A wonderful place for memories and milestones (totsites.com)

Member Name: Ann-Marie_B

Product:	totsites.com
Date:	07/05/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Record milestones and treasured moments alongisde photographs and other information

Disadvantages: Free accounts have limited memory in photo section

It was an advertising banner on the internet which initially drew me to Totsites.com. I had recently given birth to my son and I soon realised that it was a great way to share his photographs and information with family and friends.

Totsites.com allows users to create a customisable website. This website is devoted to your child of any age. In fact, users can even create a site in order to track the highs and lows of their pregnancy.

Totsites are very secure and allow users to create a visitor password and also to prevent photo copy. Overall no-one will know about your Totsite unless you give them the URL and then a password to enter.

To create a website for your child is absolutely free of charge. There are also options of a premium account with variable prices depending on requirements. Setting up a free account, which is the type I have, is very simple. Once your details are entered you will be asked to give your website a title, more commonly being the child's name or nickname. The URL of your site will then be www.totsites.com/tot/yourtitle.

Customising your website is also very easy. There are a number of categories listed at the top of your page once logged in which include 'Design' - where you can choose from a large number of colour and design templates, 'Profiles' - where basic information is filled in such as birth weight and place of birth and so on, 'Photo's / Video' - whereby you can add photographs and if a premium member you can add videos too and 'Content'. The 'Content' section allows you to personalise your front page, add entries to your journal, add 'Fun Facts', links and polls and also manage your guest book.

What I love about my child's Totsite is that it acts as a diary where I can record all of his milestones, achievements and special moments. I can record milestones in 'Fun Facts' and then make a more detailed diary entry in his 'Journal'.

Having this Totsite has encouraged me to take note of special dates and not a moment has passed me by. I know when he smiled for the first time, when he first learnt to roll and to crawl, I know when he spoke his first recognisable word and when he had his first trip to the zoo. These moments pass by so quickly and I believe that it is so important to preserve such special memories as best as we can.

I currently have a memory box where I store all of my son's drawings, paintings, medical records, certificates and items such as his hospital wrist bands and first dummy. My Totsite is as online version of my memory box that I can share with those close to me such as my family and close friends. Users can share their Totsite by simply e-mailing friends the URL or adding it to 'Links' on Facebook. Friends and relatives can choose to receive notifications of any updates if they wish.

One drawback of this site is that users may find that they soon use up all of their allocated memory in their 'Photo's' section. One way to avoid this is to upgrade to a premium account, though I have personally displayed only a number of specific photographs and added the rest by links to my online photo galleries in places such as Facebook. I have also found that I can add videos this way, rather than paying for a premium account.

In summary, Totsites.com is a great way to record your child's milestones and achievements, to upload photographs and stories and if you choose to do so, to share those with friends and relatives. The design and concept of the site is fantastic and although you may choose to keep an additional paper diary, Totistes.com has many advantageous features that a paper diary simply does not. Thanks to my Totsite, I now have a comprehensive record of all of my little boy's milestones and those treasured memories that I will enjoy looking back on in the years to follow.

Summary: A wonderful place for memories and milestones