New Entrant to the Obituary Market

Well, an interesting development in the niche market of Australian online death notices, funeral notices and obituaries today.

The emergence of an Australian website claiming, among other things,

There is no other place where obituary notices can be viewed hours after they appear in newspapers; no other place where notices from more than one city can be viewed without moving from one newspaper or one web-site to another.

Well, these guys are either blatantly lying or totally stupid if they don’t realise that the http://www.obits.com.au/ website has been operating for 10 months now. More often than not our notices appear hours BEFORE they appear in newspapers. Why? Because we don’t have to wait for them to be published – funeral directors submit them directly ONLINE or via fax. We don’t have to wait for them to be published before we add them to our website, because they are ORIGINAL notices, supplied WITH the family’s consent.

The posting of Obituary and Funeral Notices on the Internet is a completely new development.

Well, no it isn’t. Obits has been doing it for 10 months, and the newspapers a lot longer still. The industry is HUGE in the States, and they have been doing it for years.

We are the front-runner in this whole market. Establishing a thoroughly reputable and ethical business such as this is an expensive exercise which is very unlikely to be repeated.

How can you claim to be a “front-runner” when there is already an established business in your market? How can you claim to be “reputable and ethical” when you are placing notices online without the knowledge or consent of the families whose loved one has passed? How can you risk causing further distress to a grieving family and still claim to be “reputable and ethical”?

Obviously, I support the concept of online notices, and the value of the information remaining online forever, for future generations. But “reputable and ethical” businesses are built by earning the trust and respect of the community you are working in. In the Australian funeral industry this takes time. Whilst you might provide a service for the masses, at what cost?

Potentially causing distress to grieving families, and then offering to hook them up with a grief counsellor nearby does not seem “ethical” to me. How can you claim “Our staff are specially trained to make the grieving process very much easier to bear” whilst totally dismissing the fact that you could be causing more grief in the first place. And to have a notice removed from the site – the funeral director has to fax through a request.

And the general manager’s response “I’m not doing anything illegal – it’s public information”. Sure, but I wonder whether cutting and pasting someone else’s efforts would be considered legal? Certainly not “ethical”.

And I have to ask myself, why are there virtually no notices from WA if the notices appear hours after they appear in print? Probably because these notices are not accessible online – they can’t be copied and pasted.

TrueLocal in the Death Business?

TrueLocal have some really DUD search results. They also have some really DUD Google AdWord campaigns happening. I guess that happens when you have deep pockets & outsource your AdWord campaigns. This one is really silly & a TOTAL waste of money. This is the result you get when you do a search for "West Australian Death Notices"

The click produces NO RESULTS whatsoever. What are they thinking? That you are going to stick around, just because you're there? No, you go there to find an answer - because you are looking for something specific & not being able to provide a result damages your credibility and reduces the likelihood of a return visit.

UPDATE - seems like they heard me! The click now produces 3 results - one for "Creative Display Systems" (?), one for "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome" & 1 for "Deaths in Custody Watch". Still wouldn't help if I was looking for a "West Australian Death Notice"

Metropolitan Cemeteries Board

The Metropolitan Cemeteries Board in Western Australia has a page where they advertise the funerals for the day, which I think is a terrific service. It's just unfortunate, and unnecessary, that the website developer either lacked sensitivity or had a really sick sense of humour in the URL for the page.

http://www.mcb.wa.gov.au/todayFun.php

"todayFun"?? Talking about irreverent...

Funeral Industry Directory Release

It's been a busy month at Obits. After many months of design, data collection, programming, categorising and regionising (is that a word?), we have finally released our complete Funeral Industry Directory.

The Funeral Directory lists nearly 2,000 funeral industry suppliers, and is the largest directory for this industry known to me in Australia. Previously the directory had only been available to funeral directors, but is now available to all suppliers in the industry.

Basic directory listings are free & contain the business name, phone & fax, 1 category, 1 region and 20km search radius.

