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How I Built Directory Sites that Generate $2,500/mo+ in Passive Income — Transcript

by Niche Pursuits Podcast · 9,829 words · 1,402 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00What is a good uh directory topic to to
  2. 0:02dive into? I wanted to have a business
  3. 0:06that was scalable, that was high margin,
  4. 0:09low startup cost, that could be sold as
  5. 0:12an asset that can be done anywhere in
  6. 0:14the world.
  7. 0:14>> 2500 to $3,000 a month you're earning is
  8. 0:17about as close to passive as possible.
  9. 0:20>> I haven't really worked on any of these
  10. 0:22websites for probably 6 months at this
  11. 0:24point. When I saw how much I made at the
  12. 0:26end of the month, I was again shocked.
  13. 0:28around $1,200.
  14. 0:30>> So much of what you're saying is going
  15. 0:32to echo with people listening.
  16. 0:34>> The reason why my directories are
  17. 0:35boring, they work, is because Google
  18. 0:38Maps is still kind of bad at helping you
  19. 0:41find certain things.
  20. 0:42>> How important do you think link building
  21. 0:44is to the success of your directories?
  22. 0:47You got to have a good strategy for
  23. 0:49getting back links.
  24. 0:50>> The display ad concept is going to make
  25. 0:51a lot of sense for most people
  26. 0:52listening. If I'm going for display ads,
  27. 0:54I'm going for as much volume, as high
  28. 0:56search uh traffic as I can. What's your
  29. 0:59first 30 days once you've got a
  30. 1:00directory live? I've seen a lot of
  31. 1:02people fail at that. So, what I would
  32. 1:04recommend is actually
  33. 1:08>> All right, welcome back to the Niche
  34. 1:09Pursuits podcast. My name is Jared Bomb.
  35. 1:12Today, we've are joined by Frey, a uh
  36. 1:14SEO and directory builder. Frey, welcome
  37. 1:17on board.
  38. 1:18>> Thanks, Jared. Appreciate you having me
  39. 1:19on.
  40. 1:20>> Well, it's gonna be a good one today. I
  41. 1:22said it a lot. I've been saying it a lot
  42. 1:23lately, but we've had some great guests
  43. 1:24lately and today I'm excited about the
  44. 1:27topic. I mean, we could go uh some
  45. 1:28different directions because you do have
  46. 1:30your hands in a bunch of different
  47. 1:31things. We're going to focus though for
  48. 1:33the majority of the interview on this
  49. 1:35directory building uh that you've been
  50. 1:38doing and that you've had a lot of
  51. 1:39success with, especially of late. I
  52. 1:41mean, directories making a bit of a
  53. 1:43renaissance from my seat, you know, in
  54. 1:45terms of what's getting talked about in
  55. 1:47our industry online. I'm sure you uh
  56. 1:50know that and understand that very well.
  57. 1:52Of course. Um hey, before we get into
  58. 1:54the details though, can you share with
  59. 1:55us your background a little bit? Maybe
  60. 1:57how you got started in what you're doing
  61. 1:59today?
  62. 2:00>> Yeah, sure. Um yeah, so Directories is
  63. 2:02not my first business. It's not where I
  64. 2:04started. Um I've always been attracted
  65. 2:08to the entrepreneurial life. I started a
  66. 2:10business right out of college. It was an
  67. 2:12e-commerce footwear brand. Ran that for
  68. 2:14five years. After that, uh you know, got
  69. 2:17really burnt out. tried to do the whole
  70. 2:19flipping, flea markets, garage sales,
  71. 2:21that whole thing. I did that for
  72. 2:24probably a year and a half, and that was
  73. 2:25my second main business, real scrappy,
  74. 2:28and uh was paying rent that way. Um, and
  75. 2:30then I realized that I wanted to have a
  76. 2:35business that was scalable, that was
  77. 2:39high margin, low startup cost, that
  78. 2:41could be sold as an asset, and that can
  79. 2:43be done anywhere in the world. And that
  80. 2:45was just my new standard because at that
  81. 2:47point you started up businesses where
  82. 2:48you're like, "Okay, I don't think this
  83. 2:50is for me long term." And I looked
  84. 2:52everywhere, scoured the internet, found
  85. 2:53SAS and websites or niche websites. At
  86. 2:56the time, niche websites were huge. It
  87. 2:58was around 2022.
  88. 3:01And then we saw the core update that
  89. 3:03destroyed a lot of niche websites as I'm
  90. 3:06sure a lot of your audience members
  91. 3:07know. And so I just figured, hey, I
  92. 3:10would just I didn't even think about
  93. 3:11building directories. I just learned
  94. 3:13SEO, just selftaught myself through
  95. 3:14YouTube, and then said, "Hey, let me
  96. 3:16just apply what I'm learning to a
  97. 3:18website." And this directory thing, I
  98. 3:21kind of subconsciously realized a lot of
  99. 3:22these websites that are still pretty
  100. 3:24steady in hrefs um are directories.
  101. 3:28They're super resilient. So, I played
  102. 3:30around, built it, and within 6 months,
  103. 3:34it was getting a thousand visitors a
  104. 3:37day. And I was like, "What the heck?" I
  105. 3:39remember randomly just signing into my
  106. 3:41Google Search Console and I was like,
  107. 3:42"Wait a second." Um, so I just threw on
  108. 3:45some ads and when I saw how much I made
  109. 3:48at the end of the month, I was again
  110. 3:50shocked. It was around $1,200
  111. 3:53pretty much pure profit.
  112. 3:55And that was essentially kind of the
  113. 3:58turning point where I said, "Okay, I can
  114. 4:00probably build a lot of these." And that
  115. 4:03was three years ago, almost three years
  116. 4:05ago at this point. So, since then, I've
  117. 4:07built a bunch of other directories in
  118. 4:09random niches. Some B TOC, some B2B, um,
  119. 4:13some in healthcare, some in like
  120. 4:15thrifting niches. Super random, but
  121. 4:18that's that's what I continue to do
  122. 4:20today.
  123. 4:22Hey everyone, this episode is sponsored
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  133. 4:52below. Okay, now back to the episode.
  134. 4:58So, this is going to be interesting
  135. 4:59because a lot of people with SEO chops
  136. 5:01have been listening to this podcast for
  137. 5:03years. You kind of alluded to it
  138. 5:04yourself, like, "Hey, I got into the
  139. 5:06niche site business, uh, niche
  140. 5:09pursuits." Like, so much of what you're
  141. 5:11saying is going to echo with people
  142. 5:13listening. And I think a lot of people
  143. 5:15listening since HCU, since the helpful
  144. 5:17content update have kind of been
  145. 5:19struggling with what do I do with my SEO
  146. 5:21skills, you know, and a lot of people
  147. 5:22have gone into services and started
  148. 5:24providing that as a service- wide
  149. 5:30hustle or projects they can build and
  150. 5:32then sell using SEO. And here we have
  151. 5:35directories that you're talking about
  152. 5:36that uses a lot of those SEO skill sets
  153. 5:39and you're applying in a way that's
  154. 5:41creating a kind of somewhat passive
  155. 5:43asset that can be sold. So anyways, you
  156. 5:46I'm kind of just resharing what you
  157. 5:47said, but maybe before we get into how
  158. 5:49you built some of these and what's
  159. 5:50working, can you tell us where you're at
  160. 5:52right now? Any numbers you're
  161. 5:53comfortable with on the directory side
  162. 5:55of things, like how many, what kind of
  163. 5:57traffic they get, maybe what kind of
  164. 5:59what what they make, that sort of thing.
  165. 6:01>> Yeah, totally. Um, so I just I'm an open
  166. 6:04book, but I just don't share URLs. The
  167. 6:05first time I did that, it invited a few
  168. 6:07competitors. Um, right now I have uh I
  169. 6:11probably have around
  170. 6:14eight or so directories, but four of
  171. 6:16them are directories where I truly went
  172. 6:19A through Z, like did the on-page stuff,
  173. 6:21built the links, at least starting to.
  174. 6:24um three of them are ranking uh rank one
  175. 6:28page one for the target keyword. Um in
  176. 6:31total I think those are probably around
  177. 6:3480 to 100,000 monthly visitors for the
  178. 6:37first three directories. The fourth
  179. 6:38one's just recently launched, so that's
  180. 6:40why I'm trying not to count that. But um
  181. 6:43yeah, in I would say this month I'm on
  182. 6:46pace to do right around $2,500.
