Merchant Circle Now!

silvertree

I have a Merchant Circle listing for a couple of years, that's free. So they have a deal for $10 leads, I buy 6 not expecting much, and I get billed for $69. Hmmm!
So that's a month ago and today I check and it looks like I got 2 leads. My wife called me, that was $10 and my daughter called me, that was $10?
How and why I don't know, because I don't get a lot of calls and am confused on this.
Also in fine print is as soon as you get down to 2 leads they fill your lead box so you don't miss any calls, and they took my phone number off the listing and put theirs instead. Sound familiar.
So I got a new credit card today.

I think I am done signing up with any ad or lead service from the internet, I can't find any peace with these guys because its a slimeball business in general.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
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Ed the Roofer

If they require a credit card #, I stop filling them out.

The free MC does good for bringing my site up on page one for an additional time though.

Post in their forum and ask your questions. They are actually pretty responsive.

Ed

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DavidC

I got several calls from those guys. The message was that someone had inquired about my business at their site but my application was not complete, I'd better hurry and complete it. I checked their website to discover there have been no inquiries for my company but I could fill out the forms and get started right away.

My scamguard prevents me from getting any further with them. It does have a familiar ring to it.

Good Luck
Dave

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Ed the Roofer

I have never been solicited for any upgrade service in the past 1 1/2 years by only having the free listing with them.

Ed

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silvertree

Thanks for that tip.
My credit card was worn out so it was no big deal to get a new number.

As for my signing up for $10 leads, I did it for a slightly better listing, I knew what I was doing and didn't expect much, so no problem.
When I checked today and saw I had lost 2 lead credits they posted the phone numbers and they were both mine. What happened was I used my wifes phone to call their number, they removed my phone number of 20 years and put theirs instead, so when I called their number from my phone twice they charged me for calling myself. Since I called myself, nobody answered but I got charged anyway. $10 each time. Funny actually. So I'm out $69 because when you quit they don't refund unused leads.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

coolflatroof

I never go for paid listings or leads (after i dealt with quality screw-smith 3 years ago -- hate those guys, but that's all different story).

Basically I like MC a LOT, and I'm very confused why more people don't use it. Honestly it does not get me ANY direct business or any lead or calls (not that I know of), but it is just great for SEO and helps my site a ton.

BTW, MC has a feature where companies can network, or become "friends" and that is very helpful for your MC listing and puts additional link juice to your (my) main website. So, I welcome people here to join me on MC, and get the mutual benefit. Here is my listing: http://www.merchantcircle.com/busine...g.888-635-2876 - just do the "Invite Merchant" thing there...

I urge others to post their profiles here. It's just like your second website guys - use it!

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SLSTech

CoolFlatRoof - Invitation sent My MC Page

They did try the "we received a request asking us to verify your business" today which I declined

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StefanC

Invited both of you.

http://www.merchantcircle.com/busine...g.215-783-9838

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www.sccustompainting.com

Martin Co

I just added coolflatroof - sls and stefanc

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Martin Co

StefanC, I really like how clean your website looks, especially the mantle!

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StefanC

Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. It's a work in progress and I cant take any credit for it except for taking the pictures!

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www.sccustompainting.com

Ed the Roofer

On the Free account, you only get to invite up to 100 members, so try to add them judiciously.

I think Local companies and Related trade services would have more pull than businesses that have nothing to do with your trade, especially if they are from around the country, in my opinion.

Ed

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lt142

Invited all of you.
http://www.merchantcircle.com/busine.....508-873-0966

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coolflatroof

to Ed,

I agree with you that you have to add merchants selectively, BUT, i've had MC for quiet some time now, and I really did not do anything after the first couple of weeks to that profile. But in that first two weeks I invited over a 150 local merchants, and to date only 10-15 either accepted or rejected. The rest just never checked the invitation.

Most people do not realize the MC potential. over 90% of companies registered there, did not fill out "about us" section, never mind adding pictures/videos, deep links to their internal pages, etc. Those are the people who do not get the benefit of MC.