Premium listings which offer additional information, "about us" section, additional categories, regions & a larger search radius are offered for $165 pa. Inclusion as a premium listing is free to funeral directors who place a minimum of one notice per month.

We're very excited about the new directory, and moving on to the next project which is extended online memorials.

News.com.au Death and Funeral Notices

The News.com.au death and funeral notices have recently been revamped. Now the listing newspaper not only receives a mention on the notice, but the name of the deceased is a link TO that newspaper.

Firstly, I don't really have a problem with a notice having a link. At www.obits.com.au the banner on a notice links to the funeral director's website (if one exists), and we often contain links in the notices referring to the nominated charity, where this is specifically requested.

But I see these links as being RELEVANT. If someone can explain to me how clicking on the name of a deceased person, and having that link go to the home page of the newspaper listing the notice, is at all relevant, then I'd be very interested to hear.

In my opinion, it's tacky and irreverent. If they MUST link to the individual paper, then I think they should at least do it on their OWN name, which gets a mention TWICE.

Problems with News Ltd Classifieds Search

It seems New Ltd is having some major problems on their classified search page. Try searching just about anything and this is the result you'll get.

Not very pretty.

Shows that you should probably do some rigorous testing before going live - well certainly before clocking off for the day!

Ebay - Is Nothing Sacred?

Ebay are so quick to the adword market with breaking news. First with all their Steve Irwin products & then of course Peter Brock.

But I really have to wonder about the relevancy of their adds when I see ads like below. I really hope they have a low click through rate.




Bargain Cemeteries on eBay Australia.

I wonder if they'll throw in a free crematorium with that?

Peter Brock Tributes - Hopefully Helping to Ease the Pain

With the unexpected death of two high profile Australian Icons this week, Steve Irwin and Peter Brock, I have been suprised at the amount of traffic that the Obits site has received. Each day surpasses the next.

The nation is in shock, still recovering from one death, to be faced with yet another. I'm not sure whether Peter and Steve shared many common friends, but it must be a sad week for them.

On the Obits site I have been wanting to integrate a "condolence" section attached to each notice. We are planning on introducing a "Memorial" product - an extended version of the current notice. The memorials will be up to 3 pages, with more photos and text, and customised layout. The condolence section is to be incorporated with that launch, so there hasn't been much point developing it on its own.

However, it has occurred to me that there are a lot of people hurting out there, who might just feel a little better being able to publicly announce their pain.

So I have fashioned a tribute page attached to the main notices for each of Steve Irwin and Peter Brock's notices. It's a bit cumbersome in that I have to edit this page with every message that is left, but I'm able to cut and paste so it's not too bad.

Within 2 hours of putting up the tribute pages (which was done on Saturday evening), we've received over 20 messages of condolence - which has surprised me. I wish I'd thought of it sooner, as we've had close to 10,000 views of the 2 notices combined, so I'm sure there would have been many, many more.

Oh it's been a busy week.

Peter Brock - Another Tragic Death

It's not been a good week for Australia with the death of Steve Irwin and now today Peter Brock's death in Western Australia.

Whilst none the less tragic, I suppose the death of Peter Brock would statistically have to be less unexpected. With high speed, no matter the skill of the driver, there is an inherent risk.

With Steve Irwin, however, although some claim that his profession was full of risk, I suppose the risk of injury would have been greater than the risk of death.

Still Peter Brock's death is none the less shocking, and I suppose there will be a nation of baby boomer motoring enthusiasts in mourning today.

Being involved in the death industry with my website Australian Death Notices, Funeral Notices and Obituaries, we are confronted with death evey day. It makes you re-evaluate your mortalitly.

I daresay that the events of the last week may provide a large dose of reality to many average Australians who just don't like to think about the inevitable.

They say things happen in 3's. I sincerely hope that's not the case this time.

Why the Internet HASN'T replaced TV just yet

As mentioned yesterday, when reports of the death of Steve Irwin started circulating, people flooded the internet. Sure, radio stations also reported large amounts of phone traffic and I'm sure there were pay tv subscribers that flocked to the news stations.

