By María L. Núñez

We interview to Dianna Newman, a British Webmaster who owns several successful websites and who is dedicated to making her dreams come true. Read on!

Her profession is being a Webmaster, she's known to a lot of people as a website designer for the stars. We interview Dianna Newman exclusively, a British Webmaster with a great path in the world wide web despite her youth.

Dianna is the owner and creator of three places of success: www.shannen-doherty.net , www.hollymcombs.com, and www.lindsay-lohan.tv.

All of her websites are very professional and are upheld by three attitudes: her passion for doing something that she enjoys, the dedication, and the unconditional support from all her idols.

She is a young woman with aspirations of future, that will be a key piece in the creation of the Internet world.

Who is Dianna Newman? Please, explain to our audience.

Well, my name is Dianna, I am 21 and I live in England. I am currently at university studying for a HND in Interactive Design. I enjoy making new websites and updating my current ones. If I am not online I am usually with my friends or shopping.

Why did you decide to become a webmaster?

It all happened when I was 14 or 15. I was fascinated with the TV show Charmed so I started to go to the local library to look at websites. I had never used the Internet before then. I loved it and soon got a PC at home. That is when I got to know some webmasters and they convinced me to make a website. I was always curious about how they were made.

How did Dianna Newman begin in the websites’ world?

I started off with a free host that contained a lot of adverts. I got a fair amount of visitors and I was very keen to go professional. My website wasn’t great but it had really good content. I always thought domains and hosting were really expensive until one of my friends sold me a domain and I was very surprised that the price wasn’t as much as I expected it to be! I re-launched my Holly Marie Combs website with a new layout, made it more organised and I added more content and it became a huge success!

When did you know that you are good at this job?

When I started to make professional websites that had paid hosting and domains I was taken more seriously. There was a gap for a good website about one of the Charmed stars, Holly Marie Combs. The websites that were around at the time didn’t have a lot of content. I decided that I was going to make the biggest and best website with up to date news. I promoted the website on message boards and exchanged links with other webmasters. Then a few months later my website was on popular search engines and had a high rank. I received a lot of positive feedback and lots of e-mails. I knew I was onto a good thing from the reaction from the visitors, the feedback from message boards and the comments in the guestbook! My website stood out from all the others. I then made a website about another Charmed actress, Shannen Doherty. I am also a big fan of hers. The site was an instant success! I believe this is because I didn’t post negative news and gossip like all the other websites about her were. It was a clean, honest website with lots of content. Once again, there was a gap in the market. I got a lot of enjoyment from this and realised I wanted to do this as a career because I loved it so much!

Did you get any help?

In the beginning, I had to ask one of my webmaster friends a lot of basics. I also learnt a lot from online tutorials too. If I wanted to learn how someone had made their page, I’d check their out their source code.

How have you developed the websites?

I am always adding new content such as news and photos. The message boards are constantly growing too. The site just keeps on growing!

How much time a week do you spend updating your websites?

I go online everyday and if there is anything new I’ll add it. Sometimes there won’t be anything new to add for a while then all of a sudden there is new content for all of them and that keeps me very busy!

What is the key to your success?

I believe it’s because the websites are all clean, gossip free and up to date. I am very dedicated to my websites and I think that shows.

You currently own three websites, why did you choose these celebrities?

I am a fan of all of these people. I admire them.

Do you have a favourite website of yours?

Yes, I think it has to be Shannen-Doherty.net for many reasons. Firstly, because of the great friends I’ve made on there, Secondaly, Shannen herself posts on the message boards and lastly, because of the huge success the site has had.

You got fame when Shannen Doherty herself mentioned you on the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’, was it good for you and the site?

I had spoken to Shannen before and she was posting at the website but a lot of people didn’t believe me and I got a lot of hate for it. I had a terrible time online and hated reading all the negative things people were saying about me. People got so jealous that they told my host I was lying and the host threatened to close the site! I told Shannen what was going on and she said that she’d help me. She said that she’d mention the website on the chat show she was going on that night and she told me to tell the host and anyone else that was doubting me. After that, people stopped being horrible to me and the bad stuff was deleted.
When she mentioned the website on American television the message boards gained new members every five seconds, it was really exciting! I got many emails and it was a great time for me. It has also brought me more respect; I am taken as a serious webmaster.

How did you feel when Shannen contacted with you?

At first when she emailed me I thought it was just an impostor because it’s not the first time this had happened. So we exchanged a few emails and then I asked her to call me because it’s the only way I could know for sure. Part of me believed it, but then I thought there was no way something like that would happen! So I went to bed that night and she phoned me the next morning. I was stunned! She sounded exactly like her character in Charmed; Prue. At that time, I was looking at a Charmed poster! I knew for sure it was her and I was in a lot of shock and didn’t say much. We spoke for while and she was very nice and sweet to me. We still stay in touch and are great friends.

Have Lindsay Lohan or Holly Marie Combs seen the websites you made about them?

Both of them are aware of the websites. Holly saw hers in 2003 and Lindsay saw hers in 2005. They both love the websites I made for them and they thanked me.

What are your challenges for the future?

For now I am concentrating on my studies which involve website design and other media related things. I am learning new skills that I will be able to use on my current websites and any future websites.