Things Just Keep Looking Up!

We made a big announcement today that has big implications for you guys and gals. How does more local consumers checking out your MerchantCircle pages sound? Good? Well, I hope so, because our partnership with Citysearch will mean more eyeballs, more traffic, and more options as you find more local customers through the web.

You can read the press release here. But don't forget to check out these two articles below that will provide a little more insight. We'll have more details coming up.....

• Screenwerk
• Venturebeat

Sincerely,
Kevin Leu
Community Relation

Black Friday is Looking Green!

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is coming up so soon. And it's even harder for me to believe that I'm looking forward to shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I always say I won't go, because of the parking, traffic, lines..... but inevitably I do.

It all comes down to the deals. The coupons. I want to get in on the action!!!!

Take a look at some of these blog posts your merchant neighbors are writing to tout their holiday deals! I'm getting in the mood already!

• Butterfly Candles in Estill Springs, TN
• Sawyer Furniture Company in Prichard, AL

Sincerely,
Kevin L.
Community Relations

Desperate Housewives.... err Merchants

We all like to know what's going on with our neighbors, whether they got a new lawnmower, are remodeling their home, or still living with their parents (now that would be pathetic)! We do it in our everyday lives - friends, work, play - we just want to know.

For many of us, it influences our decisions and it helps us understand our surroundings as well. Here at MerchantCircle we want to keep you up-to-date with what your business neighbors are up to. That way you can take advantage of deals when they're posted and possibly learn a thing or two!

Check out the picture to the right of one of our newest features - the Neighborhood Activity Newsfeed, found on your merchant dashboard.

I gotta go now, I hear my mom calling about something our neighbors are up to.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Strengthening Relationships

With our announcement yesterday that will allow us to further grow your MerchantCircle community and increase the number of customers who see your business listings, we wanted to compile a short list of industry journalists and analysts who wrote about the announcement.

Take some time to check them out when you get a chance. Most of it is money hoo hah, but pretty interesting:

• CNN Money
• TechCrunch
• VentureBeat
• The Deal
• Mashable
• Screenwerk
• bub.blicio.us
• Kelsey Group

Enjoy,
Kevin
Community Relations

Continuing to Bring You More Local Customers

Since my cofounder, Wayne Yamamoto, and I founded MerchantCircle and started building the company with a great team, including Doug Kilponen and Jason Culverhouse, we've never forgotten our mission of bringing local merchants more local customers. Throughout our growth, we've always emphasized and strived to make sure that local business owners had a place on the web where they could attract and engage new customers, regardless of tech knowledge, or costs.

From the day our first merchants signed on over 17 months ago and now almost 250,000 merchants later, we've become the largest and fastest growing network of local business owners in the nation. That's a fact we're very proud of and we take that responsibility very seriously. From the partnerships we form, to new features we implement on MerchantCircle, we want to make sure we represent you well - getting you seen by as many new customers as possible.

The web may be a complicated mix of adwords, .coms, .orgs, user-generated content, and three letter acronyms, but we want to make sure that's it not so complicated. After all, your business livelihood depends on it. More and more people are turning to the web to search for their goods and services and it's imperative you be found on top search engines. We want to help you get there, and it's a mission and view we've held steady from day one.

Our recent news, announcing another round of funding, will help us bring you more customer engaging opportunities. We've got a lot more in store for you, as we expect the MerchantCircle network to grow to 1 million merchants by next year. Thank you for all your support over the last year and a half, and we look forward to your business success.

Sincerely,
Ben Smith
Chairman and Cofounder, MerchantCircle

Stepping up to the Plate....

It's always exciting to add new members to your team, whether it's a sports team or work team. But unlike most sports teams, community and recreation for example, not everyone has to play or gets to play at work - and that's a good thing! It's a totally different ballgame, shall we say.

We look for the best and brightest when it comes to who we want to come work for us. Whether you own the coffee shop down the street, or the accounting firm in downtown, you want to find the people who will fit in best.

Here at MerchantCircle we're excited to announce the addition of our newest teammate - Darren Waddell. Darren joins us as the Senior Director of Marketing and brings with him a wealth of experience. (You can read the press release here.)

Darren may be starting for us at work, but when it comes to video games and Halo - he still warms the bench.

Sincerely,
Kevin L.
Community Relations