  183. 6:49Um that's passive. I haven't really
  184. 6:52worked on any of these websites for
  185. 6:54probably six months at this point. And
  186. 6:56yeah, for the last three years or so,
  187. 6:59that's just been the case. It's always
  188. 7:00hovered around the like $2,300 to $3,000
  189. 7:04month passive. Uh, and that's personally
  190. 7:06because I like to go for the boring
  191. 7:09evergreen niches. Um, typically what I
  192. 7:11see is that there's two different types
  193. 7:13of directories. You have your evergreen
  194. 7:15passive directories that just monetize
  195. 7:17through display ads. You can think
  196. 7:18Mediavine, Ezoic, AdSense, and then you
  197. 7:21have your lead genen where you have
  198. 7:22sponsored listings, feature listings.
  199. 7:24You can do top of the funnel to agency
  200. 7:27services as you mentioned. And that's
  201. 7:29where you get a lot more lucrative and
  202. 7:30high ceiling with your earning
  203. 7:32potential. For me personally, I've just
  204. 7:34audited my own ideal lifestyle and the
  205. 7:37way that I work. I like to sprint really
  206. 7:39hard and then just chill out. That's
  207. 7:41just how I am right now. I'm in a chill
  208. 7:43out phase. Um, and so it's nice to just
  209. 7:47have that recoccurring income even
  210. 7:48though it's lower and in my mind I know
  211. 7:51I can kind of chase something higher.
  212. 7:53It's just my personal preference. And so
  213. 7:57um yeah, that's that's kind of what uh
  214. 8:00what I I've buil built so far.
  215. 8:04>> It it's great. Congratulations because I
  216. 8:06I think you know we we hear about
  217. 8:08passive and for those of you listening
  218. 8:10I'm using air quotes here. Um, and a lot
  219. 8:12of the stuff that we end up getting into
  220. 8:14and building on the internet is far from
  221. 8:15passive. It's just not maybe full-time
  222. 8:17work. But I would say this 2500 to
  223. 8:20$3,000 a month you're earning is about
  224. 8:22as close to passive as possible. I mean,
  225. 8:25we're really talking like you haven't
  226. 8:27spent any time on it in six months. You
  227. 8:30hardly spent much time beyond the build
  228. 8:32phase of it, right?
  229. 8:34>> Yes. I will say like because it's so
  230. 8:37nuanced uh and yeah, you're absolutely
  231. 8:39correct. uh you spend a hundred hours in
  232. 8:42the beginning, right? It's hard work in
  233. 8:43the beginning. You do the on page, you
  234. 8:45build some links, make sure that gets to
  235. 8:47the front page and at a certain point
  236. 8:49when you feel like you're happy with the
  237. 8:51traffic and it's ranking on the first
  238. 8:53page high enough, um yeah, that's when
  239. 8:56you can kind of coast and that's been
  240. 8:58the case.
  241. 8:59>> Well, awesome. Okay, let's get into some
  242. 9:01of the details here. I've got a laundry
  243. 9:03list of questions, so I'm going to try
  244. 9:04to maximize the time we have with you.
  245. 9:06Let's do it. From a high level, people
  246. 9:08are going to be familiar with
  247. 9:08directories, but they're going to be
  248. 9:09familiar with them on a different scale,
  249. 9:11right? A lot of people are going to be
  250. 9:12familiar with them, say in the
  251. 9:14oldfashioned 25 years ago model that is
  252. 9:18archaic and feels like something that
  253. 9:20they don't want to create. A lot of
  254. 9:21people are going to be more familiar
  255. 9:22with them in terms of newer directories
  256. 9:25that have gotten shared and are talked
  257. 9:26about um on on Twitter or X and these
  258. 9:29sorts of things. What is a directory as
  259. 9:32it as as it relates to what you're
  260. 9:34building? talk about from a high level
  261. 9:35what it is in its principal state.
  262. 9:38>> Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. Um,
  263. 9:40so directories are archaic and they are
  264. 9:43old. The difference is that the
  265. 9:45directories that are successful today
  266. 9:47are actually aiding in the decision-m,
  267. 9:51right? I think they're like I guess the
  268. 9:54on paper difference is that there's so
  269. 9:56much more data enrichment. If you look
  270. 9:58at listings back then, it's like name,
  271. 10:00address, phone number,
  272. 10:01>> right? I was gonna mention NAP and a lot
  273. 10:03of us who are experienced with SEO will
  274. 10:05think of directories as maybe just you
  275. 10:06know citation building.
  276. 10:08>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Um but I
  277. 10:10think to go the extra mile if you want
  278. 10:12to compete in today's landscape you have
  279. 10:15to actually put yourself in the shoes of
  280. 10:18who is typing the keyword which I know a
  281. 10:20lot of us do but I'll I always give the
  282. 10:22example of daycare right? If you think
  283. 10:25about it a parent is handing a child to
  284. 10:28a bunch of strangers at a facility. They
  285. 10:29probably have a bunch of questions like
  286. 10:31are you licensed? Are there
  287. 10:33entertainment options? Is there a
  288. 10:35itinerary or schedule? Of course, what's
  289. 10:37the price? You know, there's a lot of
  290. 10:39there's a lack of price transparency in
  291. 10:41so many niches and um there's so many
  292. 10:46micro decisions that uh you know,
  293. 10:48ultimately lead to someone choosing the
  294. 10:50right daycare facility. Uh proximity is
  295. 10:53just a small one which I think most
  296. 10:54people think of with directories. Um and
  297. 10:58then like there's another side of the
  298. 11:00coin which is simpler. Uh the types of
  299. 11:01directories that I build is really just
  300. 11:04consolidated information. So in the
  301. 11:06sense it's like the same thing. In my
  302. 11:08opinion, a directory is just a list. I
  303. 11:09like to just call it a list. The utility
  304. 11:11of a list is actually really underrated.
  305. 11:13It's never going to go away in my
  306. 11:15opinion. But consolidation is like still
  307. 11:19very valuable. And the reason why my
  308. 11:21directories are boring and like they
  309. 11:24work is because Google Maps is still
  310. 11:28kind of bad at helping you find certain
  311. 11:30things. And if anyone's listening and
  312. 11:33they want to test this out, you can go
  313. 11:34to Google Maps and type in liquidation
  314. 11:36store and see what pops up. You'll see
  315. 11:3899 cent stores, you'll see thrift
  316. 11:40stores, you'll see liquidation services
  317. 11:43for businesses. But some people just
  318. 11:45like to shop at liquidation stores. It
  319. 11:47gets something like 20,000 monthly
  320. 11:48searches a month. So it's not really
  321. 11:51clear. There's a lot of fragmented
  322. 11:52search and so the value that you provide
  323. 11:55with these types of directories that I'm
  324. 11:56building is just consolidating that
  325. 11:58information so it's easy to find in one
  326. 12:00place. So you have like the data
  327. 12:02enrichment side which I would argue is
  328. 12:04more tied towards like lead generation
  329. 12:07you know high ceiling high profit niches
  330. 12:09and then like the boring stuff the
  331. 12:11evergreen stuff which I do where the
  332. 12:12inherent value is just it's hard to find
  333. 12:15like it actually is still hard to find
  334. 12:16in 2025 and there are niches where
  335. 12:18that's the case. Uh so hopefully I kind
  336. 12:21of explained uh you know those two
  337. 12:23compartments uh in an easy to understand
  338. 12:26way. No, you did. And I'm glad you made
  339. 12:28the separation of, hey, there's kind of
  340. 12:31just aggregating data. It's almost like
  341. 12:33a list. It's almost like pulling stuff
  342. 12:34together that people have a hard time
  343. 12:36finding otherwise because Google, Google
  344. 12:38Maps, other, you know, other search
  345. 12:40platforms just haven't done a good job.
  346. 12:41But then there's the data enrichment
  347. 12:42method which is kind of like combining
  348. 12:44different sets of data that exist
  349. 12:47independently but you're doing something
  350. 12:49unique by just bringing it together and
  351. 12:50therefore giving someone an experience
  352. 12:52that they might be able to find on their
  353. 12:53own but they'd have to go to three or
  354. 12:54four different places and and know the
  355. 12:56prompts to have to even look for it in
  356. 12:57the first place.
  357. 12:58>> Exactly.
