Directory of professionals in your industry

In an ecommerce site

[sniffer]

Has anybody tried having a directory of people/professionals in your field incorporated into an ecommerce site? I think there would be up to 10,000 listings in my particular field just to start with. Also im not even sure such a list exists on the web yet

I think this would make our site a lot 'stickier', but what would the draw backs be? Any experience?

It would contain *some* links, but only to those businesses with websites

[shri]

Not sure what you mean.

So, say if you have a audio-video equipment site, you'd want a directory of pro installers?

[sniffer]

yes that what i mean (its harder to explain without specifics)

It would be a complete directory with 1 field only that compliments but does not compete with the product lines. In my case, we often get business from some of the people who would be in the directory

[shri]

So, if you think people would benefit by having access to that, you could make it available to your customers (i.e. paid customers get a login).

Or, if you want to use the directory to draw people into your shop, I would setup a seperate site and exclusively use it to advertise the ecommerce business.

The problem with many directories is .. the information is duplicated in some form or the others. There are several horror stories of people who have directories which caused sites to fall out of google (well .. I know there is no evidence.. but .. still .. ).