What is MyGiftster?

Welcome to a new kind of free gift management system for families and friends.

Now with your whole family connected by the Internet, you can post each other’s gift wish lists - and an updated family events calendar - in one central place.

MyGiftster is that place.

Your family’s gift ideas and important dates go into MyGiftster – and out comes a better way to give and get gifts that matter most…without the usual anxiety that goes with it.

Easily track the purchase status of each gift idea to avoid duplicate gifts. No more time spent emailing the kids wish lists. Give and get gifts that are needed. Spend your money wisely — especially in these difficult economic times. Don’t do away with a thoughtful gift – just make sure it is the right gift.

Designed for every member of the family — kids, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, mom, dad — everyone.

MyGiftster is not a shopping site. There are plenty of those already.

Creating your own wish list, to help others make good gift choices for you, is as simple as jotting down a list of ideas. You decide how completely to describe each gift idea. Unlike a traditional gift registry, you don’t have to shop for anything first. Just make a list. It’s that simple. It makes absolutely no difference who sells the gift or service. You can even just jot down preferences, like gardening or golf, and let the gift giver take it from there.

Quick Start Guide

I want to start by creating my own wish list

1. From the home page, click on the big Create my List graphic in the middle of the page, type in a title for your list and start jotting down wish list ideas.
2. When finished, you can email a link to your list by clicking on Email List. You can send this link to a friend, or even come back and update your list later with this link. You don’t even have to register to experience the MyGiftster wish list.
3. If you decide you want others to view your list and be able to reserve items to avoid duplicate purchases, then register yourself and create a group from the my groups page, as described in the next example.

I want to create a MyGiftster group for my family to view each other’s lists and events

1. From the home page, click on the big Create my List graphic in the middle of the page, type in a title for your own wish list and add a couple of items.
2. To make your list the first one in your family group, click on Create an Account with your name and email address
3. Click on the my groups icon
4. Click on add a group on the left
5. Enter a group name, such as the Smith Family and a Description, such as Wish lists and upcoming events for the Smith Family.
6. Click on Save Group
7. In the Invite more Members box, type in the first name, last name, and email address for other members of your family or individuals you wish to invite to join your group. These are the people who can then see your wish list, and you can see theirs, once they register themselves. Enter each person into this box like this: first name last name email address with just a space between each word and the system will do the rest once you press Save
8. Click on Events icon, and start adding birthdays and holidays that you know are meaningful to your group. Other members can also contribute to this Events list.
9. Check back to your my groups page, to see the status of those you have invited to your group

I want to join an existing group

1. If you received an email invitation, click on the link in the email. If not, click on Create my List, then click on Create my Account. Enter your name and email address.
2. Find out the name giving to you group by the group creator. Once you log in, you should see that you are already part of that group. If not, click on Search Groups and enter the name to find it. Ask to join.
3. Add your wish list to the group. Click on the my lists icon. Click on new list, type in a list title, then click on add item to begin creating your own list that others in the group can view and reserve items on.
4. Click on the my events icon to contribute important dates to the group event calendar.
5. Click on browse and reserve gifts to view the lists added by others in the group. Click to select a group and name on the left.
6. Click on individual items in the list to see item detail. Click the small icons to indicate that you wish to reserve or purchase this gift. The list owner cannot see the status of the list.

MyGiftster Features

If you like reading about features, instead of benefits, this section is for you

Capabilities

Create a personal wish list complete with item, price, star ranking, store, a URL web link to the item page at a store, and a description for each item.

Use this list privately as your own ongoing wish list. Or email the page link to others who can view your list. You don’t even have to register to use this part of the service.

Define a group. Everyone who registers to that group can view and reserve items on each other’s wish lists.

Group members also contribute to the group event calendar that all can see.

At gift occasions you can reserve items for as many members as you want. Press the “print my shopping list” and you get a summary list of each gift you reserved, no matter which list it was on.

When browsing other lists, you can see if someone else has already reserved an item on someone's list, you can click on an item to see all detail, you can click to add the same item to one of your own lists, and you can see how many of that item the person wanted.

To buy the gifts on someone's list, MyGiftster provides two surprisingly useful features. The first is that Google has already reviewed that list and is displaying the most relevant offers it has for the items on the list. For example, if your mother is asking for bed sheets, Google will likely be able to automatically display a couple of different stores offering bedsheets, perhaps on sale. The second feature is a one-click slide out look up on Amazon.com. Just click on the magnifying glass next to an item and instantly 3-5 suggested matches will slide out below that item on the screen available from Amazon.com. Sometimes Amazon cannot find any matches, like if aunt Tilda wants a mink fur coat. These two features that help you find the items on the list are for your convenience - you don't have to use them but we think you'll find them surprisingly handy.

If you know what a Facebook is, then you'll appreciate the Facebook Connect features of MyGiftster. If you don't know what a Facebook is, well, than just ignore this part. Use your Facebook credentials to sign into MyGiftster - and get some cool benefits like the ability to auto post your wish list ideas to your Facebook account, and also one click access to inviting your Facebook fans to check out MyGiftster too.

The MyGiftster Blog contains gift giving tips and other recent write ups. You can contribute too. Check it out in the News department.

MyGiftster looks cool. We like great design that keeps things fresh, friendly and simple to use.

This is a work in progress, there are a couple more brand new features on the test site, but they aren't quite ready to come out of the oven yet. You'll hear more about these soon.