Los Altos, CA CA February 5, 2009— MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, today releases research data of merchant blog usage after showing a record amount of blogs posted for the month of January. The study shows 15,676 blogs written by merchants on the network in January 2009 – a 190% increase from the same time a year ago. The total number of blogs posted follows 12,872 in December 2008, and 9,215 written in November of 2008. There were 5,383 blogs written in January 2008 and 2,623 written in January of 2007.

“I never heard of a blog until I came to MerchantCircle,” says Ken Mapel, owner of The Glass Guy in Hastings, MN. “I went to the MerchantCircle forums and all the business owners were talking about the importance of blogging. I started blogging on MerchantCircle and have since found that they show up really well on the search engines through different keywords. It’s important for my business to become more active on the web as the economy gets worse.”

“Merchants are beginning to recognize the value of a business blog, which people within the internet community have known for a long time.” says Darren Waddell, Vice-President of Marketing. “We’re excited that we’re at the cusp of what we think is a huge explosion in business blogging and that we’ve been able to provide such easy-to-use tools for them to blog.”

The study also shows that a merchant who has written one blog sees an average of 30% more traffic to their website. Other merchant statistics include:

• 700 topics posted in the forums (where business owners trade tips) each week—a 600% increase from last year
• 15,000 coupons built a month
• 30,000 local business pictures uploaded each month

A blog is defined as a “Web log” or an online diary, which is increasingly being utilized by business owners to attract new customers through unique, business-related content that is indexed by search engines.

About MerchantCircle

Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle is the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, combining social networking features with a customizable web listing that allows local merchants to attract new customers. More than 15 million MerchantCircle business listings across the country are easily accessed on major search engines.

Currently, over 670,000 merchants on the MerchantCircle network upload pictures, blog, create coupons and newsletters, and connect with other merchants. In addition to its free services, MerchantCircle offers a portfolio of online advertising services including Search Engine Marketing, Website Directory Submission, Web Content Creation, Instant Website Development and Business Verification Services.

MerchantCircle is located on Main St. in downtown Los Altos, Calif., and is funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, and IAC. Learn more at http://www.merchantcircle.com/.

Published 05 February 2009 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA January 15, 2009— MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, today announces the new “Buy My Yellow Pages Ad” promotion to help local businesses cut costs and encourage them to try online advertising. The new promotion is designed to help merchants save money during tough economic times and eliminate the risk many local merchants perceive when they shift marketing budget from yellow pages to the internet. The first program of its kind is already available to free members of MerchantCircle’s 670,000 local merchant network and to all new members.

“With the economy being what it is, it’s important that local businesses try more cost-effective advertising channels, like online advertising,” says Darren Waddell, MerchantCircle VP of Marketing. “While the majority of our members tell us the yellow pages no longer work for their businesses, many are hesitant to completely stop advertising in the yellow book. We believe this promotion will help local businesses take the leap into online advertising and feel safe doing it.”

"Many small businesses know their traditional media buys are not as effective as once were, but they're afraid to adopt new platforms and strategies," said Greg Sterling, founder Sterling Market Intelligence/analyst Opus Research. "This program addresses that hesitation by attempting to remove some of the perceived risk of online marketing."

While it is always free to join the MerchantCircle network, merchants who wish to qualify for the promotion will select from among eligible promotional packages. Pricing for the promotional packages start at $49 per month and include:

• Local Directory Submission: provides updated local business information on all major online, mobile, and in-car navigational directories.
• Search Engine Marketing: a turn-key solution for advertising local businesses on all major search engines including Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, Local.com, Superpages, and more.
• Build My Listing: professionally-designed custom content (blogs, newsletters, coupons, and pictures) created to attract more local customers.
• MerchantCircle Instant Website: customized domain name and website designed to give local businesses more exposure online.
• “Verified by MerchantCircle” badge: a trust mark on the MerchantCircle network that increases consumer trust in local businesses.
• Newsletter advertising: an easy-to-use email newsletter tool for distribution up to 1,000 local consumers.

New merchants interested in participating may do so by visiting http://www.merchantcircle.com/. Current free members may take advantage of this offer by visiting www.merchantcircle.com/yellow.

