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

MerchantCircle Contacts

We're getting ready for another exciting conference in Atlanta where we look for and develop contacts to make your MerchantCircle experience the best it can be. We have a big announcement coming up tomorrow morning to look forward to - so stay posted!

Previously, at Kelsey Los Angeles we announced a partnership with Citysearch. We think tomorrow's announcement will help you find even more customers!

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

You Asked if it Was Fishy, and You Were Right!

First of all, we'd like to extend our apologies to everyone who received a MerchantCircle Alert email this evening. We've been working on a system to help validate and maintain the integrity of our network, and in doing so, had an email server error that sent the message out. As our network has grown to nearly 600,000 merchants, we are constantly looking at ways to make your MerchantCircle network the best it can be.

We're greatful that many of you found the error, and began addressing it yourself in our MerchantCircle forums (found here) and via email. Some of our recent Showcase Merchants (found here) began to tell me something just didn't seem right - and it wasn't. This was the network we envisioned from the beginning when we launched with 5,000 merchants in June of 2006. We wanted every local business owner in the nation to be able to join MerchantCircle for free, get new customers through search engines, and network with each other - solving problems with the help of merchants all across the nation. Our network is what it is because of you. With a small team of 16 employees, it sure does help to have 600,000 voices guiding you along the way.
As a sign of our appreciation, we'd like to extend to you two free areas of coverage with our Local Plus Product - which means your business will increase it's odds of being found during searches outside of your area. Email CustomerCare@MerchantCircle.com to redeem your extra areas of coverage.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden and Local Small Businesses

Just like Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, Senator Joe Biden is also from a small town. Although Wilmington, DE at 72,000 people (475 MerchantCircle members) is considerably larger than Wasilla, AK (7,000 residents and 236 members), viewpoints, besides which candidate they prefer, are the same. With most people telling you Wilmington is split along party lines, it's not an easy task to find someone who isn't supportive of their hometown boy.

"Senator Biden is well-known around here," says James Ellis of Electronicbusters. "The man stands behind his word and gets both parties involved. So even though this area is split 50 - 50 Republican/Democrat, we're all very supportive of him."

One common trait between merchants in Wilmington and Wasilla is that they have heard almost nothing from either campaign about support and initiatives for small business owners. We did some research on a recent post that shows some of the candidate's agendas on taxes, health care, and incentives. Much of the information is news to local business owners.

"There's been a lot of hype recently about John McCain's running mate, and it seems like she's been a good leader, but I don't know about anything they might do for me as a business owner," says Francine Byrd of The Diagnostic Center. "I'd like to see more substance from all the candidates. Small businesses are the mainstay of the economy and we need resources to grow."

Business owners in Wilmington speak about not having a united lobbying effort, unlike the big corporations, as a possible reason they're not mentioned on the campaign trail. Jeff Jankowski has run Silk T's Promotions for the last 15 years and today has 7 employees. He says employee health care costs keep getting worse, currently costing him about 25% of his revenue, and believes the Obama/Biden ticket will help out his business the most.

"I've spoken to Senator Biden before and someone in our group disagreed with one of his policies, he stuck by his guns rather than give a 'politician-type' answer. That really won me over," says Jankowski. "The economy is the worst I've seen it in the last few years. My salesteam is getting pushed right out the door, because people just don't have the money to spend. The country needs a change and I believe Obama and Biden are the ones to do it."

Pitney-Bowes Joins MerchantCircle Marketplace

We're excited to announce Pitney-Bowes joining our Merchant Marketplace, where our more than 575,000 members (and growing!) can look for the best deals to reduce business expenses. Pitney-Bowes is a Fortune 500 company that provides services that can help your business with shipping, documents, packaging and mailing.

"MerchantCircle has been able to sign-on local business owners in hard-to-reach areas across the country," says Pitney-Bowes. "We're excited to be able to directly market to their business owners in targeted categories and help business owners save money by offering them the best deal."

We welcome Pitney-Bowes to our marketplace and look forward to signing on more companies to provide the best deals for the largest online network of local business owners!

If you'd like to join the MerchantCircle marketplace, email at BD@MerchantCircle.com.

Sincerely,
Kevin L.
Community Relations

Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain on Small Business

While small businesses create roughly two-thirds of all new American jobs, and generate roughly 70 percent of the gross national product, it's amazing that small business issues are rarely mentioned on the campaign trail and in campaign rhetoric. Here at MerchantCircle, we'll fight to make sure you know which candidate has your best interests in mind, so that you can make an informed decision for yourself.

Over the next few days, we'll send out a questionaire to a random sampling of our 575,000 merchant members to gauge your concerns and attempt to find the answers. At the very least, we'll have a clear idea on which candidates small business owners are leaning towards (even in swing states!). After speaking with merchants in Wasilla, AK about Sarah Palin (we'll do the same with the Senator Joe Biden in Scranton, PA and Wilmington, DE), it's obvious that most merchants are not sure how the two parties will affect their business.

Here's a chart from BusinessWeek on some of Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain's agendas on taxes, health care and incentives:



Here's another more extensive side-by-side comparison on candidate positions from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Click here to see it. It's a really good and easy to look at chart.

Stay tuned to our blog for more posts every day this week.

Sincerely,
Kevin L.
Community Relations

The Best Small Businesses in the Nation

Over the last two and half years, we've compiled the largest and most diverse group of local merchant members anywhere on the web. With 575,000 merchants, ranging from local plumbers, landscapers, restraunteurs, hair stylist, coffee shops, you name it, we've been able to assemble the most comprehensive view point on merchants, their needs, concerns and habits.

We've gauged them on a number of issues - surveying real estate agents after the housing bust, compiling statistics on merchant advertising spending and preferences, print and online ad effectiveness, business confidence, etc. - currently, we've just gotten under way interviewing merchants in several battleground states for November's Presidential election. We want to make sure local merchants know who and how which candidates will effect their business. Be sure to read the MerchantCircle blog for new postings.

For now, check out our recently redone 'Merchant Showcase', which we've been compiling over the last couple of months, interviewing our merchants about their advertising experiences with print Yellow Pages, local newspapers, radio, television, Google Adwords, Banner Ads and MerchantCircle. Learn what they did right and what they did wrong. Click here to read more.



Sincerely,
Kevin L.
Community Relations