What the Web.com Deal Means to You

MerchantCircle and Web.com today announced a partnership that will grow your network of local businesses by more than 100,000 members. With more than 20 million local unique consumers visiting MerchantCircle each month, we're excited to have an even stronger network or members creating more coupons, blogs, and newsletters, than ever before. Today, we have over 900,000 members and are on pace to hit 1 million before the end of the year!

Web.com will power many of our high end services like custom web design for individual businesses, analytics and tracking, and marketing. All of our services can be found here by logging into your MerchantCircle account.

Read the press release here.

Here are some of the write-ups and mentions of the new expanded partnership. Thank you all for covering:

Local SEO Guide - Where is the Facebook Platform for Small Businesses?

Screenwerk - MerchantCircle Expands Ties with Web.com

Local Onliner - Web.com, MerchantCircle to Market Each Other's SMB Services

BIA Kelsey Group - Web.com, MerchantCircle to Market Each Other's SMB Services

adotas - Industry News on Hirings, Partnerships and New Offerings

DMNews - Web.com and MerchantCircle.com Team Up

FOX Business - Web.com and MerchantCircle Expand Partnership to Improve Online Visibility for Local Businesses

CNN Money - Web.com and MerchantCircle Expand Partnership to Improve Online Visibility for Local Businesses

Sincerely,
Community Relations

Finding Small Business Loans When Banks Won't Lend

Since a $700 billion bailout was approved and almost half of it has been dispersed among the banking industry, small business owners have yet to see any of this money in the form of loans. Despite warnings from congressional leaders, and even President Bush, to not horde cash and begin loaning again, the banks seem to be reluctant to do so.

In this CNNMoney.com story, titled 'Message to Obama: Send Loans Fast,' the author suggests President-elect Obama should do exactly what he promised to do during the campaign, which is: 'start cutting loan checks directly from the government.'

In October, Obama proposed temporarily suspending the fees the Small Business Administration charges for participation in its flagship loan-guarantee programs, which insure banks against losses on a portion of the money they lend to qualifying small businesses. But he also suggested making direct loans available through the SBA's Disaster Loan Program, which traditionally assists natural-disaster victims.

Well, until President-elect Obama takes office, it seems unlikely a President with less than 10 weeks left in office will be able to accomplish anything in a Democratic Congress. We've written before about Small Business Help, Resources, and Loans, but if you aren't having any luck and have been maxing out your credit cards, check out this article titled '5 Alternatives to Borrowing from Banks.'

Sincerely,
Kevin
MerchantCircle Community Relations

How Many Business Owners Would Be Affected Under Obama's Plan?

As the economy becomes the focal point of this Presidential Election, Joe the Plumber is still making headlines all over the place. He has already decided to endorse Senator John McCain. We've previously written about how Joe Wurzelbacher might have trouble trying to buy the business from his employer, but even if he were able to, he would join less than 2% of business owners making more than $250,000. That's the threshold of increased taxation under Senator Barack Obama's plan. According to a CNNMoney.com Small Business story:

"....even using the broad definition of small business that McCain likes, very few owners would see their own taxes rise. That's because the lion's share of taxable income comes from a small number of wealthy businesses. Out of 34.7 million filers with business income on Schedules C, E or F, 479,000 filers fall into the top two brackets, according to an analysis of projected 2009 filings by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The other 34.3 million - or 98.6% - would be unaffected by Obama's proposed rate hike."

A recent Fortune/Zogby poll showed 45% of small business owners were 'worse off' than they were three years ago. This falls in line with our recent MerchantCircle poll showing more than 55% of business owners seeing a 'moderate' to 'severe' decline in sales and revenue over the last year. Even with those results under the current administration, many small business owners seem to have separated from blaming one party or the other. 54% of members surveyed said they would vote for Senator McCain, compared to 36% for Senator Obama.

Small Business owners around the nation also weighed in on CNN:

"I'd really love to see major change in the government. I don't think the problems are going to be solved in the next four to eight years, but at least we have to start somewhere."

Read what our small business owners are saying here.

In an article on Politico.com, the author argues that raising taxes under Obama's plan would mean less businesses would be interested in expanding, thus less new jobs produced.

"The economic law that 'taxing something more and getting less of it' would apply. Fewer Americans would be interested in opening or expanding small businesses. Tax evasion and legal tax avoidance would spike, as tax shelters would once again become a booming industry."

The argument on both sides for who will help out Main Street America the best, is nearing the home stretch. Less than six days remain until election day.

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