Friday, November 5, 2010
Hi everyone,
We have some exciting news! MerchantCircle has entered into an agreement with Ask.com to take over the popular RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader service Bloglines.com.
For those of you who may not be immediately familiar with Bloglines, it is the world's most popular free online service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing RSS feeds, blogs and rich web content. Bloglines was a pioneer in bringing RSS feeds and rich content to mainstream Internet users. It’s been touted for excellence around the world with many awards and accolades, including Time Magazine's Coolest Websites for 2004 and Search Engine Watch's "Best Blog/Feed Search Engine" award.
Ask.com, which has owned the property for the last few years, had decided to retire the service to focus more on its core offerings. This provided a wonderful opportunity for MerchantCircle to acquire the operations to reinvest in the platform and enhance it for its 2.7 million users.
As we scale our business to enable more local conversations, we believe the value of the Bloglines platform remains strong. In the coming months we will work hard to make the Bloglines user experience richer, more flexible and more local. Providing local content will be a key element to the future of Bloglines.
The deal carries strategic significance for MerchantCircle and our 1.4 million local business members. We plan to introduce powerful blog aggregation features to our members through their account dashboards by integrating pre-created RSS feeds that deliver targeted content on their local areas and industries.
Over the past six months MerchantCircle has built a system that publishes unique local content on our pages and on partner pages using freelance writers recruited into our Local Content Studio. We have already produced over 100,000 short-form content pieces for our City pages and Answers products, and we are now publishing illustrated articles on consumer topics around our merchants' business and service categories.
Please contact us to discuss incorporating Bloglines feeds into your products and services, gain access to our unique local content, or with other ideas how we can leverage these new capabilities together.
Cheers,
The MerchantCircle Business Development Team
Official Press Release
http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/press/2010-11-04-MerchantCircle-Revitalizes-Bloglines.html
TechCrunch: Exclusive: Bloglines Will Be Resurrected By IAC-Funded MerchantCircle
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/04/exclusive-bloglines-will-be-resurrected-by-iac-funded-merchantcircle/
Labels: Bloglines, Feeds, MerchantCircle, RSS
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Hi everyone,
MerchantCircle has had an exciting year, including acquiring online scheduling company Timebridge, launching our Local Content Studio and expanding our network to include over 1.3 million small businesses. We’re thrilled that two leading web measurement firms, Quantcast and comScore, have taken notice of MerchantCircle’s recent growth:
• Quantcast recently named merchantCircle.com one of the country’s top 100 websites
• MerchantCircle’s #95 Quantcast rank (up from #151 in June 2009) places us ahead of popular destinations such as nbc.com, expedia.com and latimes.com
• comScore Media Matrix named MerchantCircle a top 10 gaining web property for July 2010, with an 18% increase in unique visitors from June to July
These achievements demonstrate MerchantCircle’s commitment to enabling valuable conversations between local merchants and consumers. Please contact us if you would like access to MerchantCircle’s unique local content or have other ideas how we can partner to help small businesses find new customers online.
Cheers,
The MerchantCircle Business Development Team
Official Press Release:
MerchantCircle Breaks Into the Top 100 U.S. Websites Rankings According to Quantcast
http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/press/2010-10-13-MerchantCircle-Top-100.html
Quantcast names merchantcircle.com a top 100 US web property
http://www.quantcast.com/top-sites-1
comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for July 2010
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comscore-media-metrix-ranks-top-50-us-web-properties-for-july-2010-101652118.html
MerchantCircle Acquires TimeBridge to Offer Superior Online Scheduling Capabilities to over 1.3 million Local Business Owners
http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/press/2010-09-22-MerchantCircle-Acquires-TimeBridge.html
MerchantCircle Acquires Online Meeting Scheduler TimeBridge
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/21/merchantcircle-acquires-online-meeting-scheduler-timebridge/
MerchantCircle Business Development Blog
http://bdblog.merchantcircle.com/
Monday, August 30, 2010
Hi Everyone,
We are excited to announce the release of the MerchantCircle Local Content Studio (LCS), which enables our 1.3 Million business owners to create exciting, locally-relevant content such as articles, city and neighborhood descriptions and lists, local photos and more.
