As a startup founder or business owner, you should do a simple trick to increase your authority: create a directory website in your niche!
Whatever you do, your importance in that niche grows with a small investment (a few hundred $). The risk-reward ratio is clearly in your favor.
You collect the contacts, you have the database, you have the website, and you grow a community around you. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, but you can monetize it after some time and transform it into an income source (more about this later)
I have created this directory website with a few hours of work and you can create one yourself and become an authority in your niche. The platform I used to build this directory has premade directory templates so you can easily create a directory with no or low coding experience (like me)
Here is the step-by-step guide to create your directory
1. Keyword Research.
Even if you know your niche, a few minutes of keyword research are great. You can find awesome keywords that will suit your directory. Let me give you a few examples
You're in coffee >> Create a directory of coffee places in your city/country
You're a dev and know lots of people who built tools >> Create a tool directory in your niche (ie: AI tools or marketing tools)
You know the equipment and the businesses operating in your niche >> Both are great ideas for directories.
For keyword research, I use this keyword research tool. It has a free trial version and then a paid one with other SEO tools included. You enter the different keywords from your niche and find other ones people search for often.
Using our example above, for coffee places:
"Coffee Shops in Dublin" has thousands of searches and low SEO difficulty.
Another example (this time with equipment):
"Professional Grill" has 1500 monthly searches and many other related terms with high volumes, including the names of different manufacturers, that you can list in a directory. You can do this for equipment in any niche, think espresso machines, drones, vacuum cleaners,
2. Buy your directory domain name
Now that you know your keywords, it's time to get the domain name for your directory, Go to Namecheap or your preferred domain name provider and search for a domain name related to your main keyword. Exact match domains (EMD) are the best. If the .com is taken, try the .org, .net, .ai (if it's AI-related). If not, use your imagination (I've seen smart people using from Georgia (indiepa.ge) or Italy (indiesread.it) to create their websites.
3. Register your account with the website builder
Go to the Unicorn Platform and register for a free account. Seriously! Go now! Use your Google account to register fast, and return here for your next step.
4. Choose your directory theme.
When you log into the account you created, you'll find a collection of themes displayed. You can create multiple websites for different purposes on this platform, but we will focus on creating directories in this article.
On the directory tab, you can select your preferred directory theme. As we are just testing, don't worry, you can come back and start again with a new theme, anytime you want.
Ask the platform to populate your directory with placeholder items so you can see how a complete directory looks. To see how it looks, you have a button in the upper right part of your browser. It looks great already, but we want to make it about your niche.
5. Edit your directory website settings
In the same area (upper right) you have a settings button. From here you can modify your directory in many ways:
- Page settings tab: Title, Description, OG image (important for SEO/display)
- Website theme tab: Change the theme and the colors
- General tab: favicon, global HTML code (like for analytics)
- Blog and domain name tabs (more about these later)
- Billing, Account Settings, and others settings