  358. 12:59>> Um let's talk about selection or you
  359. 13:02know really niche selection or directory
  360. 13:03selection. I mean you have some
  361. 13:04experience. You said I think you said
  362. 13:06you started eight directories. Four
  363. 13:08you're actively working on three are
  364. 13:09doing really well. You've been doing
  365. 13:10this for a while. You mentioned a bit at
  366. 13:13the beginning about there's B2B, there's
  367. 13:15B TOC, there's lucrative niches, there's
  368. 13:18boring niches. Like, where do you start
  369. 13:20when you're coming up with what to what
  370. 13:22what to what is a good uh directory
  371. 13:24topic to to dive into?
  372. 13:26>> Yeah, I think this is a question that
  373. 13:29always circles back to what you want.
  374. 13:31And it's like, you know, it's a it's the
  375. 13:34kind of cliche thing, but you kind of
  376. 13:37want to decide how you want to monetize.
  377. 13:40Are you like me where you just want to
  378. 13:42kind of chill out and have something
  379. 13:43passive, put the work up front, um, but
  380. 13:46you will earn less, or do you want
  381. 13:48something more active, something that
  382. 13:50will give you quit your job money, you
  383. 13:52know what I mean? Um, that is really
  384. 13:54important because that's going to
  385. 13:56influence your keyword research that's
  386. 13:57going to influence everything. uh how
  387. 14:00your website's structured, how much data
  388. 14:01enrichment, it's going to influence the
  389. 14:03cost of your project. Uh for something
  390. 14:06like mine, um you know, I look for high
  391. 14:09search volume. That's like pretty basic,
  392. 14:11pretty straightforward. Something around
  393. 14:1320 to 50,000 monthly searches, uh with a
  394. 14:16ton of location-based queries. So, for
  395. 14:19example, like with the liquidation
  396. 14:21store, maybe liquidation near me gets
  397. 14:2220,000 monthly searches, but I know I'm
  398. 14:24not going to rank for that right off the
  399. 14:26bat. I probably will rank for things
  400. 14:29like liquidation store Bakersfield
  401. 14:32California or something like something
  402. 14:33like that. And then slowly over time as
  403. 14:35I gain Google's trust, I'll maybe end up
  404. 14:38just with a broad keyword liquidation
  405. 14:40store near me. So you want those
  406. 14:42location-based queries to have enough
  407. 14:44search volume, ideally I don't know 500
  408. 14:48to a,000 per major city like liquidation
  409. 14:51store Los Angeles, liquidation store
  410. 14:53Seattle, etc., etc.
  411. 14:55um because I know that that's what's
  412. 14:56going to rank. Um and so those are the
  413. 14:59kind of keywords I try to look for. I
  414. 15:02also consider, you know, the nature of
  415. 15:04the business. Is it going to like move
  416. 15:07around a lot? How hard is the data to
  417. 15:09acquire? With liquidation stores,
  418. 15:11they're, you know, they have a location.
  419. 15:13It's like brick and mortar. So, it's
  420. 15:15pretty evergreen. Like, it's not unless
  421. 15:16they close down, I won't have to worry
  422. 15:18about it. Uh with lead genen, you don't
  423. 15:20have to worry as much about high search
  424. 15:22volume. Uh if you have some high ticket
  425. 15:26niche, let's say commercial demolition,
  426. 15:29I think I looked that up. There's 50
  427. 15:31people a month um you know, searching
  428. 15:34that keyword, especially the location
  429. 15:35based ones.
  430. 15:36>> If you just get one out of those 50 and
  431. 15:40you sell that lead to a commercial
  432. 15:42demolition company, that could be worth
  433. 15:44tens of thousands of dollars. And the
  434. 15:46same is true for some healthcare niches
  435. 15:48and finance niches, uh legal niches. Um,
  436. 15:52so you don't have to worry about that as
  437. 15:54much. I would just look at the keyword
  438. 15:57difficulty to an extent and then I would
  439. 15:59have a strong backlink game. You got you
  440. 16:02got to have a good strategy for getting
  441. 16:04back links. Um, not so much like
  442. 16:06worrying about search volume in my
  443. 16:08opinion because it's all like really
  444. 16:10high buyer intentbased keywords for
  445. 16:12those types of niches. Um, yeah. So,
  446. 16:16>> how much does competition play into
  447. 16:18this? Are you like would you avoid a
  448. 16:21topic if say you go to Google and you
  449. 16:24type liquidation store near me and I
  450. 16:27come up and there's eight you know we
  451. 16:29can't say 10 results anymore but let's
  452. 16:30just say out of the eight results Google
  453. 16:31has on page one four of them are already
  454. 16:33directories. Is that too much
  455. 16:35competition or would you say oh that's
  456. 16:37actually a good sign Google's ranking
  457. 16:38directories. Let me go see if those
  458. 16:40directories are doing a good job. uh
  459. 16:42where does competition play into this?
  460. 16:43Because we're used to it perhaps in
  461. 16:46other areas of uh of niche of niche
  462. 16:48research, but maybe not so much here.
  463. 16:51>> Yeah, huge green flag. Actually, that's
  464. 16:53one of the biggest factors that I look
  465. 16:55for is a directory on the front page and
  466. 16:58it's just proof that it works and that I
  467. 17:00don't know if it's a search intent or
  468. 17:02Google prefers the directory structure
  469. 17:04for whatever reason. Um, however, it's
  470. 17:07kind of a double-edged sword, right? If
  471. 17:09you see care.com and you're like or
  472. 17:11Angie's List, right, some of these
  473. 17:13directories are so massive that they've
  474. 17:15done an incredible job with data
  475. 17:17enrichment. So, I always ask myself when
  476. 17:19I come across a niche with one of those
  477. 17:21massive companies in the front page, can
  478. 17:24I improve upon this or can I niche down
  479. 17:26further? So, like
  480. 17:28>> with daycarees, I think care.com is in
  481. 17:31daycarees. I might niche down to
  482. 17:33something like this is a keyword I
  483. 17:35recently found. um uh daycares with
  484. 17:39cameras. So like parents want and
  485. 17:42apparently it's a dealbreaker for them.
  486. 17:44Maybe they travel a lot, they're busy,
  487. 17:45they want a daycare where they can like
  488. 17:48log into an app or just yeah basically
  489. 17:51see and check up check up on their kids
  490. 17:54anytime they want. And maybe that's a
  491. 17:56deciding factor. And so you can
  492. 17:58basically create a directory niched down
  493. 18:01and just consolidate all the daycarees
  494. 18:03with a camera. and that could be kind of
  495. 18:05your competitive edge and then get
  496. 18:07topical authority with just that
  497. 18:08specific keyword. Um, so yeah, those are
  498. 18:11like the two questions that I asked
  499. 18:13myself, but actually really important to
  500. 18:15for me personally to to find a directory
  501. 18:17on the front page for sure.
  502. 18:19>> Awesome. Okay. Um, let's talk about
  503. 18:21building the directory. Uh, there's a
  504. 18:23number of different ways to go about it.
  505. 18:24I know structure of the directory can be
  506. 18:26very important. We've we've had someone
  507. 18:28on a couple years ago who talked about
  508. 18:30um how important that is and so we've
  509. 18:33talked about that like where do you come
  510. 18:34at it from the building side of things.
  511. 18:37>> Yep. Um so mainly two structures. It's
  512. 18:41got to be the pillar page directory uh
  513. 18:44or just your traditional directory where
  514. 18:46there's individual listing pages. And it
  515. 18:48really the decision to choose which
  516. 18:51structure you're going to go with starts
  517. 18:53at the keyword research I would say. Um,
  518. 18:55so there's like kind of two areas that I
  519. 18:57look at. Uh, if all of the keyword, uh,
  520. 19:00the search volume is around those
  521. 19:01location based keywords like liquidation
  522. 19:03store Los Angeles, then I'm going to go
  523. 19:06on Google, just type it in and look at
  524. 19:08the top three SERs and see what what
  525. 19:12structure they have. If it's more or
  526. 19:14less like a listical or like, you know,
  527. 19:17yeah, like a pillar page, then that's
  528. 19:18what I'm going to go with. I'm just
  529. 19:19going to make it better. I'm going to
  530. 19:20add more data enrichment. And that
  531. 19:22simple strategy has worked out really
  532. 19:24well for me. Um, so yeah, and then I
  533. 19:28would say the traditional directory with
  534. 19:31individual listing pages, uh, if there's
  535. 19:33a lot of keyword volume around Freys
  536. 19:36liquidation store or Bob's liquidation
  537. 19:39store, uh, because it's just got a
  538. 19:41reputation. There's a lot of niches
  539. 19:43where that's the case. Um, then I would
  540. 19:45probably build out its own listing page
  541. 19:46because it deserves it. Uh I want people
  542. 19:48to basically use that as a landing page.
