How I built and sold a SEO-optimized directory
The story of NewsletterGiants
This is not a huge success story but there are definitely some learnings. So that I was I originally published this one in No-Code Exits.
The tweet
"You're only successful because you have a large following. BS. Here's how you can do the same with 0 followers.”
That is the tweet. The tweet from Danny Postma that caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of (aspiring) solopreneurs.
And it caught my attention too. The past year I experienced that “Build it and they will come” is the biggest lie on the internet :’).
You already know (or read the full story here) that this tweet eventually led to the start of Build The Keyword. But before that, I followed Danny his framework to launch a directory.
I like directories as they can - in these times of information overload - help users find signal in the noise. But they are not easy to grow or monetize. But if you start one from a SEO-first approach, like Danny describes, you can get this magic monthly organic traffic and turn it (after the initial work) into a ‘set it and forget it business’.
Here is how I used the steps from Danny Postma his method for my directory 👇
Step 1: Find your main keyword
At that time I was emerged in the newsletter creator space because I was so busy growing this newsletter. I already had been thinking for a while that a collection of newsletter best practices would be interesting.
So with that in mind, I started looking for keywords in the newsletter niche . I settled on “email newsletter examples” which had ok volume and ok keyword difficulty. Because of the limitation of the free tool I used, I had no clue about the related keywords but I found some relevant keywords (like newsletter signup examples and newsletter welcome email examples).
Step 2: Build your product around the keyword
The building was easy. I created the backend with Airtable, the frontend with Softr, analytics with Microsoft Clarity and started filling the database. NewsletterGiants was born.
Directly on the homepage of NewsletterGiants you could browse through different newsletter examples without signup or payment. By giving the users what they are searching for without any friction they stay longer on your website which Google sees as a positive sign.
Step 3: Optimize for keyword
Next step is to optimize your website for your main keyword. Your main keyword should return on as many places as possible in a natural way (so don’t overstuff it). Danny recommends to implement it in:
H1 title
Other text through the website
Meta title
Meta description
Alt text of image
Domain
Step 4: Create a lot of pages
To rank for even more keywords, you need to create a lot of other webpages which you again, optimize for those child keywords.
To start I created 7 pages around the following topics:
/examples/newsletter-landing-oage
/examples/welcome-email
/examples/how-to-monetize-newsletter
/examples/newsletter-referral-program
/examples/newsletter-adverts
…
To be sure that Google knows these pages exist (so they can be crawled and indexed) you add them in the footer of your website.
Step 5: Offer a free and paid option
A free product keep visitors on your website. It helps you to earn trust and boost your Google ranking because people spent time reading and clicking around on your website. To monetize your product you ask for a one-time payment for better conversion rates.
So a part of my directory was free. And I built-in different monetization strategies:
Tool stack of every newsletter uses some affiliate links
Ad spaces in the directory (to promote my own products to start ;-))
One-time payment to access to the full library (with all the examples, filters and all categories)
Step 6: Get backlinks
Mentions from other websites about your website tells Google your product can be trusted. The more mentions (=backlinks) you have, the better you will rank in the search results.
I was not ready to launch on Product Hunt. So my attempt at getting backlinks was reaching out to people who wrote newsletters about newsletters.
Newsletter creators are always looking for interesting things to share every week with their readers. A great advantage about keeping a part of your directory for free is that it is seen as an interesting resource and more likely to be shared around (in comparison when it is just a paying product). So some newsletters were happy to share it and it resulted in a staggering ;-) 29 sales and 280USD revenue.
I’m not sure if Product Hunt still results in so many backlinks these days. But next to Product Hunt you can list it in other directories. I had quick success with these directories for other projects.
Step 7: Wait
The only thing that I had to do then, was wait for traffic to flow in. Danny shares that it takes around 3-6 months to get that organic traffic.
My plan was actually to create more pages and get more backlinks. But plans change. I had a ‘I NEED TO FOCUS’ crisis and sold/stopped everything that was not No-Code Exits. I listed NewsletterGiants on some acquisition platforms but I didn’t get any serious offers. A few weeks later Francisco Opazo offered $1,500 via a LinkedIn DM and I went for it. He is now busy starting a new job but will start improving and growing NewsletterGiants soon.
Bonus: Only during the transfer of the assets I noticed that organic traffic had started to kick-in. Still a lot of room for optimisation but seems promising!
Thanks for reading! In the last 6 months I have seen this strategy successfully in action for a lot of people. I will never start a project again without clear search demand and a keyword with low competition to get that organic traffic in an ‘easy’ way. Very thankful that Danny shared his strategy with everyone! I hope you will try it too!
Hi Kate, I found your approach fascinating—it reminds me of the days when SEO-optimized webpages were all the rage. It’s interesting to see how strategies evolve over time while retaining some timeless fundamentals. Great read!