With AI tools being all the rage, this is just a reminder that I built my $2k/month directory like this:
Wordpress on the left, Google Maps on the right.
In 2022, I spent 100 hours copying and pasting every little piece of information into a Wordpress site (every name, address, phone number, working hours, etc).
I didn't know about web scrapers or plugins like WP All Import and Geodirectory at the time.
It was a purely brute force approach.
In the end, I built something that today you or I could spin up in about three hours just vibe-coding with Claude Code.
But building something fast rarely means that you built something valuable.
It's easy to forget that the root of my directory's success is that:
I built something valuable (and others think so too)
Google trusts my website as the subject matter expert
Creating value through a directory is simpler than you'd think.
The most common forms of value I see in successful directories are value through informationand/or value through structure.
What "value" looks like when building directories
The obvious one is value through information.
It's simple. Offer information that's hard to find and incredibly valuable.
The problem is that the most easy to get information is rarely the most valuable.
And the most valuable information is usually hard or inconvenient to acquire.
But if you have the willpower, the process is straight-forward:
Step 1. Find the most in-demand niche information people want to know
Step 2. Check if your competitor offers this information already
Step 3. If not, acquire the information and offer it on your directory. If yes, find ways to make the information even more helpful.
Parting.com (the pricing details they include on their listings) is a prime example of hard-to-find, but valuable information.
If you're building in a niche like "tacos near me", the challenge is that the most in-demand info (menu items, pricing, location) are already easy to find.
But if you niche down further to something like ‘vegan tacos in Los Angeles,’ you end up with an inherently valuable directory for a specific group of people, but the number of potential users naturally becomes smaller.
Your job is to find the balance between both.
The second example of value, which is underutilized, is value through structure.
By structure, I really mean how the information and data is presented on your directory.
Two of my cash-flowing directories succeeded in part because I noticed my competitor's website gave their visitors "click fatigue" AKA requiring too many clicks to get to the info they want.
My solution? I took the same information and simply re-formatted neatly on to one long page.
For my particular directory niches, this small change was enough to provide value through structure.
For your niche, it may be different.
Perhaps you present important information in a user-friendly and visual way, like worldpopulationreview.com.
The goal isn't to re-invent the wheel.
Look at your successful competing directories and ask yourself "is there anything wrong with how people are finding the info they want?"
Value comes before building trust
Everyone knows that backlinks are the key to gaining Google's trust.
The problem is, too many people try and build backlinks without even building a valuable directory first.
At that point, building links is pointless.
It's like running an amazing marketing campaign for a product nobody wants.
It might get attention for a moment, but it won’t hold up in the long run.
Also when you build something valuable, people will naturally want to link to your website more often.
Final thoughts
Speed isn't a moat. In fact, speed can give you a false sense of creating value.
AI is helping me move faster than ever, but it's easier to get distracted from what's important.
Building fast vs. creating something people actually want are two very different things.
What matters is whether I'm offering hard-to-find information or structured it in a way that is helping people save time and make decisions.
When users find real value, traffic tends to follow more naturally.
With steady traffic, monetization opportunities open up.
And as both build, your chances of long-term success expand.
