How To Build a Local Directory Website That Makes Money (Tutorial) Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 I'm going to show you how to build a local directory website, one that you can actually scale and turn into a legitimate business. Local directories are one of the most unnoticed and underrated business models in today's world. A lot of people think that because of Google, everyone just searches for local businesses. And yes, that's definitely true.

00:20 But here's what most people miss completely. There's still a massive group of people who don't want to scroll through 50, you know, random Google search results. They want something curated, something that actually helps them explore their city. And you can see this happening right now. Sites like The Scout Guide are thriving in today's fast-paced AI-driven internet world.

00:41 And what's even more interesting is that many of these directory brands don't just exist online. They also print physical guides that get mailed out every single month. I get guides just like this one right here. This one's called Valpak, and it's basically just all of these different like business advertising. Cuz there's a bunch in here, right? All these different kind of coupon-looking things.

01:04 There's another one right here. Same thing, right? Just different uh businesses within these pages here. There's two more right here. Same concept, just different businesses kind of like with these individual pieces of paper. These are all businesses that have paid to be in these physical printed guides. And then I get these things every like month or two, right?

01:22 I also get one of these booklets that get delivered to my house about every month. And this company also has an online directory where the same companies in this booklet have a spot on the directory website. And here's the part that most people don't realize. The businesses featured inside of these directories, they're the ones paying to be there cuz you're providing them with local targeted exposure that they can't get anywhere else.

01:47 And that's where this gets interesting. And so today, we're going to be talking about how to build the actual directory website itself. And I'm even going to provide you with a free template that I built myself, the same one that you see on the screen right now. And we're also going to be talking about these little booklet things right here and how you can create those and mail those out as well.

02:06 And of course, we'll talk about how to build this thing into a real sustainable business by providing like real marketing value to these local businesses, okay? Now, really quickly, I do want to preface by saying this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, right? I'm providing the template and the framework in this video, but your success depends entirely on your ability to execute, sell your services, and provide actual value.

02:31 Like with any real-world business, there are no guarantees, and it will require a significant amount of effort to get your first paying client, okay? And also, this video is just for educational purposes only, okay? I've got to add that disclaimer in there. So, if this all sounds good to you, then let's dive in and get started. Now, this video will be broken down into basically four parts.

02:50 We'll talk about exactly what a directory website is and why it's still a legitimate business model, even more so in today's digital world. We'll also talk about how to choose the right city for you to start one in. Then, I'll show you how to actually build the website using the free template that I'm going to give you in this video. And I'm also going to show you how to create the physical mailers if you want to get into that as well.

03:15 And finally, I'll talk about how to turn it into a sustainable business that you can grow. And this includes how to actually approach local businesses and turn this into recurring revenue. So, by the end of this video, you won't just understand the idea itself, you'll have a clear blueprint for building this into a real business. Now, first of all, what exactly is a local directory website?

03:34 Because my guess is that when most people hear directory, they think of something outdated, like the Yellow Pages, which some of you probably have never even heard of. But that's not what we're talking about here, okay? A local directory website is simply a curated online guide that showcases businesses in a specific city or niche. That's it, right?

03:58 It's not trying to compete with Google. It's not trying to index every single business that exists in the world. It's curated. And so, it's only highlighting a specific city and the local businesses that are within that city. And it often positions these businesses as the best or the recommended options in that area. And so, think of something like Best of Raleigh, North Carolina or Explore Nashville, Tennessee.

04:21 You're building a local brand that people associate with discovering businesses in that city. For example, the brand that I mentioned earlier called The Scout Guide, they create beautifully designed city guides featuring local businesses. Within these guides, they got restaurants, boutiques, interior designers, home services, things like that. And they exist both online and they print physical guides that get mailed out to different cities across the country.

04:48 And that's essentially what we're trying to replicate here. Maybe not necessarily, you know, being in multiple cities across the entire country, at least not at the beginning, but we're just going to focus on one city at the beginning, okay? So, now that you understand what a local directory website is, let's talk about how to choose the right city to build one in.

05:07 Most people will just pick their hometown or the biggest city near them and build a local directory for that city. And honestly, this can work, but I think you should be a little bit more strategic than that. So, when deciding on a city to start a local directory in, here's what I want you to look for. The first thing is the population size, okay? You don't need New York City massive, okay?

05:32 But you also don't want a town with 4,000 people in it. That's just not enough. And so, a sweet spot is usually somewhere between like 75,000 to maybe 500,000 people in the surrounding area, okay? So, for example, the town that I live in only has about 13,000 people, but the city right next door to me, which is just one highway exit away, has about 250,000 people, right?