About MerchantCircle

Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle is the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, combining social networking features with a customizable web listing that allows local merchants to attract new customers. More than 15 million MerchantCircle business listings across the country are easily accessed on major search engines.

Currently, over 670,000 merchants on the MerchantCircle network upload pictures, blog, create coupons and newsletters, and connect with other merchants. In addition to its free services, MerchantCircle offers a portfolio of online advertising services including Search Engine Marketing, Website Directory Submission, Web Content Creation, Instant Website Development and Business Verification Services.

MerchantCircle is located on Main St. in downtown Los Altos, Calif., and is funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, and IAC. Learn more at http://www.merchantcircle.com/.

Published 15 January 2009 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA November 19, 2008 – MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, today announces a comprehensive study conducted by RapLeaf on a representative sample of MerchantCircle's 650,000 members. The study shows that 62% of the local business owners using MerchantCircle have no other social networking profiles. Among those members that were found to have a social networking account, 15.1% use MySpace, 14.3% use Facebook, and 12% use LinkedIn. The study also reveals the gender and ages of MerchantCircle members, with 86.3% older than the age of 26 and 54.2% older than 36 years old.

"Our goal at MerchantCircle is to get every local business onto the internet, and we've had good success reaching local businesses in small towns across the country," says Darren Waddell, Vice President of Marketing, MerchantCircle. "This research proves that MerchantCircle is reaching a new, untapped audience of local business owners who have no previous experience with social networks. We're very excited about the level of engagement local merchants display as they use our network to create unique, local user-generated content."

"The MerchantCircle member base is unique compared to others we've researched," says Dan Scudder of Rapleaf. "Unlike many other audiences we studied, the MerchantCircle base skews male, is slightly older, and is less engaged on social networks like Facebook and MySpace."

In conjunction with the study results, MerchantCircle is announcing a record amount of local content being created on its network during the month of October. During October, network members:

• Received more than 100,000 local business ratings and reviews on their MerchantCircle listings
• Published nearly 35,000 local business pictures
• Created more than 15,000 local coupons
• Wrote more than 10,000 local business articles
• Authored more than 2,000 small business forum posts
• Sent more than 2,000 unique local newsletters

"When local merchants create unique local content they not only improve their ability to attract more customers online," says Waddell. "They also improve the local consumer search experience. We're delighted to provide a better consumer experience for the nearly 9 million unique visitors who've visited MerchantCircle over the past 30 days."

Published 19 November 2008 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA October 15, 2008 – MerchantCircle, the largest online network of local business owners in the nation, today announces the launch of the ‘Marketing Advisor' program. The program gives merchants the opportunity to become an advisor for local zip codes and help local merchants find more customers online. In addition, Marketing Advisors will be paid commissions when merchants sign-up for MerchantCircle or purchase online advertising packages.

"Yellow Page companies pay millions of dollars to manufacture and deliver phone books. Instead of spending money on making books, MerchantCircle takes an eco-friendly approach and helps merchants find customers online through search engine marketing packages on sites like Google," says Walt Duflock, Senior Director of Channel Development. "By recruiting Marketing Advisors from our nationwide merchant base of over 630,000 merchants, we've eliminated the need to spend millions of dollars recruiting and paying salaries for an expensive ‘feet on the street' sales force."

Marketing Advisors sign-up online and can choose up to 5 zip codes for their local territory. They get access to online training and marketing materials, and they get to offer a great message to local merchants – "cancel that Yellow Pages ad and start finding customers online with MechantCircle." The program launched in August, and already over 700 Marketing Advisors have signed-up and provided help for local merchants in over 2,000 zip codes.

"We sign every one of our small business clients up for a MerchantCircle account to bring them more online visibility and better leads from search engines," says Lynnea Bylund, President of AdMax, a merchant media and marketing agency and MerchantCircle Marketing Advisor, in Dana Point, CA. "Our business is presently the fastest growing company in its field in Southern California thanks largely to MerchantCircle - it's something I was already recommending to business owners. It's quickly become the cornerstone of our local merchant advertising service. MerchantCircle is a great way for my clients to make sure customers can easily find them on search engines like Google and Yahoo!."

