He shut down his business and started flipping garage sale items just to make rent.
Then discovered a crazy simple biz: Directory websites
In 2 years, he turned it into a portfolio of 6 sites with 90k+ monthly visitors.
Here’s exactly how:
1. He was broke and had to get creative so he started Googling things like “passive income” (we've all been there)
Then he came across the idea of niche directories.
Meanwhile on TikTok people were posting thrift hauls and getting millions of views.
All the comments were:
“Where is this?” “Any in PA?” So he built a directory of thrift stores.
Why did it work? Google Maps sucks for niche local queries.
Try searching “cool thrift stores near me” and you’ll see.
His directory solved that with curated results and now it ranks for ...thousands of keywords. His growth stack:
- Ahrefs to find low-difficulty keywords - Reddit + TikTok for user-generated demand - WordPress + Mediavine for display ads - One $19 PDF he made in Canva that sells daily
Rinse and repeat. He now owns directories in:
- Thrift stores - Plasma donation centers - Liquidation stores - Flea markets - Dog parks
All are hands-off. All are profitable. Is it truly passive? Nothing is, but this is pretty dang close.
The playbook:
- Find a niche with local intent - Make a better version of what exists - Prioritize low competition, evergreen topics - Use SEO + ads + simple products to monetize - Scale with more sites
This isn’t a get rich quick scheme. It’s a quiet way to get to $3k/month without clients, calls, or chaos.
And the best part? Once it's built, it mostly runs itself.
I had Frey Chu himself share his screen and show me exactly how it's done. Watch full video on the top comment below!
The Koerner Office: Business Ideas & Growth Advice
He shut down his business and started flipping garage sale items just to make rent.
Then discovered a crazy simple biz: Directory websites
In 2 years, he turned it into a portfolio of 6 sites with 90k+ monthly visitors.
Here’s exactly how:
1. He was broke and had to get creative so he started Googling things like “passive income” (we've all been there)
Then he came across the idea of niche directories.
Meanwhile on TikTok people were posting thrift hauls and getting millions of views.
All the comments were:
“Where is this?” “Any in PA?” So he built a directory of thrift stores.
Why did it work? Google Maps sucks for niche local queries.
Try searching “cool thrift stores near me” and you’ll see.
His directory solved that with curated results and now it ranks for ...thousands of keywords. His growth stack:
- Ahrefs to find low-difficulty keywords
- Reddit + TikTok for user-generated demand
- WordPress + Mediavine for display ads
- One $19 PDF he made in Canva that sells daily
Rinse and repeat. He now owns directories in:
- Thrift stores
- Plasma donation centers
- Liquidation stores
- Flea markets
- Dog parks
All are hands-off. All are profitable. Is it truly passive? Nothing is, but this is pretty dang close.
The playbook:
- Find a niche with local intent
- Make a better version of what exists
- Prioritize low competition, evergreen topics
- Use SEO + ads + simple products to monetize
- Scale with more sites
This isn’t a get rich quick scheme. It’s a quiet way to get to $3k/month without clients, calls, or chaos.
And the best part? Once it's built, it mostly runs itself.
I had Frey Chu himself share his screen and show me exactly how it's done. Watch full video on the top comment below!
Follow me @thekoerneroffice for more content like this!
2 days ago | [YT] | 103