05:58 And this city is perfect for starting a local directory though, the city that you choose needs to be big enough that it has a solid business ecosystem that exists within it, but small enough that you're not competing with other massive media companies, okay? Uh the second thing to look for is income level. This is huge. Basically, you want to make sure that the median household income in the area is on the mid to high level.

06:25 The reason for this is if the median household income in the area is higher, that usually means two things. Uh that there are higher-end businesses in the area, like doing business, and those businesses typically have bigger marketing budgets, right? For example, cosmetic places, dentists, uh medspas, interior designers, custom homebuilders, wedding venues.

06:49 These types of businesses can justify paying 200, 300, even $500 per month for the extra visibility, right? Because one new client for those businesses can be worth thousands of dollars. If you tried building a local directory around businesses that only charge 20 to $30 for their service, it's going to be much harder to sell them on your service, okay?

07:14 Um the third thing to look for, though, is business density. You want to make sure that you can have enough businesses in the different categories on your website, right? So, for example, if you have a professional or like a, you know, medical/dentist category, you don't want to just have like one to two dentists on your website within that category.

07:31 You want enough businesses in a category that, first of all, your site actually feels legit, right? That you have like a lot of different options to choose from with for businesses. And second, you have enough prospects to actually reach out to. If there are only three wedding venues in the entire area, that's not really enough to work with. But if there are 20 wedding venues or 30 or 40 in the area, you have options.

07:56 Because even if all 40 wedding venues don't pay you to be within your directory, at least you can potentially get a handful of them to pay to be in your directory because you have enough options to choose from, right? Also, something else that's important as a kind of a side note when choosing your city is competition. Like, are there other local directories doing business in that city?

08:17 Like, I know in the larger city next to me, there are other local directories, right? In fact, many of them ship to my address because I am, you know, next to the city. And so, I'm basically in the surrounding area. And so, we get about four, five, six local directories that mail stuff to my house every month or every other month. And make no mistake about it, okay?

08:40 This is a good thing. In fact, if there are already like directory businesses or like local magazines in the area, that's actually a good thing because it validates the model and it validates that there is a market and businesses willing to pay for this type of advertising, okay? So, competition is definitely not a bad thing. It's a good thing. So, now that you know how to choose the right city, let's actually build this thing.

09:06 Now, technically, you could build a directory website completely from scratch by yourself, right? You could design it, you could structure the category pages yourself, you could set up all the listing pages yourself, but that's not what we're going to do in this video. Instead, I'm going to give you the exact template that you see on my screen right now, completely free.

09:27 It's already structured, it already has the layout, it already has the category pages, it's already got all of the listing pages built in. All you're going to do is just customize it for your city, okay? And so, this part is not going to be complicated at all. The only thing you have to do on your end is you have to get your website hosting set up. The website hosting is where your directory will actually live.

09:51 If you don't have website hosting, then your website cannot exist online for other people to access. And don't worry if this sounds scary, if this sounds complicated, I promise you it's not. I'm going to walk you through the whole process right now. And by the end of this section, you'll have a fully functional local directory website that you can start building from, okay?

10:11 And from there, it's just a matter of adding listings and reaching out to businesses, which we'll talk about in the next section. But first, you need website hosting. So, to get it, you'll want to click on the special link that I'll leave down below in the description of this video and the pinned comment. This link will bring you to Hostinger, which is my personal favorite web host that I personally use for all of my websites.

10:34 Plus, using that link will give you some pretty big discounts on your website hosting. So, let's quickly walk through this and get this thing set up. So, once you click on that link, you'll land on this page right here, where you'll first click right here on claim deal, and it's going to bring you down to this pricing page right here with these three different options.

10:53 Now, I would recommend going with this middle plan, which is the business plus AI. It's only $1 more expensive compared to the first plan, but it gives you a lot more features and all around it's just a better server to launch your directory website on. So, I'm going to click right here on choose plan. It's then going to bring us to this page right here.

11:13 Now, for the period, you've got an option to choose how long you want to prepay in advance. You can either do, you know, pay monthly, you can pay up to 12 months in advance, all the way up to 48 months in advance. I would generally recommend, if you're like me, then typically you pay month to month, which is what I do for most of my subscriptions. In this situation, it actually makes a lot more sense to just pay at least 12 months in advance.

11:39 You can see right now that if you pay 12 months in advance, you'll save $172 for the entire year. Plus, you get a free domain name, which you absolutely will need for your directory website. But let's just do a quick comparison here. So, if you pay 12 months in advance, it's going to only cost you $4.49 per month compared to paying month to month, it's going to cost you $19 per month, okay?

