Hey there Sea Changers and welcome back to my series of posts outlining ways and means to create yourself an online business to fund that sea change. Today's topic is one aimed at those who are looking to fund their sea change working within the funeral industry as I discuss how to sell funeral needs online.
Now, this may seem like a somber or even morbid way to make a living, however from a pure business point of view, this is an area that is a part of life – remember the old saying about death and taxes. And of course with anything else that may be purchsaed online, many are starting to look to make purchases in this area online as well.
So, if you have an interest here, I have checked it out and found that there just may be an opportunity here – so without further delay and carry on, let's have a look…
How do we get started?
I mentioned earlier that this was an area that there is always going to be a need for hence I think could really be used to build a business around – especially if it is something that you are knowledgeable about. That said, I would hate to convince anybody to start their own online business with anything to do with funerals and have it fall away due to the fact that even though you are knowledgeable, or even passionate about it, there is not an online market in this area. So to get started, let's see what people are searching for:
What are people looking for?
To start let's just confirm our market numbers:-
1. Number of monthly searches
As we are looking to see if there is an interest in funeral related products and services online, let's start by checking for niche related searches. You will need to find yourself a good keyword tool (I use Jaaxy) and enter in the keywords that best describe your market. In this case, we will start with the basics:

Ok, that's pretty good – over 54,000 searches per month for the term funeral- and we can also use this information to start to get a few niche ideas there with searches for insurance and flowers etc. This is great to know in regards to gauging interest so let's break it down a little further in line with our current subject:

So we can see here that searches for funeral service of all types (including pets) is quite popular as well – this could be a good niche, especially as we look at the graphic above and see options for different types and needs for funerals as well. Let's now look at this from a different angle in regards to another funeral related area…

And we can also see here some of the most important areas for selling funeral gear online, such as candles, cards and memorial paraphernalia as well. All in all, i see this as a good niche to work online with. Let's now look at trends.
2. Search Trends
Another important aspect of online sales and niche selection is to check that interest is maintained over time. To gain an insight into this let's check out how the searches for a few of our funeral related options are trending online.

As suspected, trending shows a definite interest all year round making this a great niche for sales in all seasons.
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What is our niche?
Ok, now the fun part begins – In the statistics and screen dumps above, we can already see some of the interest in different niches within the online funeral needs market. These trends show a definite interest in needs in this area so the decision you have now is to determine whether you wish to create your online business covering funeral needs in general or concentrate on a specialized area or sub niche such as flowers, self managed funeral planning or insurance for example.
There are a good number of different areas you could explore here – and off the top of my head, some examples of funeral programs include:
- Gravesite requirements such as headstones, urns and flowers etc.
- Funeral requirements – invitations, notices, ceremony programs etc.
- Memorial tools
- Funeral director training
- Insurance, financing etc.

And that is just a few off the top of my head – all of which can be marketed from the point of view of the writer, or simply as a means of supplying information to those looking to purchase – although I do tend to think that this is one niche in which you may benefit more if you actually have a knowledge about funeral processes – maybe.
From the search numbers above, it does look to me that generalist funeral service needs could be incorporated into the one site however as you start to think about this, the question to ask yourself is whether the content you are covering is too large to cover effectively.
The risk here is that if you start with a niche that is too broad, you may not be able to cover everything to the level required or to become authority on the subject – which you will need to be if you are going to convince people to purchase from you and not their local store. Don't forget, you can always add a new section to your site as you grow as well.
As you work through narrowing your targeted niche, consider the following:
- Are you able to solve a problem – Most people undertake searches on the internet to solve a problem – see next section.
- Is it a subject that you have an interest, or knowledge in– I am guessing that you are in this post as you know about, or have an interest in funerals and their relative processes. If you don't have these, maybe consider another market as to be honest, you might struggle to produce solid content if you don't know much about the sport – or worse, fail to see the attraction in it at all. Trust me, people will know immediately if your information is not up to scratch or even worse, can put their farewelling of a loved one at risk.
Let's investigate this a little further by discussing the problem solving elements of niche selection.
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What problem are we solving?
If this is a niche that you are interested in, you may already know what it is that you are trying to sell. If not, then maybe start to look at it from the perspective of solving problems. This, added to your area of interest is a great way to work out exactly what you think you might like to base your online business upon.
Think about your own search behaviors when you are online – I would hazard a guess that most searches you do are in order to solve a problem. Now think of this in a manner in which someone might have problems within the greater funeral related niche such as:
- You know that you need to plan a funeral but just don't know what you need to get started.
- You have a problem and need a solution – I.e. “I don't know how to create a picture collage for the service”.
Your goal here is to determine just what problem/s you are trying to solve for your readers. This maybe one problem that spans your site or differ for each post that you write. For example, if you have chosen funeral insurance for your niche, then problems might be:
- Matching products to use– They want to know what plans are best for their circumstance.
- Which to buy – There are a number of higher priced policies on the market – but which is best?
In these cases, people would be searching for those topics based on having a problem and needing a solution. Your site would outline and review the best options for them.
Alternatively, if your site is about assisting someone to get started in planning a funeral then you could look into the following:
- What they need for the service
- What music types to play and what to avoid.
- What memorial cards and programs are best.
- Coffin selection and so on.
Note: You do not need to identify every possible problem that your readers may have straight away. In many cases, the more you write, the more ‘problems’ will present themselves so initially you really just want to make sure that there are some that may need solving as we have found here.

