The Most Passive Online Business No One Talks About — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Most people overthink starting a business, but  some of the easiest wins are hiding in plain
2. 0:05sight inside of Google, Reddit, Facebook,  and even bad websites. So, in this video,
3. 0:11I'm going to show you how to find low competition,  high demand directory ideas that nobody else is
4. 0:17building. And at the end, I'm going to give you  five niches that I would build today. No product,
5. 0:22no audience, no code, just pure traffic plays.  Here's one of the most slept on online business
6. 0:28models right now. Directories. I put out a  video about it and you guys loved it. So,
7. 0:32I wanted to dive even deeper. And I  know directories sound kind of boring,
8. 0:36but that's kind of the point. They're  boring and they work. And here's why.
9. 0:44First of all, directories can rank stupidly fast,  especially if you're targeting the right keywords.
10. 0:49You don't need 4,000word blog posts. You don't  need backlinks. You just need to list the right
11. 0:55stuff in the right niche for the right person.  Second, directory websites can make money like
12. 1:00a vending machine. Set it up once and it starts  generating ad revenue, affiliate clicks, paid
13. 1:05placement, lead genen forms, whatever you want,  and you don't have to refill it with Fritos. It's
14. 1:10just sitting there on the internet working for you  while you're off building the next directory. And
15. 1:14the third reason, your competition is weak. It's  usually some busted broke WordPress site from
16. 1:212012 that's run by a guy that hasn't updated his  favicons since the Obama years. That's going to
17. 1:26be your edge. If you show up with clean design,  strong filters, and a little SEO, you instantly
18. 1:32look and sound like the most legit option on page  one. And fourth, this is the real cheat code.
19. 1:38You don't have to be an expert. You don't have to  offer the service. You don't. In fact, you rarely
20. 1:42will. And you don't have to do anything except  organize all the noise. You're not the contractor.
21. 1:47You're the clipboard. You're not the one building  the house. You're just telling everyone else how
22. 1:52to do it. That's the play. And everyone else  can fight over running the actual service.
23. 1:56You're building the map. So, let me show you how  to actually find all these gaps. And we're going
24. 2:00to start with one of my favorite methods, digging  into the near me keywords inside of ahrefs. But,
25. 2:06we're going way past page one. And before you turn  this off, I know we already touched on this in the
26. 2:10last directory video/podcast, but we're going  to go a lot deeper than that little hack. So,
27. 2:15if you remember, you just want to search near me.  Go past page five, scroll past the obvious stuff
28. 2:20like McDonald's near me, Chipotle near me, and  boom, you're going to find these weird longtail
29. 2:25gold like goat rentals near me, or mobile car  tinting near me. So, that works. That's valid.
30. 2:31But I'm going to show you a few ways to go even  deeper. Number one, you're going to search in URL
31. 2:36colon directory. That's all one word, no spaces  in Google. And you're going to pair that phrase
32. 2:42with a niche such as in URL colon directory space  martial arts. And if you're watching on video, I'm
33. 2:48going to show you how that works real quick. In  URL colon directory space martial arts. So I see a
34. 2:58result for D magazine, which is Dallas magazine,  which makes sense cuz Google knows I'm near
35. 3:03Dallas. See a book about a martial arts directory.  I see a website called go number22carate.com which
36. 3:08is a directory of martial arts styles and then  result number seven I see a website entitled
37. 3:15directory of martial arts schools. I click on this  and holy AI generation. This website is 100% AI
38. 3:21generated which hey no shade from me and it's  a martial arts directory but let's see what ah
39. 3:26refs has to say about the competition on this.  We're going to click on keywords explorer type
40. 3:31in martial arts. Okay, keyword difficulty 57.  Search volume 44,000 per month in the US. Okay,
41. 3:40that looks a little hard to me. 57 is pretty  difficult. In the UK, it's even more difficult.
42. 3:45You have a 48 difficulty score and only about a  fifth of the traffic. Now, let's go back to Google
43. 3:51and look at in URL directory mobile dog groomer.  And while we're at it, let's see what ahref says
44. 3:57when you search martial arts near me. 37 keyword  difficulty, 33,000 search volume. Still don't like
45. 4:06it. Now, mobile dog grooming near me. 48 keyword  difficulty, 15,000 search volume. But when you
46. 4:16look at this on Google, the top two results are  newar local easy.biz and the holistic grooming
47. 4:25academy. I love the fact that abiz website  commands both number one and number two in the
48. 4:31organic search results. That tells me there's  promise here. AHFS tells a lot of the story,
49. 4:36but it doesn't tell the whole story. It's kind  of like the difference between looking at a house
50. 4:40on Google images or Google Street View and then  actually driving into the neighborhood. Sometimes
51. 4:45you just got to go there yourself to get a feel  for it. It looks like Local Easy is a TransUnion
52. 4:50company, so they clearly have a lot of firepower  on their side when it comes to backlinks.
