AboutMyBaby is a fun and easy online scrapbooking tool made by parents for parents. Customize a family webpage to help you keep friends and family connected to your baby (or baby-to-be) with photos, videos, blog entries and more. The site was designed and built by 3 Internet veterans, the AMB Daddies, who have over 40 years combined experience in building easy-to-use, reliable websites.
AboutMyBaby offers two levels of membership for your scrapbook: Pro and Basic.
AboutMyBaby Pro Subscription is our premium for-pay service. AboutMyBaby Basic Membership is our free service. The charts below outline the features that are available to both membership levels and the features that are available to only Pro members.
| Feature | Basic | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising | Ads on every page | No ads - ever |
| Premium Templates | None | All |
| Number of Videos | Up to 15 | Unlimited |
| Scrapbook Updating | Must update once per month or scrapbook may be deleted after 60 days | No updating restrictions |
| Price | Free | $6.95 per month (cancel anytime) or $49.95 per year (40% discount) |
AMB Pro Subscription is free for up to 12 weeks for new users, with no credit card commitment and full use of all features. AMB Pro accounts are free of advertising, and won't lock like a Basic membership if your busy life interrupts the frequency of your updates. Membership costs $6.95 per month (cancel anytime) or $49.95 per year (a 40% discount from the monthly rate). Subscriptions are handled by PayPal and are automatically renewed until you cancel.
If you do not opt to pay by the end of your trial period or after your current subscription expires, your scrapbook will be downgraded to Basic Membership.
AMB Basic Membership is always free. However, your scrapbook must be updated at least once every 30 days. To update your scrapbook, you need to add at least one photo, video or journal entry. If you do not update within 30 days, your scrapbook is locked and is only visible to the scrapbook owner. If you do not update within a total of 60 days, your scrapbook and all of its contents will be deleted.
Are You Going to Delete My Scrapbook? Wait! Don't!
AboutMyBaby Basic scrapbooks may be deleted if left inactive for 60 days. We send "heads up" emails at every step, so please contact us ASAP if your scrapbook is set for deletion and you want to keep it. We cannot guaruntee that your scrapbook, including all your content, will be available after a deletion date has past.
AboutMyBaby Pro scrapbooks will not be deleted because of inactivity. However, if a Pro subscriber fails to pay at renewal time, first their account will be downgraded to Basic Membership. After that point, Basic Membership policies apply.
If you experience a personal or technical circumstance that requires your Basic scrapbook to be inactive for 60 days or more, please contact us so that we can work together to find a solution.
If I Have A Basic Account And Want To "Go Pro," How Do I Do That?
If you wish to upgrade your service, you may do so at any time. Simply log into your scrapbook, click SETTINGS, then ACCOUNT and use the Upgrade link to change your subscription from Basic to Pro.
If My Pro Subscription Lapses, What Happens? What About My Videos?
If you no longer wish to use our Pro Subscription service or if Paypal is unable to process your payment, you will be given a grace period to renew your Pro subscription.
After that time, your scrapbook will downgrade to a Basic Membership. All Basic Membership rules will apply to your scrapbook.
If you have over 15 videos, your extra videos (Nos. 16+) will be removed from your scrapbook upon downgrade to Basic Membership. If you decide to renew your Pro Subscription within the first 3 months of your Basic Membership, your videos will be restored. If you wish to remain basic or discontinue your scrapbook completely, your extra videos will be permanently deleted from our system 3 months from the dated of the downgrade.
I'm On A Mac. Can I Use AboutMyBaby?
Yes, you can! Our photo uploading tool works on both Macs and PC's, and our engineers program on Macs. If you see any oddities, just let us know and we'll fix 'em.
However, our photo uploading tool will not work with IE on Macs. If you're using a Mac, please use either Safari or Firefox. If you'd like to use IE, you'll need to use Windows.
Can I Change My Scrapbook URL?
Yes! Email us using our contact form. Please provide a 1st & 2nd choice. If your choice is available, it's yours! This is a common request, especially when your family grows!
There are two ways to log in to edit and upload new stuff to your scrapbook:
If you have problems logging in, please see the instructions above. If you get really frustrated, just contact us.
Have no fear, my friend! If you are the owner of a scrapbook and you have forgotten your password, simply click SIGN IN tab on your homepage, then click "Reset Your Owner Password". Follow the steps to have a new, temporary password sent to the email address of record. Note that sometimes AboutMyBaby mail is directed into the JUNK MAIL folder (especially on AOL), so be sure to check in that folder if you don't receive an email within a few minutes.
If after all that you find yourself still stuck, just contact us.
Change your password if you don't like the one we assigned you or for any other reason you'd like.
NOTE: There are 2 TYPES of passwords on AboutMyBaby - your password you use to log in and EDIT the site, and the Scrapbook Password you can (optionally) use to limit access to the scrapbook to people who have it. You should write down your passwords, especially if you have two of them!