My memory is cast back to "9/11", the anniversary of which will be shortly upon us. In Australia, it was late in the evening. I vividly recall, as would many people, what they were doing when they heard the news, and I'm ashamed to admit it, but here goes.... watching Jerry Springer (it's my hubby who liked to watch), but of course those days are long past. In fact just about all TV viewing is long past. Anyway, I'm digressing, I remember seeing a news flash on the bottom of the screen and for the next couple of hours (and it was late already), we were riveted to the TV - CNN if I recall.

How these 5 years (gosh has it been "that" long) have changed us. Yesterday, for the breaking news, a vast majority of people turned to the internet. The variety of sources are attractive - you can find what you need in matter of seconds, and if site "a" doesn't contain the information you need, there's always site "b". TV channel surfing is not as immediately gratifying, or necessarily informative - you have to WAIT for the infomation you need.

I really don't watch TV these days. I used to enjoy ER, but that hasn't been on in a while. I can't remember the last movie I watched & the last TV show I made a point of watching was Andrew Denton's "Enough Rope", because it had Natalie Verdon from "LifeArt" doing a "show & tell" on her coffins. Before that .... hmm it was the series on ABC about the kids who went to the Science Olympiad (and my mum would ring me every Thursday to remind me it was on. She was concerned when it finished that she wouldn't have an excuse to ring me every week because, unlike many mothers, she doesn't like to "bother me" because she "knows" how busy I am - she's so sweet - oops digressing again).

Usually, late at night, we switch on the bedroom TV. Haven't worried about pay TV in the bedroom. But what's this crap on after midnight? I tell you, SBS must be carving up the late night ratings. 3 crappy game shows on 7, 9 & 10. WTF? I'd nearly rather watch the "infomercials" I got so accustomed to in hospital after every birth (4 of them). Or even Richard Wilkins' "Keynotes". Anything but this insulting crap. Honestly, if one of the major stations put on anything half decent, they'd get the viewers - surely.

Well, ranting / raving now. I suppose the point that I was getting to is that, if I was drawn to watch the 11.30 news last night and the channel 7 Steve Irwin special tonight and a bit of ACA last night, then there must have been millions more than me. THAT is the drawing power of television.

News of Steve Irwin's Death Creates Record Traffic

As the news of Steve Irwin's rumoured death in Australia filtered through today, an alamingly high amount of search enquiries followed.

News sites reported hits so great that many of them had to revert to low bandwith. Ninemsn.com.au, a joint partnership between PBL and MSN, are claiming to have received over 1,000,000 hits ("5 times usual traffic") that nearly "...crashed their server". Steve's website http://www.crocodilehunter.com/ could not cope with the traffic and was taken off air.

My own site Australian Death Notices, Funeral Notices and Obituaries received record levels of traffic (i.e. the most traffic it has ever received in it's 7 month history). I had heard of the news, yet the demand caught me off-guard.

The Google Adword daily budget for the word "death" was used up virtually within the hour. An unprecedented amout of Australians looked to the www.Obits.com.au site to find this immediate news.

It's often tough having to type a death notice, even after 7 months. We often get teary in the office, particularly with notices for babies and young people.

Steve Irwin's death, however, left a kind of numbness. This man seemed invincible. This was someone we felt we "knew". As his manager, and close friend, John Staiton referred to was the adage, "what you saw was what you got", and consequently we all felt we "knew" him.

Undoubtedly we didn't. Perhaps the essence of the man and what he was passionate about. Steve was so full of energy and so vital and my heart goes out to Terri, Bindi and Bob, as with any family who has lost a loved one, with the void that would inevitably be created. No doubt the comparatively small amount of sorrow & disbelief we, as a nation, feel could be nothing compared to their grief.

There is also talk of Steve Irwin being offered a State Funeral - given his status and popularity in Australia, I see this as a firm possiblilty.