Curate the Curators - CM #26
Trust: The key missing element in many new public-facing curation platforms + The Online Directory Monetized Blueprint + New tools for curators
Hello and welcome to a new issue of Curation Monetized.
This newsletter is written for journalists, creators, subject-matter experts and consultants, interested in learning how to create value and profits from the art of organizing existing resources and information for a specific audience and need.
In this issue:
Curating the Curators: The Key to Building Successful Curation Platforms
John Rush shares “The Online Directory Blueprint”
Six new hand-picked tools for journalists, writers, experts and content curators. From RSS feed management, to collecting and organizing docs and images, to a new AI that claims to know all of YouTube and more.
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In the Premium Edition:
Data-Verified Curation-Based Business Opportunities (3)
AI Xxxxx Tool(s)
Z Examples
Y Tools
Real-World Examples of Curation Monetized (3)
Catalog of Xxxxx Software Alternatives
Library of World-Class Zzzzz and Yyyyyy
Directory of XXXX
Robin Good
Curating the Curators: The Key to Building Successful Curation Platforms
To build a curation platform that generates value for readers, one must start from a quality foundation.
In recent weeks, I've come across several new curation platforms in their early stages, including Indiethinkers, Tokin.tv, and Supercurators. These platforms aim to let users submit, post, and share their favorite articles, videos, and other content with the goal of becoming popular hubs where to discover high quality content.
But they all overlook something that is absolutely key.
Trust.
Here’s why: To create a curation platform that produces high-quality output, you need to start by seeding it with trusted, high-quality curators.
They are the key to showcase and model the type of curation and quality level you want to achieve.
If you don’t model it first, it’s not going to happen by itself.
In absence of guardrails and barriers to entry, new unqualified curators will just exploit the platform for their visibility and marketing interest, and will normalize its output around the lowest common denominator.
In the best case scenario, those contributing - but lacking the skill and the experience - will be just creating more noise instead of highlighting key outstanding artefacts and extracting key insights from them.
The result in most cases is a platform filled with mediocre content, often used by content marketers or agencies to promote their own agendas.
To prevent this from happening it becomes indispensable to place high barriers to entry in the beginning and to commission a few high quality curators to create the type of platform output one wants to create.
If you don't model the level, style, and depth of curation you expect, users will impose their own standards. And if you let the value of curation be defined solely by submission, nomination, voting, and ranking, your platform will be used for the benefit of those posting, not for your larger audience.
The true value of a curation platform lies in the curator's commentary, introduction, and insight - not just in the volume of content produced. This is where you can start to build a platform based on quality.
*This is especially true if you offer curators the ability to monetize their curation efforts.
Without carefully vetting and filtering for quality and trust, you cannot build a platform that is truly valuable and trustworthy.
5 Strategic Tips To Build a Curation Platform That Produces High Quality Content
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Start with high-quality, trusted curators
Have founding curators set the tone, the quality level, style and approach for others to follow
Do not expect the opposite to happen by magic. Many have tried.
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Create a culture of excellence through careful selection
Place barriers to entry. Especially in the beginning do not let unqualified curators into your platform.
Set pre-requisites, ask for real-world examples of curated work done in public
Check credentials
Offer a limited time window to prove curation abilities and reach.
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Prioritize depth and insight over volume
Incentivate depth and sense-making over simple curator’s participation.
Have trusted curators model deep, high-quality approaches.
Create a platform defined by quality of discourse, not just quantity of content.
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Wait before letting everyone else in
Gradually and carefully expand the pool of participants
Consider charging for contributing / curating
Carefully vet new contributors
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Stimulate collaborative curation
Set up periodic collaborative curation hackathons
Create online event dates to collaboratively curate new useful public resources (catalogs, directories, libraries, etc.).
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The Online Directory Blueprint
Duration: 0’:54” (excerpt from full video interview - see below)
For those who are more inclined to code, hack and build new projects, here’s a video you may find stimulating focusing on directory building.
Indie entrepreneur,
, who I find quite interesting and stimulating, highlights the increasing popularity of directories as people seek curated content and reliable information.He outlines a step-by-step process for creating and growing successful directories, emphasizing their potential as low-risk, high-reward ventures.
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The full video (see below) covers various aspects of directory building, including:
domain name selection,
content curation,
SEO optimization, and
monetization strategies.
Inside the video there are also practical tips for promoting directories through social media, Reddit, and other online platforms as well as a discussion about the significance of
data quality and
continuous updates
to maintain user engagement and attract potential partners.
Duration: 50’:21”
Key Insights from the video:
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Online Directories as Low-Risk Startups
John Rush frames online directories as a low-risk, scalable startup model with high earning potential (e.g., $5K–$20K/month).
Demand for curated content drives their popularity, as people seek centralized, organized information sources.
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Finding Directory Ideas
Use keyword research to identify searchable topics with low competition.
Match your niche keyword and domain name for SEO.
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Building a Directory
Use no-code platforms to create directories quickly.
Focus on simple structures with essential items initially, avoiding complex features until traffic grows.
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Growing Directories with SEO and AI
Utilize AI to support your content creation, internal linking, and keyword generation needs.
Leverage FAQs as they play a crucial role in reflecting real user needs, improving discoverability.