12:04 And you don't get a free domain name. So, I would at least go with a minimum 12-month plan. It's only going to cost you $53. And if we enter coupon code Joshua Mayo and click apply, that's going to give us an additional 10% discount, which brings the total down to $48, okay? So, that's that, and then we'll just click right here on continue. From here, you'll go ahead and create your Hostinger account.

12:30 You can either use Gmail, like your Google account, or just use an email and password. And then go ahead and enter in your billing information and click continue and enter your payment details. You can pay with a credit card or with any of these other options here. I'll go ahead and enter my credit card details and then submit your payment. Once that's done, you should land on a page that looks like this right here.

12:53 It's going to ask you who is this website for. I'm just going to skip this question. You don't have to answer that if you don't want to. Then it's time to create your website login credentials. So, you'll enter those in right here and then click on next. It's going to ask you choose how you'd like to build your website. We're just going to click right here on create a blank site because remember, I've got a template that you can use.

13:14 And then you can enter your domain name right here. If you purchased the 12-month plan, this is where you'll get your free domain name right here. If you're not ready to commit to a domain name yet, you can just use a temporary domain and then add your domain name later before you actually launch your site. Once that's done though, WordPress is going to begin installing and this will just take a few moments.

13:38 After this, we can go ahead and begin uploading the template, which you can find down below in the description of this video. So, download that template because we're going to need it for this step right here. Once your website is installed, you'll land on a page that looks like this, okay? This is the back end of your website and it might look intimidating right now if you've never used WordPress before.

13:57 I promise you it's very simple once you kind of get used to this layout, okay? So, the first thing we're going to do though is click down here on plugins or just hover on plugins and then click on add plugin. Because the plugin that we want to install is called WP all-in-one migration. So, right here in the search plugin field, we're just going to type in WP all-in-one migration.

14:18 Let it load for a second and it's going to be this first option right here with 5 million plus active installations. So, click right here on install now. Once it installs, you just click on activate. And then we're going to come down here to the left side bar over here and you should see this new option called all-in-one WP migration. Hover over that option and then click on import.

14:39 Now, if you installed your website with Hostinger using the setup process that we just went through and using my link down below, then your max upload size should be 2 GB, which is more than enough size to upload the template that you just downloaded in the description below, okay? If you're not hosting with Hostinger and this number is too small because it needs to at least be 200 MB in size since that is the size of the template that you're going to upload.

15:07 So, if you use a different web host, then I don't you have to reach out to them and ask them how to fix this. Otherwise, just sign up with Hostinger using my link down below. So, anyways, from your computer, go ahead and just drag and drop in that download that you just got from the description below and just pull it into this spot right here. And the upload should happen pretty quickly.

15:26 I've got fiber optic internet and so for me it happens really fast. For most of you, it should take just a couple of minutes though. Once that's done, click right here on proceed. And I just want to really quickly highlight. I'm just going to go to the main website up here in the front. I just want to show you that right now, your website, just in case you're curious, your website looks like this.

15:44 It's just a blank website with no information on it, okay? But when we upload this template here, we're just going to click proceed. Then it says your site has been imported successfully. We'll click right here on finish. And I'm just going to refresh the page right here. And when you do that, it's going to bring you back to the login. We'll fix this in a second.

16:02 But if we click right here on go to the Winston Guide, you might notice that the website still appears to be blank even though we just uploaded the new template, okay? Don't worry, we're going to fix this. So, the first thing you want to do is you need to log back into your website. So, to do this, we're just going to go back to Hostinger, click on my account, and then from this main page, scroll down a little bit and you'll see that your website list is right here under your business.

16:25 So, just go ahead and click on WordPress admin under the website that you just installed, okay? When you click that, it's going to bring you back to the back end of your website. And from here, this is what you're going to do, okay? Come down here to settings and then right over here under permalinks, click on that. And here's what I want you to do.

16:45 First, click up here on plain. The permalink structure, just select plain and then come down and click save changes. And then go back to post name. So, click back on post name and then click save changes again. I know it's kind of weird that we have to do this, but doing that one thing should fix your website. And then if you go back to your website, from your keyboard, click on shift command and then click R.

17:09 And that's going to do a hard refresh on the home page. And this should fix it. It should load the template now on your site because it's going to clear all of your browser cache. I know that's some pretty specific stuff there, but if you just follow those steps, then it should work for you. If you're having a problem and your template is not loading though, just leave a comment down below and I'll try my best to get back to you as quickly as possible.

17:32 But anyways, here we are. Here's the template that you've been seeing throughout this video now live on your Hostinger website. And so now, let me really quickly show you how to edit this this website, okay? Because right now you've got the foundation of your directory website. You can see I've built this out from scratch. This took me quite a long time to do.