I Can't Find A Specific Scrapbook!
All AboutMyBaby scrapbooks have Web addresses that look like this: http://scrapbookname.aboutmybaby.com
"Scrapbook Name" is the name that the creator of the scrapbook chose - usually the child's first name (i.e. http://aureliaviner.aboutmybaby.com) or something similar. If you can't remember the name of your scrapbook, you can simply send us a note from the email address on record with us and we'll dig it up for you. You may also want to try browsing through our directory. Find the link at the top of the home page.
I Need To "Sign In" To A Scrapbook But Don't Know the Access Code.
If you go to check out a scrapbook and you can only see a sign-in page, this means that the person who created the scrapbook put a special code on the page so that only people with the code can view it. If you don't know the code, simply click the "Ask the owner for the visitor access code" link to request the access code from the site's creator. We will send an email to the creator, and he or she should email you back with the code. (Alternatively, you can just ask them yourself.) We cannot give you the Access code to someone's site. You must get it from the Account owner.
AboutMyBaby values your privacy, and respects the trust you have placed in us. We don't sell information to others. As for your scrapbook and the content within it, if you don't want strangers to see pictures of your child, simply put an Access Code on the site (be sure to tell your friends and family so they can get in!). Your privacy and satisfaction is what drives us to make our nifty little site better.
How To Turn On/Off A Scrapbook Visitor Access Code
This feature allows you to prevent anyone who doesn't know the code from viewing the contents of your scrapbook. WARNING - you may end up with a lot of frustrated family members if you don't tell them the code in advance. We WILL NOT give anyone but you information regarding your privacy visitor password.
BASIC SITE FUNCTIONS
Photos: Everything You Want To Know
There are two ways you can share photos on AboutMyBaby - either as "cover" photos that appear on your scrapbook's home page, or as photo albums (for example, "April 2006") that contain many images. Let's discuss each:
Put a photo (or more than one) on the "cover" of your child's scrapbook to make your scrapbook look cool and interesting. This is NOT a photo album - see below to learn how to upload and manage photo albums. You can put up as many home page photos as you like on the "cover" of your scrapbook.
To ADD a Home Page photo:
To REMOVE a Home Page photo, simply log in, and click the REMOVE link above the image. The image will turn red. If you didn't mean to remove the image, just click the "Restore" link that appears over the red image. If you really do want to delete the image from your homepage, scroll to the top of the page, and click the "Save Layout Changes" button. It will confirm that you want to remove a photo from your homepage. Click OK, and the photo will be removed from your homepage.
To EDIT a Home Page photo, simply log in and click EDIT link above the photo you want to edit. You can change the caption that appears under the photo. If you'd like to change the photo that appears, just delete the one that's there now, and add another Home Page Photo! You can have as many as you'd like!
To MOVE a Top Page photo to a different place on the page, hold your mouse down on the gray "drag" text and pulling the photo to another location.
Photos: Albums, Adding, Managing, Editing, Deleting
Photo albums are the most powerful part of AboutMyBaby, and probably the area with the most questions. Here's some help.
First, A few important notes about photos:
To CREATE A PHOTO ALBUM, log in, and then click on "Add A Photo Album" at the bottom of the Photo Album module on your scrapbook's page. Create a title and description, click "Add Album", and then you will be sent to the ADD PHOTO page.
To ADD PHOTOS TO AN ALBUM, follow these easy steps:
To EDIT A PHOTO, follow these steps:
In order to edit a photo, you must first be logged in. There are three ways to edit a photo: change the title or caption, rotate a photo, and change the photo album that the photo lives in. Let's look at each of these.
To REORDER PHOTOS WITHIN AN ALBUM, follow these steps:
To DELETE ONE OR MORE PHOTOS, follow these steps:
You can also delete any individual photo from the edit photo page. To delete a photo from the Edit Photo page, follow these steps:
To DELETE A PHOTO ALBUM, follow these steps:
To CHANGE THE ORDER OF YOUR PHOTO ALBUMS, follow these steps:
PHOTO PRINTING: AboutMyBaby has partnered with QOOP, a high-quality photo provider, to offer prints, photobooks, calenders and other merchandise with your child's photos. For any printing-related concerns, contact QOOP.
I Need Help Installing/Using The Photo Uploading Tool.
AboutMyBaby offers a simple and very easy-to-use photo uploading tool to easily and quickly get your photos on our site. It allows you to upload multiple photos at a time, as well as set the title and caption before uploading the photos. This safe, simple tool works on Windows, Macs, or Linux using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari.
The first time you try to use the uploader, you will be prompted to install Gears. You will see a prompt like the image to the left. Gears is a completely free plugin that enables the multi-file upload. You only need to install it once.
