SF Chronicle covers battle for local ad space highlighting MerchantCircle

On Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an in depth look at the race for market leadership in the local online ad space.  The report by James Temple covered a number of the hotter issues in the marketplace including mobile search, anti-trust issues and Google's dominating Place Pages. When discussing local content and databases the reporter leverages MerchantCircle co-founder Ben Smith's insights while highlighting the mark our company has made to date. 



You can read the whole story here

The Best Place For the Local Consumer Search Experience

From day one, we've been committed to providing you with the best tools and products to attract and engage local consumers. Whether it's tools to blog, build coupons, send e-Newsletters, or advertise on search engines like Google and Yahoo, you've been able to do everything easily and effectively. Our network of 800,000 local merchants, now sees more than 20 million unique consumer visitors a month!

With our new partnership with Demand Media, (read the press release here or here), you can now add dynamic, unique business content on your local listings. Say you're a consumer searching for a local auto mechanic, once you get to a MerchantCircle member's listing, not only will there be your created content (blogs, newsletters, pictures, coupons, etc.), you can also have content like the articles shown below on automotive issues and news. This will give your potential customers a truly one-stop shop for all their business-specific needs and interests.



Find out more about adding Rich Content through your MerchantCircle dashboard here. eNom, a Demand Media company, will also be powering our Instant Website and unique email offering.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

New Small Business Marketing Solutions and Affordable Website Design

Today, MerchantCircle and Web.com announced a partnership that will bring business owners even more options when it comes to online marketing and adds a new element, professional website design, that makes MerchantCircle a one-stop shop for all your business needs.

"We are excited to be working with MerchantCircle to offer full-service online marketing and website solutions as a complement to their popular online listing services," stated Jeff Stibel, President of Web.com. "With nearly half of all Internet users using search engines daily, the importance of having your website found within local searches is vital, as it creates awareness and new business opportunities cost-effectively."

"We are committed to helping local merchants take advantage of the Internet to grow their businesses," said Ben Smith, CEO of MerchantCircle. "We believe that Web.com's strong offering will round out the suite of high-value, low-cost online services we provide to our 600,000 members."

MerchantCircle already offers a pain-free Instant Website service, that automatically takes your MerchantCircle content and places it in an 'instant website' under a unique domain name that you choose. Several search engine marketing solutions are also available through unique partnerships with Webvisible, Citysearch, Yahoo! and Google.

We're proud to be able to take care of all your online needs, so that you can focus on your business - offline.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

MerchantCircle Partners with Spotzer to Give Every Merchant a Free Business Video

Every once in awhile we can get away with giving things away to our merchants. As the largest online network of local business owners in the nation, we're able to form partnerships with some of the best, and most innovative companies that do business with local merchants. Some of our previous partnerships have been formed with Webvisible, Citysearch, and Yahoo!, with the intent to find you more customers via the web. We're proud to say that thousands of merchants are finding success on the web and letting us know about it.

Our newest partnership is with Spotzer, a pioneer of ready-to-air business video solutions. Every business owner in the U.S. now has a free video that matches their business with their business information. If you want to customize the video even more, it's even easier to do - just click here.

Take a look at some of the businesses who have already claimed their free video:

• Deborah Stack Hypnotherapist in Rohnert Park, CA
• Jump Palace in Lancaster, CA
• Hi Pros Real Home Theaters in Hendersonville, TN

We're excited to say that no one else in the industry is doing what we are for local business owner. We want to make sure that consumers have an engaging and rewarding experience when they find your MerchantCircle listing through the search engines.

Sincerely,

Kevin

Community Relations

Local business owner calls MerchantCircle the "best choice" for any small brick and mortar business

Check out this blog post from Robert Vignoli, an entrepreneur from San Jose, CA. Robert, a massage therapist and online marketer recently discovered MerchantCircle.

Robert calls MerchantCircle "...the best choice out there for someone like a massage therapist or any small brick and mortar business who does not have the resources to get a $500 or more website built and/or have the knowledge to get that website positioned on the internet."

Read the entire post here.

Thanks for the endorsement Robert and best of luck!

Darren Waddell
Sr. Director of Marketing
MerchantCircle