These do not apply to the self maintained sites (yet).
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First, the Self-Maintained sites are less expensive. They cost $25 per year of hosting, whereas the Travel Journals start st $50 each.
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Second, on the Travel Journals, we do all of the work for you, where as the Self-Maintained require that you do your own posting.
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Third, the hosting time is counted differently. On the travel journals, your hosting time limit does not start counting until your actually come home with your child. With the Self-Maintained, it begins as soon as your site goes online.
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Fourth, the Travel Journals are webpages that have a set design. The Self-Maintained sites are exactly that: fully functional web sites that can be completely cutomized any way you like it.
2. How do I put information on my web journal? How much material can I put on each page?
For the self maintained sites, you simply login as administrator, and click "Add Content." On these, you can put as much material on them as often as you wish.
If you have one of the other packages, you just email it to us. We will edit it as needed, and then upload it to the website. (Feel free to write about whatever you wish, but please keep in mind that this is a family-friendly website.) With everything else you have to worry about with adoption, we figured the least we could do was make this part easy.
While it's a lot easier if you take a laptop, you do not have to have one in order to make this work. Most hotels have a business center with computers with Internet access.
If you are going to Guatemala or China, Internet access should not be a problem. If you are going somewhere else, I strongly suggest you ask your adoption agency about your host country's internet access. If for whatever reason you do not post any information while you are gone, you can post it when you get back, and we will gladly go back and add the information to your travel journal. If this happens to you, we regret that we cannot give any refunds, as we will have already done the work of setting up the pages before you left.
Each page on the Travel Journals can contain practically as much material as you would like (each page has a theoretical limit of about 16 typed pages, or 50 pictures, or some combination of the two). After the initial updates, we will allow additional changes/updates at our descretion.
3. Can I put videos on my page?
Yes, but it will cost a little extra for the Travel Journals. (The first 10 megabytes cost $25; additional allotments of 5 megabytes cost $10 each.) Videos take up a TON of storage space and really eat up data transfer capacity. The videos will be posted exactly as you send them to us, so take care what format you use. We recommend you send them to us in either Windows Media files (WMV) or Quicktime (MOV). However, we will be glad to post video in any format that you choose to send to us.
A word of caution: upload times overseas can be slow. Please keep this in mind as you make your plans. Of course, we will be glad to add any videos to your pages either during or after your trip. Also, this service is intended for videos that you and/or your friends and family create of your adoption voyage. We cannot post videos that are copyright protected.
4. Can I put music on my web journal?
This is a practice that is very common on the Internet. However, because of copyright laws, it is usually done illegally. While the likelihood of getting caught is small, the consequences, were it to happen, would be devastating. Therefore, Adoption Voyages does not allow music on its web pages. There is one exception: if you find a source of music that has been released into the public domain, we will be glad to add it to your web journal. However, we must be satisfied that the music is not under copyright, nor does it have "all rights reserved." Otherwise, we will not be able to add it to your pages.
5. How far in advance of my trip overseas should I sign up?
The time limit for hosting on the Travel Journals does not start until you have arrived back home with your new child. Therefore, the fee for them is the same no matter how much time there is before you travel. Even if your travel date is still a long way off, you can sign up now. However, the sooner you place your order, the sooner your page can be up and running. It's really up to you.
If you are almost ready to travel, it is not too late. While pages are typically created in the order in which we receive confirmation of payment, we can do rush orders for short notice travel dates.
6. How will I make the payment for my web journal?
There are a couple of ways that you can send us payment. You can either send the money electronically via Paypal (which accepts credit cards if you don't already have a Paypal account), or you can send it via US mail. Paypal is our preferred method, simply because it is the quickest. However, we also accept US Post Office money orders. When you submit your form, the website will send it to us in an email. We will review your order, calculate the total, and send you an email with the amount along with either a Paypal invoice or a mailing address where you can send the money order.
7. Can I make any changes to my web pages after you have published them?
Once we have the page set up, you can review it at your leisure. After the initial updates, we will allow additional changes/updates at our descretion. If you have additional pictures, if you would like a poem or other verse added, or if you simply have more material for any journal entry, just email it to us, and as long as it is nothing unreasonable, we will gladly add it to your page.
If you would like to change your graphics set, we will do so for free the first time, provided that we have not set up either your travel pages, or your guestbook. For any further graphics set changes, there will be a $30 service charge. If you wish to do this, just email us, and we will contact you with the details.
8. I want people to be able to email me while I am overseas, but I do not want to advertise my normal email address. Can you help me with this?
Yes. We can provide you with an email address through this site. It will look something like this: john@adoptionvoyages.com. You will be provided with the information you need to set up your email client. If you are using AOL, you also have the option of setting up a temporary screenname. If you choose to do this, just set it up, and we can easily add it to your page.
9. Do the owners of this site have any experience with international adoption?
Yes. We have recently returned from our own adoption voyage to China. You can read about our experiences here.
10. What if I have a question that is not on here?
Email us at
admin@adoptionvoyages.com, and we will gladly answer it.
