Circle the Wagons

When we got an invite from past Retailer Excellence Award winner Santoro & Co. to join MerchantCircle, we’d never heard of it. But we were intrigued – the pitch invited us to link to each other and refer customers, sort of a social network for retailers. On checking out the site, it seems to be more of a hybrid: discussion forums plus how-to guides plus online ads, local listings and customer reviews. Has anyone joined for free, or signed up for their paid ad services? Has it helped your business?