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ChargingAtlas
BY TAMAS KALMAN · FROM THE IDEA NICHE ONLINE DIRECTORY BUSINESS (VERDICT: BUILD)
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THE STORY
A free, SEO-first directory of US EV charging stations by city, built on open NREL AFDC data. Exactly this idea's model: keyword-matched local pages ("EV charging in [city]"), monetized by display ads + home-charger affiliate. Static site (Astro → Cloudflare Pages), facts-in-code from public data, weekly auto-refresh — near-zero running cost. Picked EV charging specifically because it's non-YMYL (ranks faster than health/finance directories) with growing demand. Second directory off a reusable engine; the first was a tap-water-quality directory on the same pattern.
LESSONS LEARNED
"Free public data" is never as clean as the idea makes it sound — verify it's queryable and complete on day one. And don't mass-generate thin pages: pick a non-YMYL niche, compute facts from data in code (not AI prose), and only publish where you have something unique.
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