Two weeks in - How we doin'?

Well it's been an interesting 2 weeks since we launched. Where do I start?

We're still struggling to get the shopping cart customized so that we can accept payments on the site. The software we selected is new, and they're still ironing out the bugs as we go. So much for collecting money out of this thing. The good news is that we can now offer and accept coupons on the site - so let the 100% discounts begin! (or uh... continue...)

We've gone through testing a new invite system that allows us to send HTML emails, and we did quite a bit of testing to make sure they don't arrive in your spam box when they are sent. It also has the ability to put people's photos in the email. That should be coming online this week. Fingers crossed.

We knew at some point we'd have to make a policy decision on handling memorials for pets. Then lo and behold we get our first PET MEMORIAL.  Yes, it's a pet mouse. Yes, it's from Germany. Yes, it's in German. What can I say? We now accept Pet Memorials. Guess somebody needs to update the Terms of Service. (And write a version of it in German.)

We've started running ads across a number of websites. Many are flash ads that I can't display on this blog - and some traffic is finally rolling into the site. But I really don't care for the quality of the hits you get at Adwords. Most people just close the box as soon as it pops up. There must be a better way to get people's interest...

Marketing is never easy when the subject matter is death. The press (who ironically make quite a living telling us "who died today") has really been hit or miss with our product launch. Here's a miss: Nicole Ferraro who covers Web 2.0 sites at InternetEvolution.com doesn't really care for our "social deathworking" moniker - or the subject matter in general. She found a place selling cremation jewelry - which even I admit is a bit creepy. I mean, even I draw the line at selling you a coffee mug with Uncle Joe's picture on it while his funeral is going on. It's a tightrope we walk when we're dealing with a sensitive subject, and there's very little room for humor. But every day I learn there's a little bit of room for humor, when I told one of our programmers about her negative take on things, his first response was "She's really cute."  Programmers...  ;-)

Check out her cuteness, her tirade against the ghouls of the internet (and my response) here.

That's it for this week. Tune in next week for more fun from Ghoul Central, where another press release is sure to drive the media into a somnabulistic typing frenzy. Or not...