Tributes.com wants to be the place where you memorialize your loved ones.  Does it make sense?

Create a web page for your dearly departed, right?  Many of us have thought about doing that from time to time.  It was bound to happen, and it has. 

Tribues.com is a great idea.

Many people would love to be able to create a memorial in cyberspace, to pay tribute to the life of a loved one. 

Tribute.com also looks great.  And, at first, it makes you want to jump in and get started, but that's when reality hits.  First you have to find their death record.  Huh?  I can't create a tribute without an official death record?  What's that all about?  Are they afraid I'm going to fake my own death to collect on the insurance? 

Then you have to jump over 4 more hurdles.  By then you are ready for the afterlife yourself.

This reminds me of the craziness that is Ancestry.com.  I care about my family tree, so I went there many years ago to create one.  Well, it was one roadblock after another.  Then, about 2 years ago, Geni.com came along and, Bingo!  The Geni folks did it right.  Want to add a person to your tree, just add a person to your tree.  Ancestry had the lead.  They had the model, and they blew it.  I now have a family tree on Geni that has over 6,000 people in it!  How can that be, you ask.  I'll tell you how, by connecting the dots.  One person adds a few people, another person adds a few, and pretty soon (it only took us about 1 year) you have 6,000 people in your tree. 

I tried.  I really tried.  My tree on Ancestry was all there.  I dutifully went through their process.  I added my dearly departed family members.  I published my tree so others could connect to it.  But that's where it ended.  I have a tree with perhaps 30 people on it there today.

But with Geni, I added and linked, and invited, and presto, 6,000 people in the tree. 

This is what happens when a business really understands the power of connections and making it easy to connect.  Learn from this.