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• Network With Randall

  

  

  

I’m Merchant Circle Curious…

I’ve been a member of Merchant Circle since early this year.

I am still trying to figure out exactly what the purpose is.

Don’t get me wrong, the listing on their site does show up in the search engine, so it’s not all bad. I’m thinking that this is one of those "all in one" solutions for businesses who don’t want to have a website (or don’t want to be overcharged for a crappy website.) Here are some of the things you can do on the site:

• Enter your business information (which will then show a map when your page is brought up.
• See if your business is listed on Yahoo! Local Search among other online business listing directories.
• Write a blog
• Connect with other local (or non-local) merchants and form a circle of businesses.
• Upload pictures (so people know what your store looks like, or what you look like, or what your featured product looks like, etc.)
• Upload video (because that viral marketing is so hot right now.)
• Review other businesses and email people with your link so they can review your business
• See if your business is in the news, where it shows on the web, etc.
• Submit advertisements or create online coupons for your business that can be seen by other Merchant Circle members or sent via email to your subscribers or contact list.

But here is the one that I think is really powerful:

• Add email addresses of your customers or contacts
• Send a newsletter using a predefined template right from Merchant Circle .
• These are FREE services

I don’t use this for my newsletters, but as free solutions go I think this one is pretty good. I’m not sure how they handle double opt-in for the email addresses to make sure you’re not spamming people (I didn’t see an option for double opt-in)  The template is pretty darn nice and it allows you to upgrade to a paid membership of you do not want advertisements in the header of the newsletter.

For most businesses that are too small or do not want to have a web presence, Merchant Circle seems like an interesting all-in-one solution that only requires as much updating as the business owner wants to have. Unlike a site where constant updates will keep your rank higher.

Is this the right solution for you? Check it out, give it a test drive. It can’t hurt! 

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