17:53 I wanted to get everything right for you guys and just build like a really professional website directory, but you can see here that we've got all of the pages. We'll click on the contact page, we've got that here. Click on the advertise page, we've got that here. So, everything is built out, everything is mobile responsive and ready to go, okay? So, how do you actually begin editing this website?

18:14 Now, we're just going to briefly go over kind of the basics of editing this. Within the local directory business launch kit, I've included a very detailed breakdown of how to edit the website step by step. It's an hour plus long tutorial that you can watch within that launch kit. But for the sake of this video, I'm just going to briefly go over the basics and you can just kind of figure it out by yourself as you go.

18:37 For the most part, this website is very easy to edit. So, essentially, there's two ways to edit the pages, okay? You can either go to the front end of your website, which is where we are right now. And if you click on to any of these pages, you click on edit with Elementor, it's going to load the page builder for us, which is Elementor, and it's going to allow us to begin editing all of these different website elements live on the spot right here, right?

19:04 So, let's just say for example that you wanted to change the title right here. Well, you just click on the title and then the information for this element will appear over here in the left sidebar. And then you can go ahead and make any changes to it from here, okay? Same thing with this, same thing with the buttons. Okay, you can change the links, you can change the button text, all that stuff, okay?

19:26 Same thing with the images. If you wanted to update the images, click on the image and then choose your image from your library, where you can then upload your own images as well, okay? So, very very straightforward. Now, when you get down to certain sections like this, this right here is what we call a loop. Everything up here, this is all static content up here, okay?

19:49 It's static content meaning that make a change to it from the page builder, and it's always going to be that content unless you make a change to it manually. Whereas, this content down here is called dynamic content. And so, these these featured business selections will change depending on information that you input into the back end of the website.

20:11 And I'll get to that in a second here. I don't want to get ahead of myself and and confuse you. But, you can also edit these loops as well. Um and one way to do it is by clicking right here on edit template, and then we'll just click save and leave. And then you can see that it loads the template right here. Now, you know, this can get a little bit confusing if you're not used to it, but don't worry.

20:31 I promise you it's not that it's not that confusing. Essentially, you can't see any of the elements here, but the foundation of the of the template is still there, right? So, like right here is where the title is. If we click on this little pencil icon and this little blank square uh this blank rectangle, you can see that it says post title uh right here.

20:49 If we click on it, you can see that this is um the business highlights, which is this part right Oh, I can't highlight it, but this part right here. Uh if we click right here, this is the short description, which is this part right here. And then, of course, you've got the image, which is this right here. So, let me just go ahead and really quickly go to the back end of the website cuz I want to show you what this looks like from the back end, right?

21:12 So, if you were adding a new um business into your directory, you would go over here to business listings, and you would click on add business listing, and you would add all the information here. So, the business name would be the title. Uh any business highlights would go here. The short description would go here. The profile URL would go right here.

21:32 And then, you would select any of the of the relevant uh categories that would be specific for your directory, okay? Like I said, I go over all this stuff in a lot more detail uh in the launch kit, which is down below. But, you know, for the most part, you can see it's pretty self-explanatory. You can add new categories and things by clicking right here and then adding your category.

21:52 So, obviously, these areas right here are specific for my example directory, but you would have to update these to be specific for your directory, okay? So, you can edit them here, or you can go over here to this uh this sidebar right here and just click on any of these, and you can add them from this page as well. You can also delete these categories from this page as well, okay?

22:15 So, we've got area, we've got different categories, we've got featured selections, we've got uh uh needs. And so, yeah, it gets pretty uh detailed. And you know, you can even go as far as add your own categories if you want to. Um I'm not going to get into that within this video here, but again, we do go over that within the tutorial that I provide you within the uh directory business launch kit.

22:39 But anyways, let's go back to the front end really quick so I can keep walking through how to edit the website. So, like I said, if you want to edit the page, just click right here on edit with Elementor. That's the same with any of these pages here. If I wanted to edit the about page, click edit with Elementor, and then that would give me the option to make changes to all of these different website parts, okay?

23:00 You may also notice that if you hover on the edit with Elementor, that you get these additional options down here. And so, for example, um if I wanted to edit the footer of the website, which is down here, I would hover over edit with Elementor, and then click on website footer. And this is going to allow me to edit specifically the footer, the bottom part of the website, okay?

23:20 Then, for the header of the website, um this is a little bit different. So, to edit the header, you would click right here on customize. And then, if you hover over the header, you'll see that you have these little pencil icons here. And if you click on that, it brings over the options over here to edit the header. So, I can change the menu options here.

