I have been having a great time writing for Helium.com. I've heard some different criticisms about Helium but I have never personally had a problem. Since anyone can post an article instantly there are a some cases of spamming. But eventually all articles are filtered as they are rated by the other Helium writers. Hopefully Helium will implement a better filtration system in the future, but overall Helium is a great community.
Another common complaint I often hear about Helium is that they don't pay their writers nearly enough and many question whether any actual money can be made writing with Helium. Granted Helium is not a get rich scheme but you can earn a bit of extra monthly money while at the same time promoting yourself, your business, and your website.
Helium lives up to their promise that the better you write,(and the more that you write) the more that you will earn. A lot of the people who complain about the Helium system have many misspellings and improper sentence structure in their articles, if you don't bother to use punctuation or run your articles through spell check then you can't expect to do well at Helium.
When writing for Helium be prepared to be rated. Some writer's become very upset when their article isn't rated highly. Helium provides its writer's with leap frogs (which is the chance to rewrite or make corrections to your article) so you have the opportunity to make improvements on submissions. Instead of getting upset at a low rating use it as an opportunity to examine your article and think of ways to improve on it. It also doesn't hurt to enjoy a little bit of competition.
Update - April 23 2008 -
Over the past year at Helium I've noticed that their rating system does not work. Over time I've have a number of articles reach number one, then go down to last place, then back up to number one again. How on earth can the same article be rated as the best and the worst?
I've made $60.00 with 45 articles over a year and a half. If you are a writer you could use Helium to promote yourself or you can use it to make a couple of bucks on articles, stories, or poetry, that you were unable to sell elsewhere, but I personally find it hard justifying wasting my time writing specifically for Helium itself.
According to the Helium message boards many are finding success with the Helium Marketplace. I've wasted my time submitting three articles to the marketplace for zero pay. I would have been better off putting them up for sale on a site like Constant Content.
My enthusiasm for Helium has definitely worn off, they haven't even set up a pay scale or a way for writers to see how much traffic each article is receiving. I won't go as far as to call it a scam but I wouldn't say they treat writers fairly either.
Here are a few of my Helium articles:
Good small businesses to start from home
How to boost traffic to your blog
American Idol: Reactions to the Season Six premiere
Posts
11 comments:
I've enjoyed my limited experience at Helium too. I haven't written there recently because I've been devoting most of my "writing time" to either my blog or to Associated Content (http://www.associatedcontent.com), another site you may want to check out if you're interesting in sites that collect, publish and pay for content. Overall, I think people get disillusioned with these sites if they expect to earn a living from them, but as a way to get your writing out there and earn a little spending money, they're great!
Hi Pam!
Thanks for the link, unfortunately Canadians cannot submit to Associated Content, but we can submit to Constant Content. I've heard a lot of people talking about how much they love writing for Associated Content, it sounds like a fun place to submit.
Yes, I don't think anyone could make a living at Helium unless they wrote a few thousand articles or so, lol. I wonder what the record for the most articles written by a Helium writer is...Hmmm....it would be interesting to find out!
Have a great night! :)
Hi there Christy! You've reminded me that I haven't been there in a while, thanks:)
I do enjoy contributing to Helium and while I don't make a fortune over there I do continue to make a bit even when I don't add new articles, that's nice.
Continue the good work and see you around!
Thanks Tisha! I agree, the best part about Helium is that even if you stop writing your articles are still earning. You gotta love it!
Wow Chrisy, I was not even aware that Canadians are not able to join AC. That is a shame! I am not sure about this but there is also Constant Content...you could look into that. (And keep me updated!)
Hi Christy,
I came across your blog whilst trying to look up Helium's potential. I don't think i'm great at writing yet but gotta push myself to keep reviewing and practising.
I'm in the process of starting a small business and trying to earn money of the net and blog so your articles were of great interest.
Thanks and i'll make sure I stop by soon.
Hi JoyAnn, I'm sorry I missed your comment way back when, I have tried Constant Content, I'm not very fond of how they speak to their writers over there. I wrote one article for them and it got accepted but they have such an attitude of superiority that I was not motivated to write anything else for them.
Hi Forest!
Thank you, good luck with your business! It is possible to earn money off the net but you must avoid the ten million scams out there and find the "real" ways to earn some money. :)
Helium is a scam and a ton of people are leaving that site. They have a dishonest rating and paying system. They will remove posts on the forum that ask questions of concerns or that will pose a direct negative light on them. The fact is, they really don't pay even though you earn the money. Everyone who reads this, my friend just got ripped off. They refused to pay her, and my counsin said they really don't pay when they are supposed to pay. They paid her late and acted like it was ok to pay late because they were busy. If you have a problem seen complaints to www.ripoffreport.com or www.econsumer.gov. It is time people stood up for what is right. Please make good decisions and read reviews of scams before getting ripped off. Thanks for letting me share.
I'm sorry to disagree, but I haven't been paid by Helium, and it's not for lack of trying. I also think their rating system doesn't work, judging by the quality of writing that shows up in top positions, while quality articles languish somewhere off in the distance. See for yourself. Typos and sloppy writing abound and take higher positions than well-written articles. I'm taking my future articles to Triond or Associated Content.
A solid analysis, including the update and the understanding of the positives and limitations of the rating system; and especially the problems with a non-transparent payscale.
To date, for me at least, it has thus far been relatively easy to achieve minimum payout per month. (You can check out the kinds of articles I write at my Helium profile, provided in the linked url.) This could change, however, especially since Helium's focus seems to be changing again ... curiously, away from the primarily adshare (pseudo-royalty) model which originally made it attractive to so many writers.
Helium had filled a unique niche on the Internet. Wouldn't it be a shame if they developed into just another marketplace commission content provider?
"Zero is a percent."
- The Simpsons
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