🚩 Create Directories of Useful Resources - TRUST-able #37
Build credibility and trust by finding, collecting and organizing valuable resources that satisfy a specific problem / interest / need.
In this issue:
Why To Create A Directory To Build Trust?
Who Should Build Directories
What Should a Directory Focus On
Ideas for Directory Types (When First Starting)
Trusted Niche Directories Are Coming
When you are in a country it is difficult to find out where certain type of shops or particular locations are. Yes, there is Google Maps, Apple Connect and Bing Places, but when it comes to certain type of requests (“best places to find quality Italian imported goods”, “non-touristy, underdeveloped beaches nobody goes to”) none of those can cut it.
You need to ask trusted friends that live there and that know well the place.
Online, there’s a growing demand for “trusted” (not automated and human branded) directories that find, vet and organize useful resources in specific locations as much as tools and resources in specific market niches.
The differences between the directories that are about to come, and those you have seen so far is:
Past
created mostly by SEO and content marketing experts for:
traffic / lead generation
monetization (paid inclusions, paid to be featured, sponsorships, ads, etc.),
Future
created by subject-matter experts for:
mapping the territory and increasing visibility
gaining authority, credibility and trust
offering a true, useful service for their audience
(optionally) creating - as a consequence - an additional revenue channel
The key change here, is in the focus on:
value/usefulness and
trust-building.
.
95% of directories built so far, are pure traffic builders, lead generation, money-making machines on auto-pilot.
But they have very low trust and credibility.
.
The consequence?
You are not going to trust a website, that has no face and no names to it, when it comes to accessing niche information that is important to you.
Unless it is the only option you have.
But the moment one trusted competitor puts his head out and offers trusted, expert advice and recommendations in a niche sector/topic/location, it’s game over for everyone else.
.
If you are a subject matter expert, creating a niche directory of resources can be a highly effective trust-building (and monetization) strategy that is going to exponentially increase in value in the near future.
Robin Good
1) Why To Create A Directory To Build Trust?
I built my first directory online in 2004.
It was called RSSTop55 and it brought together all of the websites that offered a wide catalog of RSS feeds and which accepted new submissions from indie authors who wanted to get more visibility for their feeds.
Though it is not online anymore, the RSSTop55 is still visible in one of its earliest versions on the Internet Archive.
My contention: Directories are a uniquely powerful tool to establish credibility and gain audience trust.
Why?
Directories:
provide your audience with information about things that are useful them
help customers discover, learn, save time, make informed decisions
offer businesses in the sector the opportunity to showcase their products and services.
help directory authors build relationships with potential clients and customers
More specifically.
Directories are:
a) Credibility Builders
Directories show competence / authority
To build a directory, that builds credibility, you must be an expert the field
To review/evaluate items in a directory you must know the field
To select and decide what to include you must have some experience in the field
b) Visibility Boosters
Directories are a natural visibility enhancers because they provide specific and free useful information that people enjoy and share.
Directories help visibility because they include many relevant players in the specific sector being covered
People searching for trusted resources in that niche will bump into any dedicated directory
Players and resources included in the directory will promote the directory and will tell other people about it
Relevant reference (extensive collection of opinions by entrepreneurs and founders on the value of directories)
c) Reliability Builders
Directories show that many people / entities rely on you and that you know and can manage relevant pockets of information in your sector.
Directories show reliability because you represent all of those present in the directory, and you are liable to them that the information you post is correct and valid. That portrays a reliable image of you to people in that sector.
In other words, directories:
Signal active engagement and commitment to serving the directory's audience
Convey the reliability of the information presented
Show you’re active and attentive in that sector
Demonstrate commitment to serving directory audience
d) Intimacy Boosters
Directories are a great strategy to build relationships with resources, players, business and potential customers in your sector.
