Ideas

Several progressive funeral homes provide this service for their customers. Usually an ulgly, circa 1990 webpage. Of course, you need to spend a lot of cash to *become* a customer.

Rather than go after the pocketbooks of those who have suffered a loss, it might be prudent to instead look to funeral homes for membership fees. It would be a win-win-win. CH profits. The funeral homes would be able to offer online gravesites for all their customers, and take on the burden of submitting things like photos, obituary, etc. Perhaps offer "white-labeling" for Premium accounts. The survivors could have access to the digital gravesite for enhancing the page with personal thoughts, etc (wiki style).

All submissions, regardless of the funeral homes they are done through, participate the common site directory.

I agree with the previous comment. The original idea, while a basically sound concept, would be a much stronger business model if CH focuses on what it does best - Web/Software development. The funeral homes who already have the customers, but are weak at technology, could offer a value-added service with very little work on their part.

Has the added benefit of being significantly easier to manage as contacting/managing relationships with a few key funeral home companies would be much more feasible than targetting individual bereaved families. The funeral home industry has consolidated over the past few year. A half dozen companies bought up many/most of the individual homes - even though they still position themselves as mom & pop operations.

Still, it's such a delicate topic. Would require a lot of tact to pull off.

Don't ask how I know so much about this industry - long story :)

Beautiful idea. The concept is very strong, but it will be very hard to catch the idea in a suitable format I think.
(This doesn't contribute much after the last two comments, but I want to show my thumbs up for this idea!)

They way I saw it, was to have a template for each Digital Tombstone, and let the users submit directly into it, with an annual fee to keep it there.
The template would have a text area for info on the person and what info goes on the digital tombstone including a link to a video clip, and a flexible area for submitting documents, video clips, etc.
I agree that it is very sensitive and would need more thought on the exact format of it.
Thanks for you comments so far.
Roger

Interesting. Definitely has possibilities. I agree with a previous poster, encourage membership with the funeral homes. Furthermore, without getting too morbid, encouraging those still alive to contribute to their own eventual digital tombstone in so far as a biography might be an advantage.

Great idea. People spend so much on funerals and often they don't have the money. This is a great way to remember someone.

A quick search on Google will give you some idea as to what's already out there: http://www.google.co...38;q=online+cemetery

...same deal for pets.

Sort of done to death you might say.

lots out there

...better collaborate or have it on my http://www.ememorial...stead.com/index.html
as another product...

post me your reply!