53. 4:58Now, if we go to in URL directory bee removal  near me, I see the Texas Beekeepers Association,
54. 5:05Denton Aaggraive, which is a city in Texas, and  then I see bees-made-y.com, which is a beekeeping
55. 5:12directory that looks absolutely terrible, like  it's from the late '9s. Then I go to ah refs and I
56. 5:17type in bee removal near me. I see a four keyword  difficulty and a 5,300 search volume. This looks
57. 5:23like an amazing opportunity actually, especially  for a beginner. My point is when you use this in
58. 5:27URL directory Google hack, you find old, gross  websites ranking in the top five. Outdated links,
59. 5:34no photos, just junk sites. So if that's ranking,  then you can definitely build something better.
60. 5:39Here's another hack I love. Use this tool in  Google called Keywords Everywhere. You're going
61. 5:44to type in any local service. You'll scroll way  past the ads and the maps and then you'll look
62. 5:49for a little thing called people also ask and  related searches. So, here's how this works. I
63. 5:54make you free videos. I actually know what I'm  talking about. I have no greasy sales pitch at
64. 5:58the end. And if you implement what I talk about,  you'll make a lot more money and have a better
65. 6:01life. And all I ask for in return is that  you hit the subscribe button and maybe even
66. 6:05the notification bell just like that. Thank you.  I'm going to do this by searching HVAC near me.
67. 6:11If you go to the very bottom of the page, you'll  see people also search for. And then right past
68. 6:17the maps results, you'll see people also ask,  "How much does the average HVAC job cost? What
69. 6:23is the cheapest HVAC option?" Google is just  handing us free ideas for directories. You
70. 6:28can use these suggested keywords and search terms  to build a new directory. Then you can even look
71. 6:34at the modifiers within Google business profile  such as womenowned, minorityowned, accepts EBT,
72. 6:40kid-friendly. Those are all directory ideas.  Kid-friendly restaurant directory, womenowned hair
73. 6:46salon directory. These filters are things that  people are actively looking for and searching for
74. 6:51that most directories totally ignore. So instead  of just thinking of like best dentists near me,
75. 6:56you're going to build the best dentists near me  that take Medicaid and speak Spanish directory.
76. 7:01This is defensible and it's sticky. And another  move, go to Craigslist in the services section.
77. 7:07Boom. Right here, services and then skilled  trade is my particular favorite. Here you can
78. 7:12find real world demand, especially when you  look for random categories like labor/move or
79. 7:18farm plus garden. If people are posting about  it, there's demand. So don't overthink it. If
80. 7:22there's not a clean website that you can easily  find organizing all this stuff, there's demand.
81. 7:27That's your opening. And then my favorite hack  along these lines, you go to YouTube, you type
82. 7:31in best niche in city. See what shows up. If you  see someone ranking in the top YouTube search
83. 7:38results with some shaky vlog with only 400 views  and it's on page one, then Google is begging you
84. 7:43for something better. And that's going to be your  job. That's why we're here today. Let's try best
85. 7:48cookies. Cheyenne. The top result has 197 views.  All right. All right. Now, here's how you can find
86. 7:55spammy Google listings that are ranking purely by  accident and how you can eat their lunch with one
87. 8:01clean directory. This is the GBP section, Google  business profile, aka the Google map gold mine.
88. 8:07And I promise this is slept on. So, we're going  to use Google Maps to find some easy SEO wins that
89. 8:13almost no one is talking about. I like to call  it spam spotting. You're going to open up Google
90. 8:17Maps and search for something weird plus local  like mobile tire repair plano. Let's do that now.