  543. 19:51Um so that's like a very simplistic
  544. 19:54approach. Uh whether you go with your
  545. 19:57traditional one or a pillar page
  546. 19:58directory. I think pillar page directory
  547. 20:01structures are so underrated. Like I'm
  548. 20:03building one right now uh for a keyword
  549. 20:05that gets like a 100,000 monthly um
  550. 20:08searches. It's like so boring, so under
  551. 20:11the radar. And yeah, it's should turn
  552. 20:15out pretty good. I think
  553. 20:17>> maybe dive deeper, explain the pillar
  554. 20:19page methodology maybe as it relates to
  555. 20:21the example you've been using was
  556. 20:22liquidation pages just so everybody
  557. 20:24really gets it
  558. 20:25>> down. Um because it's important that you
  559. 20:28make this decision properly on the front
  560. 20:30end. Not saying it's irreversible, but
  561. 20:32if you don't make the decision on the
  562. 20:34front end of how you're going to
  563. 20:35structure some of these things, like it
  564. 20:36can be harder down the road once you
  565. 20:38either start ranking or once you realize
  566. 20:40that you didn't follow maybe a process.
  567. 20:42It's not as simple as like a straight
  568. 20:43blog, I guess, is what I'm saying.
  569. 20:44>> Totally. Totally. Yeah. So, the
  570. 20:46difference is just that a traditional
  571. 20:48directory with listings that you can
  572. 20:50click into is four layers deep from the
  573. 20:53homepage. So, think about starting from
  574. 20:55the homepage, you go to liquidation
  575. 20:57stores New York, right? That's a state
  576. 21:00page. And then you go to
  577. 21:02liquidation stores in Brooklyn, New
  578. 21:04York. That's a city within the state
  579. 21:05page. And then you click on phrase
  580. 21:08liquidation stores in Brooklyn, New
  581. 21:09York. So, like four layers deep.
  582. 21:11>> The pillar page structure is just three
  583. 21:14layers deep. you just stop at the city
  584. 21:16specific page. Uh if you want, you can
  585. 21:18even make it two layers deep. My first
  586. 21:20thrifting directory is literally just 50
  587. 21:22pages on a WordPress site, one page for
  588. 21:26every state, and it gets 60 70,000
  589. 21:29monthly visitors. It's a pillar page in
  590. 21:31the sense that all the information is
  591. 21:33just on like liquidation stores New
  592. 21:37York, that version of the page, and it's
  593. 21:40really long. Like you can't
  594. 21:42>> one big listical. like every time a new
  595. 21:44thrift store pops up, you just plop it
  596. 21:45in there and it's just one long
  597. 21:47listicle.
  598. 21:48>> One super long listicle um with a table
  599. 21:52of contents, uh internal links to the
  600. 21:54other state pages on the bottom. And the
  601. 21:56great thing is that yes, it's not the
  602. 21:59best like UX from a mobile perspective,
  603. 22:02but that page ranks for like a thousand
  604. 22:04keywords for every pillar page. It's
  605. 22:06kind of insane. Um, and so yeah, if uh
  606. 22:09yeah, basically you would want your H1
  607. 22:11to be the broad keyword, like let's just
  608. 22:13say liquidation stores New York, and
  609. 22:14your H2s would be the the city specific
  610. 22:18keywords like liquidation store
  611. 22:19Brooklyn. Um, and yeah, you don't need
  612. 22:23an individual page with an H1 targeting
  613. 22:27liquidation source Brooklyn to to rank
  614. 22:29really high for that. I uh all of my
  615. 22:32rankings are like page one and those are
  616. 22:34like Yeah, that's how I I basically
  617. 22:36structure it.
  618. 22:37>> That's amazing. I'm a bit shocked to
  619. 22:39hear that that is doing so well. Why
  620. 22:41wouldn't you I'm just asking to play
  621. 22:43devil's advocate. I'm guessing someone's
  622. 22:44thinking this as they're driving in
  623. 22:45their car right now. Now that that page
  624. 22:47is doing so well, why wouldn't you go
  625. 22:49back in and add individual pages, i.e.
  626. 22:52three layers deep for phrase liquidation
  627. 22:55store and then hyperlink from this
  628. 22:57massive listical that's doing so well to
  629. 23:00it.
  630. 23:01>> Um like why don't I just go a layer
  631. 23:03deeper.
  632. 23:04>> Uh and I think that
  633. 23:07>> probably the true answer is it's work
  634. 23:10that I don't want to do.
  635. 23:11>> Well, that's fair boring.
  636. 23:12>> You said the way in like I I'm in coast
  637. 23:14mode right now and so that's a fair
  638. 23:16answer but you know would that help do
  639. 23:18you think? Yeah. Um, I think that it may
  640. 23:24help, but I think the nature of my niche
  641. 23:27is that
  642. 23:29people just want like there's so few in
  643. 23:32this thrifting niche, right? It it it
  644. 23:34targets a subset of thrift stores, like
  645. 23:36a specific brand of thrift stores.
  646. 23:38They're very like few and far in
  647. 23:39between. So, people just want to see how
  648. 23:41many there are in a state. And I think
  649. 23:43that's kind of what I got from social
  650. 23:45listening looking on Reddit. Uh a lot of
  651. 23:47the social social like media posts were,
  652. 23:50"Hey, are there any of these stores in
  653. 23:52California?" And I was like, "Oh, that's
  654. 23:54interesting." I mean, there were some in
  655. 23:55specific cities, but yeah, I think I
  656. 23:58don't think it would help that much um
  657. 24:00for that particular niche. Uh, but I
  658. 24:03think a lot of other niches, the one
  659. 24:04that I'm building now, it's going to be
  660. 24:06a pillar page um, directory as well, but
  661. 24:08I'm going to go four layers deep with
  662. 24:11individual city pages as my H1 rather
  663. 24:15than doing state pages because it's it's
  664. 24:17too broad. There's too many stores. I
  665. 24:19want to drill down a little bit deeper.
  666. 24:20And I think in this particular niche, it
  667. 24:22makes a lot more sense because there's
  668. 24:24like 12,000
  669. 24:25um, yeah, 12,000 of these businesses.
  670. 24:29for reference that the thrifting niche
  671. 24:31where I'm kind of describing this pillar
  672. 24:32page structure, there's only like 130
  673. 24:34stores. So, it's okay to like keep it
  674. 24:37broad and keep it statewide in my
  675. 24:38opinion.
  676. 24:39>> Okay. And that's great clarity. Like
  677. 24:41getting into the weeds on that was was
  678. 24:42fun because I think what you're
  679. 24:44ultimately what you said at the
  680. 24:45beginning is there's many different ways
  681. 24:46to do it. And it sounds like there's
  682. 24:48some strategy to which one might be the
  683. 24:49best and there's also going back to what
  684. 24:51you said at the beginning like
  685. 24:52optimizing for where you're at and what
  686. 24:54kind of directory you want to build and
  687. 24:56how much involvement you want to have.
  688. 24:58It kind of all plays into the the
  689. 24:59approach you take for it. Is there any
  690. 25:01technology that helps with this? Whether
  691. 25:03it's um a a theme builder, whether
  692. 25:06you're using AI, like any any any sort
  693. 25:08of uh gains on the technological side of
  694. 25:10things you can share with people.
  695. 25:12>> Yeah. Um I just use so kind of like my
  696. 25:16tech stack for WordPress for the longest
  697. 25:18time uh was of course WordPress. Um and
  698. 25:22I used Out Scraper, which is just one of
  699. 25:24many scrapers people can use. And I do
  700. 25:26scrape Google Maps. Some people might be
  701. 25:28hearing this and be like, "That's
  702. 25:29against toos." And I would say you're
  703. 25:32not wrong, but um it's a risk factor
  704. 25:36that everyone has to take into
  705. 25:37consideration. And there's a lot of
  706. 25:38scrapers out there. Um and uh after
  707. 25:42that, you want to have some if you want
  708. 25:45some automation for the data enrichment.
