One of the secrets to my success in the directory world has been choosing niches that are recession proof and that fall into one of three buckets:
- Help people save time
- Help people save money
- Help people make more money
At this point, you might already know that I own a thrifting directory that gets 50k-80k/monthly visitorss.
And just to reverse engineer my thinking from a couple years ago when I built it, it was right after COVID, and honestly, I wanted to build something that would still be in demand if another crazy event happened.
Another pandemic. Another economic crash. Whatever.
p.s. to be fair, thrift stores aren't pandemic proof. I get it.
- Paid partnership -
I’ve been using Hostinger as one of my go-to hosts for building directories—they make it ridiculously easy to get set up with WordPress, a domain, and everything you need to launch.
For WordPress users who want a smooth setup without getting too technical, I genuinely recommend Hostinger’s Managed plan—it’s what I’ve used myself.
I was inspired by how Zoom exploded. How toilet paper disappeared from shelves and what types of small brick and mortar businesses were most affected.
It got me thinking:
- What products and services have the best chance at surviving, no matter what happens?
- How are people adjusting their lives to save time or money?
Because saving money is never going out of style.
You don't have to be a financial advisor to provide value here because there's thousands of ways people are finding ways to stretch their dollar.
And that's what really reinforced the idea of a thrift store directory for me.
If I could build something that helped people save money, helped them find resources to stretch their budgets, I knew there would always be demand for that.
It ended up being true.
Leverage Your Unique Life Experiences
Now thrift stores are just one example.
But if you look around your own life, your friends, your family, even your own spending habits, what are people doing to protect life's most precious resources?
There are a thousand iterations of this playing out every single day.
And yeah, these niches are broad, but that is where your personal lens comes in.
Your unique life experience can help you spot niche directory ideas that are not obvious yet.
It can be crazy simple.
Like think about coupon websites.
Every time you hit the checkout page online and scramble for a promo code, that is human behavior around saving money.
That instinct is why coupon sites still dominate Google.
And it is the same instinct that drives people to thrift, to hunt for deals, and to look for better ways to stretch a dollar.
Your job as a directory builder is to tap into instincts like that.
A Blueprint to Smart Directory Ideas
I was reading The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant last week.
There's a part where Naval talks about how most people just work hard at random, but very few people actually strategize, blueprint, or design their way to success intentionally.
So I spent this month distilling everything I know around finding profitable directory ideas into 7 core filters designed to help you play games that you know you can win (with examples from my personal directories).
This is the first module of the detailed directory course I'm building.
And I'll be releasing this to all SYD Pro members this week.
If you're interested in this (plus weekly livestreams), you can join the community here.
Keep Building,
Frey