23:38 I can configure the menu from here if I want to. Um I can edit this button right here. All that stuff, okay? So, all those options are going to be within here for the header. So, we'll exit out of this really quick. And so, yeah, that's that's basically it, right? So, like I said, from the back end, this is where everything else exists. So, like all the pages on your website can be found under pages.

23:59 We've got the about page, advertise, contact, directory, home, print edition. If you wanted to add more pages, obviously, you would click on add page, and you would, you know, add it from there. All of your business listing business directory listings are going to be added within here. And for the most part, that's really it, okay? And you know, I showed you how to edit the template for these featured business selections.

24:21 If you go to the directory over here, you'll notice that we have um this right here. This is also a loop as well, okay? Meaning that any new Like let me show you for example, if I go to the back end of the website and I add a new example business, we'll just say example business, and then we'll do example business, example business. Um I'm just going to do Buena Vista for the area.

24:43 We'll do automotive. And then, yeah, just select some random options here. And then, I'm just going to publish this. Now, what you'll know Oh, I got to add an image to this. Add an image. Let's just Let's just do this one maybe. Now, if I go back to my directory and I refresh this page here, you'll see that the new business has been added right here, right?

25:03 So, that's the way this works. I tried to make it as simple as possible for you guys, and I I I tried to make it work like out of the box for you, okay? Um so, anyways, if you wanted to edit this template, the way this looks right here, you would hover over edit with Elementor, and then click right here on business listing loop. This is going to bring you to this page right here, which you can see is set up the exact same way that the other pages are set up in terms of how to edit the content.

25:29 You simply hover over any part of the content and just click on it, and then you have the option to edit that content. Now, again, I want to emphasize that this is dynamic content, meaning that if you if I click on, you know, the business name right here, and then look over here on the left sidebar, you'll see that the heading just says post title. That's because it's pulling that information from the back end of the website and then displaying that information on the front end of the website.

25:57 And so, you don't really want to mess with these loops too much if you are going to be doing some editing because you might accidentally mess up the dynamic tags, which will cause your website to not function properly. And so, yeah, but just so you know that that's an option to do if you want, but that's basically how it works though, okay? The same thing is true with all these filters and all these different options here.

26:15 Like if I were to click on automotive by the category, it's going to filter just the automotive um businesses, okay? And clear all. Let me click on Ardmore for the area location, it's going to filter the businesses that are located within Ardmore. [clears throat] If I click on, you know, Ardmore plus HVAC and plumbing, it's going to filter by exactly that.

26:36 So, you can see the website does work really, really well. Um I spent a lot of time on it. So, if you could just drop a like for the video, even just for that, and then leave a comment, and then subscribe, that'd be awesome. But yeah, anyways, that's essentially how you edit the website though. Uh drop a comment down below if you have any questions about this.

26:55 And like I said, if you want a more detailed tutorial of how to edit the website that is multiple hours long, then you can find that within the uh business directory launch kit, which is located down in the description below. All right. So, at this point, you should have a live directory website. But now, we get to the part that actually matters because a website by itself is just a website.

27:19 This only becomes a business when other businesses start paying you to be featured on your directory website, okay? So, let's talk about how to actually turn this into a legitimate business that you can begin scaling. The first thing you have to understand is that there are really only two different main like revenue streams that you'll use for your directory business.

27:38 The first revenue stream um are paid listings, and this is the simplest model of them all. Basically, businesses pay a monthly fee to be featured inside of your directory. And this can look different depending on how you structure it, right? But basically, you have standard listings, featured listings, homepage placements, uh and category sponsors. And in terms of how you're charging for these things, here's an example of what it could look like, right?

28:09 You could charge something like $149 per month for a standard listing, uh $249 per month for a featured listing that appears at the top, and maybe $399 per month for a homepage spotlight. Now, again, this is just an example. Obviously, I'm not saying that this is guaranteed income that you'll make. It's not. But if you structured your pricing similar to this, and you do the work, and you're able to actually get businesses to purchase listings, then this is just an example of what the math could look like.

28:38 So, if you got 10 businesses to purchase, let's say your standard listing each month at that example $149 per month price that we gave earlier, then that's about $1,500 per month in recurring revenue, assuming that the businesses continue to get value from your directory, and they stay signed up. If you get 20 businesses, for example, now you're looking at about $3,000 per month in recurring revenue.

29:03 And remember, these are local businesses. One new client that comes through your local directory for a dentist or med spa or wedding venue or like a contractor could be worth thousands of dollars for your client. And so, for these local businesses, paying a few hundred dollars per month for extra visibility and to advertise their business on your directory, especially if you're doing like print, you know, print guides, is not crazy.

