Can a directory participate in affiliate programs?

[McMohan]

I have taken all the care in the world in developing my directory and so far it has been a success story. Gets about 30k uniques a month and 15k search phrases that lead searchers to the site every month. Ideally I should not do anything that is remotely close to destroy this applecart, particularly after the latest Google/Directory war.

Since the directory is doing so well in Google and other search engines, large percentage of traffic the directory gets is off target and it is the traffic simply wasted. I was thinking of a way to monetize this, by creating an info page for each category and provide contextual affiliate links. Well, here content will be original and helpful for the target audience, and contextually the affiliate link are placed.
If I did this, is there any problem I should be wary of? Even a remote possibility, coz I want to keep it a good Directory first, if possible make some revenue out of it.

Thanks

[ska_demon]

My directory has run adsense and affiliate programs from the offset and I have no problems associated with that to report.

You will need useful content as you say to make contextual advertising work.

I would just go for it. You need to decide if your desire for financial benefit out weighs your need to provide a useful resource.

At the end of the day if your site suffers as a result of AM you cxan always remove it. I don't think AM links on your site will have any adverse effect.

Ska