91. 8:27So now we're going to scroll through the results  on the left side of the screen. Look at the names
92. 8:32of these businesses. If you see stuff like best  tree trimming McKini, Texas, or what we see right
93. 8:37here, Dallas Mobile Tire Shop, or Zohar Mobile  Tire Shop, North Texas Mobile Tires, they're
94. 8:45putting the exact match keyword in the name of  the business. I do the same thing whenever I buy
95. 8:50an RV park. I rename the Google business profile  city, state, RV park. Very simple. And my traffic
96. 8:57immediately goes up. So, no shade, but that's  an opportunity for someone to come disrupt this
97. 9:01category. Plumber near me, 24/7, dentist near me.  These are all examples of keyword stuffing. You're
98. 9:07looking for a business name that just sounds like  someone mashed a bunch of relevant keywords into a
99. 9:11business name. Map spam. These listings are going  to naturally rank purely because Google doesn't
100. 9:16have anything better to show us. Click into them.  What do you see? How does the website look? Is
101. 9:20there a website? This is the equivalent of naming  your business AAA locksmith back in the yellow
102. 9:26pages era. Do these websites have stock photos,  zero reviews, no lead form, no lead magnet, or
103. 9:32maybe it's a website that looks like it was built  in '07 by a dude named Chad. If that's what you
104. 9:36see ranking in Google Maps, then Google is starved  for legit results. So, here's what you're going to
105. 9:42do. You're going to document the keyword they're  ranking for. You can take the site, plug it into
106. 9:46ah refs or use a tool like keywords everywhere,  which is a Google Chrome extension. You do
107. 9:51that right there in the search. And then you're  going to ask yourself, could I build a one-page
108. 9:56directory that lists 5 to 10 real providers in  this niche in this city with clean filters and
109. 10:01legit info? If yes, then that's your play. And  here's a bonus for you. Open up the actual site.
110. 10:07Use a tool like BuiltWith with, and they have  a Chrome extension, too, to see what text stack
111. 10:11they're using. If it's Wix, Weebly, Squarespace,  GoDaddy, even better. Weak tech equals weak
112. 10:18competition. And you can beat them with a better  domain, a better host, web flow, WordPress,
113. 10:24real listings, real photos, real reviews. And once  again, remember, you can even build directories
114. 10:30around those filters like Open Now, mobile only,  kid-friendly. you are becoming the aggregator that
115. 10:36Google was hoping to find all along, but it had to  settle for the spam that showed up in your search
116. 10:41results. And if you really want to get tricky, you  can go to their Google business profile listing,
117. 10:46scroll to questions and answers, and you're going  to see stuff like, "Do you offer after hours?
118. 10:51Do you speak Spanish? Do you accept insurance?"  And then you can use tools like Manis, OpenAI's
119. 10:57operator, or Replet to go in here and scrape  all these things and find categories that have
120. 11:02a disproportionately high percentage of people  that offer these things. Kid-friendly, womenowned,
121. 11:09etc. Each question is a filter that people care  about. And you can add all of these filters to
122. 11:14your directory, or you can make a directory out  of one filter entirely. And then you just 10x
123. 11:19the value of what you're trying to do. But now,  let's go into Facebook groups. You know, I love
124. 11:24talking about Facebook. And one of the fastest  ways to crowdsource what people are already
125. 11:29searching for without guessing is, you guessed  it, Facebook groups. So, number four, we're going
126. 11:34to talk about Facebook group mining. And this one  is so obvious that it hurts, but almost no one is
127. 11:39doing it right. And there are millions of Facebook  groups. So, let's do this. Let's go into Facebook
128. 11:44groups because we are going to see where people  are actually asking for recommendations unfiltered
129. 11:50and in real time. This is hyper local demand,  hyper specific and relevant. It's kind of like
130. 11:55scraping search intent directly from the source.  So, you're going to start by joining a bunch of
131. 12:00local Facebook groups. Luckily, I have my personal  Facebook account pulled up and I'm in a ton of
132. 12:05groups over a hundred, mostly because I'm always  reverse engineering things just like this. Search
133. 12:09for things like moms of your city. My wife is in a  mom's group called Moms That Get Around. And it's
134. 12:14not what you think it is. It's just moms talking  to other moms about normal mom stuff. Also, by
135. 12:19the way, I do have a community called TK owners,  tkowners.com, where we talk about all these hacks,
136. 12:25and the best of the best stuff doesn't make it to  YouTube, FYI. Or you can search for things like
137. 12:29city contractors, Dallas contractors, Minneapolis  contractors, find all of the many Facebook groups
138. 12:36in those niches. State homeschool network, Alabama  homeschool network, weddings in upstate New York,
139. 12:42weddings in Tri Cities area. You want active,  messy groups with a ton of people that are quote
140. 12:49looking for something. Those two words are gold  to you. Looking for. Let's go into this group.
