I'm working on a niche directory for professionals in my field of endeavor. I'm planning to add a private discussion forum for directory members that is hidden to the public, covering shared specific areas of interest and information. It will also have materials to download and so forth (that I've created), and a free referral service where users of the site will ask if they want someone to contact them and the contact goes out to directory members. Has anyone tried building such an "enhanced" directory? Any thoughts on this? It will be free to get it going, then monetize later.
The concept has been done before. I can't think of the names, but I think there's sites like that for vets, doctors, lawyers and carpenters. The idea isn't totally new but most service professionals are always looking for ways to promote their business. The members only forum would be a bit different from the other ones I remember seeing. Perhaps you could open the forum up a bit? Make part private and part question and answers. People can come to your site to ask questions and your resident experts can provide answers or at least guide folks where to look or the type of expert they need to hire. You could charge way more for a listing if you can consistently bring the folks in your niche new clients/customers. Good luck.