White Stone Construction Inc.

Merchantcircle.com is a free website that allows merchants from all over to connect in one convenient place.  On your personal merchant page, you can post photos and blog, share information about your company’s products and services, tell your story, offer coupons and sales, and much more.  Yes, you can upgrade your account to get even more features!  The key thing about MerchantCircle is that it helps to increase your Google and other online rankings, for not only can you write reviews, but other merchants can write reviews about you, give you google +1s, like you on FaceBook, compliment you, and help drive traffic to your site.  There is even a “Main Street” community forum where you can interact with people from all over the country, which also helps to increase your rankings.

Our company has been actively working with our MerchantCircle listing only for the past few months, but already we have seen a 4-fold increase in company’s business.  On average, we are getting anywhere from 2600 to 3800 page views per month, with over 400 - 500 coming from Google and another 300-400 coming from Yahoo.  One question we hear a lot is, “How can I get more traffic to my website using Merchantcircle?”  We have found that there are certain things we do that have really helped grow our business and our rankings.  

The first thing we suggest is that after you join MerchantCircle, you should invite people to join you.  Start with your friends and local merchants, but also invite people from everywhere.  The more page views you get on Merchantcircle, the better as far as we are concerned.  You never know when a merchant 3000 miles away will happen to know someone near you who needs exactly what you offer.  How many people should you invite?  That question must be answered by you, but we typically invite 10-100 people per day!  In just a few months, we have grown our circle by leaps and bounds!

In the same way, we suggest that you accept ALL MerchantCircle invitations (as long as the person inviting you isn’t doing something obviously illegal, bad, or otherwise upsetting).  

Once someone accepts your invitation to join you, be sure to go to the left hand column of that person’s MC page and post a comment in the Talk To Me section.  We suggest that you tell the merchant that you are glad they joined your circle, and we usually tell the company that we have given it a +1, a FaceBook like, and we are now following that company.  By posting a comment in the Talk to Me section, you just left a backlink to your company, which helps BOTH of you.

We also give the new friend a 5 Star rating on their merchant page (the link to give compliments will appear on the right hand side of the merchant’s profile  just under marketplace to sign in and out links).  

If you know anything about the company or have heard good things about it, be sure to not only compliment them, but also give them a full review.  Remember, the more reviews you give and get, the better.  Rankings are review-driven!  Be sincere when you write the reviews!  People can smell lies a mile away!  But if you have something nice to say, say it!

It is especially important that when a merchant compliments your firm or writes a review about YOUR company that you return the favor.  Remember, the more content that is fresh, the better!  Google and Yahoo and other online search engines are LOOKING for fresh, new content every single day!  

Also, be sure to work on your own listing.  Don’t just write a complete profile.  Be sure to  create coupons (and either renew them or create new ones regularly!).  Having photos, videos, blog articles, and participating in the Question and Answer Forums all add to the “fresh content” that Google and other search engines use to rank sites.  Don’t forget to use keywords frequently to further ensure that you will get higher traffic.  

Also, seriously consider if you want to upgrade your account in any way.  There are many additional services available.  In this crazy economy, we are very selective about where we spend our marketing dollars, but we do know that people who upgrade their accounts on MerchantCircle (in particular ways) have had even more success than our firm.  At the end of the day, the real issue, though, is this one:  How can we as merchants band together and help each other grow?  We have found that MerchantCircle is one powerful way.  Together, we are more!

If you have any questions about how we are using MerchantCircle, please feel free to give us a call at 661-917-2433.  We would love to talk to you!

Used properly, MerchantCircle.com is a powerful tool for business -- and the best part is that it is free! Yes, you can upgrade your services with Merchantcircle -- and many of the upgraded services are worth the small fees the company charges -- but you are not required to do so.  One of the nice features of MerchantCircle is the ability to link your MC account with FaceBook and Twitter.   When the accounts are linked, every time you update your status on MerchantCircle, it also appears on your Facebook wall and your Twitter Time Line.

To link the accounts, first go to your MerchantCircle Dashboard.

Go to the “My Account” link, which is on the top right of the page (just under the search menu)

On the drop-down menu, click “Account Settings”

On the left sidebar, you will see a link called, “Twitter and Facebook.”

Click on either Facebook or Twitter to authorize the connection.  You will have to login to each application for the authorization.  Once the authorization link is established, your application icon will appear.  

To adjust your publishing settings, go to each instance of Facebook (personal profile and/or fan page) listed and click on “Settings.”   Determine which things you want to have imported and exported.

Next, click on the “Twitter” link and determine which publishing settings you want for that application.

Now, every time you update your status, it will also be updated on your Twitter Account or Facebook account or both, depending on what you want to publish to those other applications.

Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages to see how we are using Merchantcircle to grow our company.   You can catch us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/whitestoneconstruction and www.facebook.com/whitestoneconstructioninc.  Our Twitter page is www.twitter.com/WhiteStoneCA

In the high desert, it is important to find ways to reduce our energy costs in the summer and in the winter because we face extreme temperatures in both seasons.  In the winter, we can spend small fortunes trying to keep our houses warm enough, while in the summer, we spend other small fortunes trying to cool down from the blazing summer heat.  The good news is that there is a simple thing we can do to reduce our costs in both seasons; we can install the proper amount of attic insulation.

Whether we are relying on energy hogs like central air conditioning or swamp coolers for cooling or central heating or wall units for heating, one of the best ways to accomplish this goal of saving money on energy is to install attic insulation.  Having the proper amount of attic insulation significantly helps to prevent heated and cooled air from escaping through the ceilings of your home, helping you to more easily regulate the temperature in the home.  Be sure that your ducts are properly sealed. Otherwise, you can lose up to 20% of your cooled air there too. 

The best part of installing attic insulation is the fact that you can get a tax credit for doing so.  While the 2009 to 2010 Economic Stimulus tax credits have ended, you can still qualify for up to $500 credit for installing insulation.