{"id":1798,"date":"2008-12-17T19:23:36","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T23:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=1798"},"modified":"2008-12-17T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T23:32:14","slug":"merchant-circle-has-trouble-getting-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/17\/merchant-circle-has-trouble-getting-it-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Merchant Circle has trouble getting it right"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have in the past criticized Merchant Circle’s marketing tactics<\/a>. However, my recent interview<\/a> with Chuck Bruce of\u00a0Central Valley Vacuum and Sewing Center<\/a>,\u00a0allowed me to see them from the merchant’s point of view and, for a moment anyways, allowed me to see them in a different light. I figured that if they could make Chuck happy and help him in his retail struggle, they couldn’t be all bad, despite the many Merchant Circle complaints<\/a> amongst search professionals. If Chuck said that they were a stand up company than who was I to proclaim otherwise. Maybe I just needed to adjust my point of view.<\/p>\n

That attitude didn’t last long. I had re-judged them too soon. They are in fact tacky marketers. They have been actively posting stealth comments in my recent In The Trenches interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New comment on your post #1750 “In the Trenches: the reality of SMB Marketing- Bruce’s Sew Handy Interview”
\nAuthor : Local User (IP: 64.105.141.242 , mx.merchantcircle.com<\/strong>)
\nE-mail : tom.johnson64@yahoo.com
\nURL : http:\/\/www.merchantcircle.com\/business\/Bruces.Sew.Handy.559-641-7300
\nWhois : http:\/\/ws.arin.net\/cgi-bin\/whois.pl?queryinput=64.105.141.242
\nComment:
\n182 Page Views a Month from the MerchantCircle listing. Clearly generating some traffic from there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They didn’t just post once but have done so 3 times with three different identities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My note to Merchant Circle: <\/strong><\/p>\n

You are welcome to come and discuss the issues in Local on my blog. You probably have a lot to contribute. But when you come, come as you are, don’t be skulking around. I can accept warts, I have a few myself. I just can’t abide you using my blog to\u00a0surreptitiously\u00a0promote your services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have in the past criticized Merchant Circle’s marketing tactics. However, my recent interview with Chuck Bruce of\u00a0Central Valley Vacuum and Sewing Center,\u00a0allowed me to see them from the merchant’s point of view and, for a moment anyways, allowed me to see them in a different light. I figured that if they could make Chuck …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t