141. 12:55Airbnb booking verbbo host. 495,000 people in  this group. You think there aren't valuable
142. 13:01people in this group? A half a million people that  already own or want to own Airbnb properties. So,
143. 13:07let's go in here and we're going to search the  group right here. We're going to type in the
144. 13:11phrase looking for in quotations. Boom. Here's  what I see. Looking for recommendations. What's
145. 13:18the best course or resource for beginners  to learn how to launch a short-term rental
146. 13:22business? Oh my gosh, low hanging fruit. Please  sell me a course. Looking for recommendations for
147. 13:26business insurance for short-term rental business.  Of course, people get a short-term rental and they
148. 13:31either need or they think they need specialized  insurance. Looking for cleaner recommendations.
149. 13:37Looking for small business cleaning services.  looking for linen rental. Looking for recos
150. 13:42for a full-ervice property manager. So you could  use operator or manis to scrape all of these and
151. 13:48find the commonalities. What are people searching  for the most and or what are people searching for
152. 13:52most recently? Because maybe 3 years ago everyone  was looking for cleaners and then someone figure
153. 13:57that out and it's really not in demand anymore.  You can also search for terms like recommend
154. 14:02uh in quotations or anyone know a good dot dot dot  in quotations. Then you just start scrolling and
155. 14:07you'll start learning. You'll be seeing patterns  like looking for a mobile notary who's available
156. 14:11tonight. Anyone know a face painter for kids  birthdays? And you can even filter through these
157. 14:16things on the left. Post you've already seen, post  that are most recent, posts in certain locations.
158. 14:21This is a gold mine. Every single one of these  posts is a directory idea waiting to happen. It
159. 14:26doesn't mean that they're all going to be good  ideas. You still got to find two or three more
160. 14:30data points that back up your thesis, but is an  amazing starting point that you can't find in
161. 14:34AHEFs or Google or anywhere else on Facebook for  that matter. Quick question, what if there were
162. 14:39a private community out there of people that were  building businesses based on this podcast? Well,
163. 14:44I just made it and it's only for business starters  and business builders. It's called TK owners and
164. 14:50it's basically like having me and 100 other  business geniuses as your business partner,
165. 14:54but you give them 0% equity. Also, there's going  to be exclusive new trends, growth hacks, business
166. 14:59ideas, and a database of everything I've ever  talked about. You'll find thousands of startup
167. 15:04case studies. You'll have weekly ask me anythings  with me, while I'll answer your questions
168. 15:08directly. You'll be in my Slack channel where  I'm hanging out every week and helping members
169. 15:12one-on-one. We've got exclusive guest speakers,  including some names that you'll recognize. And if
170. 15:17you're building something cool, I'll introduce you  to anyone you need. TK Owners is the fastest way
171. 15:22to plug into a smart, ambitious group of builders.  and accountability partners that are sharing wins
172. 15:27without the fluff. And it's 99 bucks a month,  about the cost of an energy drink per day. You can
173. 15:32join now at tkowners.com, link in the show notes.  And then step three is you're going to build a
174. 15:38swipe file as you scroll. It's just a fancy way  of saying a Google doc or a Google sheet. You're
175. 15:42going to take screenshots of the best post. You're  going to track what are they asking for? How many
176. 15:46comments are they generating? Because every like  or a comment is another data point that says yes,
177. 15:51there is demand here. Maybe the comments all show  that the demand is already being met. People have
178. 15:55good cleaners. You got to dig into the comments.  The gold is really in the comments there. You
179. 16:00don't even really need to guess what filters  to add to these searches. They're giving you
180. 16:05the structure in the comments or in the original  post. And as a bonus, you can kind of ask without
181. 16:10asking. I like to say you make a post that says  something like, "Hey, if you could wave a magic
182. 16:15wand and instantly find the best insert category  here in town, what kind of filters would matter
183. 16:21most to you? What's your budget? Do you want it  to be mobile, kid-friendly? I'm just curious." And
184. 16:27let the group crowdsource your entire directory  user interface. You're going to get a list of
185. 16:32filters, keywords, service gaps. Maybe you find  there's no vegan restaurants in town. And you're
186. 16:37getting this data in real time from the most  relevant people in the most relevant markets.