Since soft-launching in May, in the first 8 weeks LCS contributors have produced over 28,000 city descriptions and nearly 12,000 accompanying local photosets.
The goal of LCS is to:
• Help merchants gain online exposure by demonstrating their expertise and strengthening ties with local customers through the creation of useful, locally-relevant content;
• Enhance the consumer search experience by favoring hyper-local content over generalized topic articles that do not have local relevance;
• Reward users for locally-relevant content creation, with contributors earning hundreds of dollars per week for their work
LCS’s early success demonstrates MerchantCircle’s commitment to connecting small businesses with local customers and providing consumers with the ultimate local search experience. Please contact us if you are interested in utilizing LCS content, to request more information about the Local Content Studio or to discuss crafting a partnership.
Cheers,
The MerchantCircle Business Development Team
Follow the Press:
Official Press Release:
MerchantCircle Introduces “Local Content Studio” to Enhance Consumer Search Experience and Expand Merchant Exposure
MerchantCircle offers local content for small businesses
BizReport
By Kristina Knight
August 27, 2010
Hyperlocal Business Directory MerchantCircle Takes On Patch With Content Studio
TechCrunch
By Leena Rao
August 26, 2010
MerchantCircle Developing Local Freelancers, Content Library
Screenwerk
By Editorial Staff
August 26, 2010
MerchantCircle Launches Local Content Studio
BIA Kelsey Group
By Peter Krasilovsky
August 27, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Hi Everyone,
Last week MerchantCircle released results from our quarterly Merchant Confidence Index (MCI). We surveyed over 10,000 small business owners around the U.S. about everything from their social networking habits to their economic outlook to the current credit market. Here are some highlights:
•The MCI held constant at a rating of 60.65 out of 100, compared to 60.5 last quarter.
•Social networking has eclipsed email marketing to become the most popular marketing channel among surveyed merchants.
•Foursquare awareness doubles in 3 months, from 8% last quarter to 16% today. Of merchants that are aware of Foursquare, 32% use the service to promote their business.
•Twitter has become a household name among the local business community, with 92% percent of merchants aware of the micro-blogging service. Awareness of Yelp has grown from 39% last quarter to 48% today. 27% of merchants have heard of Groupon.
Below please find links to press coverage. If you’re interested in partnering with MerchantCircle or discussing other ways we can work together to bring more value to small businesses and consumers, please contact us.
Cheers,
The MerchantCircle Business Development Team
Official Press Release:
http://finance.sfgate.com/hearst/?Account=sfgate&GUID=13862473&Page=MediaViewer
Follow the Press:
MerchantCircle Confidence Index says small business owners' mood unchanged
123Print
By Dereck McAllister
July 17, 2010
http://www.123print.com/News/MerchantCircle-Confidence-Index-says-small-business-owners-mood-unchanged-690
Survey: Social Nets Have ‘Eclipsed’ Other Channels
Screenwerk
By Greg Sterling
July 15, 2010
http://www.screenwerk.com/2010/07/15/survey-social-nets-have-eclipsed-other-channels/
Foursquare Coming to a Search Engine Near You?
WebPro News
By Chris Crum
July 19, 2010
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/07/19/foursquare-coming-to-a-search-engine-near-you
Local Merchants Utilizing Social Media More as Confidence Remains Flat
WebPro News
By Chris Crum
July 16, 2010
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/07/16/local-merchants-utilizing-social-media-more-as-confidence-remains-flat
Retailers’ confidence remains flat despite $30 Billion in stimulus spending
Central Business Valley Times
By Editorial Staff
July 16, 2010
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=15743
MerchantCircle Business Development Blog
www.bdblog.merchantcircle.com
Labels: MCI