29:30 But anyways, the second revenue stream, and this is where things get interesting, is, like I said, the print guide, okay? Because now, you're not just offering online exposure and waiting for customers to find your directory. Instead, you are sending mail directly into people's homes. And this is an advertising model that many businesses will gladly pay for because it has the possibility of providing a ton of exposure for their business.

29:54 And basically, you would just design a clean, simple city guide using a tool like Canva. And you could either do like an actual guide, like, you know, the Scout Guide does, where you just make it really premium looking, or you could just do like a little pamphlet thing, kind of like this, where like the all the different coupon kind of pages are attached.

30:15 Or, if you wanted to keep it really simple, you could just have like printed out little coupons similar to this, right? Or similar to this. And Canva has a ton of free templates that you can use. And in many cases, when you're doing this kind of stuff, the business is the one providing the graphics for you. All you're doing is telling them what the dimensions are for the printed out piece of paper.

30:34 Now, I created something called the Business Directory Launch Kit. And inside of that kit, I included a premium, ready-to-use city guide template that you can easily customize within Canva. Or, you can also sign up for one of their pro uh plans, which is not that expensive. And then you can get access to even more premium templates on Canva. It's completely up to you.

30:56 You don't have to pay for anything, though. You can definitely just use Canva's free templates to make this work. But then, inside of this printed city guide, you feature the businesses that paid to be in that guide. And maybe they pay 500 or 1,000 or 2,000 dollars to be featured inside of the printed guide. This is just example pricing, but you get the idea.

31:17 But then, you would use a direct mail service to send these guides to targeted neighborhoods. And I talk about all of this in significantly more detail within the Local Directory Business Launch Kit. But yeah, it's not that complicated. If you just type in direct mail service into Google, you'll find different top services that you can use to begin mailing out this type of, you know, these types of um printed guide.

31:37 And I want you to think about it this way, okay? The businesses that have paid to be inside of your um printed guide have basically paid for the mailers themselves, right? Because obviously, these are not free to send out. It's going to cost money, but these businesses have basically paid for the service for you. Because the cost of the placement for these businesses will be factored into the cost of mailing these out.

32:01 You would have already factored in that cost. And so, the businesses would essentially cover the cost of mailing these out in the first place, right? And so, yeah, with this though, you're not just, you know, a website, a local business directory website. [clears throat] You're basically a local media brand. And that actually allows you to justify higher pricing.

32:16 Instead of charging 149 per month for a standard listing on your directory website, you might sell a quarterly package for 1,000 dollars or 1,500 dollars. And this quarterly package includes the website listing, featured placement, inclusion in the printed guide, right? Now, once again, full disclaimer, this is just an example of the pricing, right?

32:37 I'm not saying that this is guaranteed income that you'll make. The business obviously has to be functional, and you have to do the work. these are basically the two main revenue streams for this business. Now, this brings us to the final question of this video, which is how do you actually get businesses to sign up for your directory, to pay you? Because again, without paying businesses, you don't have a business.

32:59 Now, to get businesses to sign up, it really all comes down to one word. It's a word that most people hate, myself included, which is sales. And I know you're thinking, "Oh, no, Joshua. Why'd you have to say that word? I don't want to do this anymore." But trust me, okay? I understand that the word sales makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable. But let's just reframe this, okay?

33:20 Because you're not begging businesses for money. You're not trying to convince businesses that they need something that deep down inside, you yourself know that they don't actually need. Like, this is not [clears throat] you going door-to-door and trying to sell canned air, right? Businesses will find value from your directory, especially if you do it the right way.

33:39 Because within your directory, they aren't competing with hundreds of other companies on Google Search. You've carefully curated a select list of the best local businesses in a city to be on your platform to gain exposure. And so, to convince businesses that they can benefit from your directory, here's an example of how I would approach this. Step one, you have to make your website look legit before you sell anything, okay?

34:04 Do not start reaching out to businesses with an empty directory website. I would focus on adding maybe 10 to 20 solid listings. And really, every category on your directory website should have businesses inside of it. Don't leave any empty categories. And also, make sure to add professional photos, and you can just pull these directly from uh the the business's website or from the pictures on their Google uh My Business Profile.

34:31 Make sure to write clean descriptions, which you can even use a tool like ChatGPT to help you with that. Basically, though, when somebody visits your directory website, it should feel real. It should feel like something they want to be a part of, okay? And so, that's step number one. Step number two, though, to help you get the ball rolling is you want to offer free placements on your directory at the very beginning.

34:53 And yes, I said free. Now, I know that might kind of sound counterintuitive when you're trying to build a profitable business, but this is strategic. It's called a loss leader. A loss leader is when you give something away for free or at little to no profit in order to create leverage, credibility, or future revenue, okay? Retail stores do this all the time.