After clicking OK, you'll be directed to the Gears installation page. Click the "Install Gears" button on the right side of the screen. The installation process will detect what operating system and browser you are using so that it installs the correct browser plugin. Therefore, the install screen you see may have different text than the image to the right.
After clicking "Install Gears", you will be prompted to agree to the Google terms of service. You will see a screen similar to the one on the left. Click the "Agree and Download" button. Depending on the operating system and browser you use, you'll see slightly different screens. Just follow the directions on screen to complete the installation. You'll need to restart your browser, but you will be taken back to the AboutMyBaby upload page.
After installing Gears and restarting your browser, you will need to grant permission for AboutMyBaby to store information in your browser. The prompt will look like the image to the right. Click the checkbox next to "I trust this site" and then click the "ALLOW" button. The uploader only stores the title and caption of each photo before you upload it. So type in your titles first and then click "Upload."
That's it! You're done! Once you've installed Gears and granted permission to store data locally, you are all set! Now you can upload multiple photos quickly and easily! You only need to follow these instructions once for each browser that you use. If you use different browsers, you will need to follow these steps for each browser.
News (Blogging): Adding, Editing, Deleting
Adding, editing and deleting news stories is very simple and straightforward. Simply log in and click LATEST NEWS at the top of your scrapbook. From there you can ADD a story, or edit or delete your existing stories by clicking the links next to the relevant story. Remember to be logged in or you won't see the links!
When you create a news entry, you can also choose from our list of MILESTONES to highlight a particular event. When you select a milestone, we add a cute icon next to the story and highlight that entry with a different color. Nifty, huh?
Videos: Adding, Managing, Editing, Watching
Got digital video? Great - put it up and share it with your friends and family! We accept short videos in any format. Pro members can have an unlimited number of videos, but Basic members are limited to 15 videos. You and your family must have the Flash player to watch videos. You can always download the latest version of Adobe Flash at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer.
Videos are limited to 500 MB, as your upload may time out if it's more than that. Videos are not put into albums, and are simply listed in the order they are uploaded.
To ADD video, follow these steps:
Your video will be processed shortly after upload. Normally, videos are processed within 10 minutes of uploading. Before your video is processed, you will see a message saying "Your video is being processed. Please check back soon." If your video does not appear within 10 minutes, please contact us and include the URL of the video.
To EDIT a video, follow these steps:
To DELETE a video, follow these steps:
Stats: Adding Information, Editing
The stats module is one of our coolest features - it tracks your child's age, and allows you to post stats like your child's birthweight, latest tricks, etc. It's automatically turned on when you first sign up for a site, and you can edit it at any time.
You can add additional Stats modules so that you can have one for each of your children. You can do this with the "Add module" tool on the upper left of your homepage after you log on.
To EDIT any information in the Stats module, log in and click the EDIT link above the module. Once you're in edit mode, you can ADD additional stats by clicking the "ADD ANOTHER FIELD" button.
This is the most useful and easy-to-use features on the site. Our email alert feature automatically sends a message to the people on your mailing list whenever you add news stories, photos or videos to your scrapbook. You can set alerts to happen daily (one email at the end of the day, regardless of how many photos or stories you post) or weekly (one email at the end of the week).
We STRONGLY encourage you to use this feature so friends and family can stay in touch with their favorite baby!
Of course, anyone who doesn't want to be on the list can unsubscribe themselves by following instructions contained in every email sent. Lastly, AboutMyBaby doesn't do anything with the email addresses you provide - we don't advertise to those people or sell lists - we simply send them a note when you update your site.
Email addresses get on your mailing list in one of two ways - either you put them on the list, or site visitors put their own email addresses on the list.
To ADD AN EMAIL ADDRESS:
From here, you can quickly add new email addresses to your mailing list.
For your site visitors to put their own email addresses on that list, they can go to your scrapbook's home page, and simply enter an email address (joe@joe.com, etc) into the Mailing List module provided and click OK.
To EDIT OR REMOVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS FROM YOUR LIST:
From here, you can quickly edit or remove email addresses from your mailing list.
A guestbook is a great way for visitors to your site to say "hi!" and offer their best wishes, etc.
When you set up your scrapbook, a guestbook automatically appears on the scrapbook's top page. If you want to REMOVE it, simply log in and click the REMOVE link above the module. However, "guestbook" is also a tab on the menu bar, so the guestbook function cannot be completely turned off.
If you want to REMOVE A SPECIFIC ENTRY, simply view the list of comments and click DELETE next to the relevant comment.
Log on to your account. There are a number of global settings that you can change on the Site & Account tabs, including:
Turning On/Off or Moving Features Of My Scrapbook
There are lots of cool features in About My Baby, but perhaps the coolest is the ability to turn on or off any features you want, and to put them anywhere you want on the page.
