Content Marketing

Getting outside is a big, growing business. The combination of improved technology, convenient ways to share information among outdoor retailers, and the ever-present lure of getting to show off on social media has filled our trails and peaks with enthusiastic new hikers, skiers, and climbers. All of these folks need to be outfitted for the journey. Unsurprisingly, few ecommerce industries have seen more rapid (and impressive growth) than outdoor brand retailers. Here are just a…

So, you’ve set up a blog, brainstormed some awesome ideas, and even identified who’s going to be the lucky person who creates these posts. But you’re stuck. How many blog posts is the perfect amount? The amount that maximizes reach without wasting resources? We’ve collaborated with many blogs over the past few years and have seen what’s worked and what hasn’t. And while this isn’t the end-all, be-all, we’ve built some pretty good guidelines that…

Volume Nine welcomes Angela Tague as a guest contributor to our blog. Learn more about Angela’s writing expertise following this post.  Writing well isn’t always enough to gain readers. Spreading the word about your latest blog post or online article generally takes a little leg work both before and after you publish the content. Not sure where to begin? Here are a few content amplification techniques I use to engage my readers, boosts page views…

Some things just naturally go together – like salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly and TV and couch. Unfortunately, creative content and keyword optimization is not always one of those things. Loading up an article with keywords can feel a little robotic and restrictive. Content writers want to have a unique voice, and adhering to keyword optimization requirements can sometimes interfere with the creative process. But, if you want your online business to thrive,…

People around the world are more connected than ever before, with Pew Research Center reporting earlier this year that 64 percent of American adults use smartphones. Include the number of tablet, laptop, and desktop users, and you end up with a lot of people reading a massive amount of content. For businesses, this offers a variety of opportunities to engage loyal customers and reach new leads. However, when generating content for your business, is long…

Whether a business is attempting to make a sale, encouraging email sign-ups, or requesting contact information, marketers face a challenge to write copy that screams “Click me!” However, in the 26 years since the World Wide Web launched, users have seen the phrase “click me” more times than it’s possible to count. Successful conversion copywriting requires marketers to think outside of the box. The copywriting conventions many marketers rely on must be interrupted and reinterpreted…

We’ve been performing influencer outreach at Volume Nine for a while now, feeling triumphant in huge successes and suffering through some learning experiences. Fortunately, we’ve learned from both and want to openhandedly share our experience with you. The valuable role bloggers and influencers play in brand promotion should be highly regarded by Internet savvy companies. Online influencers may have a small audience compared to traditional advertising options, but they have earned the much coveted loyalty…

Amplifying your blog content is key. IF you’re writing countless blogs but fail to properly promote them, what’s the point? A better strategy is to create an awesome blog post, brainstorm ways to amplify it, and then spend time getting it out into the great unknown. To get you started, here 10 ways to amplify blog content: Link to Your Blog in Emails In your marketing emails or newsletters, include links to your latest blog posts. It’s…

Your link profile (meaning the collection of backlinks to your website) plays a major role in your search engine rankings. Consequently, bad backlinks, or simply “bad links”, can negatively impact your SEO. That’s why it’s important to identify the bad links in your link profile, and then make an educated decision about what to do with each one. What is a Bad Link? Bad links come in various forms, but in general they are backlinks…

  What is Duplicate Content? In terms of SEO, duplicate content refers to a piece of text on a web page that is exactly the same as, or very similar to text on another web page. Search engines don’t like duplicate content, plain and simple; and when Google flags a web page as “duplicate”, that specific page will likely suffer in the SERPs. In fact, if it’s difficult for a search engine to tell which page between…