35:15 They'll sell one product at a loss to get people into the door knowing that they'll make money on everything else if they can just get people inside of their store, right? Banks also do this. When you open up a new checking account with us and deposit 1,000 dollars, we'll give you a 200 dollar sign-up bonus, right? This is called a loss leader. The idea is to get customers into the door first.

35:38 And then, you can profit off of them later once they're kind of in your ecosystem, okay? And that's exactly what we're doing here. You're not giving away free placements forever, you're using a small number of free placements to build authority and to build momentum. Because when you're brand new, you don't have social proof, you don't have testimonials yet, you don't have traffic numbers, and you just you don't really have much to work with.

36:03 And so, instead of trying to sell from a position of zero leverage, where you're having to practically beg [clears throat] businesses to join your platform, you first focus on building the leverage strategically. And this is exactly how you do it. Start off by picking five to 10 businesses in your city that are already reputable, okay? Businesses that look professional, have good reviews on Google, have solid branding, and fit the type of businesses that you eventually want to attract to your directory website.

36:35 These are not just random picks that you're finding. These are curated selections, okay? And these initial businesses are what I call your anchor businesses. With these anchor businesses, what you're going to do is reach out to them and keep it very simple, okay? Reach out to them and say something like, "Hey, we're launching a curated city guide that highlights some of the best local businesses in whatever city that you're in.

37:01 We're selecting a handful of businesses to feature in our initial launch, and we would love to include you." Now, I want you to notice something within that message. There is no mention of pricing. There is no pitch. You're not asking them for anything. You're simply offering a service to them with nothing in return for now. And when they say yes, and many of them will, you'll add them to your directory, create a clean listing, add photos, write a strong description, organize them properly inside of your categories on

37:32 your site. And now, if you do this enough times, your site starts to feel real. It's not just empty anymore. And this accomplishes two very important things. First, it adds credibility to your website. When a new business checks out your directory and they see that other recognizable local brands are already being featured, your platform immediately feels more legitimate.

37:55 The second thing that it accomplishes, though, is that it gives you leverage. Now, when you are approaching paid prospects, you can say something like, "We're currently featuring businesses like this business and this business and this business," like all these, you know, reputable businesses in your area. And when you mention that, that changes the conversation.

38:14 Because now, you're not just some random person with a website. You're building a curated guide that other reputable businesses are already a part of. And there's a lot of subtle psychology going on here. People want to be associated with things that feel established. If you try to sell them from an empty website, it feels too risky. But if you sell from a website that already has featured, recognizable brands, or you know, just businesses within your area, it feels a lot safer.

38:44 It feels almost more prestigious. And so, starting with free placements isn't about working for free forever. It's about building that initial momentum, right? It's about stacking credibility before you start asking for money. So, once your business looks established, that's when you transition into the paid placements. And that actually brings us to step three, which is starting your outreach.

39:06 And this is where most people start to overcomplicate this business because they're afraid of reaching out to businesses and being rejected and all that stuff, right? And that's understandable. Nobody likes to be rejected. But I want to emphasize the same thing that I said earlier. This is not some like Wolf of Wall Street sales pitch that you're feeding people, okay?

39:27 Keep things friendly. Keep things conversational. There's no pressure on you, no pressure on the business. You're just trying to help them promote their business. That's it. Now, when it comes to the outreach, the outreach is unavoidable. You have to do it in order to get paying businesses on your directory. But don't worry because I'm going to give you the exact script that you can use right now.

39:49 Now in terms of how you can actually reach businesses, this part doesn't really matter too much. You can email them, DM them on Instagram or Facebook. You can call them if you're brave. If you're really brave, you can literally just walk into their business if they have like a physical, you know, brick-and-mortar business. Remember, okay? These businesses are not Fortune 500 companies.

40:09 You can just show up. You can just call them or DM them and more than likely you will eventually reach a real person who can help make a decision. And once you reach that person, the pitch is very simple. You say something like this. Hi, we're building a curated city directory that highlights the best local businesses. We're offering featured placements that include website exposure and inclusion in our upcoming print guide.

40:35 I'd love to tell you more about it. That's it. You're not trying to close them on the first sentence. You're opening up a conversation. Now, here's something important, okay? Do not pitch this as I built a website and I need advertisers, okay? Pitch it as we're building a local city directory guide and we're selecting a limited number of businesses to feature on that guide.

41:02 Positioning changes everything, okay? You can even do creative things like create a mock-up of what their business could look like on your directory or even a mock-up of your printed guide, even if you don't have the real one yet, right? A mock-up is still fine and it'll still help to give them an idea of what this could look like. But here is the reality, okay?

