The MVMP Labs Blog
Documenting the journey of building digital businesses as a non-developer. Tips, tutorials, and lessons learned along the way.
169 articles
Turn Videos into Short Clips with Tella
Turn Videos into Short Clips with Tella Duration: 8 minutes | Watch on Tella --- Welcome back to the third video in this series! In the last video, we covered how to use Tella to create blog pos...
Turn Video Transcripts Into Blog Posts in Seconds with Tella MCP
Turn Video Transcripts Into Blog Posts in Seconds with Tella MCP One of the most time-consuming parts of content creation is repurposing. You spend hours creating a great video, then spend another hou...
Automate Your Tella to YouTube Workflow: Complete Guide
Automate Your Tella to YouTube Workflow: Complete Guide You've created an amazing video in Tella. Now you want to publish it on YouTube. The manual process looks like this: 1. Open Tella and find your...
Getting Started with Tella MCP in Claude Desktop
Getting Started with Tella MCP in Claude Desktop If you're creating videos with Tella, you've probably spent hours managing your content library: organizing videos into playlists, updating metadata, s...
192 - Tella Just Released Their Video API — and It Fixes the Worst Part of Video Creation
Making the video is not the hard part. For me, filming a video usually takes 30–50 minutes. Sometimes less. Everything around the video is where the real friction lives. After recording, I still need to: \- Upload it to YouTube \- Write a proper title \- Write a custom description \- Create a blog post to go with it \- Repurpose it for socials \- Share it with my team That easily adds another 3–4 hours per video. That's the part that kills momentum. Recording feels creative. Publishing feels like admin. This is the gap Tella's new Video API finally starts to close.
189 - Circle AI Agents Review: Automate Community Management with AI
If you’ve ever run a community, you know the pain of answering the same support questions over and over again. “How do I update my email?” “Where can I find this?” “Is this client a red flag?” — it adds up fast. Now imagine handing those questions off to an AI agent that actually knows your business. That’s exactly what Circle is promising with their new AI Agent feature — and in this post, I’m diving deep into whether it’s ready to take that job off your plate. Here’s what you’ll get from this breakdown: - What [Circle](https://www.connorfinlayson.com/a/circle) AI Agents are and how they work - Real-world examples of AI support in action - How I’m using them to handle onboarding, support, and coaching - How to set them up with custom knowledge and permissions - Where Circle’s AI still needs improvement - Whether the pricing makes sense for your stage Whether you’re running a small private mastermind or a growing freelancer marketplace, community support can eat up your time. Let’s explore if Circle AI Agents are finally the fix we’ve all been waiting for.
191 - How to Monetize a Directory Website with Paid Online Communities
If you’ve ever launched a directory website, you’ve probably asked yourself: **“How do I actually make money from this?”** Most people default to charging vendors for listings — $5, $10, maybe $20/month. And at first, that feels like a win… until the churn kicks in, vendors ghost, and your revenue stalls out. Here’s the truth: Listing fees are easy to set up — but hard to scale. The good news? There’s a better way. One that generates recurring revenue, increases vendor retention, and builds real community around your niche. ### It’s called the **Paid Community Business Model** — and in this post, I’ll show you exactly how to use it to monetize your directory site. You’ll learn: - How this model works and why it scales - What tools I recommend (including [Circle](https://www.connorfinlayson.com/a/circle)) - Real-world examples from projects like The Spokes Collective and Flag Football Finder - How to test your offer before building anything - What kind of income you can expect — and how to grow it If you’re tired of chasing $5 listings and want to build something sustainable, profitable, and fun — this guide is for you.
190 - How to 10x Your Directory Traffic: Automate Combo Pages for Long-Tail Keywords
Most directory site owners eventually hit the same wall: they build out a great list of businesses, events, or services, maybe even add some basic location or category filters, and then… wonder why their Google traffic never really takes off. Sure, you might show up for a handful of broad keywords, but the specific, high-intent searches—the ones that actually lead to clicks, signups, or bookings—are nowhere to be found in your analytics. Here’s why: almost everyone stops at the basics. The real goldmine in directory SEO isn’t just “yoga studios” or “races in Canada”—it’s “beginner yoga studios in Ottawa” or “5K races in Toronto this spring.” Those _combo_ searches are what your best users type into Google, and they’re exactly where most directories miss out. But what if you could create dedicated landing pages for every high-value combo your users are searching for—without endless manual work or flooding your site with thin, useless pages? Imagine showing up for thousands of those ultra-specific, ready-to-convert searches, all with an automated, scalable workflow. **In this guide, you’ll learn:** - Why long-tail combo searches drive the best traffic for directories - How to set up your CMS and database for automated combo page creation - Step-by-step tactics for using Airtable and Whalesync to sync it all with Webflow - Practical strategies for managing SEO, avoiding junk pages, and scaling as you grow If you’re tired of settling for generic traffic and want your directory to finally rank for the keywords that matter, this walkthrough is for you. Let’s dig in—starting with the real reason most directories never tap into high-intent, long-tail search.
