Hammering it home: writing a series.

Time sure flies when you’re having series fun. No, that’s not a typo. Much like a college student trying to satisfy the requirements for her major, I’ve been caught up with researching and surveying, then writing up the research.

Over the last seven months, I’ve written three series: one for my business website, one for a performance marketing online magazine, and one that was split between two different blogs. The three series covered three seemingly unrelated topics. I guess if we look close enough we’ll discover some hidden symbiotic relationships. The topics?

1. Virtual Assistants
2. Monetizing Blogs
3. Small Business Vending

Monetizing Blogs Series

How blog owners monetize their blogs was the first series out the gate. Written for Performance Marketing Insider, it started as an article. Realizing I could use some input to broaden my understanding of what business blog owners were experiencing, I conducted a 7-question survey. To my surprise, the results were fodder for not one article, but three! And I’ve still got enough notes to write a few more on the subject.

Interaction around the articles was fairly lively, more on some than others. I’ve noted the number of comments in parentheses next to the articles.

Established Methods to Monetize Blogs – Never mind the ebooks and so-called special reports — where are the real inside scoops? Hear the perspective of bloggers who monetize blog content using performance marketing. This is Part 1 of the survey results. (52)

Survey: How Bloggers Monetize Blog Content – Business bloggers respond to survey on how they monetize blog content using affiliate programs and performance marketing. This is Part 2 of the survey results. (60)

Pave Way To Monetize Blogs – Everyone has a part to play. Bloggers say the performance and affiliate marketing industry has room for improvement. Surveyed about how they monetize blogs, they offer actionable recommendations in the most critical areas. (22)

Virtual Assistants Series

This series is not quite complete. It’s the one where the first article in the series was published on my business blog and the second one was produced as a guest post for GrowMap.com.

I wasn’t just inspired to write this one, I was breathing fire at least half-way through. You’ll understand once you know the title: Virtual Assistant Comment Spam. Ever been bugged, plagued, or incessantly annoyed by it? Virtual assistant comment spam is more heinous than even regular spambot activity or other human spammers because it costs unsuspecting small business owners both money and relationships.

On a bit calmer note and truer to my calling as a trainer (and all around small business champion), I penned a complementary article as a guest post on a high-traffic blog. Virtual Assistants: Step Up Your Game encourages VAs to invest in their own training, learn to properly conduct research, and be an asset to the small businesses that hire them.

There is at least one more in the pipeline for the virtual assistant series so keep an eye out for it!

Small Business Vending Series

Finally, the vending series was inspired in part by my aunt being a veteran with a special vending license, my love of New York Italian sausages and frankfurters served from an umbrella-covered cart, and a conversation with my neighbor about him wanting a vending machine for his woodworking shop.

I’m about halfway through this series. The first article lays out a roadmap of what all will eventually be covered. After writing it, I had an interesting interview with a husband and wife team, which led to the next couple of articles. The articles are a bit long but I think you’ll enjoy each one.

• Vending: An Economic Development Strategy for Local Small Business Success
• Hotdog! Street Vending Saves Family Finances
• Social Media: Equalizer for Mobile Small Business Vending

Had Any Writing Challenges Lately?

Whenever I’m inspired to write a lengthy series, I’m grateful for the inspiration but really happy when I can say, “Next!”

Nothing like putting the hammer to the nail. What were your greatest writing challenges over the last few months? How did you overcome? Let me know in the comments.

Images: Meeting Hammer Illustration courtesy of Hiking Artist via Flickr. Creative Commons License.

I wrote a guest post on a Christian blog for my friend Gunther Hess in Berlin. Although the article is in English, he wrote an introduction in German. I thought it was just the coolest thing! So, for your amusement, here is the German intro along with a Google translation. Not sure the translation is really word-for-word, but since I don’t speak German, I can’t complain.

Von Vernessa Taylor – Vernessa ist Internet- und Businesscoach. Heute Teil 1 ihrer zweiteiligen Serie über Entrepreneurship. Persönlich kenne ich nur wenige Menschen, die so von Kopf bis Fuß professionell eingestellt sind wie Vernessa. Im Vorfeld hat Vernessa mir sehr detaillierte Fragen über die Leser von Internetmissionar.de gestellt und den Artikel entsprechend abgestimmt. Vernessa ist ein sehr guter Coach und hat mir geduldig in vielen technischen Fragen weitergeholfen. Gerne könnt ihr euch an Vernessa wenden und Ihre Servicedienstleistungen in Anspruch nehmen. Ich kann Sie von Herzen weiterempfehlen. Der Artikel ist auf Englisch. Fragt mich, falls ihr etwas nicht versteht.

Google Translation: German to English

From Vernessa Taylor – Vernessa is Internet and Business Coach. Today one of their two-part series on entrepreneurship. Personally I know of few people who are set from head to toe professionally as Vernessa. In the run Vernessa asked me very detailed questions about the readers of the article Internetmissionar.de and voted accordingly. Vernessa is a very good coach and patiently helped me in many technical questions. Glad you can go to Vernessa turn and take your warranty claim. I can you recommend from the heart. The article is in English. Ask me if you do not understand something.

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As you can see, a couple of phrases don’t seem to be translated properly. (I can tell that much because Gunther speaks excellent English!)

Read the article on the Internet Missionary blog: Christian Entrepreneurship: A Lesson From A Faithful Widow.

Photo Credit: I used this photo of a beautiful pair of pottery vases to accompany the article. It fit perfectly because the article focuses on containers (or pots!) to hold blessings. Thanks to Tanakawho for sharing the image on Flickr.