Adorable Baby Websites in Minutes - Simple to use and fun!

Facebook is one of the most popular and efficient ways to stay in touch with friends and loved ones across the globe. Text updates, photos and videos we post to our Facebook profiles are instantly accessible to anyone we choose. TotSites offers the same accessibility and security, but instead of acting as a flowing news feed, it allows you to create an online archive that preserves your child’s special memories for years to come!

Center of Attention
A TotSite showcases your child – photos, videos and journal entries are all clearly documented so friends and family can follow along as your child grows. There is no need to worry about important milestones being buried under posts about your own day at work!

Fun Designs
Escape from boring blue and white! At TotSites, we strive to create design templates that are as fun and unique as your toddler. Whether ballerinas, trains, puppies or the jungle, there’s bound to be a TotSite theme perfect for your family! And with new designs added on a regular basis, it’s easy to change the theme to fit your mood – or your child’s latest interests.

Security and Accessibility
TotSites is 100% secure, meaning your TotSite can only be found by people you have given permission to view it. Share your photos and videos with confidence! Unlike Facebook, there is no need for users to create their own accounts in order to view your full TotSite. Plus, they can sign up to receive automatic e-mail updates!

Lasting Memories
You can order a keepsake CD of all those memories you upload to your TotSite. This CD is a digital “baby book” and doesn’t require internet access to view. They make great holiday gifts and are the perfect compact digital archive!

Best of All…
Creating a TotSite is free! Paid plans for as low as $2.50/month are available if you find you need more storage space for your photos and videos, and all premium TotSites plans are ad-free.

If you haven’t yet, sign up for a free TotSites account and see how easy it is to create your very own personalized archive!

By popular demand we added a new photo gallery option for you to use with your TotSite! Some of the new features include:

- Updated Gallery page. Previously there was one photo gallery displayed per row. When you have 30 photo galleries it made your visitors scroll more than they should. Now three photo galleries are displayed per row.

- Photo thumbnails were moved above the main photo.

- Slideshow controls were moved above the main photo.

- A more dynamic slideshow speed control bar was added.

Check out an example of the new slideshow. You can control which version of the slideshow appears on your site by logging in to your site, going to the main Photo page, and selecting the “slider” gallery option in the Photo Tasks box.

If you have comments or suggestions please do not hesitate to let us know!

It’s always fun to go back and see how something changes over time. Since 2004 TotSites has gone through countless changes (based in large part on member feedback), but the overall site look and feel has only changed three times. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane as we check out how TotSites has grown over the last 5 years:

TotSites Version 1 – 2004: TotSites launched looking for new and expecting parents who wanted to create their online baby website. Not much was put into the design as we were focused on getting the basic service working and gathering feedback for future features.

TotSites Version 2 – Dec 2005: Once TotSites started to grow and more parents around the world starting visiting the site, we realized we needed something more mature to help new visitors understand what TotSites was all about. After several rounds of user feedback and countless hours of testing we released the new site design. The number of new members grew dramatically, making us wish we would have taken the time to update the site sooner!

TotSites – Today: The Internet has changed dramatically over the last three years and the way websites are expected to look changed as well. Until recently we focused much of our time and effort on creating new user themes and adding features while setting aside the main site. Obviously TotSites was well overdue for an overhaul and needed to catch up with today’s standards. For this new redesign we found a highly regarded designer to help us grow up (Thanks Max! Max is one of the key artists who helps us create all those adorable themes for you to choose from).

In many ways the design progression of TotSites was similar to the life of a child. Each year they start to look older, have a bit more to say,  and offer new and exciting ways to interact with you. We like to think TotSites has had the privilege to grow up with with your family from pregnancy, to birth, to today.

TotSites has always been a full featured service aimed at preserving your family memories and we finally have the new look to go with it. Thank you to all the members who have been with us from the first version to today. Without your feedback and support we would not be where we are now.

Brian

We just gave TotSites a much-needed facelift! This redesign has been in the works for some time, and we’re proud to finally unveil it. Hopefully, it will make it a little bit easier for our prospective and current members to explore the site, preview the 70+ themes we currently offer and more.

In the coming months we’ll be transitioning your site admin pages over to the new design, as well as the forums and even this blog.

Let us know what you think of the new TotSites design!

Max

TotSites Outage Update: TotSites has been helping parents create & share memories since 2004 and does not plan on stopping anytime soon.

Unfortunately over the weekend we had a brief outage, but everything is back up and running now. We’re proud to say that despite this hiccup, our downtime totals just over 4 days spanning the last 5 years.

In this particular case we could have forced the site back online sooner, but we wanted to take special care that every update you made to your TotSite was preserved. We would like to thank you for your patience.

