Website reviews: Helium.com

Helium.com is a website I joined last year for writing online articles. I wasn't sure what it was all about as to a newcomer the site looks vast, and the intention of membership was never made that clear. However, once you delve beneath the skin of Helium, it opens up a whole new world which I have found myself loving ever since.

Helium is a website which displays your written work on all subjects and all different aspects of life, from Arts and Humanities, right through the spectrum to the latest movie reviews. It's a neat concept and one of the things I was to learn on my journey was the potential of earnings my activity on the site would gain me.

==Becoming a member.==

Becoming a member is relatively easy. You fill in details on a very easy form, and are sent an email to confirm membership, just as you are on sites like Ciao. When logging in for the first time, you are able to fill in your profile with fun questions and answers, and also have a space to fill out your writing history. It's actually more important than you think, since having a filled out profile means that you are more likely to be approached by publishers looking for written work. It gives you page a much more professional look. You are also encouraged to use real sounding names, as it is hardly likely that a publisher would want to advertise on their website that the content they have bought was written by Mrs. Blob or someone called Fairy Queen.

Choosing a pen name is simple too, and in the settings area of the site, you can choose a name you think reflects the kind of writing style you have, or simply choose an anonymous style of name such as I have.

==Setting up payments.==

It will be a while before you start to see the earning potential of the site. At first you begin to think that you work is of little value, though experience shows you that instead of your work only gaining pennies in the month of posting it, an article goes on to earn revenue on an ongoing basis. When you have a lot of content like I do, the earnings potential is very worthwhile, and I can easily clear 500 dollars a month on a poor month.

To set up your payments, you need to ensure that the email address which is registered with Helium is the same as that used for PayPal. This automatically links up and allows your payment requests to go direct to your PayPal account.

==So what do you write about?==

The kind of things I write about vary from articles about shoes to articles about psychology. What is neat about the site is that there are very few limits. If you want to write a poem you can, and they have a separate section for creative writing which includes poetry, short stories, reflections, memoirs, plays, essays, etc., a little like the cafe on Ciao though much more extensive, and also paid.

For the time being I tend to write advice articles on things that matter in my life and where I believe my experiences may be valuable information for people looking for help. For example, I suffer from hypothyroidism, and it didn't take much to write an article about what it feels like from a patient perspective. In fact, any experience you have in life can be written about in Helium style and make you money.

There have been some amazing topics on the site which just fit who I am, and I don't know many members who can say there is nothing there for them. Even a housewife knows how to clean the home or organize their washing, just as a medical professional knows the signs and symptoms of illness, and the neat thing about Helium is that it doesn't matter what walk of life you come from. Your voice is just as important to making the site complete as anyone who chooses to write on different topics to you.

==Competitions.==

I do rather well on writing contests. These are held weekly, and are usually a mixture of titles on a similar theme. For example, this week we have a Christmas competition and the idea is that you contribute as many good quality articles to the contest as possible and that your points are added up at the end of the week to determine your place on the leader board. It's fun, and I often win contests which pay me about $60 and this potential is open to everyone.

==Promotional periods.==

During the time I have been on Helium, I have noticed that the amount of promotional periods has increased. At the moment, for example, you get money for each article you write if you have achieved a certain level of writing score. This is shown clearly in your area of the site, and is translated in stars which stand proudly on your profile. To qualify you have to do your share of responsible rating but let's face it, how far would you get on a site like Ciao if you didn't bother rating anyone? How much would you learn about the skill of writing? In fact, since rating on Helium, I have learned much about myself, and also had the opportunity to pick titles that I would perhaps not even have known existed, and written articles to them.

==How rating works.==

I think this is one of the most unique rating systems I have ever come across. Take a look how favoritism shows on sites like Ciao, and how people rate based upon who wrote the article, rather than the quality of the article. On Helium, you have no idea who you are rating and are presented with two boxes, side by side, where you rate one article against another anonymously.

Some complain about the quality of ratings, though there are always complainers on whatever site you write to, and over the past year, the improvements made to the site mean that ratings are a lot more effective, and that the cream rises to the top.

Don't believe that your article has the ratings it merits? Simply go into your MY ARTICLE area of the site and edit your article with their leapfrog system and the whole chain gets rerated.

==What gives you incentive to write on Helium?==

To me, it is the freedom of choice. I have never been short of words, and can always string words together, but I am doing more than that. I have written for opinion sites for more than ten years, and here was I, presented with a real opportunity to write on topics I considered as important, rather than just writing consumer reviews on products. Learning to do product reviews hand in hand with knowledge articles widened my perspective. I learned that instead of an empty voice on the Internet that said how good a shampoo was, I could pass out information on things which mattered very much to me, and write about things I consider myself to be expert on.

I write about rabbit care, based on being a rabbit owner. I write about what it's like experiencing getting published for the first time, or how to get published in magazines, based on my lifetime experience, and somewhere along the line, someone reads what I write and it makes a difference to their life. Often I have received emails from people from all over the world thanking me for the information in my articles, and that means a great deal and gives me the drive and incentive to continue.

One old lady even took my instructions on how to crochet and printed them, writing to me and telling me about her progress, and although this may mean very little to some people, to me it means I made a difference to someone in a far off land who searched the Internet and found my article.

==Marketplace opportunities.==

The Marketplaces on Helium are a pretty neat area. A publisher tells you specifically what they are looking for and you get the opportunity to write, competing with others to have your article bought. They do insist on original work for Marketplace, though that keeps you on your toes, and there is nothing quite like getting that email to tell you that your article has been bought.

For the more astute writers who prove their worth as online writers, there is the Premier Marketplace which pays higher prices for the work which you do. This is rather good for aspiring writers with experience on the topics offered.

==Making a difference globally as a citizen journalist.==

Citizen journalism is a great point with Helium who have teamed up with the Pulitzer Center and also very worthy partners to offer members the chance to win prizes as citizen journalists. This covers world related matters, and is interesting reading as well as a great area to try to put your point of view across. I wrote about the Oil Crisis and how it affects the country in which I live, and also about how we should take responsibility for those Chinese people who are forced to work under appalling conditions, just so that we can buy consumer items at cut down prices.  This is a serious area for people with something to say and is very effective at bringing world affairs to the forefront.

==Guidance and help.==

This is one aspect where Helium excels above all writing sites I have worked with. The mentor system works exceptionally well and is available to all members who want to develop their writing skills. There is also a community forum where people can post their articles and ask for member feedback.

==Overall conclusion of Helium as a website.==

I can honestly say that I have earned a lot of money. It's been a bumpy ride, with highs and lows, but Helium is a site where the staff genuinely care. Most sites have little contact with users, and you are a statistic rather than a member. I know the Helium staff by name, and if I have queries, these are always addressed.

There are always going to be those who say It doesn't work for me;. That's normal. Create Utopia, put human beings into the equation, and it doesn't stay Utopia for very long. Realistically speaking, you get from Helium what you are prepared to put in, and by goodness I have earned from having an opinion and voicing it, learning about all aspects of life as I go. There are also those who complain about ratings or complain about their work being rated lower than they believe they deserve, though this is always going to be something that writers on any website feel when faced with competition.

To my mind the unique aspect of the site is that competition factor, as your work is compared to other people's and you either learn to adapt to the given marketplace or learn nothing. The choice is yours, though this is very similar to applying to get your work published in magazines. If you get rejected, you don't complain. What you do is learn by it, and expand as a writer. Helium has given me that opportunity, and it is there for anyone who wants to try their hand at serious writing. Offered several full time jobs during the course of my membership, I really do love the place and wish I had found it years ago. I am a Heliumite through and through, and very proud of my membership.