How are you going to convince them to buy?
Now that we know our niche (or are at least working on it) and have an idea of the types of problems that we want to solve, there is one last thing to consider which is the online purchase behavior of your targeted audience.
Your sales/post pitches not only need to match the needs and problems that your site visitors are looking to solve, but also target them specifically as well. Some examples include:
- Those that are simply planning a funeral for a loved one will want to know exactly what they are getting into and what they need to do.
- Funeral home professionals will want specs and details – they will dissect your reviews with a fine toothed comb.
- Families might want the same information, but may be also be looking to fit everyone out on a budget.
So at the end of the day, even though we do have purchaser behavior on our side, to be successful in selling funeral related products online, consider the following:
- Solve problems without purchase – That's right – write your posts in a way that actually makes it easier for people to do their research and buy elsewhere – by doing this, you are solving problems and helping readers out. If they trust you, they will be more likely to return and buy from you then – especially if you follow up with posts on similar or compatible products or accessories that might interest them!
- Provide the intangibles – One major disadvantage when it comes to selling anything online is that we can't really know what the products look and feel like. And this is especially important when it comes to items such as insurance or flowers that can't be smelled or touched etc. Your posts will need to cover this information in a manner that puts minds at ease and explains some of the intangibles.
- Know your audience – A big mistake many make here is to target the product and not necessarily the buyer. This is especially important when dealing with products such as this. It is very easy for example to get carried away explaining how cheap an option is all the while forgetting that those intending to use them will want something that allows them to farewell a family member in style. The same goes for high end options… Expensive doesn't always mean better or able to increase ability. Make sure you do your research on the buying behaviors of those you are targeting before writing your posts.
Tip: Still not sure? Have a look and see what others are doing. It might just help you with some ideas.
How do we sell funeral needs online?
And now we come to probably the most important aspect of this whole online selling caper in that we need to consider how we are going to sell the products that we have decided to promote. Depending on the product, there are a number of methods you can use to do this. Let's explore them below:
Affiliate programs
Affiliate programs are setup directly by companies or marketplace platforms (Amazon, Ebay etc.) that allow you to join and then refer traffic to them via customized affiliate links. In short, this means that you will write about funerals and services etc. and then refer your readers to a link where they will purchase directly from the vendors. The vendors then pay you a commission for the sale.
Affiliate programs are especially good for those selling funeral related products online as you can promote/review the basic needs and then refer your readers to the vendor to manage the sale without you having to hold inventory or organize shipping.
Finding affiliate programs is generally not a difficult task either. To locate them, you would normally just type “Affiliate: funeral” into your preferred search engine:

So, as you can see, there are plenty of options in regards to affiliate programs for funeral related niches. As you search through them all, you can check it all out and find programs that:
- Relate to your niche/problems that you are solving.
- Have quality products – your brand can be severely damaged if you promote poor quality or unthoughtful products.
- Have solid payment and customer service arrangements.
- Pay decent commissions.
- Have good testimonials covering commission payouts and quality of product.
- Whether they have high ticket items you can promote on the side.
In most cases, you will need to apply for the program before you are allowed to promote their products – don’t take this step lightly or you will be rejected. Affiliate programs will generally want to know:
- Your website name.
- Traffic levels.
- Why you want to join – (“so I can make money by selling your insurance policies” is unfortunately not generally a good enough answer).
- How you plan to promote their products.
One thing to be aware of here I guess is to keep in mind the issues we discussed earlier in regards to funeral related products online. You need to make sure that the programs you choose can be trusted and that the consumer is comfortable that they have recourse if something goes wrong.
For this reason you will need to make sure that your chosen programs are going to resonate with your readers and your niche. That said, some marketplace programs such as Amazon and EBay can give you access to these types of products and as they are more trusted, then they maybe worth a look for sure. Some Amazon examples are as below:
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is something that may be of advantage to you in this niche if you are looking to play with pricing on your products. This process is similar to affiliate marketing in that you are generally promoting the products of others without the need to actually hold any inventory.
With affiliate marketing, you are paid a commission on whatever price the vendor sets but do not manage any customer service, sales processes or post sales requirements. The main difference with dropshipping is that you perform the following (there are a number of variations to this but this is the gist of it):
- Strike a relationship with a wholesaler.
- Promote the product for whatever price you see fit – often via a marketplace site such as Shopify, Amazon or Ebay.
- Manage the sales processes and customer service.
- Send the final order and payment to the wholesaler for packaging and shipping.
The money that you make is effectively the difference between whatever you managed to sell the product for and the wholesale price that you owe the vendor. The other advantages of dropshipping over affiliate marketing is that:
- You own the customer list – which is another means of building an effective email list.
- You control the cost of the product and hence the profit margins.
- You can control when you put things on ‘sale', group them in packages or increase the price for high demand items.
The disadvantages however are the extra workload in handling payment and any ongoing customer service requirements.
To find dropshipping suppliers online, you can enter searches such as “dropshipping: funeral” into your favorite search engine:

Note: These results will usually be based on your geographical location.
From here you can search through and find programs that:
- Offer dropshipping services – Not all product suppliers offer dropshipping as a service – this may just mean that you need to organize the shipping yourself after it is delivered to you.
- Have experience and are helpful – If they are not helpful and/or appear inexperienced then you can expect the same when you are trying to process sales.
- Have acceptable fees – most dropshipping wholesalers will charge a small fee for the dropshipping service – just make sure it is not so high that it eats into your profit margins.
- Provide fast shipping – One disadvantage with dropshipping when dealing with vendors is that the customer is yours, not theirs hence sometimes shipping priorities are not where they should be – make sure shipping times are acceptable.
- Have quality products – as with affiliate marketing, don't sell rubbish.
- Have a good name – do your research and see what others are saying about them.
Sell your own gear
If affiliate marketing or dropshipping are not your drink of choice, maybe you could try sourcing and selling your own products – often referred to as ‘white labeling'. This process is especially popular with those selling smaller equipment (urns, funeral paperwork etc. etc.) or could be a potentially great market if you wanted to become a local supplier of funeral related products etc.
Here you actually purchase your product from a vendor or wholesaler, add your own label and then on-sell them via your website or platforms such as Amazon etc. This process requires a much higher setup costs as you will need to purchase your products, create and affix your labels and manage orders and shipment.
Some wholesalers/vendors however will affix the labels that you send them and then manage the packaging and shipment for you (see dropshipping above). This will cost you less to set up but obviously you will make less on the sale once they take their processing fee.
Again, to find out where to acquire your product, do a search for “white label: funeral”:

Note: These results will usually be based on your geographical location so you may at times need to sort through a few pages.
From here you will need to follow the same processes as with affiliate and dropshipping programs in determining whether they are a good fit for your business plans including:
- Relate to your niche/problems that you are solving.
- Have solid delivery and customer service arrangements.
- Have good testimonials covering service and quality of product.
Alternatively, keep your eye out in your local area for markets or trade shows. These are a great way to find and purchase your products at good prices – you never know, you might even find a solid supplier for future sales as well.
Tip: This method can be very effective in driving online traffic and sales via the implementation of more traditional sales methods such as kiosks and market stalls etc. As people get to know you, they can purchase from you there and then be directed to your website for future sales.
Other methods
If none of the above really gets you excited then maybe it is time to think outside the square a little. Here are some other ideas that I have seen around the traps:
- Demonstrations on YouTube – become an expert in all things to do with funeral planning and management with coaching and lessons, hints, tips and tutorials etc. and link your sales to YouTube advertising etc.
- Teach/educate people – again – coaching or lessons.
- Specialize in customizable options – branded urns, caskets and gifts etc.
The sky really is the limit – think about how you might be able to corner a much-needed niche in the funeral arena and you could definitely set up a great business.
What do we need to do?
Once we have all of the above sorted, or at the very least a plan in place, we need to choose and setup the media that we intend to use to sell our product. This can include:
Build a Website
If you are looking to build your online business as an affiliate marketer, drop shipper or supplier, then chances are you will most probably need a website. Websites allow you to solve problems via blog posts and videos that people can view in order to identify the solutions that they need.
Usually, this process is fairly straight forward in that you build your website, write posts (on the differences between certain types of high priced caskets for example), then provide links so that your readers can view/purchase the relevant materials from your links.
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Conclusion
And there it is – How to make money selling funeral needs online. I hope it has been helpful and as usual, please do not hesitate to comment below if you have any questions, need some advice or have any experiences to share.
Do you want further assistance with any of the above or need help to build your own affiliate marketing website?
Are you looking for a comprehensive training platform that can give you step by step training, 24/7 support, tools to develop and host your very own website, ongoing assistance with SEO and social media and access to some of the best affiliate marketing minds on the planet, then click on the following link to read more about Wealthy Affiliate.
Until next time
Have fun
Paul
Note: If you make a purchase from this page, there is a very good chance that I make a commission from it – these commissions do not increase your sale price. This may include sales made via Wealthy Affiliate