187. 16:42Even a little messier, we're going to jump into  Reddit, which is a lot more chaotic than Facebook,
188. 16:46but also can be gold if you know what to search  for. And then there are some third-party Reddit
189. 16:51tools built on top of Reddit where you can get  even more out of Reddit. So this section, number
190. 16:56five, I like to call Reddit mining. Yes, Reddit.  It is full of trolls. It is full of chaos, but it
191. 17:02is also one of the most undererved platforms  for finding underserved service categories
192. 17:08straight from the mouths of frustrated users. So,  here's exactly how you mind it and how you find
193. 17:14directory gold. Step one, pick a subreddit.  You're going to be searching for subreddits
194. 17:18where people need recommendations or are planning  things. r/frugal, r/weddingplanning, r/by forlife,
195. 17:26r/personal finance, r/moving, r/hvac. A  lot of these communities are gold because
196. 17:32their engagement is so high. Just because it's a  subreddit with a lot of people doesn't mean it's
197. 17:37a good subreddit. A lot of the bigger ones are  toxic with poor engagement and toxic moderators.
198. 17:43You got to find the ones that are diamonds in  the rough. r/parenting, r/chronic illness, dogs,
199. 17:50vanl life. Each of these subreddits could be high  friction, highintent service categories. Step two,
200. 17:57you're going to use search queries like recommend  a or anyone know a good a or anyone know a good or
201. 18:05how do I find a good where to get a best blank for  blank. You're going to find posts like anyone know
202. 18:12a good dentist who doesn't treat me like crap for  not having insurance? like, "How's Google going to
203. 18:16answer that question for you?" Or trying to find a  therapist who takes Medicaid and actually answers
204. 18:22emails. There's no filter for that on Google Maps.  Or where do you find a mobile vet that doesn't
205. 18:27charge 300 bucks just to show up? Every single  one of those is a directory idea with emotional
206. 18:33urgency baked in. Step three, you're going to  analyze the comments and scroll the replies. What
207. 18:39names are coming up? I'm telling you over and over  on every platform, the gold is in the comments,
208. 18:44not in the like rate or the like ratio or even  the post. The comments are where people are having
209. 18:50difficulty finding answers to their questions. Are  people linking to sketchy sites in the comments?
210. 18:56Do the comments look like they're just bots and  they're full of emojis? Are people arguing in
211. 19:00the comments and saying, "Hey, I've been looking,  too." That's your demand. That's your validation.
212. 19:05You can build a clean site that lists just what  people are begging for in the comments. And then
213. 19:10in doing so, you could outrank the Reddit thread  itself. And if you really want to get tricky with
214. 19:15it, in any given subreddit, you can sort by all  time, by week, by month, by last year. Those posts
215. 19:21are golden. And it's also, side note, another  great way to reverse engineer how to go viral
216. 19:27in any given subreddit. Not that you're going to  want to do that for this directory idea, but it's
217. 19:32just a great little hack to know. When you sort by  top posts, you're going to find repeat questions
218. 19:37with hundreds of upvotes. Most of the times when  people are asking questions in Reddit, they're not
219. 19:42looking for when people have already asked that  question. So all of those up votes on the same
220. 19:47types of questions is pent-up demand. Furthermore,  you can piggyback on Google's search capabilities
221. 19:52to skip Reddit's awful user interface. So you're  going to type in sitereddedit.com/r/wingplanning
222. 20:02open quote recommend a close quote. That exactly  is a search query. Swap out wedding planning with
223. 20:08any subreddit. Swap out recommend a in quotations  with similar question queries. This is faster and
224. 20:16it's better because you still get the data from  Reddit but the user interface from Google. Also,
225. 20:21you can use tools to tools like Glasp to  highlight, save, and tag certain comment
226. 20:27threads as you're researching. There's all  kinds of thirdparty tools like that. One of
227. 20:31my favorite Reddit tools is called Gummy Search.  It costs like 50 bucks a month or something, but
228. 20:36I recommend using it for at least a month because  it will organize Reddit topics in ways that Reddit
229. 20:42doesn't do natively, and it can help you find  things that are trending on Reddit before they're
230. 20:46trending anywhere else. Forget directories. That's  just a great tool to use for reverse engineering
231. 20:52or researching any business idea. So now let's  look at some ways that we can pull ideas straight
232. 20:57from the filters that people are wishing exist,  but they don't. Okay, the filter gap. This is the
233. 21:03part that most people completely miss. The real  power in these directories isn't who you list,
234. 21:09it's how you let people filter. Because most  dedicated directories are only sorting by city
235. 21:15or category. That's too broad. That's too boring.  That's why people are bouncing. Real users don't
236. 21:20search like that. They're searching for things  like open late, kid-friendly, takes Medicaid,
237. 21:27speaks Spanish, pet friendly, kids safe,  femaleowned, LGBTQ affirming, on and on.