Check out my profile: Ive filled out 100% of possible fields. I have 4 deep links in the to my internal pages. I have a pretty long company an service description, etc. This is what Google loves. I could care less about MC traffic - I do not get any... it's all in the link juice.

So guys, fill out your profile completely, post a link to your main website AND use additional links for internal pages. ONLY then will MC help you in anyway.

The above goes for Mike, Stefan, SLS and others! Spend the hour to fill it ALL out. It will save you countless hours and $$$ in the future, by going to unqulified sales leads (this is just an example).

Ed, If you have at least 50 local construction companies in your MC profile, please teach me how you did it

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StefanC

How do you add additional links with keywords instead of the URL?

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PMI

Hi everyone,
I just learned of a company called elocal and it seems that they have a free listing service for different categories including plumbers (www.elocalplumbers.com), electricians (www.elocalelectricians.com) and roofers (www.elocalroofers.com). Anyone ever try them? Anyone ever upgrade to the paid for advertising options with any extra success? I am going to register and see what comes of it.

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coolflatroof

Stefan:

In your MC dashboard, click on "customize my website" and from the options find "manage links".

These links are additional to you main site links.

PMI: I think elocal is another scam like service magic or qs or others. You can try with free listing, but be porepared to get many calls soliciting you to sign up for paid leads. If you do, provide fake phone #

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coolflatroof

To ED,

BTW, the guy from elocalroofers.com, andy ... i see his picture on your site as well... damn templates ... your webmaster did not even bother to get custom photos

Also the chick bellow andy, ive seen her as well, on someone's site. I believe on the windows guy's from Foxboro, MA

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handyhands

Well,....I'm actually rather shocked that it looks like alot of you pro's are using merchant circle.

Not too long ago, we had a BIG problem with them,..One of our competitor's had posted a bogus review on merchant circle about us,..Said that our salesman went out the the house loaded, and wound up double charging their credit card. Funny thing is, the said "persons" name was the name of someone in our company who doesn't even run leads, and after some investigatory work found it to be one of our competitors that has lost a few jobs to us.

Anyhow, you have a better chance at hitting powerball than you do at getting a live human on the phone with merchant circle. Only and not until after sending a threatening email to merchant circle was the bogus feedback/ review removed....But my concern was during all of this, when doing an internet search of my company's name, it came up on the first page, with the negative review from merchant circle attached to it.

All in all, I understand that desperate people do f'd up shiat in desperate times.

Back to merchant circle, though--Use your judgement. If it works for you--GREAT

-But,...for craps and giggles,...check 'em out on www.ripoffreport.com (do a search for merchant circle)..Think there's currently 5 complaints on them.

--Good Luck~

eLocal

Thanks Coolflatroof for the comment. I would like to offer a reply. Nothing about our sites is a scam. Our free listings are meant to be just that, free. Some people have had good success from them, others not. Our sites are designed so our paying advertisers are the ones most likely to get the results. We certainly hope that our free advertisers choose to become paid at some point, however we do not call them repeatedly to push advertising. In fact, our only call to them is typically just to verify their information and explain how our service works. Our activities are solely focused on responding to contractors that have contacted us or requested to be listed in our directories. We are also very different from the lead generation services you mentioned. First and foremost we are consumer and contractor friendly online directories. We also may provide leads, but when we do they are free. Any leads that come through our sites go to our advertisers first and then free listings if no advertisers are in a certain area. We have no scenario where someone pays for leads. All that a fake phone number will accomplish is not getting your free listing and not getting leads as we verify all information before it goes live on the site. We encourage you to find out how we really work as we believe you will be pleasantly surprised. Lastly, the photos on our home page are stock photography. If you have any pictures of attractive contractors or receptionists, please send them along. We can make them famous. We appreciate hearing the opinions and experiences of contractors and those who have used our sites and will reply to the best we can.

Bruce Aronow
eLocal CEO