To ADD a module, choose a module from the drop-down at the top, left of the page, choose a side of the page where you want the new module to go, and click ADD.
To REMOVE a module, simply click REMOVE at the top right of the module you don't want, then click "SAVE CHANGES". Please note that you will lose any content in that module if you delete it, so use it wisely!
Changing The Look Of My Scrapbook
Show the world how cool your kid is by changing the color and style of your scrapbook. Do it as often as you like!
How Can I Preserve My Scrapbook?
AMB is excited to offer memory stick keepsakes for purchase. We'll take a "snapshot" of your scrapbook and house it in an eco-friendly bamboo memory stick. Give as a gift. Keep for your kids for later! Visit the PRODUCTS tab of your scrapbook for more details and pricing.
Why Can Only The Scrapbook Owner Purchase Keepsakes?
We take your children's security seriously here at AMB. We are not comfortable allowing just anyone to order a copy of your children's scrapbook memories. If Grandma or Cousin Sue would like a keepsake of their own, the scrapbook owner will need to order it for them. That's just one of the ways we help our AMB parents protect their children in this digital age!
Can I Add More To My Keepsake Later?
The keepsakes, just like a hardbound book, are a moment in time snapshot of your scrapbook. We cannot add more content to the same memory stick later. (There are a few technical reasons for this as well as the reality that at some point you have more data than your stick will hold.) Because of that, you can order a new memory stick periodically (like adding chapters to a book) just like you would make a new photo album once the current one is full.
My Home Computer Crashed And I've Lost All My Photos/Videos. How Can I Get My Data Back?
Computer breakdowns happen eventually. Whether it's coffee spilling, a bottle being knocked over - at some point every parent's computer will break down. We always recommend that you back up your precious files in case of catastrophe. Your personal backup should be your first place to recover your photos and videos. If your home backup fails, AMB does offer a digital copy of your photos and videos as part of our keepsake memory sticks, available for purchase under the PRODUCTS tab of your scrapbook.
What Is Create A Template?
Create A Template is, well, the coolest thing we've done in a long time. Create A Template allows you, the scrapbook owner, to choose your own backgrounds, colors and fonts for your scrapbook so that you can totally personalize your scrapbook for your child. You can change more than 9 different elements of your scrapbook into countless different templates! You'll be able to control all of the following:
Creating, Copying, Or Editing A Template
Account & Billing Issues - Pro Subscriptions
If you are a Basic Member and would like to "go Pro," you can upgrade by logging on, clicking SETTINGS, then ACCOUNT and click the link to upgrade.
For current Pro Subscribers, all payments are handled by Paypal. We do not have access to your credit information. Please log on to your account, click SETTINGS, then ACCOUNT. You will be able to see when your subscription expires/auto-renews. You will also see links to view information regarding your paypal account, including what card will be charge at auto-renewal time, how to change cards and how to cancel your subscription if that's what you wish.
Generally speaking, Paypal will autorenew whatever account you have on file with them that's listed as your "primary" funding source (unless you have made arrangements otherwise).
If you would like to change your funding source, please follow these instructions.
Please note, canceling an old funding source before you have switched your AMB subscription to a new funding source may trigger a cancellation in Paypal's system. (Frequently this happens when someone moves or a card expires.) It does NOT trigger a cancellation in our system. You are paid through your expiration date listed on your ACCOUNT page (log on, click SETTINGS, click ACCOUNT) whether your Paypal account is active or not. HOWEVER, your subscription will not auto-renew. You will be able to re-subscribe manually after your current subscription expires via a link that will appear on your homepage.
Alternately you can go to http://[your site name].aboutmybaby.com/activate.pl (example, http://IloveAMB.aboutmybaby.com/activate.pl)
Please contact us if you have any concerns regarding your account or billing.
We don't want to see you go, and we hope you've enjoyed your experience with AboutMyBaby! If you no longer wish to maintain an AMB PRO account, you're more than welcome to continue with us using a Basic Account, if you wish.
To cancel your subscription, log in and click on SETTINGS, then click ACCOUNT. Then click the CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION link. You will be notified by email when your subscription has been canceled.
Canceling your subscription will stop future auto-renewal. You will still have full use of your site until your Pro Subscription expires. After your subscription expires, you will have the opportunity to keep your site as a Basic Member or resubscribe if you choose.
All payments are final once made and there is no credit for partially-used months/years. Please contact us with any other questions.
Let Us Know If You Have Other Questions
We understand that we can't cover everything in our Help section, so we invite you to drop us a note with any further questions, problems, diaper-changing tips or whatever. We're happy to have you as a customer, and we'll do our best to get back to you promptly (usually the same day). To contact us, send us a note.
Important Legalese About You And Us
Here are links to our Terms Of Service and our Privacy Policy.