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Marketing and Promotion Strategies
Leverage social media, forums, and Q&A platforms by providing helpful answers linked to your directory.
Engage in strategic SEO practices, including writing articles targeting relevant keywords.
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Iterative Testing and Scaling
Launch multiple directories to reduce risks of failure.
Evaluate traffic and user engagement after 30 days to decide which directories to prioritize.
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Monetization Methods
The most popular and successfully-tested monetization strategies for directories include:
Featured listings.
Affiliate marketing (best for high-ticket items).
Selling anonymized user data or insights to corporates.
Paywalls for full access.
Brand sponsorships, which provide ongoing revenue streams.
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Long-Term Success Factors
Ensure data quality by maintaining up-to-date, accurate entries.
Quickly incorporate trending topics or items to capture new traffic.
Directories can also do a great job of complementing other businesses (associated products or SaaS tools) by channeling traffic to them.
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Directories as an Asset
Sell established directories to SaaS companies or other businesses for traffic acquisition, with prices ranging from $2K to $20K+.
Acquiring or creating directories can be an effective marketing strategy to grown many online startups.
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Mindset and Best Practices
Avoid fixing yourself to any single idea
Test multiple projects simultaneously.
Prioritize audience needs and value delivery over complexity.
Note: I do find John Rush vision and tips to be useful advice for others interested in creating directories or other curated resources.
What I may see a little different from him, is the importance of trust and having a true, heavyweight expert behind each and everyone directory.
He does highlight these factors, but then, the recommendations and the examples shared, show a different picture.
Niche selection cannot only be a consequence of keyword research, and there’s got to be much more space in these many new emerging directories for the human ability to select and verify.
If you let all the data in a directory to be collected, scraped and generated by AI agents and scripts, what value has that information?
AI agents read the copy and claims that each company has put on his website, but - at least for now - cannot text and verify what is the human experience for using or acquiring such resource. Do they?
When directories are built just for profit-making, visibility and traffic building they do not last long. Nor they appear to us, end users, as really trustworthy.
They can be useful, but we can feel, that they are clearly the fruit of automated stuff. Not of a loving dedicated gardener.
So, there you go. That’s a huge opportunity for true subject matter experts interested in creating great value and potential revenue.
Build directories around trust, but not by saying, but by being it.
Trustworthy.
Tools for Curators
Six interesting tools for journalists, researchers, librarians, content curators, subject matter experts, coaches and consultants who need to search, vet, organize and present existing resources and info while adding new value and perspective to them.
Spot factual errors and fetch credible sources from leading search engines in real-time. Instantly detect factual errors in ChatGPT and find credible sources.
Paid. Starts at $10/mo.
Feeder
Interesting alternative to Feedly. RSS feed reader / aggregator capable of subscribing to most any web source you can think of: news sites, blogs, social media channels, newsletters, ecommerce sites and more. Offers ability to add notes, tag and categorize, set rules and filters, to generate your own RSS feed.
Free version - Up to 200 feeds supported.
Stacklist
Social bookmarking tool makes it easy to save, organize, share and discover your favorite online resources. Saves notes, links, documents and images. Searchable. Works across devices. Allows to create collections (stacks).Free Curator Plan - Unlimited cards and stacks + unlimited devices + save cards from others - share publicly.
Duration: 3’:57”
Remy
Video expert AI chatbot finds, clips and organizes the best video highlights on any topic you specify. Searches across videos, podcasts, interviews and more (example). It can also identify and clip relevant segments from longer videos and it can create custom playlists that aggregate the best clips that answer your query. Allows saving / sharing generated playlists (example). Try the playlist-builder.100% free
Generate your own classification criteria and organize anything you need according to your preferences. Can classify documents, articles as well as images. Just drop your files in (text or images) and let AI do the work for you. You decide the categories and how to determine the rules for each category.
Free plan. Pro from $39/mo
TopBoilerPlates for Directory Builders
For coders and developers. Searchable directory of pre-built boilerplates and starter templates to build directories.
100% free
Readers Poll - Help me improve this newsletter
Organizing Existing Information Creates Great Value and Can Generate Additional Revenues
Get Factual Proof + Tons of Ideas and Examples
100 Real-World Examples of Profitable Collections and Directories
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List of 100+ businesses that make a profit by curating and organizing existing info
The business model(s) they have used
What publishing and payment platforms they have used
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The list of the top business models used and opportunities emerged
The top key trends to follow for those who want to generate a revenue by searching and organizing existing information resources
*Curation Monetized Database Catalog*
100% free for Curation Monetized Annual Premium subscribers*.
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In the Premium Edition #26
In this issue of Curation Monetized reserved to Premium subscribers you will find:
Data-Verified Curation-Based Business Opportunities (3)
AI Xxxxx Tool(s)
Z Examples
Y Tools
Real-World Examples of Curation Monetized (3)
Catalog of Xxxxx Software Alternatives
Library of World-Class Zzzzz and Yyyyyy
Directory of XXXX
If you have enjoyed this issue, please support me by clicking on the heart / like icon at the end or by restacking it so that other interested people can discover it.
Stop searching for something new.
Organize and add value to what is already there.
from Koh Samui (TH)
Robin Good
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