41:25 Listen to me here. Not everybody is going to say yes. That's normal. You might talk to 20 businesses and only two or three of them say yes. That's business. It's really just a numbers game, okay? But once you get your first few paying clients, it changes everything because now you have proof of concept. Proof that this can work. You just have to continue to scale it and reach out to more businesses and adjust your messaging along the way when you're reaching out if you need to.

41:53 Now, one question that you might still have is how do businesses actually get customers from my directory? Because at the end of the day, that's what really that's what they really care about, right? If a business pays to be listed on your directory, they want to see some type of visibility or leads coming from the service that they're paying you for.

42:12 And the good news is that you don't need thousands of visitors or some crazy Google SEO strategy to make this work. You just need to get your directory in front of people who are already looking for local businesses. And there are a few simple ways this usually happens. The first one is through Google. Not a lot of people know this, but you can actually create a Google business profile for your directory itself.

42:33 So that when people search for things like best restaurants in Raleigh or dentist near me, your directory can show up as a local guide that people click into. And when they land on your site, they're not just seeing one business, they're seeing a curated list of high-quality options. The second way this happens though is through just local community groups.

42:56 If you've ever spent any time in local Facebook groups or local Reddit groups or on like Nextdoor, you'll see posts all the time of people saying things like, "Hey, does anybody know a good plumber in town?" anybody make recommendations for a wedding photographer? You know, these types of questions are constantly being posted within local groups. And so when people post these types of questions, you can respond to them and say something like, "This question comes up a lot in this group.

43:28 We actually made a local guide that lists a bunch of trusted plumbers in the area with their contact info and websites. Might be helpful." And then just leave your link to the directory website and specifically the plumber category of the directory website. This positions your directory as a tool for the community and not just some annoying ad, okay?

43:48 Now, to be honest with you, this won't always work. Sometimes these community groups have like strict rules about this stuff and they don't want you advertising or whatever, but sometimes they also just don't care. And so it's definitely worth trying. But the third way that people discover businesses on your directory, which honestly a lot of people overlook today, is through these physical city guides, right?

44:08 When you mail these guides out to like local neighborhoods, people will flip through them like a magazine. I always look through these things when they get mailed to me, right? Because you just never know. You might find a business that you're like, "Oh, cool. Eggs Up Grill. I'll eat there." It kind of introduces you to these new businesses that you would have never heard of or it might remind you that like, you know, "Hey, I actually do need to get my windows replaced soon."

44:33 And this business here that's being advertised on this printed guide has a great offer. Or hey, I forgot. I do need to get my gutters cleaned. I'll call this company right here. And inside of your printed guide, every business also has their online listing inside of your directory website on the actual advertisement itself, right? And so the printed guide and the website actually work together.

44:56 And that's exactly why businesses are willing to pay to be a part of it. Now, look, okay? Will all of this take work? Yes. Will you get told no a lot? Absolutely. But if you can just stick with it. If you focus on building something that's legitimate. If you treat this like a real business, then this can become a predictable recurring revenue stream that could potentially grow over time.

45:19 And again, if you want help implementing everything that we talked about in this video from choosing your city to structuring your pricing to the outreach scripts to the printed guide strategy, I put all of this inside of the local business directory launch kit, which you can find down below. Inside that kit, I break down the exact frameworks, templates, pricing structures, outreach examples, and even the Canva printed guide layout so you're not having to guess every single step of the way.

45:47 If you're serious about actually launching this and not just watching the video, that's where I would start. Now, this is not a guarantee, of course, right? Even with this launch kit, you still have to put in the work, but I built this specifically to help better guide you and give you just more tools to work with, okay? So whether you grab that or not, the blueprint is right here in this video.

46:09 And so the next step for you is to pick your city, use the link down below to sign up for Hostinger and get your website live using the free template that I provided in this video, which you can also find down below. Once you've got that, go ahead and add your anchor businesses and then begin your outreach. Because the only difference between somebody who builds a local directory business that's legitimate and somebody who just thinks about it is execution.

46:35 That's it. Hey, if you found this video helpful, do me a huge favor and drop a like down below. It helps the channel out so much. Also, don't forget to subscribe if you want to see more content like this and share this video with a friend if you, you know, if you know somebody who's been interested in this business model. Share this video with them.

46:49 Also, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment down below. I'll do my best to answer as many questions as possible. And also, if you plan on starting this business yourself, leave a comment down below. Show other people that you're going to do it and that it's possible to just help encourage even more people to start giving this a shot, okay? Hey, I appreciate you so much for watching until the end and as always, I will see you again in the next video. Take care.