Your Guide to Creating a Family Website

If your family lives in different places throughout a state or even throughout the nation, it can be difficult to try to keep in contact. One way for your family to all come together is having its very own website. If your family has a place where they can meet to chat, post photos of the family or list their blogs, everybody can stay in touch with another. While this may sound somewhat difficult, it is actually very simple to set up a website. With so many individuals and businesses creating website, a variety of free web templates and free web services are available all over the Internet to make it easy to set up a website for almost any kind of need.

First, you will want to designate somebody or a couple of people from your family who will be responsible for updating content or posting pictures that have been emailed. This person should have basic knowledge in HTML, using the Internet, email and posting/editing photos. If there are multiple people in your family who have this talent, perhaps they can take turns from month to month with the website responsibilities.

After you have someone who can help keep the website updated, you need to find a place to host it. There are many places on the web that offer free web hosting such as Bravenet, webs.com and 000webhost.com. Once you have selected a service, create your free account. Some web services may offer templates or a web builder program, or you may have to find free templates on the Internet. Free web templates can be found at websites such as freewebtemplates.com. Some of them are also compatible with website programs like Dreamweaver. If you are building a website from a template, it will be necessary to have some basic HTML knowledge.

If you find that building a website is too difficult, try other resources such as YAHOO! Groups or even Facebook Groups. With these tools, you can allow everybody in the family to post their own photos, post content, or even links. These websites would allow everybody to be responsible for posting their own updates. Also, these types of online groups make it easier to send out group email as well.

Once you have found and built a home on the web for your family, there are a variety of ideas and content that you can keep updated. Family may post email addresses, Facebook or MySpace profile links, personal blog or website links, birth dates and photos. With a universal calendar, you can keep track of everybody's birthdays so that you may wish them a happy birthday by sending virtual cards or even one through the mail. For relatives who can't make it to special school programs, videos can be uploaded for those who live far away to view. School pictures, birthday pictures, new births, family reunions, weddings and more can all be posted to share with family members as well. For those who would like to chat with one another, you can post a private chat room for everybody or include Yahoo! messenger or AOL profiles. Perhaps you could even keep a private phone book list on your web page or group that is password protected so that your relatives may contact you when necessary.

By having a family website or virtual meeting place online, distance will never feel like its too far away. It can be hard having family members live in so many different places all over the world, and sometimes it just isn't close enough. If the family can at least have access to important dates, see important events and share in each other's lives, at least the Internet can bring everybody closer.

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