  709. 25:48Uh you know, I candidly did create a
  710. 25:51software for this. Uh it's called
  711. 25:53Enrich. directory and essentially it
  712. 25:55just allows you to input a keyword and
  713. 25:58it'll search for that keyword in Google
  714. 26:00reviews for that specific business and
  715. 26:03so you can like prompt it and ask like
  716. 26:05hey is this a liquidation store just
  717. 26:06just want to confirm just look at do a
  718. 26:08sentiment analysis on the reviews and
  719. 26:10just tell me um okay well does this
  720. 26:12liquidation store have like good prices
  721. 26:14like what do people think about the
  722. 26:15prices um so that's like one way you can
  723. 26:18kind of automate it otherwise it's
  724. 26:19pretty manual WordPress kept it really
  725. 26:22simple uh element Mentor Pro. Um,
  726. 26:25really, really simple. Uh, you can use a
  727. 26:28plugin called GeoDirectory if you want a
  728. 26:30programmatic SEO build. Uh, if you want
  729. 26:33to publish like 4,000 listings in the
  730. 26:35same day, Geodire is pretty solid at
  731. 26:38that. There's a few of them, but that's
  732. 26:40my favorite. Um, and then, yeah, there
  733. 26:44are some extra plugins like WPL import.
  734. 26:46I like that. Um, some people build
  735. 26:49directories with uh, Jet Engine. don't
  736. 26:52really prefer that, but it works. And
  737. 26:54then, yeah, that's pretty much it. In
  738. 26:56Hrefs, that's kind of like where I go
  739. 26:59and execute my backlink strategy. I
  740. 27:02always use hrefs to look at my
  741. 27:04competitor's backlinks and then reach
  742. 27:05out to them and say, "Hey, do you want
  743. 27:07to do like can you just swap out my link
  744. 27:10for this competitor's link on this
  745. 27:13article? I'll pay you like 50 bucks."
  746. 27:15And
  747. 27:17that's why HR is important. So, that's
  748. 27:19pretty much it. I've been spending a lot
  749. 27:20more time in cloud code and cursor. I've
  750. 27:23actually been like super obsessed with
  751. 27:24it for the last 3 weeks to four weeks.
  752. 27:26Um, and I'm building this pillar page
  753. 27:28directory on cloud code. Um, so that's
  754. 27:31exciting. But yeah, that's kind of my
  755. 27:34tech stack historically.
  756. 27:35>> Okay. I love it. Thank you for sharing
  757. 27:36all that. I mean, everybody can go if
  758. 27:38they want to get involved in this, they
  759. 27:40can kind of go, you know, research all
  760. 27:41the different things you just
  761. 27:42referenced. But that's awesome. Um, one
  762. 27:44more question before we move into
  763. 27:45backlinks because that's Don't worry,
  764. 27:47folks. We're going to get to that.
  765. 27:50um on page. What are there any other
  766. 27:52on-page work that needs to be done?
  767. 27:53You've kind of talked about the assembly
  768. 27:54process, how you're building this
  769. 27:56structurally, what goes on a pillar
  770. 27:58post, what goes on a listical, what the
  771. 28:00H1, the H2s are, how how many deep like
  772. 28:03we we've got our mind around the the
  773. 28:05structure of of today's directories for
  774. 28:07you, but like what any other onpage work
  775. 28:09that needs to get done? Um, I think
  776. 28:11besides the fundamentals, um, I would
  777. 28:14say that I've kind of been doing a 180
  778. 28:17on my takes with blogs because for a
  779. 28:19long time I didn't see the use case for
  780. 28:21blogs, especially after the core update.
  781. 28:23But I'm seeing a lot more um, blogs get
  782. 28:27referenced by LLMs. And so I think
  783. 28:29that's a solid use case, especially for
  784. 28:31a lead genen directory because you need
  785. 28:33all the traffic that you can get. Uh, I
  786. 28:35recently talked to the CEO of Sam's
  787. 28:37List, which is a direct read to help
  788. 28:39high netw worth individuals find
  789. 28:41financial advisors and accountants and
  790. 28:44you name it. And she wrote a really
  791. 28:46simple blog. Um, and she's starting to
  792. 28:49see like one to three people a day come
  793. 28:52to her website just from that from chat
  794. 28:54GBT. Um, which is huge for her, right?
  795. 28:57Because one customer can be tens of
  796. 28:59thousands of dollars. Um, and so I would
  797. 29:03say that is something that I've kind of
  798. 29:05changed my mind around. Um, and I think
  799. 29:07like more structured data schema. Um,
  800. 29:11that's stuff that I I guess is like I
  801. 29:15guess it's kind of on page but not. Um,
  802. 29:17but yeah, I would say that's something
  803. 29:20that I've been looking into more again
  804. 29:21for the same reasons. Uh, LLMs tend to
  805. 29:24like more structured pages, but I I'm
  806. 29:26sure your most of your audience already
  807. 29:28knows that.
  808. 29:29>> Yes. Well, that's a whole another topic
  809. 29:31altogether. But yes, um I was going to
  810. 29:33ask about the blog, you know, and if it
  811. 29:34if you bother with it or if you don't.
  812. 29:36So, uh well, okay, let's talk about link
  813. 29:40building. I'll start with a high level
  814. 29:42question like is it mandatory? Do you
  815. 29:44think it's mandatory to get the kind of
  816. 29:47traffic you're getting? Again, I'm
  817. 29:49trying to think of someone who's
  818. 29:50listening to all this but is reticent to
  819. 29:53dive into the nitty-gritty of link
  820. 29:54building is thinking like, "Hey, is this
  821. 29:57one of those things where I can build it
  822. 29:58and eventually they'll come anyways?"
  823. 30:00How important do you think link building
  824. 30:02is to the success of your directories
  825. 30:04and could they be successful? Maybe not
  826. 30:06to the same degree without it.
  827. 30:09>> It's hard to give a bling answer because
  828. 30:12it depends on the niche. And I'll give
  829. 30:14you an example. I've won my third
  830. 30:16directory that I built, fresh domain, no
  831. 30:18back links, uh really low competition
  832. 30:21niche. Um it hit 10,000 or is still at
  833. 30:2410,000 monthly visitors with no
  834. 30:26backlinks. It's just how it is. I
  835. 30:28literally just created a pillar page
  836. 30:30directory and no one seems to be really
  837. 30:33be talking about them. Um and that was
  838. 30:37yeah, that's just how it is. With the
  839. 30:39first directory, I definitely needed to
  840. 30:41build links. I had a competitor that was
  841. 30:43getting a 100,000 monthly visitors. I
  842. 30:46needed to take them down. Um,
  843. 30:49and all I'll say is it took me one link
  844. 30:51insert from a super relevant article uh
  845. 30:56and website with real traffic. Um,
  846. 30:59basically exactly like the same topic as
  847. 31:02my directory. And it took one backlink
  848. 31:04to overtake that 100,000
  849. 31:08um searches a month uh competitor. So I
  850. 31:12get it like I don't want to do backlink.
  851. 31:14I don't want to do link building either.
  852. 31:16It's costly in some um some cases time
  853. 31:19consuming. It's really boring. People
  854. 31:20don't respond if you do cold outreach. I
  855. 31:22get it. But sometimes if you build in
  856. 31:25the right niche a you don't need
  857. 31:27backlinks or if you do you don't even
  858. 31:30need that many. You just need the
  859. 31:32quality ones and a few of them at that.
  860. 31:34So it doesn't have to be this gargantuan
  861. 31:37task that you see. Um, that's that's in
  862. 31:40my opinion. Of course, you need
  863. 31:42backlinks for any like any lead genen
  864. 31:45play where you're gonna have more
  865. 31:47competition. So, it's super important.
  866. 31:50Um, but again, I don't really care about
  867. 31:52any other backlinks than like hyper
  868. 31:54niche specific ones with real traffic.
  869. 31:56Um, I've bought niche edits. I've spent
  870. 31:58thousands of dollars on niche edits.
  871. 32:00They are hollow in my opinion. High DR,
  872. 32:04no real traffic, kind of buried deep
  873. 32:07into the website. Yeah, you can
  874. 32:09customize your anchor text, but come on.
  875. 32:11Like, it's just a high DR website.
