adding a directory to apt sources

[Linux <linux@204eastsouth.com>]

Greetings.  I am trying to add a directory to the list of sources for APT to use for installing deb packages.

The dirctory is
/home/skippi/0data/backup/debian30/debian

I have been using the APT HOWTO.
In section 2.2 it tells me to use dpkg-scanpackages to create a Packages.gz file.
I did that and it worked fine, but when I try to add the directory to my sources.list it will not work.  It tells me there is an error in line 10 (the line I'm adding).

I am adding 

deb file:/home/skippi/0data/backup/debian30/debian

Evidently either this is wrong, or I am missing a step.  Can anyone enlighten me?

thanks 
Skippi