188 - How to Build a Directory Outreach System That Gets Replies
**So you launched your directory. Now what?** You’ve got listings, a homepage, maybe even a filter system. But unless those businesses know you exist, your site will just sit there collecting digital dust. In this post, I’ll show you how to turn your directory into a _relationship-building machine_ using a personalized outreach system that stands out in crowded inboxes. You’ll learn how to create cold emails that don’t feel cold — complete with: - 🔗 A link to the business’s live listing page - 🖼️ A custom preview thumbnail using their brand - 🎥 A personalized Tella video that walks them through your site - ⚙️ And a scalable automation workflow using Airtable + Make.com Whether you're just starting or want to systematize outreach at scale, this guide will help you build trust, spark conversations, and open doors for monetization down the line.
187 - How I’d Build a Directory Website as a Complete Beginner (2025)
**You’ve got an idea for a directory.** Maybe it’s a local business directory. A niche marketplace. A curated list of tools, events, or service providers. You’ve seen the tutorials. Read the blog posts. Maybe even opened up Webflow or Airtable… But if you’re still staring at a blank page wondering where to start, this guide is for you. Here’s the truth: **Most people don’t fail to build because they lack skill. They fail because they overthink and never get started.** That ends today. In this post, I’ll walk you through the **exact process I’d follow to build a directory website from scratch in 2025**—even if I had: - Zero tech experience - No budget - No team Whether you want to create a simple listing site or a scalable, SEO-powered platform, I’ll show you how to go from **idea → prototype → MVP → monetized product** in 7 steps using no-code tools. ### Here’s what we’ll cover: 1. **How to get your idea out of your head** and into a shareable prototype using Notion 2. **How to build a simple, clean landing page in Webflow**—even if you’ve never used it before 3. **How to do basic keyword research and analyze competitors** (without paid SEO tools) 4. **How to build CMS-powered listing and detail pages** for your directory MVP 5. **How to automate your listing database** using Airtable, Make.com, and Whalesync 6. **How to create SEO category and location pages** that attract traffic passively 7. **How to monetize and promote your directory** without relying on ads This is the exact strategy I use (and teach) to launch profitable directories with no-code tools. And if you follow along, you’ll walk away with your first live version—ready to grow and earn. **Let’s build.**
186 - How to Build High-Quality Listing Pages for Your Directory
If you’re building a directory website, your **listing detail page** is the most important page on your site. It’s what ranks in search, what your users land on, and what potential advertisers will judge you by. Get this page right, and it becomes a conversion machine. Get it wrong, and all your traffic goes to waste. In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to build **high-quality, scalable, and SEO-friendly listing pages** — the kind that actually drive traffic and results. We’ll cover: - What makes a great listing page (based on real-world examples) - How to design and structure your page for clarity and conversion - How to turn it into a dynamic template so you can scale fast - How to connect your backend and sync your data automatically - And how to **source, enrich, and clean listing content on autopilot** This is the same process I use across all my directory builds — from local marketplaces to nationwide platforms. If you're serious about launching a directory that grows without burning you out, this post will give you the full blueprint. Let’s get into it.
185 - How Corey Moen Built No-Code Supply – A High-Quality No-Code Directory Using Webflow & Airtable
If you're thinking about building a content, tool, or product directory, this conversation with [Corey Moen](https://www.coreymoen.com/) is required viewing. Corey is the founder of [No-Code Supply](https://www.nocodesupply.co/), one of the most beautifully curated directories in the no-code space. He’s also a brand designer at [Webflow](https://www.connorfinlayson.com/a/webflow) and has worked on well-known projects like the [Whalesync](https://www.whalesync.com) directory, Webflow Experts, and more. We originally set out to talk for 40 minutes… it turned into 75. Why? Because Corey dropped so much gold on how to build high-quality directories—from design systems to automation to business models. Here’s the breakdown.