About MerchantCircle - Our Story

Check out the new feature we added to your MerchantCircle listing. It's affectionately titled, "Our Story." You can tell us about yourself, how you got started and even introduce your family, co-workers, or employees. We hope you enjoy it!

Check out "Our Story" here, or you can look below:





Get started with introducing us to you and your team today, click here to get through to your dashboard.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

New Features on MerchantCircle - January 29, 2009

Every month, the MerchantCircle team is hard at work on a number of refinements, improvements, and new features. If you're not already, come to the MerchantCircle blog or the Product Suggestions section in the Forums on a regular basis. We roll out the changes on the last Thursday of every month.

Here's just a few of the features we unveiled today for month:

1. Getting Leads Through MerchantCircle - We'll track calls on your MerchantCircle listing and send leads your way when customers in your area are searching for a particular service.

2. Social Newsletter - You can use content: reviews, Topix news, coupons, and blogs - from one of your connections for your newsletter.

3. Get a Customized Email for Your Business - Through your Instant Website domain, we can create an email address for you ending with your domain name.

4. New 'About Us' Section for Merchants - You can now tell your potential customers how you got started and who you're about.

5. Send Newsletters to Connections - You can now send newsletters to merchant members in your network.

6. 'Contact Us' Page - We added a 1-900 number for emergency calls. Also, we've made the page easier to navigate with a drop-down menu of the most frequently asked questions. This will help our 16 employees focus on new features and making the network the best it can be.

For any other inquiries or questions, feel free to leave a comment. Or join the discussion in our Forums.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

How Important is Blogging for Local Business?

There was an article today in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel as well as on their website, JSOnline.com, titled: "Blogs can draw customers deeper into bsuinesses." Here is an excerpt of that article:

Even so, many metro Milwaukee companies have jumped on the blogging bandwagon. MerchantCircle, a free Internet marketing site, lists 183 business owners in Milwaukee as having blogs, joining a universe of 112 million blogs tracked by Internet search engine Technorati.

One business that has used blogging to build customer relationships and its brand is Stone Creek Coffee, a downtown coffee roaster and retailer of specialty coffees. Founded in 1993, Stone Creek has 100 employees and operates eight stores in the Milwaukee area. Its blog was launched in 2005.

Among the most challenging aspects of a blog is writing it consistently and keeping ideas fresh and authentic. Stone Creek solved this challenge by making its employees responsible for maintaining its blog.

It's a really good article with some tips that just might work for you and your business. Click here to read the rest on the JSOnline website.

On that blogging note, we have some really fascinating stats from 2008 through this year on blogging and local businesses. Stay tuned!

Sincerely,
Community Relations

Introducing Your MerchantCircle Moderators!

I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to your new MerchantCircle Forum Moderators who are joining our original moderator, Lindy Asimus of Design Business Engineering. You can also find them in our January Newsletter here. They have been and will be instrumental in helping to facilitate conversations between our merchants. Thank you!


- Rick Cook of Treasure Islands of Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA



- Ken Mapel of The Glass Guy in Saint Paul, MN



- Monica Ross-Williams of ServiceMaster Building Services in Canton, MI



- Kathleen of A Tile Nation in Denver, CO


Sincerely,
Community Relations

Giving Your Web Pictures Some Color Commentary!

MerchantCircle recently added a more robust picture gallery for your MerchantCircle listing. You can now put descriptions and tags on your pictures. This will allow you to describe the food dishes, artwork, photography, ceramics, construction, or any number of pictures you upload for your busines.

You can even put a price in the description if you like. Don't forget to tag the pictures so that they may show up in search engine results! Log onto your MerchantCircle listing and manage your pictures here. Want to see some real merchant examples? Look below, or you can check out A Tile Nation's picture gallery by clicking here.







Sincerely,
Community Relations

Obama Stalls Web Economy - Bailout Demanded

As Barack Obama was sworn in this morning as the 44th President of the United States, his effect on web traffic was substantial. During the hours of 8am to 9am PST, as President Obama was giving his inaugural address, MerchantCircle traffic took a huge dip! We'll admit, we were busy watching as well, but c'mon Mr. Prez - how about a bailout for the web economy!?!?



Fortunately, web traffic quickly caught up to its normal pace as people realized they had to un-glue themselves from the television. We wish the President the best, but please, next time keep the speech to a minimum.... or give MerchantCircle a plug! We'll send a t-shirt.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

What Should I Do with My Yellow Pages Book?

At no other time in our lives have we asked ourselves this question with more frequency: "What am I supposed to do with the Yellow Pages?" Years of habit tells us that we should put it on top of our refrigerator or underneath the telephone. But if you're like me and a growing number of Americans each year, you no longer have a land line, because your cell phone is with you at all times. Even those who still have a land line, use their computer to search and research options for their consumer needs.

MerchantCircle recently launched a campaign for local business owners to stop advertising in the Yellow Pages, save money, and move their marketing efforts online. We even offer to buy their next YP ad if it doesn't work. We've also launched a national radio ad campaign and will soon move into television. Below, you can see one of our radio ads put to images of the crazy things people have done with the Yellow Pages:



While many of the uses above were on a large scale, here's a link to some creative uses for the Yellow Pages on a small scale. People are getting so angry about having the Yellow Pages dropped at their doorstep, that they're taking their anger to the web.

One thing is for sure, those Yellow Pages ads that you're paying a risky amount of money for, are being seen by less and less people.

Sincerely,
Community Relations