I have a sidesplit house in southern MN... yes its cold. However, the basement of this house is almost uncomfortable cold, as well is my daughters' bedroom. The furnace is gas in the back left of the house in the basement, daughters' room is upstairs front right, basically as far away as possible from the actual furnace. I have no idea what the equipment actually is, but im wondering if there are any inexpensive/SAFE ways to get the heat distributed equally, or close to equal. We have the temp set at ~70 degrees all winter, but i would have to ballpark the basement at ~55-60 degrees and the girls' room at ~60-65 degrees. I have attempted to close all of the upstairs vents and force the heat to the basement in hopes of radiant heating the upstairs and making the basement comfortable... that was strike 1. all that did for me was make the upstairs colder and for that to work, the heat would have to be at ~75+ degrees, and with gas at the price it is, thats not happening... Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

if the basement is very cold, i would reccomend looking into some sorta insulation that wraps around your trunk lines and vent pipes. my basement is cold and i find that that cools down the heat travelling through the furnace. By the time it reaches the register the air is cold LOL. I just think the insulation would help, hopefully ive helped ya in some way

What you describe sounds like your ductwork may not be adequate. Its impossible to tell if your ductwork was designed and installed correctly to mate with your furnace but there are a number of things you can look into:

Search on how to properly design and install ductwork
Insulate any runs that are in unconditioned spaces
See if the sizing of the duct returns and supply trunk and runs is adequate
Verify you have dampers on all supply runs
Sometimes a booster fan on a longish run can help
Get a copy of the Manual D to understand the intricasies of ductwork