MerchantCircle's Marketing Advisors are currently in small towns from Mountain Grove, MO (population 4,500), to big cities including, Atlanta, GA. 1,500 Marketing Advisors are expected by the end of the year.

Published 15 October 2008 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA October 7, 2008 – MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, today releases results from a nationwide survey of members. In crucial swing states, 52% of 820 small business owners surveyed in Florida planned to vote for Senator John McCain to 33% that planned to vote for Senator Barack Obama. In Ohio (338 surveyed), that number in favor of McCain jumps slightly to 54% to Obama's 32%. The survey was conducted from September 25 to October 6 by MerchantCircle, and came from over 4,300 responders in all 50 states. MerchantCircle has 625,000 members across the nation.

"The McCain campaign appears to have separated itself from the Bush administration in the eyes of local businesses. Despite the fact that 52% of those surveyed said the Bush administration has not represented the interests of local business owners well, that does not seem to affect their choice for the next President of the United States," says MerchantCircle Founder, Ben T. Smith, IV. "There's still a tremendous opportunity for the candidates to speak to Main Street America – as is evidenced by the fact that fully 10% of those surveyed weren't sure which candidate would most help small businesses grow."

Key findings from the survey:

Of those (1602 surveyed) who rated that the current administration has represented the interests of local business as "not well at all", 75.3% indicate they will vote for Obama, 8.7% McCain, 11% don't know; and 4.9% other Supporters of both tickets believe that the candidate's economic policy is the most important issue; Obama supporters are least concerned with lowering taxes; McCain supporters least concerned with health care policies 55% have seen a "Severe" or "Moderate" decline in sales and revenue over the past year; 49.4% of McCain supporters versus 40% for Obama supporters. McCain had the largest margin of support from businesses with 21+ employees – 64.7% to Obama's 27.8%. Businesses that identified themselves as having one employee had the closest margin of difference – 47.9% indicated they would vote for McCain to 42% who would vote for Obama.

Over 96% of those surveyed said they plan on voting this November. When asked whether race or age would play a part in the election, only 38% said that race would not affect the outcome and only 36% believed that age would not be a factor in the decision.

Advance portions of the survey were released last week, with 80% of small business owners believing the $700 billion dollar bailout would not help them or were not sure. Complete statistics can be found at http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/blog/.

For individual state results on responses, email at Kevin@MerchantCircle.com.

About the Survey

The survey was conducted through a random sampling of MerchantCircle members, and in all, totaled 4,379 responses. An email notice was sent to participating merchants and the survey was answered through an internet questionnaire. 31.5% of the sampling had one employee, 47.9% had 2 to 5 employees, 11.2% had 6 to 10 employees, 5.1% had 11 to 20 employees, and 4.3% 21+ employees.

About MerchantCircle

Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle is the largest social network of local business owners in the nation with over 625,000 members. MerchantCircle is funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Disney's Steamboat Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and IAC.

MerchantCircle is located on Main St. in downtown Los Altos, California.

Published 07 October 2008 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA October 3, 2008 – Only 20.1% of local business owners surveyed around the nation believe the U.S. Government’s proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry will help them, according to new survey results set to be released next Tuesday. The study was conducted from September 25 to October 1 by MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners in the nation. The survey results came from over 4,200 responders in all 50 states. MerchantCircle has 625,000 members across the nation.

“I think what we’re seeing here is Washington not conveying their message to Main Street America,” says MerchantCircle Founder, Ben T. Smith, IV. “Nearly 45% say the bailout will not help them out, and 35% aren’t sure. To me, that means they view this bailout as only helping out Wall Street, with little effect on the economy around them. The focus should be on how Main Street America sees this bailout – and that’s not coming across.”

In key swing states, Ohio (300+ surveyed) and Florida (700+ surveyed), the numbers hold steady with: Ohio 20.4% ‘Yes’ the bailout will help out local businesses, 42.7% ‘No’, and 36.8% ‘Not Sure’. Florida: 21.1%, 43.4%, 35.6%. Wisconsin (200) and Nevada (100) made up two of the states with the largest percentage of ‘No’ responses at 50.5% and 52% respectively. Conversely, Nevada also had one of the highest of ‘Yes’ responses with 24.5%. Michigan (100), one of the hardest hit economic states, had one of the lowest ‘Yes’ responses with 16.2%. 42.4% in that state said ‘No’ and 41.4% said ‘Not sure’.

