This may be basic knowledge, but I see a lot of actor websites out there that are missing this basic information, so here is the MINIMUM that you should put on the website:
- Your headshots - not just any photos, not selfies, but headshots. If you can't afford professional headshots, you can ask your friend to take a photo of you on a solid background. Lean forward put your head up, smile, don't smile, it's up to you. Once done, you can get somebody on fiverr.com to edit it for you for $5 - $10. This shouldn't break your bank, but you will have an "okay" photo at an affordable price. When you're ready, get a pro photo shoot. Look at the end-result photos though. Some of them are crap. Be sure you understand what you're paying for. Now, back to your actor website - don't just stick it in there. Link the photo so that people can click it and download it, or AT LEAST - click it and open it in new tab or window.
- Your resumes and credits- I highly recommend both. If you have a PDF resume, add a download link to it. Single click downloads work well. Make sure to name your resume properly so when it downloads, people know how to find you again by just looking at the file name. Now, credits is a different story. With credits you aim to impress. Ever noticed how IMDb does it? They put your "Known for" credits on top and they sort it by the most impressive ones first. If you were unaware of it, IMDb now gives you an option to select what goes in your "Known for" so feel free to edit that to match your top few results on your website.
- Contact form and social media links - gosh, how many people miss that. They put their phone number in there or sometimes just a phone number of the talent agency and call it a day. The odds that someone calls you are much smaller than the odds that someone will click on your Stage 32 profile link and see what you're up to, and if they see you're available right now, they might tab back to your website and fill out a contact form saying, hey, this is me, this is what I'm looking for, let me know if you're interested and click send. No fuss, no muss.
K.I.S.S. Keep it simple. Simple!
Edit: Soon after posting this tip, I saw a link on Twitter and clicked on the resume. It opened up a PDF file. Great. I closed the tab and lost the website. Oops. Open up your downloads in the NEW TAB. In the code you just need to add target="_blank" and you'll keep the visitor on your site.
