Marketing · Do this yourself

Run a niche directory site that agents keep fresh and ranking.

How it makes money: Charge businesses $49/mo for featured listings on a niche directory agents keep updated.

Agent setup: Intermediate · Connects several tools (Lovable, Supabase) with payments and simple data. How we rate this

💰 u/Bombtrady makes about $10k a month doing this. ~$10k/month (self-reported, r/EntrepreneurRideAlong)

🔥 12 posts this week · 189 likes

Based on u/Bombtrady on Reddit (opens in new tab)

Where this came from (Reddit)

Founders on Reddit report that small, unglamorous directories keep earning once search traffic arrives, but the listing upkeep is tedious.

The threads (in our words)

Reddit blocks automated reads, so we couldn’t record upvote or comment counts. Revenue figures are the poster’s own claim (self-reported), not verified. The business below is our own design inspired by these threads.

Who it’s for

Solo builders who like SEO and want a site that earns while agents maintain it.

Adapt it to your industry

  • Start with one niche or customer type, then expand.
  • Ask your first 10 customers what they would pay before you build more.
  • Keep a human check on anything sent in a customer’s name.

Step by step

  1. Pick a niche people search for but nobody lists well (for example mobile detailers or wildlife removal in each city).
  2. Have an agent collect public business info from official sites and Google Business pages, within each site’s terms.
  3. Generate one useful page per city and category with Claude, then review a sample each week.
  4. Sell featured listings with a Stripe payment link and add a weekly newsletter on beehiiv.
  5. Schedule a weekly agent run to add new listings, fix dead links and refresh pages.
  6. Track clicks in Google Analytics and double down on the categories that get traffic.

Ready-to-copy prompt

I am building a directory of [niche] in [country]. Suggest 20 categories people search for, the fields each listing needs, and a page template that answers what searchers actually want to know.

Start with AI

Opens the AI with this guide and the prompt filled in.

Open in ChatGPT (opens in new tab)Open in Claude (opens in new tab)Open in Grok (opens in new tab)
Time
2–6 weeks for a first versionOur estimate

Your autonomous stack

Autonomy: Agents draft, schedule and report on content for each client. Your part: Weekly: skim the queue and client reports (about 1 hour).

Every layer an agent-run business needs, in order. Prices are public list prices, checked Oct 16, 2026.

  1. Agent (the brain): Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot runs the business day to day: writes, answers, decides small things and reports to you. Claude Code or Codex are alternatives.
  2. Build and hosting: Lovable (opens in new tab) (Free tier · Pro $25/mo), Supabase database (opens in new tab) (Free tier · Pro from $25/mo), beehiiv newsletter (opens in new tab) (Free up to 2,500 subscribers). The product or service your customers use.
  3. Payments: Stripe payments (opens in new tab) (No monthly fee · 2.9% + 30¢ per card payment). Automatic checkout and receipts. Other options: PayPal Checkout (3.49% + 49¢) or Lemon Squeezy (5% + 50¢, handles sales tax).
  4. Customer acquisition: Buffer (scheduled X posts) (opens in new tab) (Free plan (3 channels, 10 queued posts each) · Essentials $5/mo per channel, billed yearly), beehiiv newsletter (opens in new tab) (Free up to 2,500 subscribers), Apollo (find business emails) (opens in new tab) (Free tier · Basic $65/mo). Agent-written SEO pages, scheduled X posts and a weekly newsletter, plus cold email to businesses that follow CAN-SPAM/GDPR (real sender, opt-out link, no bought consumer lists).
  5. Delivery: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). A Grok Bot routine delivers the product or result as soon as someone pays.
  6. Support: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot answers the support inbox; anything unclear is flagged for you.
  7. Monitoring and schedule: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot scheduled routines run each day: send, check for failures, alert you if something breaks.
  8. Analytics: Google Analytics (opens in new tab) (Free). Tracks visits, signups and sales so the agent can report what works.
  9. Human checkpoint: Weekly: skim the queue and client reports (about 1 hour).
  10. Price: charge $49 per listing (featured listings + newsletter sponsors). Offer the first 3 customers a founding price for honest feedback.
Monthly cost$30–$150/monthFree tiers → paid plans of the tools above. Card fees come out of each sale.
What you could earn · EstimateEstimate: 25 featured listings × $49 = $1,225/moOur estimate, not a fact or a promise. It’s simple math if you land these customers at this price.
Details: source, numbers and tags

What they did

Pick one boring niche, let agents gather listings, write the pages and send the newsletter; earn from featured spots and ads. We designed this business from real Reddit threads; it is an idea for you to build, not a description of the posters’ businesses.

How it went

Found on Reddit in r/EntrepreneurRideAlong (2 threads). Upvote and comment counts weren’t retrievable, so none are shown. On X, 12 posts matched our search for this idea in the 7 days to 2026-10-16.

Worth knowing

Only list public business information and honor removal requests fast. Thin, copied pages won’t rank.

Difficulty
BeginnerOur rating
Time to build
Not reportedOur estimate
Monthly cost
Not reported
Revenue
~$10k/month (self-reported, r/EntrepreneurRideAlong)Self-reported: The founder’s own claim; not verified by us
Engagement
No public countThe source shows no number
X buzz
34.8 · 12 posts in 7 days189 likes, 8 reposts, 34 replies, 1 quotes on 8 top posts · fetched Oct 16, 2026 · query: ("niche directory" OR "directory site" OR "directory website") (SEO OR revenue OR traffic OR listings) -is:retweet lang:en

Posted · Added Oct 16, 2026

Original builder recipe

  • ChatGPT
  • Claude
  1. Pick a niche people search for but nobody lists well (for example mobile detailers or wildlife removal in each city).
  2. Have an agent collect public business info from official sites and Google Business pages, within each site’s terms.
  3. Generate one useful page per city and category with Claude, then review a sample each week.
  4. Sell featured listings with a Stripe payment link and add a weekly newsletter on beehiiv.
  5. Schedule a weekly agent run to add new listings, fix dead links and refresh pages.
  6. Track clicks in Google Analytics and double down on the categories that get traffic.

Tags

Read the original

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