238. 21:34Now remember, those are filters, not categories.  So the play is to build micro directories where
239. 21:40the whole point is in the filter. So forget best  therapists in Dallas. do therapists in Dallas who
240. 21:46take sliding scale and actually answer emails.  So instead of like something like event venues
241. 21:52near me, you're going to do event venues that let  you bring your own food. Take a niche problem and
242. 21:58solve it with a single beautiful filter. Remember,  the beauty is in the filters here. So here's a
243. 22:04good real world example. Search for dentists that  take Medicaid near me, and you're going to find
244. 22:09outdated PDFs. You're going to find state websites  from 2009. You're going to find broken links. And
245. 22:17you're going to find people giving up in these  Reddit threads getting frustrated. Now, imagine
246. 22:22a world where there was a clean site that had  location, insurance accepted, languages spoken,
247. 22:29are walk-ins accepted or not, what are the weekend  hours? What are the holiday hours? Are the reviews
248. 22:34pulled into this directory site? You just built  the product Google wish it had to rank. Google
249. 22:40wants to show the best stuff and it's not there.  There's too many niches for everyone in the world
250. 22:44to cover. And if you really want to get smart with  it, remember what we discussed a few minutes ago.
251. 22:49You want to check out Google's people also ask  boxes because all of those questions equal a
252. 22:55filter and no one's organizing around them.  You're not trying to build a massive site or
253. 23:00the next Uber. You're building tiny answers to big  pain points. So, one of my favorite things to do
254. 23:07is to talk about tools. AHFS is good, but it's not  the end- all beall. So, I'm going to show you the
255. 23:13stack that I use to find these angles fast and  to build even faster. So, section 7 I'm calling
256. 23:18the tools stack. These are the tools that I  actually use. So, let's break it down. I just know
257. 23:24someone's going to ask, do I need a refs to do  all this? No, it helps, but it's not required. So,
258. 23:30here's what I actually use and how. Let's get it  out of the way. AHFS. I use it for two things.
259. 23:35finding weird longtail nearme keywords that no one  else is touching, looking at the volume attached
260. 23:42to those keywords, and plugging in spammy  competitors to see what they're ranking for
261. 23:46by accident. That's it. That's the 8020. You  don't need the fancy stuff. Tool number two,
262. 23:51keywords everywhere. This is a browser extension.  So, if you're on a budget, this is gold. It shows
263. 23:56the keyword volume inside of Google. So, you can  use it on Google Map searches. You can use it on
264. 24:01Reddit, YouTube, Facebook group threads. It's just  nice because you get instant validation. You don't
265. 24:08have to log in. You don't have to export. There's  no fluff. Number three, lowfruits.io. This is a
266. 24:14really niche tool that finds keywords where the  competition is more soft than average. Stuff like
267. 24:20SER equals Quora plus Reddit plus YouTube plus  low domain authority blog. That means you can
268. 24:26win. You can stack all these tools together with  this low fruits tool. and it'll even pull in the
269. 24:32people also ask questions. You can filter those by  niche. Number four, builtwith. I use builtwith and
270. 24:38the browser extension when I click on a spammy  site from Google Maps because it tells me are
271. 24:43they using Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Web Flow,  WordPress. Most people think you have to pay 450
272. 24:48bucks a month to use BuiltWith with. But just use  their free browser extension. We're not doing this
273. 24:53at scale. We only need one or two sites to get  going. It'll also tell you if they have analytics
274. 24:58installed, what is their form builder, what CMS  powers it, if it's an old, outdated, janky tech,
275. 25:05then that's going to be one of your signals that  this is a good arena to compete in. Number five
276. 25:09is going to be Glasp or Evernote. You've probably  heard of Evernote. You can also use Google Docs or
277. 25:14your Apple Notes app. Don't get fancy with it.  You don't need Notion. This is what I use to
278. 25:19save Reddit threads or Facebook posts or random  weird search results and these niche directory
279. 25:24examples that I'm trying to swipe by later. I use  these tools to highlight stuff in real time as
280. 25:30I'm researching. I'll tag it, I'll sort it, and  then I'm done. So, video is cool, but you know
281. 25:34what's better? Long form audio via podcast and my  newsletter. tkopod.com. Go there to subscribe for
282. 25:41free to my newsletter. It's one email a week, very  tactical. And then go to my audio podcast. Three
283. 25:45episodes a week, stuff like this. You're going  to love it. All free. No sleazy sales pitch.
