Website Review

Merchant Circle is basically an online business which offers the following services for 2 types of businesses:

(1) For Online Businesses - Merchant Circle helps to create awareness, increase traffic and basically handles the online marketing aspects (including ATL promos) of the business.

(2) For Offline Businesses - Merchant Circle helps to create an online element to one's existing physical shop/office/company.

There are basically 3 Plans that a Business Owner can choose from:

(1) Free
Package includes Pictures & Video Upload, Coupon creation, Ad on Merchant
Circle network and Blog creation; I think this is sufficient for those businesses that currently do not have an online presence. For those businesses that already have an online presence, you might find this Free package pretty useless and you should consider the next one.

(2) Gold ($29.95/mth)
Package includes the following:-
(i)Ads on Google & Yahoo search engines - Create up to 1 rotating ad per month
(ii) Management of online reputation - Monitor and control what's being said about your company
(iii) Increase business's visibility in nearby cities - Add 2 additional cities (service areas) where customers can find you when searching for products and services
(iv) Premium customer support

I think 2(i) and 2(ii) are useful tools to have, especially the latter. This is because this tool will probably allow you to gather customer feedback about your company's products or services, and thus allowing you to improve/enhance your products and services.

I have no idea what 2(iii) does, and I was also not able to find any information on this from the website.

(3) Platinum ($99.95/mth)
Package includes the following:-
(i) Ads on Google & Yahoo search engines - Create up to 4 rotating ads per month
(ii) Increase your business's visibility in nearby cities - Add 4 additional cities (service areas) where customers can find you when searching for products and services
(iii) Advertise on major newspaper sites - Score placement on top publishing sites in your area, top providers include — Chicago Tribute, USA Today, ABC News, and FOX News
(iv) Advertise on 411 phone directory calls - Gain ad placement on relevant directory calls

I think this Plan is for the more serious business owners whose very livelihood depend on the income of the business. However, I would recommend this Plan only for those business with more than $500 in monthly revenue. On average, businesses should only spend up to 20% of their revenue on advertising and marketing (Of course, this is highly dependent on the industry that one is in)

This used to be a sponsored post by Creamaid like HotelReservations and Orlando Hotels, but I have decided to turn it into my personal review and am refusing payment for this review.