so many people that fansites are unimportant and no one cares, but I was determined, even though terrified of rejection. It took me three days to work up the nerve to call Allison's agent, who happened to work eight blocks from where I worked after graduating college and moving to California. Finally, I did, and they directed me to the appropriate people, and somehow within 24 hours I was scheduled with a one-on-one interview with Allison the following Monday, which was only two days from then.

I was absolutely floored. I was sort of lost, to be honest, because aside from that one assignment in speech class, I'd never interviewed anyone before, much less a celebrity, much less for a fansite which, supposedly, meant nothing to anyone anyway.

Needless to say the interview was performed and Allison was fabulous! Back in that day, April 2005, AMO had 600 members, which was huge since it had only been open for about five months. We were lucky to get 200 unique visits a day and I remember thinking "Wow" once the interview was posted and we got close to 2,000 in a day and a half.

Now, almost two years into the site, I've done a second interview and AMO has 8000 members and on average 1200 unique visitors a day, and those numbers rapidly increase over time. 8000! For 1 actress! Some Smallville fansites that have been open for four or five years only have 14,000 for two or three actors, so I consider this to be a huge testament to Allison's popularity.

So, enough with the history lesson already! On the the post! Reasons...yes that's the topic. Well...

It's a professional thing
This is the first and foremost reason why I work on fansite is very simple. Future contacts. Portfolio work. Dress to Impress. Ultimately, I'd like to run my own business which specifically focuses on the very narrow niche of "Official Sites" and what better way to do it than to start on "Unofficial Sites" first? Through AMO, my work has been widely recognized and the site has even helped land me multiple jobs due to all of the hard work I have put into it over the last two years. I've made several "hollywood" contacts from it, which is ultimately the point - getting known in the industry as an online publicity manager, or at least working in conjunction with managers for online publicity.

It's become a respect thing
Another reason why I continue work on AMO is because of who it represents. I've always come from the perspective in the industry that it doesn't have to be a dog-eat-dog world. And I strongly believe that. And from what I know of Allison, she doesn't behave that way either. In fact, she's the single most happiest celebrity that most people have ever met. She's often described as having a myserious, soothing, happy glow about her and she's famous for her smiles and friendliness. That is exactly how I hope to be and how I want to run my business. She serves as a hopeful role-model in a really mess up world of entertainment. Her positive attitude reminds me often that SHE is the reason why fans love her, not her character she plays.

It's a unique position thing
As being the fansite admin for SMALLVILLE's most popular female character, who unfortunately isn't billed that way in the credits, it's caught a lot of attention from a lot of people. I try to often extract myself at the narrow "Allison" point of view and reach globally throughout the fandom and see what people think in general about the show. Since I can do this, I feel I can accurately represent most of fandom's thoughts, even when I don't agree.

It's rewarding
To see the numbers on my site sky-rocket. To get to actually talk to Allison occasionally. To get to run special charity auctions with her participation. Its all absolutely rewarding for me and totally worth my time. To hear Allison call AMO her fansite? Priceless! Also, AMO is such a positive environment! Allison's attitude is so happy-go-lucky and shiney that her fans tend to be similar. They're more gentle, more caring, more thoughtful, and that really gets reflected on the site and within the fandom quite often.

So, the other question that occasionally crops up is "does it ever get frustrating?" and the answer to that is: Yes. There are many reasons why it can be frustrating but the largest of all is having to deal with fandom politics. Ideas like "you shouldn't link to so and so" or "lets steal AMO news and not credit them, but credit to random members that showed us the news instead" or being blacklisted from other sites who somehow think AMO is less than what it really is...Allison's fansite. Fandom politics is huge for me. Its supposed to be fun! Not political. So have fun! Again, "the world doesn't HAVE to be dog-eat-dog" mentality coming into play.

Other things that get frustrating, which isn't really a problem anymore now that its so huge, is having to do every single bit of news searching or posting myself. Members don't use the "submit news" link very often, and most of my time spent on AMO was posting news, if it was even reported to me. Also, event images and gallery images. I'm not one of the lucky people who have access (or hacked in) to publicity photo sites, and that was at times noticeable when I didn't have images up that others did.

Aside from those small things, I wouldn't trade the extra work I do in for anything. I love it.