284. 25:49tkopod.com. Number six, Air Table. I really  prefer Air Table over Notion because it's more
285. 25:55spreadsheet friendly. It's more filter friendly  in my experience than Notion is. In Air Table, I
286. 26:00will keep a running list of niches. And if you're  not Air Table familiar, then Google Sheets is just
287. 26:06fine for this. I'll use different columns for the  keywords, the filters, the people also ask for
288. 26:12niches, domain ideas, tools that the competitors  are using, different revenue models. And if I
289. 26:19start seeing the same type of service requested  over and over across different platforms, then it
290. 26:23goes on my build this next list. None of these  tools really matter if you don't execute. And
291. 26:29that's why you're watching because we want you to  execute, right? So, in the next section, I'm going
292. 26:33to give you five ready to go directory niche ideas  that I would build myself today. And I'll tell you
293. 26:39exactly why they're wide open. You don't need to  trust me. Just look at the data. Okay. Section
294. 26:44eight, five directory niches I would build today.  You've seen all the tactics. I've shown you the
295. 26:49tools. Let's talk execution. These are the five  directories I built today with no hesitation. And
296. 26:54I'm basing these on real demand, low competition,  and clear monetization paths, not just on gut
297. 27:00feel. Number five, mobile dog groomers in rural  areas. Not suburbs, not big cities, rural areas.
298. 27:07Remember, most of America lives in a rural area.  These folks are out in the sticks and they've got
299. 27:12dogs. They probably have more dogs than we do out  in the city or the suburbs. And the big problem
300. 27:16is they don't have groomers nearby, but people  nearby know how to groom. They just don't have
301. 27:21established websites, so they're hard to find.  They don't have booking tools. So, you could
302. 27:24build a clean site that has things like listings  by zip code, travel radius, pricing, photos,
303. 27:32available this week, badges, and you're going  to make money through Legen or monthly featured
304. 27:38listings, or even you could just sell ads through  Mediavine. Idea number four, wedding vendors that
305. 27:43don't advertise on the knot. I've posted about  The Knot. They're not doing well right now. Now,
306. 27:48pun intended. They got bought out by private  equity and their customers are not happy. And
307. 27:52you know what? brides are tired of. They're tired  of digging through all the same 40 vendors on
308. 27:57The Knot that are just paying for top placement.  There's an entire second tier of amazing vendors
309. 28:02that hate advertising and only get referrals. The  Knot charges these vendors thousands of dollars a
310. 28:07year and they might not get enough leads from it  to justify that. So many of the best vendors are
311. 28:12not on the knot. So you could build a directory  for businesses like DJs, videographers, caterers,
312. 28:19photographers, event venues. All of these  people have never been listed on The Knot, Zola,
313. 28:25or Wedding Wire, the big three. And you could take  the David verse Goliath approach. You could market
314. 28:29it as antithen. Charge vendors a flat 20 bucks a  month instead of $5,000 a year just to be found
315. 28:36by cooler couples. Once you start to get product  market fit and people start to know and trust you,
316. 28:41then you can increase your prices later. Number  three would be therapists who take Medicaid and
317. 28:47respond to emails. That's a mouthful. It's not  going to be the full name of your business,
318. 28:50but it's going to be what your directory is known  for. The second part matters, responds to emails,
319. 28:56because the number one complaint that you get  about businesses like these is they never call
320. 29:00back or they never answer their phone or their  emails. So, build a directory that has filters
321. 29:06for insurance type, weight list status. You  they could get an email reply rate badge and
322. 29:11you could track it yourself. Filters for languages  spoken, gender, and specialty, so on and so forth.
323. 29:18You can monetize with affiliate links to therapy  marketplaces or you could even charge therapists
324. 29:24to upgrade their profiles or to have priority  placement. Okay, the number two directory I would
325. 29:29launch and I really really like this one. I almost  made it number one. It was really hard to choose,
326. 29:33but it would be event venues that let you bring  their own food. If you've ever tried to book a
327. 29:39wedding or a birthday venue, you know that this  can be a nightmare. Often time the catering
328. 29:43costs are significantly more than the venue cost  itself. Most venues are forcing you to use their4
329. 29:50to60 plus dollar a plate catering, but there  are places out there that let you bring your
330. 29:55own. They're just hard to find. There doesn't  need to be only one of these. There could be
331. 30:00multiple directories that offer this filter as the  core feature in all kinds of markets all over the
332. 30:05world. That one filter is the entire point of the  site. You could list out banquet halls, churches,
333. 30:12backyards, barns, whatever. You could use places  like peers to find venues that already do this and
334. 30:18scrape them from peers and add them to your site.  You can monetize through direct venue outreach,
335. 30:24upgrades, ads, on so on and so forth. And number  one, my favorite example of a directory niche that
336. 30:31you should start today is for used commercial  kitchen rental spaces because you know what's
337. 30:37booming right now? Ghost kitchens, meal prep, food  startups, cottage bakers trying to go legit. This
338. 30:44started booming during COVID and it hasn't slowed  down. And you know what all of these people need?
