Respectance.com

It has been a very tough week for all those who love balkan music and especially all the fans of Tose Proeski. We started a tribute ourselves, because this young and promising artist whose life was taken in a tragic car accident deserves to be remembered.

Respectance is still a young website that got launched this summer. We know that a lot of our visitors are coming from the States. However, the tribute to Tose has gotten visitors from all over the world. Many of his fans and admirers left memories, declaring how much joy he has brought to their lives. We are very happy that people use us to show they are connected and respect unique individuals.

When setting up the tribute for Tose, we decided to put his official country of birth in his profile. This is according to the registers Yougoslavia, which of course no longer exists. We have gotten some reactions on this. Because we really like to reflect the feelings of this artist, one of his fans convinced us that Tose liked to be linked to the country Macedonia (FYROM). Respectance is in no way trying to put any politics in its website. We simply like to respect the wishes of the person that is given a tribute to. We trust that in this case the fans of Tose know better what he would have liked.

Thanks for your understanding, and all the best to all fans of this great artist.

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Respectance has moved from the web to the television. We’re just seeing the first coverage from Richard and Ranny’s visit to New York. Here they are featured on Better TV, the Better Homes and Gardens Television Channel dedicated to women’s lifestyle programming.

*To view the show visit the website and type Respectance into their search bar.

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Richard and I checked out early yesterday morning from the Excalibur Hotel. Ladies and gentlemen, the king and queen have left the building. We were greeted by $40 of additional surcharges on the rooms since we didn’t gamble. Richard convinced the woman at the registration desk to waive the fees. He is convinced it is due to his exquisite bone structure. I think she just didn’t want to waste anymore time.

We got to the NFDA at about 10am and everyone thought we’d spent the evening partying. In reality we were eating salsa and chips and talking about all of the potential partnerships we could forge with the various funeral directors, writers and service providers. We’re pleased to say that the NFDA was a resounding success and we’ve made lots of great new friends! Nevertheless, when the plane landed at SFO we were relieved to get away from each other for at least a few hours. There’s no place like home.

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This was our second day at the NFDA funeral homes convention. Our feet are sore and our throats are dry. Things are pretty well organized, apart from the food and beverage. So what did we see today? Who did we meet and what are some of the trends?

The morning started early as we ran past gamblers and their hysterical machines to reach the convention center via Monorail. Today we met very interesting people. Again we had to convince older funeral directors why people are on the internet and on social networks; however, on the other side the coin, the younger generation gets it, and the same goes for those who want to set up a new funeral home.

What are the interesting trends, apart from the humongous caskets that I had never seen before in my life? They have extra soft mattresses and copper angels attached to them. These are popular because the majority of people still get buried in the States and not cremated.

The Red Book or National Directory of Morticians is the phone book for funeral resources. Everything is in in there and is widely used by funeral homes across the States and in Mexico. Also they are rolling out internationally. Online they do have some presence, but it is not as complete as in the book. Probably that has to do with the fact that most funeral homes are still working offline.

Dana met with Christian from the American Heart Association and we are eager to work out some sort of feature for February and heart health.

Richard got a chance to check out Ecocoffins, a group that creates wonderful wicker coffins for green burials. This would be a huge hit in Northern California with all our eco-buddies.

We also got to speak to the great people at Vidstone, a unique video tombstone service.

Richard also met a wonderful woman named Sherry who specializes in after care services for families with her online magazine. Her business, New Leaf, can be reached via the website at www.newleaf-resources.com.

And last but not least, Barbara, the author of Life Catching, was a great person to talk to. Barbara teaches people how to create memoirs and capture their lives as stories. Dana, Barbara and Richard had a great little chat and I think we may see more of Life Catching in the future.

Well folks, we are now off to a sushi bar to talk shop with the folks at Red Book. Wish us luck. We have no idea what we are getting into. In Vegas, anything can happen.

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It was a brand new day yesterday. We finally got to meet all our colleagues and clients in the industry since our launch in July.

I was wondering what this convention would be like. Would it be very dark and somber, or commercial in a way that would make us feel embarrassed? After all almost every funeral home writes on its website that it does not exist to make a profit on death.

After yesterday, I can say that it is not somber or noir. But it is a bit more commercial than I thought it would be, with the main selling argument being to, “get a higher margin”. It is clear that the funeral industry is going through difficult times as consumers are watching their budgets more closely and are opting for cremations over burials.

At the same time, it is not really commercial as no deals are done at the booth. I was checking other booths and it seemed that the industry is really informing itself. There are a lot of caskets, urns and memory products. There are also a fair number of websites at the convention center. I am very proud that we have a very humble but active stand, including this online blog component. It is not always what it seems. A bigger stand doesn’t mean that your product is better. Shouting louder does not mean that you are more right than the other.

It is good to see that the younger funeral home directors understand immediately what we are about - a community, like MySpace and Facebook, where the entire family is participating in creating a Tribute and more. It is not a one or maybe two dimensional website.

The older funeral home directors are more interested in making sure the product is integrated into their website. They think inside out. If they really like to make a change in their profitability they should start thinking outside in. Just look at the music industry. There are world famous rock bands with huge websites as well as a presence in MySpace to promote themselves and be where their fans and clients are. The Rolling Stones don’t ask MySpace to integrate into their website. They know that MySpace is where the community and fans are. Rather than trying to move our community to a funeral home’s website, it makes so much more sense for a funeral home to act within our community - the people who need their services are already at Respectance.

Let’s make it easy for ourselves and let our clients do the work for us. Set up your business account, create a very simple Tribute for each of your clients with your name automatically attached to it. The family and friends will be very thankful for showing them the way and letting them participate. You will definitely get the credits for that. Let’s stay young as an industry.

Respectance can be found at the NFDA convention, booth 1146 or business members can join at www.respectance.com/join/business.

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