Results of the complete MerchantCircle survey will be made available October 7, 2008. The questions range from which candidate would help out small businesses the most, whether race or age would play a part in their decision, and which candidate they planned on voting for in November. For the complete survey results on October 7, check the MerchantCircle blog at http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/blog or email Support@MerchantCircle.com for an emailed copy and alert.

Published 03 October 2008 - 0 comments   

OMAHA, NE and Los Altos, CA September 30, 2008 – infoGROUP (NASDAQ: IUSA), the leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases, local business listings for directories, Points of Interest (POI) for navigation systems, sales leads, direct marketing, email marketing and global information, today announced a partnership with MerchantCircle, the largest online network of local business owners in the nation, to distribute MerchantCircle’s local business information across the internet.

MerchantCircle’s Local Directory Submission (LDS) service provides local merchants the opportunity to add and update their business information across all major search engines, mobile devices and navigation systems. infoUSA will standardize and verify local business information for accuracy, then incorporate that information into the most current installment of the infoUSA database. As a result, this data will be distributed to key infoUSA partners. The leading 5 search engines in the U.S. rely on infoUSA's data to power their local search and directory offerings and 90% of vehicles with navigation systems on the road today use infoUSA Point of Interest (POI) data.

Jim DeRouchey, President, infoUSA License Division stated, “Partnering with MerchantCircle provides local businesses the opportunity for one-stop distribution of their locations to the marketplace. Local businesses are the most challenging businesses to find and verify. With infoUSA and MerchantCircle’s collaboration, regardless of the size, these businesses are incorporated in the infoUSA database and distributed broadly. The partnership emphasizes infoUSA’s commitment to providing the highest quality data for our partners in the local search, navigation and mobile space.”

“Our 615,000 local business members rely on MerchantCircle to attract customers online,” says Darren Waddell, Vice President of Marketing. “Partnering with infoUSA ensures that our members will be accurately represented when consumers look for local businesses across all major search engines and new channels like in-car navigation and mobile search.”

infoUSA remains a leading provider of proprietary business databases to the local search and navigation industries. For more information, please contact Jim DeRouchey, President, infoUSA License Division, at 402-537-7915 or jim.derouchey@infousa.com.

Published 30 September 2008 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA September 16, 2008 – Los Altos, CA September 16, 2008 – MerchantCircle, the largest online network of local business owners in the nation, and Spotzer Media Group, a pioneer of ready-to-air advertising solutions, today announce a partnership that gives MerchantCircle's 600,000 local business owners easy access to the most scalable, affordable custom videos in the market. This scale of high quality, professional video creation and distribution is unprecedented and the first of its kind.

"We've been experimenting and testing different video options for our local merchants for a long time," says Darren Waddell, MerchantCircle VP of Marketing. "A lot of the problems we saw related to issues with scaling custom video creation for hundreds of thousands of local merchants. The other issue was affordability; many local merchants just aren't able to pay thousands of dollars for a custom-produced video. Ultimately, working with Spotzer we solved these issues with unique and impressive technology."

MerchantCircle members will have access to Spotzer's library of thousands of professionally produced ready-to-air business videos. Members will have the option to put a free business video on their MerchantCircle listing. The basic video is automatically customized to reflect the merchant's name, address and contact details. All of the videos include title screens as well as professionally produced voice and music tracks. Since launch, more than 2,000 merchants have already added a video to their MerchantCircle listing.

Merchants can purchase exclusive rights to use their video in their region for $39 per month. Businesses desiring more customized videos can enhance the basic video with a unique voiceover for a fee of $69 per month. A premium upgrade is also available for $79 per month and allows the merchant to add photographs and logos into the video.

"Spotzer and MerchantCircle are a perfect fit. We both help small and local businesses put digital media to work by offering scalable solutions that are easy for merchants to use and extremely affordable," says Valerie Taylor, Spotzer Sr. Vice President. "MerchantCircle has been able to bring local businesses onto the web for their first experience. Through this partnership, they will have access to the web's most affordable custom video product."