339. 30:49They need a health inspected kitchen to rent for  3 to four hours a week. These listings are buried
340. 30:55across Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, old  restaurant forums. You could organize them all
341. 31:00in one place and you could filter them by hourly  verse daily equipment included, certification
342. 31:07type, how much insurance is required, city or  zip code. You charge the kitchens to list on
343. 31:13your site and then maybe later you could take a  cut of bookings, but you need to get them using
344. 31:18your site first because the thing about all five  of these ideas is they could all be live within 24
345. 31:24to 48 hours. card, softer, web flow, it doesn't  matter. It's about solving a specific painoint
346. 31:31with real filters. So, let's wrap this up with  the fasttrack plan. Here's how you're going to
347. 31:35do this. Brass tax. Here's how to validate and  launch your directory in 24 hours without code,
348. 31:41without an audience, and without having to  guess. Section nine, validate and launch in 24
349. 31:46hours. Step one, you're going to pick your niche.  Remember, don't overthink it. Pick the one where
350. 31:51people are actively searching. I've already given  you all the tools and there's not a clear answer.
351. 31:56It depends on your preferences and your market.  And remember, the filters are going to be obvious
352. 32:01based on what people keep asking about. And if  you get stuck, just rewind this video a couple
353. 32:05minutes and steal one of my five ideas. Step  two, find 10 legit listings. Go to Google Maps,
354. 32:11Reddit, Yelp, Facebook, and search for people  who already offer the thing. You don't need
355. 32:16permission yet. Don't ask for permission. This is  called permission list. You just need enough data
356. 32:20to build a prototype directory. So you're going  to grab the name, city, link, one to two details
357. 32:27that matter like hours, pricing, mobile, etc. And  then you're going to go to step three, which is to
358. 32:32build the MVP, the minimum viable product using  card, software, notion, air table, tally. Also,
359. 32:39the Chrome extensions that I mentioned earlier  on, you're not building a full site. You're just
360. 32:43building a minimum viable answer to people's  question. The question I'm asking you is,
361. 32:49can someone land on your site and solve their  problem faster than Google? That's the bar you're
362. 32:54trying to beat. Step four, you're going to soft  launch it. You're going to post this in a local
363. 32:58Facebook group. You're going to DM a few of the  providers you have listed and ask them, "Hey,
364. 33:03I built this page to help people find service.  Would you want to be listed or featured?" If
365. 33:08two to three of them say yes, you've got proof.  And really, you could even do this before having
366. 33:12any website whatsoever. These people are either  going to be willing to pay, share, or promote
367. 33:16or not. The worst they could say is no. And step  five, you're going to add monetization. Something
368. 33:22basic like featured listings cost 10 to 30 bucks  a month. They'll have to pay for upgrades or extra
369. 33:28filters. And then you can even add affiliate  links if you're pointing to marketplaces.
370. 33:32You could also monetize with lead genen forms.  Collect the leads and sell them whenever you find
371. 33:36a buyer. It doesn't need to be perfect. It just  needs to be real. You just need to execute. So,
372. 33:40you're going to pick a pain. You're going to list  the options. Let Google, Reddit, and Facebook
373. 33:45hand you the demand on a silver platter because  you're not trying to build a tech company. You're
374. 33:50building the map to a problem that no one has  organized yet in that niche. And once it's live,
375. 33:55you're in the game. If you want me to build  one of these live on camera, step by step,
376. 33:59so you can see that I'm not just talk, then let me  know in the comments what the niche should be and
377. 34:03I'll pick one and I'll do it. But please be sure  to subscribe because I do all this for free and
378. 34:07people seem to like it. So, show me you like it  by subscribing. Thank you for watching. Go check
379. 34:11out tkopod.com for my free weekly newsletter with  tactical stuff like this. And check out the Kerner
380. 34:16Office on any podcast platform. Please share with  a friend and we'll see you next time on the Kerner