  876. 32:14That's it. That DR in my opinion is kind
  877. 32:16of a vanity metric, and I I maybe that's
  878. 32:18a hot take, but I uh yeah, I've seen
  879. 32:21proof with my own directory builds. Um,
  880. 32:23so yeah, that's what I'll say.
  881. 32:24>> Well, good. We we've we've talked to the
  882. 32:26person who maybe doesn't want to build
  883. 32:27links, but now let's talk to the person
  884. 32:28who does want to build links, and you've
  885. 32:30kind of already waited into it a little
  886. 32:31bit. what types of links work well uh
  887. 32:35for directories specifically that you
  888. 32:37found, you know, and kind of we'd love
  889. 32:40to hear anything that you just don't
  890. 32:42think is working or that is maybe not as
  891. 32:44effective as something else. A lot of
  892. 32:46people again listening are going to be
  893. 32:49interested in this topic. They they did
  894. 32:51uh use link building to drive uh overall
  895. 32:54authority for maybe their website
  896. 32:56prehcu. Maybe they're still doing it
  897. 32:58with a local business, with a SAS
  898. 33:00product, with ecom, but they have that
  899. 33:01that experience. And so, let's get into
  900. 33:03some of the, you know, more advanced or
  901. 33:05more detailed side of link blending that
  902. 33:06you've seen work well for for
  903. 33:08directories.
  904. 33:09>> Yeah, directories are weird because the
  905. 33:12nature of the keywords you're going to
  906. 33:13be ranking for are basically aligned
  907. 33:15with local SEO. It's like liquidation
  908. 33:17store in New York, right? So, maybe like
  909. 33:20a typical person learning SEO might be
  910. 33:22like, okay, I'm just going to build
  911. 33:24citations, but that's not what I do. Uh,
  912. 33:27in fact, those are not the types of
  913. 33:29links that I've seen success from. It's
  914. 33:31like I don't know what you call like
  915. 33:32national SEO, but essentially articles,
  916. 33:35blogs. I I never know what to call it.
  917. 33:37>> I know. I'm like there's local SEO and
  918. 33:38there's
  919. 33:39>> there's like
  920. 33:40>> just other Yeah. Yeah. There's just SEO.
  921. 33:43Um, that other is where I target. So,
  922. 33:46like exactly kind of what I mentioned,
  923. 33:48just articles, blogs, mom and pop, small
  924. 33:51publishers, that kind of stuff. Um,
  925. 33:54those are like priority number one. as
  926. 33:56long as it's niche specific and there's
  927. 33:58real traffic, I'm down for that. I don't
  928. 34:01like, yes, I take DR into consideration,
  929. 34:03but it's like third or fourth priority
  930. 34:05when I'm going about it. Um, I would say
  931. 34:07badges is a unique um kind of backlink
  932. 34:11proposition for directories. Um, not a
  933. 34:13lot of people can just create badges for
  934. 34:15like best liquidation store in Seattle,
  935. 34:18like hey, we just wanted to award you
  936. 34:20this. Here's an HTM HTML snippet you can
  937. 34:22embed on your website. you can't pull
  938. 34:24that off in a lot of situations, but
  939. 34:25directories can pretty easily. Um, and
  940. 34:28so that's something that I've uh played
  941. 34:30around with and it works well. I think
  942. 34:32that the reason I mentioned this second
  943. 34:34is because it lacks that anchor text
  944. 34:37that would help you a little bit. It's
  945. 34:39just an image backlink, which is great.
  946. 34:42Um, but I still think the first option
  947. 34:46is better if you can. Um, and yeah, uh,
  948. 34:51essentially that's that's kind of it.
  949. 34:54And I kind of forgot about your your
  950. 34:56question if I'm being honest. Like if
  951. 34:58there was a specific backlink question.
  952. 35:00>> No, I was I was saying what what does
  953. 35:02work. You know, we kind of talked about
  954. 35:03and maybe let me ask a follow-up
  955. 35:05question on that to to just also ask
  956. 35:07about what you were just sharing. You
  957. 35:09talked about niche edits not really
  958. 35:10working all that well. You talked about
  959. 35:12citations not really working well, but
  960. 35:14you have kind of said link insertions
  961. 35:16have been valuable. Um, draw the line
  962. 35:19between those. What's the difference
  963. 35:20between a link insertion and a niche
  964. 35:22edit for a directory site?
  965. 35:24>> Yeah, so for me, a niche edit is
  966. 35:26basically when you go to a link building
  967. 35:28agency and you pay like a hundred bucks.
  968. 35:31They will access their own network of
  969. 35:35small publishers and then
  970. 35:38hide put your link somewhere on a page.
  971. 35:40You don't know the page. You don't even
  972. 35:42know the referring domain. You don't
  973. 35:44know anything. You kind of just fill out
  974. 35:45the sheet that says like, "Yeah, like
  975. 35:47this is a like I would like preferably
  976. 35:49to be in the liquidation space, the the
  977. 35:52secondhand goods space." But you don't
  978. 35:54know what you're going to get. You're
  979. 35:55kind of just gambling kind of. With a
  980. 35:58link insert, you are going into hrefs,
  981. 36:01identifying your main targets, and then
  982. 36:05analyzing their back links, looking at,
  983. 36:07okay, well, this backlink is from Frey's
  984. 36:12blog. It's exactly to do with
  985. 36:14liquidation stores, and he has a ton of
  986. 36:18articles around this and links to my
  987. 36:19competitor. I'm just going to reach out
  988. 36:21to them. I know exactly the DR, the tra
  989. 36:23the real traffic coming in, um the the
  990. 36:26topic, how many um you know, outgoing
  991. 36:29links there are or um you know, I can I
  992. 36:31can look at so much more data and make
  993. 36:34the decision myself as an SEO whether or
  994. 36:38not I would want want that. And so um
  995. 36:41the difference in like the $100 spent
  996. 36:43with a niche edit and a link insert is
  997. 36:45night and day. Um and that's what I like
  998. 36:48about link inserts. Um, and then the
  999. 36:51badges I think you mentioned is kind of
  1000. 36:53in its own separate world. That's Yeah.
  1001. 36:56>> Yeah. Which that's awesome by the way.
  1002. 36:57That's a great tip because, you know, if
  1003. 37:00you're a small business and you're like,
  1004. 37:02I just got an award as the best such and
  1005. 37:04such. And you know, like even if you're
  1006. 37:07not really sure what it is, I'm sure a
  1007. 37:09lot of people are like, I'd be happy to
  1008. 37:10put that on my site, feature that so
  1009. 37:12that people, my customers, my potential
  1010. 37:14customers can see that. And um so that's
  1011. 37:17a great that's a great tip there. From a
  1012. 37:19lot of what you're talking about with
  1013. 37:20links that work well, it seems like
  1014. 37:22relevancy is important. And again, I'm
  1015. 37:24making a broadstroke statement. It seems
  1016. 37:26like getting links from um from from
  1017. 37:30domains that have relevance to your your
  1018. 37:33niche is is really important. Talked
  1019. 37:35about DR not necessarily being a big
  1020. 37:37deal to you. So maybe the power side of
  1021. 37:39things isn't quite as important. Is is
  1022. 37:41that a safe assessment? Like if
  1023. 37:42somebody's building a directory, is that
  1024. 37:44relevance component to the links they're
  1025. 37:45trying to build really important?
  1026. 37:47>> I think so. I think that's the main
  1027. 37:49factor that I look for is is the page
  1028. 37:52that's is my referring page super
  1029. 37:54relevant or at least like pretty
  1030. 37:56relevant to my niche and is there real
  1031. 37:58traffic going to the page? Um I think
  1032. 38:01like user signals in general are
  1033. 38:03increasingly important um just in the
  1034. 38:05last few years and to yeah just to
  1035. 38:09legitimize you as a actual authority um
  1036. 38:13subject matter expert. So that's why the
  1037. 38:16real traffic is important to me. I want
  1038. 38:18people flowing in from my referring page
  1039. 38:20to my website engaging clicking around.
