Projects for Image Preservation & Sharing
> Projects for Families
Building a Shutterfly Family Share Site
Sharing digital photos and other images online is both free and easy. Short of a dedicated web address and total control over how a website is designed, share sites provided by some online printers are very powerful and flexible.
Based on my research, I believe that
Shutterfly.comoffers
the best overall free share site. These share sites offer a way to
share images, store them for free as backups, communicate through
message boards, coordinate family events, and many other useful
customizations.
Use the link to the right to preview Shutterfly's Share Site service. After you have read Shutterfly's description of the service, return here to follow our step by step share site tips and suggestions. This will help you to get up and running quickly and with the least effort.
As you think about building a share site, we suggest that you follow these simple steps and ask yourself a few questions before you proceed.
1. Consider your audience - Do you intend to share images with a short list of invited guests or is it your plan to be sharing your images with the world? You will be provided the ability to limit access and editing rights for the entire site and individual sections. While in construction and until you have finalized your thoughts about how to use the site, it is probably best to tightly control the access and editing rights of others.
2. Consider the theme of the site - Perhaps, in addition to sharing photos, the site will be an extended family's focal point for social scheduling, sharing pieces of genealogy research information, swapping recipes, or other uses. Perhaps, the family children are involved in youth sports and a separate share site might be a booster club's primary means of communications and photo sharing. Share sites have "members" and "guests". Each will have different comment and update permissions, and the structure of the site will be partially dictated by its theme.
3. Consider how it is best to communicate with your audience - Should you simply email your audience when you want them to see a particular update on the site or should you consider having automatic emails sent by Shutterfly when any update is made? This may in part be dependent on how much you allow others to post to the site. If a large extended family begins to share their photos, recipes, random thoughts, and comments, automatic emails could become burdensome.
4. Select a site name - The share site(s) you build will be accessed as //yoursitename.shutterfly.com. Therefore, selecting a name that is descriptive, easy to remember, and relatively short can help you and future members and potential guests find your share site.
5. Tour a sample share site - Make a visit to the LocalArchiver's Sample Family Share Site at Shutterfly to see how flexible you can be in your design.
6. Assemble some images - Place some images that you would like to use for your share site in a folder on your desktop. These themed or miscellaneous images will be used in the header of your site, and elsewhere throughout your site wherever you choose to place them. You will upload selected pictures in the folder as a new album, and can then selectively place as many as you want into your share site.
7 Sign up at Shutterfly.com
8. Explore all share site options - Once in your new site, explore all "options" drop down menus, "add other sections..." buttons at the bottom of each column, and the "add pages" invite at the top of the page. This will give you a good feel for how the sample family share site can be customized.
9. Add pictures - Now click on "change picture" in one of the photos at the top of the page. If you have uploaded an album, you can simply find the picture you want and then "edit picture" to adjust its size and position. If you have not yet uploaded an album, you will be walked through that process, which is quite simple and requires no image editing.
10. Note that you can change the order of sections, delete them, and start over without much difficulty. However, it can save you time by doing some planning about what to include in your site, in what order, and on what page before you begin in earnest.
11. If you are designing a share site for an organization such as a boosters club, youth sports team, historical or genealogical society and believe you may want to fundraise by selling images at a markup, visit Shutterfly's Pro Gallery area to check the possibilities, and read the LocalArchiver article on Marketing Historical Society Images as a Fundraising Activity.
Good luck with your share site, you should be sharing images and communicating with site members and guests in no time.
