To Flash or not to Flash. Technically speaking, some people do not know the difference between a Flash website and a standard HTML site but they know they like the animated graphics, slick page transitions and control that Flash offers. In this article we will discuss the pros and cons of using Flash to design your artist portfolio website.

What is Flash?

Flash is a program used to create interactive websites. Using Flash you can create interactive content for websites, media rich advertisements, presentations, and games.

What Are the Benefits of Flash?

Flash provides unlimited design options and control over layout, font choice and colors. Because Flash animations are vector based, designers can create interactive animations with relatively small file sizes. Unlike pixel based graphics, vector graphics are small in file size and can be scaled up or down without affecting their quality. Flash websites can download quickly but often this is not the case because Flash Developers tend to be heavy handed with their Flash intro and complex animations. 

Promoting your website doesn’t always have to cost you money. Here are ten, free things that you can do today to drive traffic to your website.

1. Submit your web site to Directories. Make sure your website is listed at dmoz.org as doing so will increase your ranking with Google. Yahoo is another important place to have your web site listed. Personal websites are free to list.
2. Build a mailing list. Add a “Sign Up” form to your website so people can join your mailing list. NotifyList.com offers this service for free.
3. Send an Email Newsletter. Publishing a monthly newsletter is a great way to keep people up to date on your current work, projects and shows. Constant Contact offers a free trial of their email Newsletter service.
4. Social networking sites. If you are already on social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Self Portrait, or deviantART, make sure you have your website listed within your page and profile.
5. Request reciprocal links. Have a section on your website for links and request links from friends and artists whose work is similar to yours. If you link to their site first, they are more likely to return the favor when they ask. Take it a step further and create a banner ad for others to use when linking to your site.
6. Include you website on printed materials. If you run print ads or distribute promotional postcards, make sure your website is included.
7. Start a Blog. Keeping a Blog is a great way to not only share your thoughts and ideas pertaining to your art but it can also increase traffic to your web site if people are searching for the things you are writing about and linking to them. Keep your writing informative and relevant and people will keep coming back. Enter you Blog in Blog directories like Bloglines.com, Blogorama.com, and Blogcatagory.com.
8. Submit a sitemap to Google. To ensure all of the pages in your website are getting indexed by Google, submit a site map to them.
9. Page Titles. Write a descriptive, unique Page Title for each page on your site. Keep it short, no more than 10 words. Use words that describe the content found on each page.
10. Email Signatures. Most email programs like Outlook and AOL allow you to include a “signature” at the end of each email. Include your website within your email signature.
    

As an actor, the main goal of your portfolio website should be getting you work. You want casting agents and industry people to find your head shots, resume and reel as quickly as possible. Here are ten common mistakes to avoid and what you can do to improve your website usability.

1. Flash Websites - One reason to avoid creating a Flash website is that the content on your site will not be indexed by search engines. If you want people to find you, design your website using standard HTML. An HTML website will load faster. If you feel Flash is necessary, add Flash elements to your website instead.
   
2. Resume - Aside from putting your resume on your website, make it available to be downloaded in PDF, Word Document and Plain Text formats. Having your resume on your website doesn’t mean it will print properly so providing your resume in a format that is convenient to your visitors is important.
3. Consistency - Make sure the colors, font choices and layout of your website are consistent. If someone visiting your website hasn’t met you, you don’t want to make a chaotic looking first impression.
4. Professionalism - Your actor portfolio website is your professional calling card. Family photos, funny youtube movies, and outrageous friend comments are fine for your myspace page, but with your online portfolio keep the focus on your image, your body of work, and your contact information. You. You. You.
5. Contact information - It may seem obvious but there are plenty of actor portfolio sites with little or no contact information. Make sure your phone number, your email address, and any management information is readily available on your website. Avoid using a contact form because it’s an unnecessary barrier between you and people wanting to offer you work. If you are weary of giving out your digits because of stalkers and love-struck fans, use a service like grandcentral that will forward calls to your existing phone line.
6. Hijacked Websites - All too often you hear stories of people having their sites stolen from them. When you register your domain name, use a credible company like Register or Network Solutions. Make sure the name is registered to you, at your address, and paid for with your credit card. If you have a hired a designer, a professional website designer will know to register the domain in your name and if necessary, they can add themselves as a technical contact.
7. News - Add a news page to your website or have a space on your home page that will allow you to keep industry people up to date on your current projects.
8. Music - Another big mistake people make is having music play on their website. Visitors are at your website looking to find information about you, not to hear the latest Cold Play song.
9. Pop-up Windows - Avoid these like the plague. Aside from being a really dated technique, pop-up windows are blocked by most web browsers for security reasons.
10. Website Templates - If possible, avoid using templates from website mills. Often times the template’s navigation is unintuitive, pages can’t be optimized for search engines, and generally speaking, the templates look cheap because of dated font choices and limited layouts. Like anything else, you get what you pay for. There are lots of talented website designers out there who can create for you a professional website for a reasonable price. If you see a website you really like, contact the person and asked them who designed it. Ask friends and colleagues if they can make any recommendations as they will generally be able to recommend a great designer to you or, at the very least, tell you who to avoid!