  1040. 38:22I want those um and then yeah niche
  1041. 38:25relevance. I think that's super
  1042. 38:27important. Um Dr. Yeah, I think it's a
  1043. 38:30vanity metric. I have a directory with
  1044. 38:32in Hrefs it's a 0.1dr
  1045. 38:36and it's the 10,000 um uh it's the one
  1046. 38:40one getting 10,000 monthly visitors and
  1047. 38:43um yeah fresh domain I think at this
  1048. 38:45point naturally I've gotten like one or
  1049. 38:46two back links for that uh directory but
  1050. 38:49it's still a 01 uh a 0.1 DR which is the
  1051. 38:53lowest possible DR that you can get
  1052. 38:55scored on hrefs and it's still ranking
  1053. 38:58page one rank one for the the keyword
  1054. 39:00That's amazing. Yeah. Um, so let's talk
  1055. 39:04about monetization if we can for a bit.
  1056. 39:06And you talked I I I believe you kind of
  1057. 39:09differentiated between there's display
  1058. 39:10ads and then there's lead genen which um
  1059. 39:14there's also or part of that which is
  1060. 39:17just charging for premium listings. And
  1061. 39:19I think that maybe we should we separate
  1062. 39:21that as a different model as well. um
  1063. 39:24you know talk about which ones you've
  1064. 39:27tried, which ones you've landed on, and
  1065. 39:29maybe why you've landed on a certain
  1066. 39:31monetization method over a different
  1067. 39:33one.
  1068. 39:34>> Yeah, so the ones that I've tried in
  1069. 39:37order of like length of experience um
  1070. 39:40are definitely display ads first. I have
  1071. 39:42a lot of experience with that. Um
  1072. 39:44digital products would be second and any
  1073. 39:47kind of lead genen would be third. And
  1074. 39:49that's kind of the next chapter that I'm
  1075. 39:50walking into right now. I'm building a
  1076. 39:52luxury uh porta-potty directory right
  1077. 39:54now. Um but yeah, just to kind of yeah
  1078. 39:59the way monetization is tricky because
  1079. 40:02you want to identify the earning
  1080. 40:04potential in the very beginning of niche
  1081. 40:06selection, but the truth is without
  1082. 40:09traffic you have no monetization and
  1083. 40:11once you have traffic you're rich with
  1084. 40:13problems around monetization. Um, but
  1085. 40:16the basic idea is that with any lead
  1086. 40:18genen, I do try to find any service with
  1087. 40:22relatively high ticket. Like a luxury
  1088. 40:23portaotty can be rented out for $2,000 a
  1089. 40:26day for weddings, outdoor festivals, you
  1090. 40:29you name it. So reasonably, I think like
  1091. 40:32following Alex Hermosy's mindset of
  1092. 40:34like, well, what could you offer that
  1093. 40:36would be dumb for them not to take? I
  1094. 40:38think I could sell a lead for $300
  1095. 40:42per lead potentially if it's a really
  1096. 40:44warm lead. Filled out, you know, a
  1097. 40:47request quote form. I have all of their
  1098. 40:49information around a wedding they need a
  1099. 40:51luxury portaotty for. I could probably
  1100. 40:53sell that because that might be able to
  1101. 40:54turn into like a $2,000
  1102. 40:57maybe even more, right? If there's
  1103. 40:58multiple days they're renting for uh
  1104. 41:00customer. So yeah, like you want high
  1105. 41:03ticket um tons of like landscaping
  1106. 41:07niches, of course, finance, healthcare,
  1107. 41:09legal niches. These are leads that are
  1108. 41:12potentially worth like $20,000 plus. Um,
  1109. 41:17and quick funny story, I actually
  1110. 41:18created a really crappy version of a
  1111. 41:20portaotty directory. It still has Lauram
  1112. 41:22Ipsum on the front page and I just did
  1113. 41:25it as a test but uh a few weeks ago I
  1114. 41:28haven't worked on that website in almost
  1115. 41:30you know like a year. I got the New
  1116. 41:33Mexico State Fair as a lead and they
  1117. 41:35said hey we need 109 porta potties like
  1118. 41:38three luxury toilet uh you know porta
  1119. 41:40potties. It was a $20,000 lead from a
  1120. 41:42website directory that had Lauraum on
  1121. 41:45the front page which is like kind of
  1122. 41:47stupid but um yeah that's the general
  1123. 41:49gist of that. Of course, like one
  1124. 41:52mistake that I made, really, really poor
  1125. 41:54decision-making is I built a plasma
  1126. 41:56donation directory. It's still up and
  1127. 41:58running. It's just monetizing with
  1128. 42:00Mediavine. But I didn't take into
  1129. 42:02account how easy it is to actually reach
  1130. 42:04out to these plasma donation owners. Uh
  1131. 42:06if you look at the landscape with plasma
  1132. 42:08donation, there's like 15 of them in the
  1133. 42:11US. All of them are doing like 100
  1134. 42:13million plus uh in revenue. It's really
  1135. 42:16hard to like get in contact with them.
  1136. 42:17there's like yeah it's just something I
  1137. 42:21didn't consider. So that's something I
  1138. 42:22would definitely take into account if
  1139. 42:24you're building lead genen is how easy
  1140. 42:25is it to actually start building that
  1141. 42:27relationship
  1142. 42:28>> and um eventually lead to like a lead
  1143. 42:30genen play. Um, that's pretty much it
  1144. 42:33for lead genen. I would say like the
  1145. 42:35main points display ads are so easy.
  1146. 42:38It's just like get the traffic, apply to
  1147. 42:41Mediaine. Mediaine has Mediaine grow
  1148. 42:44now. So you can you can start applying
  1149. 42:46at like 3 to 5,000 monthly visitors and
  1150. 42:48you'll get in and then that's pretty
  1151. 42:50much it. It's easy as that. I think the
  1152. 42:54display ad concept is going to make a
  1153. 42:55lot of sense for most people listening,
  1154. 42:57especially if you go after those niches
  1155. 42:59that have high traffic potential. That
  1156. 43:02makes a ton of sense. Do you ever layer
  1157. 43:05on the premium listing or other types of
  1158. 43:08services along with display ads? Um, is
  1159. 43:11that something that you've seen work
  1160. 43:13well or just that you've seen other
  1161. 43:14people do?
  1162. 43:15>> Oh, yeah. I see it all the time. Uh, I
  1163. 43:18don't know if it's the best depending on
  1164. 43:20the niche. If it's a niche where you
  1165. 43:23inherently have like a high trust
  1166. 43:26situation, like ads on a finance
  1167. 43:28directory would be kind of like I don't
  1168. 43:30know, it just gives you the wrong kind
  1169. 43:32of impression in my opinion. Uh, but
  1170. 43:34that's just me. Um, but I do see it all
  1171. 43:37the time. Um, the plasma donation site
  1172. 43:40for a moment was like for a month I was
  1173. 43:43making money with lead generation. I
  1174. 43:45think I only made like 500 or,000 bucks
  1175. 43:47that month. Um, but yeah, I had ads
  1176. 43:51throughout that whole period. I had
  1177. 43:53Mediavine uh going and it didn't seem to
  1178. 43:56be that consequential, so it was fine.
  1179. 44:00I would say try to keep it separate
  1180. 44:02mainly because if you have a really high
  1181. 44:04potential lead genen niche, usually you
  1182. 44:08won't have enough search volume to make
  1183. 44:11it worth it for display ads. That's why
  1184. 44:13I like to keep it super segmented. Like
  1185. 44:15if I'm going for display ads, I'm going
  1186. 44:17for as much volume, as high, you know,
  1187. 44:20search traffic as I can. Uh I don't want
  1188. 44:23to be like thinking about the lead genen
  1189. 44:25side. It's like I don't know, it's too
  1190. 44:27confusing for me personally. There's a
  1191. 44:30lot of depth with one side and like it's
  1192. 44:32really shallow on the other. Right.
  1193. 44:35>> Um, let me bring this kind of all the
  1194. 44:37way full circle and ask you a really
  1195. 44:39high level question for someone who's
  1196. 44:42been listening to this and wants to go
  1197. 44:43out and start their first directory. Um,
  1198. 44:46they do their research based on some of
  1199. 44:47the strategies you talked about. They
  1200. 44:49find their niche. They, you know, listen
  1201. 44:52to what you recommended in terms of tech
  1202. 44:54stack. They've got the site all built
  1203. 44:56out. They've got their long-term plans
  1204. 44:58for link building. What's their what's
  1205. 45:00what's their first 30 days look like?
  1206. 45:02like just from a high level, what's your
  1207. 45:03first 30 days once you've got a
  1208. 45:04directory live? You've obviously got
  1209. 45:06your link building tasks that you want
  1210. 45:08to get started on, but what what what
  1211. 45:10what are you doing for those first 30
  1212. 45:11days? Give people like a playbook. Yeah.
