Been Threatening For Years

[boont]

I have been threatening for years to do a web site for boomers. Tonight I heard on the radio that there is a new one called "eons".

Get this, it has the largest obituary list in the United States and they will email you if someone you know dies.

I thought that was a joke until I heard the rest of the report.

The other boomer type sites I have seen are basically sponsored by banks and stock brokers. They are just sales tools to fish for investment money.

If that is the best they can do I am very near to pulling the trigger. I have a test site up already but I think it may be too ambitious.

I may be nuts but I don't think a site about menopause, diapers, and obits is what my generation wants to read about.

Of course some people are going to say I ought to learn how to write first but I will take that chance.

boont

 

[Sarah in SC]

Eons got a lot of free press because of the Obits thing. Not what I'd want to be known for if I were trying to attract the "forever young" boomer population. Go for it! I did like the buttons and color scheme--and I liked the idea of "mySpace for the over 50 crowd". Let's see yours (but I still can't join, I'm only 35....

Sarah

 

[Nords]

If that is the best they can do I am very near to pulling the trigger. I have a test site up already but I think it may be too ambitious.
I may be nuts but I don't think a site about menopause, diapers, and obits is what my generation wants to read about.

C'mon, you're going to have to get it done or find a better excuse than that. Never underestimate the laziness or stupidity of the American consumer. Why, think of the untapped reservoir of keywords just waiting for your Adsense expertise!

Our alumni magazine covers class years from the '30s to the present with letters from each class secretary. The '30s through the '50s (which includes the Boomer bow wave) are full of who died where doing what, including widows and children. It's practically a perpetual roll call of senescence & demise. There's even a column on how to write an obituary.

I guess it's why people read the obituaries in print media. You'd like to know who's not going to show up at the golf course (or the lineup), you don't want to blissfully and ignorantly commit the faux pas of phoning to say hello if they'll never take your call again, but you aren't necessarily ready to handle a tearful phone call from their families. Nor are the survivors looking forward to having to make a gazillion phone calls to have the same conversation over and over like Groundhog Day.

E-mail sounds like a great way to accomplish the notification task, and frankly I'd get a kick out of having my estate pay a bill to OldGeezers.com for e-mailing my contact list with the subject line "I woke up dead today." Somehow I think I'd have a hard time persuading my spouse to do it!

You're welcome. If your website includes pages on how to write a good obituary, you can donate 0.1% of its ad revenue to the Hawaii chapter of Habitat for Humanity in my name...

 

[boont]

"Let's see yours (but I still can't join, I'm only 35....) "

Sarah

I don't mind posting a link when I'm ready with a beta. Maybe in a few days.

But I don't want to do it without permission from the moderator or someone. Don't want to be accused of advertising my own stuff.

boont

 

[Martha]

Boont, you have your forum cred established, so you can post a link to your site.

 

[boont]

Thanks Martha. I will see if I can pull something together for feedback.

boont