Unofficial Fan Made Sites Blossom Daily for Disney Stars
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by: Lisa Johnverrell
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Lauren Townes doesn’t have to log on to the main site of the House of Mouse to see her new favorite teen girl idol. Instead, she gathers in a special place where others adore Ashley Tisdale just as much.
“Ashley-T is the best website for Ashley Tisdale”, the sixteen year old told us recently. “They always keep you up the date and the photos are amazing.”
Ashley-T.com and MissTisdale.net are just two of the many fan made websites for the High School Musical starlet. Unofficial fan sites are popping up all over the internet for young Disney celebrities. Most of these sites offer fans a chance to interact with each other through chat rooms, message boards and private messengers. There are also galleries and news on the celebrity, including their latest projects. Although some celebrities have official sites that offer the same information, a bulk of followers still choose to visit the unofficial sites daily, even the celebrities themselves.
“Ashley Tisdale said in an interview that she does visit her fan sites, and I was told that she visits MissTisdale.net”, said the site’s webmaster, Ruben Santos, who runs it from Portugal.
Joining Tisdale with a barrage of unofficial fan sites are her High School Musical co-stars Zac Efron and Corbin Bleu.
Stephany of Zac-E.com tells us why she loves running the fan site. “I want to support Zac Efron in every way possible. I've gotten mostly positive feedback, and his fans are the best, in my opinion.”
Lisa Johnverrell of AlmostBullet.com, a site for Corbin Bleu fans, shares the same drive to promote Bleu’s career. “It’s something about that young man that stands out to me. He has a personality that can change the world and that’s why we support him.”
Positive feedback from site visitors, supporting the celebrity and making a fun environment for fans are just some of the benefits from running an unofficial fan site, but there may be some drawbacks, especially if the site wants to make contact with the celebrity.
Santos was pleased that Tisdale’s publicist contacted him first and was impressed with the fan site. Still he admits, “I'm just waiting for her to contact me”.
Unofficial fan site owners often contact the celebrity’s management and publicist for information. CorbinBleuFans.com and AlmostBullet.com have both acknowledged that Corbin Bleu’s management team is very friendly and helpful in providing information to their fan sites.
Hduffworld.com, an unofficial fan site for Hilary Duff, was even contacted by her official fan site for a partnership, however, the owner shares that the affiliation is only bringing more members to celebrity’s official site.
“They initially sent us fan site newsletters, but they've stopped doing that”, Hduffworld.com webmaster Vick told us, “They also restrict fan sites from posting fan club content, which is understandable, since the fan club is a paid feature of Hilary Duff’s official website.”
It costs nothing to visit a celebrity’s unofficial fan site, which is why the sites are getting constant daily visits from fans. Most of the site owners pay to host the sites out of their own pockets, giving promotion to the celebrity. So, why do unofficial fan site owners promote their celebrity for free?
We asked the owner of Jordan-Pruitt.org and she said, “I run Jordan Pruitt's unofficial fan site because I think Jordan deserves a site which promotes her work as an artist. Jordan has stated that she loves what her fans do, such as promoting and listening to her music.”
EmilyOsment.us has been online since 2002, and Zhar, the website owner, says that getting positive feedbacks from her site visitors is really rewarding. “Running a fan site for someone who has talents to share and deserves a lot of exposure is a fun and creative way of showing my support as a fan.”
AlmostBullet.com, in addition to promoting Corbin Bleu, is also sponsoring a voting contest for unofficial fan sites called the ABBY Awards. The sites are voted for on a special forum and will be awarded this July for best male, female and group unofficial fan site for several celebrities, most of them of Disney fame.
“We think this is a great way of rewarding the fan sites”, Johnverrell said. “These website owners are really loyal and hardworking and they deserve recognition of their own.”
To vote for the ABBYs, go here.
About the Author
Lisa Johnverrell is the webmaster for AlmostBullet.com, a Corbin Bleu fan community.
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