Directories:
Facilitate relationships and networking among industry players
Encourage user submissions and feedback to strengthen connections
Help to build relationships with market players
Increase your network of contacts in the sector
Encourage user submissions and feedback
Facilitate connections between users and resources
2) Who Should Build Directories
Directories should be built by subject-matter experts.
That’s not been the case so far.
Over the years I have seen many indie entrepreneurs building new directories just for the sake of monetizing without having any real competence in the niche chosen.
I am a strong believer that curated resources should always be created by subject matter experts.
Journalists would be the best candidates to build such trusted directories, but very few of them seem to have the entrepreneurial balls to go out and create a useful information universe around a topic in which they are very competent.
Subject matter experts (SME) can identify with greater precision which specific information points have relevance and are in demand in a certain field and which not.
They also do a much better job of selecting and evaluating resources, as well as establishing criteria and rules for AI agents to use in their research.
Trustworthy SMEs are the competitive advantage in an age where most directories have no name or face behind them.
3) What Should a Directory Focus On
a) What You Know Best
Something you know and are competent about in your field of interest.
It could be a wide number of things. The important element is that it should be something you are competent, somewhat knowledgeable and interested into.
Avoid creating a directory in a field where you know little or nothing. It will not last long.
b) Real Usefulness
Create something that doesn’t exist or that can greatly improved
The best situation in which to build a directory is when there is no such resource available.
This allows you to truly serve an unmet need for a specific audience.
c) Demand
Create a directory for which there is verified actual demand
When the primary goal is to be useful first, one must check actual demand for the directory to be built.
By using one of the many keyword research tools available, one needs to verify that there are a good number of people who are effectively looking for the information on a monthly basis.
If there are none or very few (like less than 50 people a month), it may not be a good idea to build a directory, as the number of people benefiting from it would be very small.
N.B.: There’s nothing bad about building a useful resource for a very small group of people, but if the goal is to accelerate your growth in terms of visibility, credibility, authority and trust, then identifying a need with at least a few hundred monthly queries would be much better (consider at least 500 queries/month).
It is also a good idea to check the existing competition level in that space, as to avoid topics that are already quite crowded. If there are already many existing resources on the topic, it may take quite a long time to surpass them in terms of visibility.
Such competition level is generally measured by SEO tools as “keyword difficulty” and when on a scale 0-100 it should generally be under 25-30.
Tools you can use to analyze demand and competition (keyword difficulty) level:
3) Key Steps To Build a Directory
1. Positioning
Select the specific focus / need and the related audience of your directory resource.
Identify the specific information data-points your audience needs (what are the specific information elements you need to collect to provide a minimum useful viable service).
Choose directory name / brand and tagline / USP (what problem it solves, for whom and in which way it is unique)
2. Research
Identify the specific sources where to find resources for the directory, such as:
Specialized directories
Experts
Search engines
Books
Articles
etc.
Define rules and criteria determining which resources qualify
Decide which method(s) to use to collect the data
Manually
3. Resources Identification
Now it’s time to pick and select the actual resources to include in your directory.
Humans who are subject-matter experts are generally best at this task, but AI can provide great help and time-savings in finding potential candidates rapidly.
4. Data-Enrichment
For each resource you add to your directory, you also need to search and find the related information points you have decided to collect. This phase is called data-enrichment and once identified the resources to be added can be executed efficiently by AI agents.
AI agents go out to visit each resource you have decided to include in the directory and for each one search and bring back the specific data you need (address, names, features, prices, etc.)
5. Verification
Data, especially if collected through automated means, needs to be verified.
If you don’t that, you’re a great risk of rapidly losing (or never gaining) the very thing for which I am suggesting you to build a directory: credibility and trust.
Case in point: I am using several directories to keep myself updated, but very of them are trustable. For what I see (take AI tools for example) their authors seem more concerned with adding more data, than with the proper verification, classification and updating of the data they have already collected.