We took advantage of this downtime to implement some much-needed updates. Most importantly, storage space for all TotSites members has increased! We want to make sure you have enough space to show off all your favorite pictures while creating a memory to last a lifetime.

Stay tuned for a fun new Camping TotSites theme in the next week or so. If you have any feedback to help us continue to be the #1 Baby Website service don’t hesitate to let us know.

Did you know TotSites is on Facebook and Twitter? Check it out!

For those of you who have purchased additional storage space for your TotSites account you may notice something different the next time you log in to your account. Previously storage space additions worked similar to the Premium account and needed to be renewed every year. Today we simplified your storage space needs by making them permanent as long as your account is active. Once you add additional storage for your Baby or Family website it will be there for you to use.

Thank you for everyone who sent us their feedback regarding this feature. If you have other suggestions please do not hesitate to let us know!

Brian

Earlier this year we announced TotSites had over 1 million photos uploaded. Today we doubled that milestone with over two million photos uploaded by TotSites members to share with friends and family around the world.

Thank you to everyone who uses TotSites to share and save your memories for a lifetime.

TotSites Team

I ran across an interesting blog post today talking about how the “Photo Print” pricing war has started. (http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007605.html) When companies start competing for your business it can only mean good things for the consumer!

While TotSites main focus is on building and sharing your memories, we also have a Photo Center allowing you to order prints. It was interesting to see that the TotSites Photo Center pricing is actually *very* competitive with all the other companies listed in the blog post. For their comparisons, they assume an average order of 20 photos; we see average orders of approx 100 (why not order a few extra for family when the cost is so much lower?). When you compare with an order size of 100 prints, our unit price including shipping is at 9.7 cents each with the competition all around 14 to 15 cents each.

What’s more, with our photos customers get “real photos” processed on Fuji Supreme Archival Quality Photo Paper - most of the competition digitally prints on glossy paper. In the end you are getting more and paying less when using the TotSites Photo Center.

If you haven’t tried the service yet, be sure to give it a shot and take advantage of the 50 free prints. Don’t limit yourself to just photo prints as the Photo Books, Photo on canvas, and other products are a great value too. One of the more popular photo products for TotSites users is actually the Photo Books. Many parents create a photo book with each Keepsake CD order so they have a couple ways to share and preserve their memories.

Thought I would share!

Brian

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all having a fantastic summer so far. We’d like to keep it going with the summer-themed Picnic Design!

This was another one you requested, so layout the tablecloth, watch out for ants(!) and enjoy the Picnic Design, which is free to all members.

Max

One of the more common questions we get from Parents is “How much time does it take to create and update a TotSite?”. The first part is simple – you can create your TotSite and have something fun to show friends and family in under 5 minutes. All you need is one adorable photo or a precious fun fact/milestone along with one of our adorable themes to make Grandma smile! Don’t take our word for it – create your online baby journal and try it for yourself!

Typically Parents fall into one of three categories in regards to how often they update their TotSite.

Daily
Some Parents prefer to update their site daily. They journal their daily adventure with their new little one and maybe add a picture or two. Taking 10 minutes before bedtime can be a great way to help keep your family milestones recorded so you can put your mind on other more important tasks – like sleep!

2-4 Updates per Month
During the first year of your Baby’s life there are so many changes, firsts, and smiles that you may want to keep a record of what is happening a couple times per month. This can be accomplished with a few quick sentences or even with the latest photos from the Zoo. Don’t feel like you need to write some long journal with every detail that happend during the month but instead just highlight the few things that made you laugh or smile.

3-4 Times per Year
In many cases Parents will update their TotSite around the Holidays as they have a ton of photos they want to share with friends and family (Be sure to order your prints with the new TotSites Photo Center – 5 cent Photo Prints!!!). They update a few galleries to their TotSite and then create a recap of the highlights since the last update. This tends to be a trend as Baby gets closer and closer to a full blown Toddler.

If Grandpa and Grandma had their way they would have you uploading new photos and videos every day. Heck, if we all had time, who wouldn’t want to journal their child’s milestones, photos, and videos in a daily format. The reality is not all Parents have the time or energy for this level of updates. Speaking from a personal point of view, I know we don’t have time to update our daughter’s TotSite daily. We typically update our sites when we order new photos (every 1-2 months) and this is plenty to create a Keepsake we will cherish for years to come.

There is no right answer for how often you need to update your TotSite. The idea is to share, record milestones, and most of all have FUN! Friends and family will enjoy whatever you can add to your TotSite and you can create a valuable Keepsake for when Baby is older (including comments from Great Grandma!)

Brian