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Zell Liew
@zellwk
That's super useful, @jasonleow. I'm curious what do you mean by high traffic — and at which point it is considered high traffic.
Do you have a process you use to figure out the keyword? Like for Lists kit, do you try them both and see which one gets a better result? And is there a specific testing timeframe before you conclude?
If both don't seem to get results, then how do you proceed? Just curious about your thought processes and the what if scenarios if you're open to share!
Re: high traffic, I dunno either. Maybe 10k impressions per month is high. But again, depends on your niche/audience. If very niche and small community, traffic is low but if you serve their needs well, maybe conversion is better. High traffic but doesn't convert is also not too beneficial.
Speaking to users is one way to find keywords. What terms do they use. It helps if you're also a user, so you can dogfood your own directory. Otherwise, ask ChatGPT to suggest some, and research on Ahrefs/SEMrush. No actually you dont need to test. Just research on Ahrefs and you'll know which keywords has more search volume and competition.
If no results, maybe speak to users, and ask why? Might need to iterate or pivot.
If you don't mind sharing, I'm curious about ballpark metrics on when you think Vision Directory would be able to monetize. Do you give create a specific deadline as a "trial" of sorts?
And what do you do if it doesn't hit that metric/deadline? Just leave the project hanging? Abandon it? Revisit later? etc.
I just play it by ear. No deadlines or goals. I think every project is different.
Vision Directory's growth is largely dependent on the success of Apple Vision Pro and the number of apps being developed for it. Right now, that's lower than expected. So I don't spend a ton of time on developing the site. But I keep it running in the hope that Apple Vision Pro will gain popularity and so will the site.
As for ballpark metrics, you can look at industry CPM rates. For example, if your industry has a $5 CPM that means you can charge about $5 per 1,000 ad views. So if your site has 50,000 pageviews per month, you can expect a ballpark of $250/mo in advertising revenue if you were to show one ad and have an advertiser lined up for the full month.
It's not a perfect science, especially at lower numbers, but it gives you a ballpark for advertising revenue.
For other types of revenue is really depends on your unique situation.
Ah, infor that is hard to gather or make sense, actually makes sense.
How do you decide whether ads or memberships or selling to brands are more suitable for which niche? They all just kinda look somewhat the same to me right now.
SEO is still the stuff I don’t really understand, it seems. I do get content marketing, but I’m not sure how a directory would lead to SEO.
Whether ads/membership/brand sponsor, it again depends on the opportunities in your market. Just got to trial and error to see which works. In general I try to get to high traffic first or high word-of-mouth either via SEO or content marketing or social media, then it becomes valuable. Then can try diff ways to monetize.
SEO for directory means optimising for keywords for your niche. What words do people use to search for the problem your directory is trying to solve. Use those. Like for Lists Kit, I'm still figuring out if the main keyword is "business directory" or "info directory".. (or listing)
That's super useful, @jasonleow. I'm curious what do you mean by high traffic — and at which point it is considered high traffic.
Do you have a process you use to figure out the keyword? Like for Lists kit, do you try them both and see which one gets a better result? And is there a specific testing timeframe before you conclude?
If both don't seem to get results, then how do you proceed? Just curious about your thought processes and the what if scenarios if you're open to share!
Re: high traffic, I dunno either. Maybe 10k impressions per month is high. But again, depends on your niche/audience. If very niche and small community, traffic is low but if you serve their needs well, maybe conversion is better. High traffic but doesn't convert is also not too beneficial.
Speaking to users is one way to find keywords. What terms do they use. It helps if you're also a user, so you can dogfood your own directory. Otherwise, ask ChatGPT to suggest some, and research on Ahrefs/SEMrush. No actually you dont need to test. Just research on Ahrefs and you'll know which keywords has more search volume and competition.
If no results, maybe speak to users, and ask why? Might need to iterate or pivot.
Aggregation is interesting, I never thought about it that way. That gives me something interesting to try - like when I’m searching for stuff, I might as well try throwing up a directory or something 😂
I think that is exactly why people start them haha, spot on
I suspect this would require an “advertise” page plus sufficient users for such an expense. Though, how many users will be sufficient for doing these premium ads, if any, just as a gauge?
I'm not sure about the amount of users. But maybe check some inspiration at remoteok.com/hire-remotely how the page is set up and what information it asks from a customer.
Also checkout jobboardsearch.com/ that has premium sponsored ad slots
My books / courses have been revolving around technical topics. So usually I would flesh out the general idea of what the book / course should target/fix/teach.
From there, I create a rough outline of topics and put them onto my computer. I use Obsidian so I can work both on Mac and Phone, and for easier access and storage. (I can't use notion. Too slow, and words are too small. Aesthetics that I like is quite important for me).
Then I write...
And I find myself shuffling through the table of contents and reordering things... and this part is kinda messy.
When I find an order that works, I kinda know. Until if (which happens often) I mess up the order to create something with better precision or flow. Then it gets messy again.