Since you may be wanting to build a directory with hundreds of entries, I suggest this. In the beginning, add data only for 20-30 items in your directory. Then verify it manually, while tracking where your AI agents and automation tools have failed.
Revise and correct your rules and instructions to your AI/automated tools and then add more data.
Repeat and rinse until the amount of errors in data are reduced to a bare minimum.
6. Insights Extraction
Once you have all your verified, quality data in your directory, it is a great idea to extract as many insights from it as possible and to offer them alongside the directory access, or as an additional information product sold at a price.
By insights I intend all of those non-obvious facts that emerge by looking at the overall collection you have created.
For example best resources in selected categories, as well as emerging new ones or ones with key unique characteristics.
You can also extrapolate and highlight common characteristics, averages and unique performers.
7. Publication
Now that you have your directory and insights ready, my experience has taught me that it is always a good idea to submit it to a restricted circle of competent contacts to:
get valuable feedback on things you may have overlooked
get useful testimonials from those who appreciate the work you have done
After further reviewing and perfecting your resource you can start to promote it publicly through all of your communication channels:
email signature
profiles on messaging apps (WA, Telegram, Line, etc.)
website
blog
newsletter
social media channels
social media groups on related topics
etc.
8. Maintenance / Updating
This is where eight directories out of ten fail: keeping the data up-to-date. I myself have made this mistake many times.
90% of directories are built by adding a ton of new records in the first phase of launch. But after a few months, while new resources are added, the old one don’t get updated.
Consequence: directories go bad increasingly fast.
The more rapid are the changes in the industry, the more newcomers jump in and the more rapidly the resources being collected change their performance, pricing, features, characteristics.
Maintenance/updating is therefore the new frontier for directory builders where to gain a key advantage over competitors and where to earn significant extra authority and credibility as a reliable source of information.
And while until yesterday automated maintenance was difficult, expensive and as a consequence mostly reserved to those who had technical knowledge and large budgets, today, reliable automated maintenance of a directory is within the technical and economic reach of any person.
This is why I strongly believe that:
a) maintenance / updating and
b) credibility / trust
will become the two key competitive advantages for directory builders in the near future.
9. Monetization (optional)
An additional benefit of creating a public directory is the opportunity to create an additional potential revenue channel.
Directories can be monetized in several different ways including:
Pay to be included
Pay to edit and update your data
Pay to be featured
Sponsorships
Connected newsletter ads & promotion
Driving traffic and leads to one or more existing businesses
If you are interested in this aspect, I suggest you look at these resources:
newsletter
- ’s Directory Guide
- - Six Figure Directory Course (upcoming)
4) Ideas for Directory Types (When First Starting)
If you are wondering, what type of directory to build, here a few useful directory types that can be applied to an infinite number of niches, geographical areas, languages and needs.
Directory of tools / apps that resolve a specific need for a well defined audience
Directory of experts in a niche
Directory of niche-themed useful resources (playbooks, frameworks, ebooks, etc.)
Directory / Calendar of relevant events in a niche
Directory of sources (authors, blogs, podcasts, magazines, etc.) in a niche
Directory / Catalog of successful examples in a niche
Directory of niche-specific books
Directory of niche-specific courses
Directory of video tutorials
Directory of communities in a niche
Directory of new startups in a niche
Directory of opportunities (grants, jobs, gigs, scholarships, etc.) in a niche
In the Premium Edition
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70+ dedicated tools and apps to build directories
Discover which platforms, tools, plugins, templates and code boilerplates are out there specifically to build directories.
10 real-world examples of trust-building directories
Get inspiration from a list of real-world trust-building directory examples.
How to build a directory with AI agents - video
See how I create and populate a directory of tools using Ottogrid AI and AI agents.
What I Can Do To Help You
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Written monthly report with screenshots of your work and specific suggestions on where and how to improve
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Cover image: NomadList
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From Koh Samui (TH)
Robin Good
nice, thx Robin
Please contact me. https://fleshner.com