Mother of Three Makes “Baby Book Guilt” a Thing of The Past

By Creating An Easy-To-Use Online Baby Book With

Email Reminders Specific to Each Baby

Move over mass-produced photo books, a mom is taking charge and changing how parents record and share their baby’s story.

In 2006, Kristin Coons, a mom of three boys and a former financial industry executive, traded her stable career and income to become an entrepreneur. After giving birth to her third child, she was looking for an online baby book to record the special moments in her boys lives. When she couldn't find a book that fit her needs, she decided to create one. In 2011, she founded MyOwnLittleStory.com: a unique online baby book with e-mail reminders specific to the baby’s current age and milestone, which can be printed at the one-year or two-year mark. Busy moms across the nation are loving the idea –joining the site at a rate of 50-100 new users a week.

Starting a company while raising three boys was not an easy task. But, using the courage and tenacity that she so often writes about on her blog: The Inspired Mom, Kristin decided to take a leap of faith and follow her dreams. Without any previous experience in web-based business or knowledge of the book industry, Kristin started from scratch researching everything she needed to know about creating and publishing books online. Even though it took almost five years to bring her vision to life, she launched www.MyOwnLittleStory.com in 2011. Her first challenge was letting parents know that her site existed, however once she earned a few enthusiastic endorsements, MyOwnLittleStory.com began growing quickly with the user base increasing from 2,000 users in year one to almost 10,000 users in year two. The site currently gets over 5,000 visits a month- which includes returning users and new users.

Kristin specifically remembers reading a statistic that most people can only remember about 12 stories from their childhood: "I was shocked! My family bonds over retelling stories." To think that her kids would only remember a few stories from their childhood and that she might also forget the details of their special moments motivated and inspired her to take action.

With MyOwnLittleStory.com, it doesn't matter if parents are at home, using a smart phone or at the office, by just answering a few questions a month, parents can jot down thoughts by responding to an e-mail reminder about their baby’s highlights and have their baby book done by their child’s first birthday. MyOwnLittleStory.com is easy to use and has more flexibility than a traditional baby book: each question is optional, any unanswered questions will be omitted from published pages and users can skip pages/milestones as well.

“As my boys grow into men, I want them to know the stories and the special moments that my husband and I have treasured so much: how I loved the times that they curled up in my lap, how we all enjoyed our silly dance parties or how we built sand castles at the beach,” says Kristin Coons. “My boys will know always know their stories, because I created MyOwnLittleStory.com for them.”

To learn more about MyOwnLittleStory.com, read about it here.

Custom Options Are Perfect For Traditional and Non-Traditional Families With Unique Stories

Create Free Online, Print Anytime

Baby’s first smile… First blow of a kiss… Favorite toys, songs and foods… every new parents fears forgetting these endearing details. MyOwnLittleStory.com (MyOwnLittleStory), the only online baby book with email reminders specific to the baby's stages and current milestones, was created to help parents remember and record the details of their child's life while the memories are still fresh. The company’s exclusive Milestone Memory System is a free service that tracks the child’s age and reminds the parent, via email, to record the special stories of their baby’s life.

In a world where taking photos of your baby is easy and instant, Kristin Coons, founder of MyOwnLittleStory, was inspired to create and launch the site in 2011 to get rid of “baby book guilt” for those parents who feel embarrassed about not having the time to create a baby book, but also to encourage new parents to write the story that compliments the photos.

“Parents are busy in the day to day life of raising kids and they are certain they will remember the stories later,” says Kristin Coons. “Unfortunately, I learned the hard way, with my oldest child, that those little details can be hard to remember even just a couple of years later. I wanted to help parents journal their personal stories in an easy to use format where they could write as little or as much as they wanted.”

HOW IT WORKS: The four-step process makes online baby booking as simple as responding to an email.

· Register – With registration, MyOwnLittleStory is free to users for up to two years. After two years, users are asked to print their storybook, purchase a CD or pay a nominal storage fee: $15 for 6-months and $24 for a year. Those who are "viewing" stories or "shopping" will continue to have free accounts to view stories or shop.

· Remind – Baby’s birth date is recorded during registration allowing MyOwnLittleStory to send an email twice a month with a brief narrative of their baby’s current milestone to prompt them to write down details.

· Record – Each reminder e-mail has a link to directly to the baby's current milestone. Click the link and start recording the stories to treasure for a lifetime. Also, easily upload 1-4 photos to accompany the story on that page. Or, click the snooze button and get another reminder in a week.

· Reminisce – MyOwnLittleStory offers a professionally printed book that is bound in a linen embossed hardcover made exclusively for its members (8.5” high x11” wide; front cover has a 4" x 3" window to display an image), which they suggest be printed on each birthday to mark the year. Starting at $38.99 (28 pages), pricing is based on the number of pages in your story: $48.99 (40 Pages); $58.99 (52 pages), $68.99 (64 pages), $78.99 (72 pages). Stories are also available on CD for $30.

WHAT MAKES MYOWNLITTLESTORY.COM UNIQUE:

· Whether the family and birth story is traditional or not, MyOwnLittleStory offers the ability to customize pages or skip a question, allowing parents to include only the information that is representative of their child and family situation in the book.

· The Milestone Memory Service emails make it easy for busy parents to record the details of their baby's life from home, office or iPhone and also allows parents to share their child’s latest milestone with family and friends. Click the link, answer a few questions a couple of times a month and over the course of a year, the child’s story is captured and the book is done.

· If parents are too busy or if baby hasn't quite reached a particular milestone, parents can click the snooze button to be reminded again in a week. The site even offers suggestions to help parents who might encounter some "writer's block" when jotting down a story (see samples below). Topics include, but are not limited to:

o Pregnancy: All about your mom and dad, first trimester, second trimester, baby shower, third trimester, preparation

o Year One: Baby’s arrival, first smile, first laugh, favorite foods, favorite games, rolling, sitting, crawling, walking, first words

o Year Two: Talking, toddling, eating, dancing, singing, imitating, dress up, art work

· MyOwnLittleStory also offers gift certificates that come packaged in a keepsake envelope with free items including stationery and labeled vellum envelopes for storing all of those special mementos, such as a lock of hair, the hospital bracelet and more .

· To put the finishing touch on every page, MyOwnLittleStory.com features watercolor illustrations from Los Angeles-based artist, Devon Galusha, who created the original images exclusively for MyOwnLittleStory. The covers are available in Pink, Blue and Green with the idea that simplicity is the best approach to creating a keepsake that will last a lifetime.

ABOUT MYOWNLITTLESTORY.COM: MyOwnLittleStory.com (MyOwnLittleStory), the only online baby book with automated email reminders specific to a baby's stages and current milestones, offers parents the ability to customize and detail their personal story about their baby’s firsts, funniest, cutest and best moments. The exclusive MyOwnLittleStory Milestone Memory System is a free service that tracks the child’s age and reminds the parent, via email, to record the special stories of the child’s life.

MyOwnLIttleStory.com was created by Kristin Coons, mother of three young boys. After her third son was born in 2006, she came up with the idea for MyOwnLittleStory from her own desire to write down the details of her kids’ lives while they were still little and it was still fresh in her mind. Kristin spent a couple of years fine-tuning her vision and three years working with a programmer to create the site. MyOwnLittleStory launched in 2011. The site currently has about 10,000 users and is growing daily. Kristin is also the author of a blog: TheInspiredMom.com which features the stories of other moms who are following their dreams as well as inspiration from what she has learned on her journey of following her own dreams.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/MyOwnLittleStorycom/209521205778164?fref=ts

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