  1213. 45:14Um I think I could go into the tactics,
  1214. 45:17but I think at this point I've spoken to
  1215. 45:19enough people where my recommendation
  1216. 45:23seems slow, but it's in my opinion the
  1217. 45:25fastest way, which is you just want to
  1218. 45:26like learn enough to build and then
  1219. 45:29learn more and then build. And the
  1220. 45:31reason I say that is because you're kind
  1221. 45:32of learning like five to 10 different
  1222. 45:34skills with building directories. It's
  1223. 45:36like keyword research, you know, you
  1224. 45:38have to do a lot of social listening.
  1225. 45:40Um, you have to do, you know, website
  1226. 45:42scraping, cleaning, enriching, that's a
  1227. 45:44whole thing. Website design,
  1228. 45:46monetization, backing out. There's so
  1229. 45:48many skills that you're trying to
  1230. 45:50tackle. So, if you try to just like
  1231. 45:53build this very lucrative lead genen
  1232. 45:55directory off the bat and say, "Okay,
  1233. 45:57like I have my idea. I'm going to go
  1234. 45:58straight to the website and like kind of
  1235. 46:00just have high expectations going in.
  1236. 46:03I've seen a lot of people fail at that.
  1237. 46:05So, what I would recommend is actually
  1238. 46:07just create a really simple directory.
  1239. 46:09If you're just starting out, maybe you
  1240. 46:11have some base level SEO skills, just
  1241. 46:13prove yourself that it works. like that
  1242. 46:15momentum when when you start to see you
  1243. 46:17rank for location based queries and
  1244. 46:20keywords starting to see a little
  1245. 46:22trickle of traffic that's going to
  1246. 46:25inspire you because I see so many bad
  1247. 46:28websites on the at the uh bottom of the
  1248. 46:31first page and yeah they're they're
  1249. 46:33terrible. I mean my portaotty directory
  1250. 46:35it's ranking for a ton of keywords on
  1251. 46:38the first page and has Laura Mipsum. So
  1252. 46:40like just prove it to yourself that you
  1253. 46:42can do it. um learn just enough so it's
  1254. 46:45not overwhelming and just start
  1255. 46:46building. If I knew zero like about
  1256. 46:49WordPress or anything, I would
  1257. 46:50definitely go straight to Claude code
  1258. 46:52and cursor. Um it's really intimidating.
  1259. 46:56I'm a non-coder. It was extremely
  1260. 46:57intimidating to get started and I didn't
  1261. 46:59do that. I didn't learn anything for 6
  1262. 47:02months and I did recently and it's so
  1263. 47:05worth it. It's so fun. Um so that's kind
  1264. 47:08of what I would recommend. uh definitely
  1265. 47:13spend the most time around ideiation. I
  1266. 47:16talked to John Rush um and Tim start
  1267. 47:19kind of recently and we all agreed that
  1268. 47:22thinking about the idea is the most
  1269. 47:24timeconuming part because there's so
  1270. 47:25many like small micro decisions around
  1271. 47:27monetization potential. Oh, can I reach
  1272. 47:29out these people? What's my backlink
  1273. 47:31strategy? like all these things that you
  1274. 47:32want to ask yourself before spending
  1275. 47:35money scraping data and like buying
  1276. 47:38softwares and building a site. Uh those
  1277. 47:40small questions are worth it in my
  1278. 47:42opinion. And then the second most
  1279. 47:43timeconuming part is probably the data
  1280. 47:46enrichment.
  1281. 47:46>> Mh.
  1282. 47:47>> And then everything else like you can do
  1283. 47:49relatively quickly in my opinion. Uh so
  1284. 47:51that's what I would probably recommend.
  1285. 47:53Um I don't know that it's not 30 days
  1286. 47:57but
  1287. 47:58>> I mean I'll just give you a number.
  1288. 47:59Yeah, just to give you just a a podcast
  1289. 48:02host question really. It doesn't have to
  1290. 48:04be 30 days, but
  1291. 48:05>> um hey before you go like what where
  1292. 48:08where are you spending most of your
  1293. 48:09time? Because again folks like a lot of
  1294. 48:12what
  1295. 48:13Fre's been talking about is very passive
  1296. 48:16after that initial launch after that
  1297. 48:17initial you know time as what you said
  1298. 48:19at the outset like hey put in call it a
  1299. 48:21100 hours and then watch it grow and
  1300. 48:24then you can put as much or as little
  1301. 48:25time as you want to into it. So, what
  1302. 48:28are you spending your day doing? What's
  1303. 48:29uh what's what what what are you working
  1304. 48:31on?
  1305. 48:32>> Yeah. Um right now it's probably a mix
  1306. 48:35of four things. I have two ongoing
  1307. 48:37directory projects. One's the luxury
  1308. 48:39portaotty directory. That's a really big
  1309. 48:41project. It's going to be an automated
  1310. 48:43lead genen directory kind of like Yelp
  1311. 48:44and Care.com. Um and that's a big one.
  1312. 48:48I'm using Cloud Code for that. I'm also
  1313. 48:50building a boring evergreen pillar page
  1314. 48:53directory also in Cloud Code. I have a
  1315. 48:55community of people, a free community
  1316. 48:58and a private paid community for anyone
  1317. 49:00building directories. Um, so I'm always
  1318. 49:03in there every day just talking to
  1319. 49:04people, sharing what I know. And then
  1320. 49:06YouTube has been a wild and random
  1321. 49:09occurrence in the last eight months.
  1322. 49:11I've been very lucky and grateful, but
  1323. 49:14it's where I spend a lot of my time
  1324. 49:15every week just sharing what I know and
  1325. 49:18trying to communicate uh what I'm
  1326. 49:20learning to non-coders and beginners and
  1327. 49:22anyone trying to learn. Awesome. Where
  1328. 49:25can people kind of connect with you or
  1329. 49:26follow along with what you're doing? Um
  1330. 49:28I know that the uh directory community
  1331. 49:30you talked about uh is is one good
  1332. 49:32place, but like where would you where
  1333. 49:33would you guide people if they wanted to
  1334. 49:35connect with you?
  1335. 49:36>> Yeah, I think um well YouTube doesn't
  1336. 49:39really Yeah, I would say Twitter or X is
  1337. 49:42the best place. I'm really just on that
  1338. 49:44social media platform. And then if you
  1339. 49:46do want to pop into the free community,
  1340. 49:49there's I think 2,600 people in there.
  1341. 49:51It's just shipperdirectory.com.
  1342. 49:53You can access it through there. Uh same
  1343. 49:55thing if you want a little bit more uh
  1344. 49:58kind of commitment and serious you want
  1345. 50:01to be around serious voters
  1346. 50:02shipperdirectory.com. Uh that's where
  1347. 50:04you can learn everything you need to
  1348. 50:05know.
  1349. 50:07>> Frey, this has been such a fun
  1350. 50:08interview. I mean I feel like you
  1351. 50:10probably are going to inspire a lot of
  1352. 50:11people. Uh, you know, obviously this is
  1353. 50:14something that is going to kind of
  1354. 50:16scratch an itch for a lot of people who
  1355. 50:18are looking for a place to put a lot of
  1356. 50:20their talents, a lot of the, you know,
  1357. 50:22things that they've done historically
  1358. 50:23very well. You talked about how, hey,
  1359. 50:25the online world is and will forever be
  1360. 50:27constantly changing, but in many ways,
  1361. 50:29this is a blast from the past. It's
  1362. 50:31something that's been around for a long,
  1363. 50:32long time and is still working really,
  1364. 50:33really well, provided that you, you
  1365. 50:35know, do some of the things that that
  1366. 50:37you talked about here. So, I just can't
  1367. 50:39thank you enough. I've got like a page
  1368. 50:40or two of notes. probably listen to this
  1369. 50:41one again if I find the time to start a
  1370. 50:43directory myself. Um, thanks so much for
  1371. 50:46coming on. I really appreciate it.
  1372. 50:47>> I appreciate it, Jared. It was fun going
  1373. 50:49to uh the weeds and uh yeah, appreciate
  1374. 50:51this.
  1375. 50:53>> All right, until we talk again. Thanks.
  1376. 50:54>> All right, thanks Jared.
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