"We're always looking for new ways to market ourselves, and had been looking for some time to provide a more engaging, unique, and personable web experience for our prospective clients," says Christopher Walker, Mission Grove Realty in Hemet, CA. "When we looked into adding a professional video for our business, all of the options we were seeing would have cost us hundreds of dollars. This has been, by far, the easiest and least expensive option we've found. We're extremely happy with the way the video turned out."

Published 16 September 2008 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA September 3, 2008 – MerchantCircle, the largest online network of local business owners in the nation with 575,000 members, today announces the launch of “Merchant Marketplace”. MerchantCircle members will have the opportunity to cut expenses while buying products from Fortune 500 companies at the lowest possible costs. The “Merchant Marketplace” gives business owners access to special offers from national brands.

“A lot of my business neighbors haven’t been so lucky as the economy slows down. I’ve been able to use MerchantCircle to get new customers and keep my existing customers coming in with new online promotions,” says Chuck Bruce, Bruce’s Sew Handy in Coarsegold, CA. “Now with the ‘Merchant Marketplace’, I can find deals for myself from American Express, AT&T, Office Depot, HP – that will allow me to save money on expenses so that I have more money to take home each month.”

“It’s a difficult time to be a business owner right now with the down economy,” say Darren Waddell, Vice President of Marketing, MerchantCircle. “Consumers are reluctant to spend, gas prices are going up and business costs continue to rise. That’s why we want to help business owners, not only to find new customers, but also to cut their business costs. We’re leveraging the buying power of 575,000 local merchants to offer the best deals all in one place.”

MerchantCircle aims to help local business owners cut expenses, grow their business, and take home more money at the end of the day. For national brands, the program gives unique access to 575,000 hard-to-reach local businesses across the nation.

To see all the companies involved in the Merchant Marketplace, go to: http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/blog/2008/09/finding-best-business-deals-on-web.html

Existing MerchantCircle members can take advantage of great deals from national brands at: http://www.merchantcircle.com/merchant/marketplace.

If you’re interested in becoming a member of the Merchant Marketplace, where you can market to the nation’s largest online network of local business owners, send an email to: BD@MerchantCircle.com.

Published 03 September 2008 - 0 comments   

Los Altos, CA August 6, 2008 – MerchantCircle, the largest online network of local business owners in the nation with 550,000 members, today announces its "Instant Website" service, the web's easiest-to-use website and custom domain name offering. Local business owners will be able to select a customized web address through the MerchantCircle platform and instantly create a website under that domain name. Included in the monthly service, MerchantCircle provides all web hosting and content creation tools, with business information automatically pulled and updated from their MerchantCircle listing onto a separate website.

"This offering comes as a direct result of conversations we've had with thousands of our merchants, more than 75% of whom have never had a web presence before," says Darren Waddell, Vice President of Marketing, MerchantCircle. "Our new Instant Website service will give merchants a true website with a business web address to serve as a complement to their existing MerchantCircle listing."

"I bought The Falk Company in 2004 and they had 60 customers nationwide for their Camfo Crème with no web presence," says Damian McAllister, owner of The Falk Company in Fargo, ND. "Since putting my business on MerchantCircle, I now have 300 customers, but I want to grow my business even more. Having a domain name and website through MerchantCircle will help me out even more on search engines and it's been an amazingly simple process. Literally, I just clicked button."

Currently, only 1 million out of an estimated 15 million local business owners advertise in the United States, with only 42% having websites (Sterling Market Intelligence). "Advertising a local business online is the most cost-efficient way to acquire local customers,"says Waddell. "In these difficult economic times, we believe every local business should have a professional-looking website." To help local merchants get online, MerchantCircle will give away 1,000 Instant Websites to reward its most active members.

The Instant Website product will be offered for between $14.99 and $6.99 per month depending on the number of web addresses selected, which will be hosted by MerchantCircle. Local business owners will be able to create new content (coupons, blogs, pictures, newsletters) through their MerchantCircle listing, and it will automatically be pulled onto their new business listing. The Instant Website service is the first of its kind on the web.

For more information, visit http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/landing/getdomainwebsite.html.

Published 06 August 2008 - 0 comments