Help with Taxonomy please?

HELP!? I am a non-developer who is working on a social networking / social bookmarking niche community site that has a very large list of cross-referenced (or cross-listed) tiered categories. We want our members to be able to easily find what they're looking for and classify what they add/save on the site by drilling down through a tiered hierarchy. This means that a lot of data will need to be cross-listed (automatically). For example: yoga would be listed on our site in several places (Mind/Spirit - Eastern/Alternative - Yoga AND Dancer Resources - Bodywork/Rehab -Yoga and Health/Wellness - Yoga. And in all of those places, Yoga would be able to drill down and be searched by type (bikram, iyengar etc) or studios versus independent instructors - so there are multiple ways of classifying any single type of entry.

I have been working on trying to organize this in Excel and it is a big nightmare. The list is huge and I am really having a hard time with it particularly because of the cross-listing. And it is visually overwhelming to look at.

Someone recommended Drupal's Taxonomy module to me and I actually have it installed on a server waiting for me. I tried to use it but it was not intuitive to me and I am hoping that someone who is great at understanding the organization of content might work with me to get this module primed for me and train me on how to use it so that I can complete this phase of the project. I realize that I can't hire anyone to develop my site until I have this organized since it will determine and direct how the database is set up

I am, of course, happy to pay you for your time and hope that this will be a simple challenge for one of you.

If you take a look at SkillsTM.com you'll see the sort of drill down I'm looking to accomplish (tho I don't know if they do cross-referencing)

I really look forward to hearing from you!

amy@endlessconnect.com