Joining AdoptionOnline.com

Gold Membership

This page contains all the information you need to become a member. Please read everything carefully and let us know if you have any questions.

Your "Dear Birthmother" letter.

Send us a copy of your "Dear Birthmother" letter. We recommend it be about two sheets of paper in length. You may provide this letter by US mail or electronically (preferably in Microsoft Word format).

Remember, you will be communicating to a woman (or a couple) who is considering an adoption plan for their baby. You should be as clear as possible and above all, honest.

Your letter should contain information on how a Birthparent should contact you. We recommend you make it as easy as possible by providing E-mail and phone numbers to contact you directly. If you prefer (or have been advised) provide contact information for your adoption professional in addition to or instead of your personal information. If you are not comfortable providing your home phone number or E-mail address you can get an 800 number and set up a free E-mail account using a service like Google or Yahoo.

Your web page will be added to AdoptionOnline.com within 7 -10 business days after receipt of all necessary materials at our office. Once online, you may make small changes to your letter anytime, at no additional charge.

Photos to be added to your web page:

The basic Gold level listing includes 4 photographs on your web page More photographs may be added for a small one time fee.

We have placed thousands of photos on the internet since 1995. Our ability to make your photos look their best is limited by the quality of the image you provide to us. So please keep the following in mind:

Provide photographs that are not too dark, and that do not have shadows on your faces.
Photos submitted electronically should be in .jpg format if possible. Sending large, high quality files is not a problem and is encouraged!
Do not send copies of photographs made on a color copier or from a regular (non-photo) printer. There is very little we can do to make these look good.
Do not send pictures electronically as part of a Microsoft Word document. Although they may look good on your computer, they will not look good online. Please provide the photos separately.

Additional detailed suggestions for selecting your photographs can be found in this article.

Search terms for the "Find A Family" search engine

Gold members may choose up to 10 search terms to uniquely identify your listing. Please provide your search term choices upon registering.

Visit the Find A Family page to see the search terms currently in use. You can choose search terms from whatever categories you'd like and do not have to be listed in every category. If you think of a search term not currently in use, please let us know and we will add it to the search engine at no cost to you.

The following are examples of search terms:

Category: Family Type and Adoption Wishes

Families with children
Families without children
Single parent families
Multiracial families
Families wanting to adopt multiracial children
Families wanting to adopt twins
Families wanting to adopt special needs children
Families wanting to adopt older children

Category: Area, State or Country

Area of the world in which you live
Area of the country in which you live
State in which you live

Category: Activities

Type of pet you have (Dog, Cat, Horse etc.)
Hobbies (Music, Arts & Crafts etc.)
Recreation (Sports, Music, Travel etc.)

Category: Lifestyle, Religion or Heritage

Lifestyle (Live in the Country, City, Seacoast etc.)
Religion (Catholic, Jewish, Christian, etc.)
Heritage (Native American, Irish, etc.)

Category: Occupation(s)

The order in which your name(s) appear in the category listings will be changed on a regular basis to provide a fairness impossible to attain by traditional advertising methods (newspapers, for example).

If you are hoping to adopt a special needs child, toddler or older child you can use the extra search terms FREE in addition to the regular 10 term maximum. Just let us know if you are interested when you contact us.

If you have asked us to add a new term, its almost always no problem. However, we reserve the right to combine your new search terms with existing terms if, in our opinion, no value is added by the new term you propose. For example, if you proposed "Location: USA" we would not accept that because essentially all of our Birthmothers come from the US, and so, this term does not uniquely differentiate you from others.

Gold Level Optional Features

Additional Photos
If you are including any additional photos please send them when you sign up.
Featured Family Service - NOW INCLUDED AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE !

Sending Information

What to send

Dear Birthmother Letter
Photographs for your web page (4 included plus any additional)
Descriptive paragraph used in the Featured Family Search results
A list of up to 10 search terms to be used in the Find A Family™ search page.

Email
You can send all your information to us by E-mail
Regular Mail, FedX, UPS etc.

Send Everything to:

Note: If you send pictures and you would like them returned, please include a self addressed stamped envelope.

Payment

Credit Card
Use your credit card and pay by phone or online.

Pay by phone:
Call us at 301-854-1501 during regular business hours
(9:00 AM to 5 PM eastern time).
Pay Online:
We trust PayPal to process our transactions. (what is PayPal?)
Pay Online

Check or Money Order
We accept checks or money orders.

Send your Check or Money Order to:

Policies and other important information

Please make sure you understand our policies. By becoming a member of AdoptionOnline.com you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed to these policies so if you have any questions after reading them, please contact us before becoming a member.