After being a member at Helium for six months, with 24 articles under my belt, I saw my earnings at over $5.00. Am I happy? Sure, I am ecstatic to see that amount of money in my account. I did no promotion. I have no referrals. I submit my articles when I feel like writing. Other than that, my articles just sit there and collect pennies. Helium is one of the very first sites that I joined to write. There are lots of buzzes about Helium. Some people find it worthless; and others think it's the greatest. I am here to point out some pros and cons about this site so you can make an informed decision.

The pros:

• You can write on any subject that tickles your fancy.
• You can submit as many articles as you can spit out.
• Your articles can be as short as 100 words.
• All articles are accepted, bad spelling, grammar and all.
• Writers all over the world are welcome.
• Pay international writers.
• Ideas and topics are provided.
• Earn money from your referrals.
• There is a Market Place section, where you can write on any topic and hope/wish/pray that yours will be picked by the Publisher for the big bucks!
• There is a contest every week, where you pick a channel, and write your heart out if you want to be on the top three. This usually means you will have to write about 10-15 articles for that week, or more to win $75.00/$25.00/$10.00 respectively. Forget about eating, smiling, sleeping, bathing, and just write until your finger tips are numb!
• Community board is where you express your concerns, questions, and voice your opinions.

These are just some of the benefits that Helium provides. Although they publish all articles, it is up to their members to decide the faith of that article. This is called rating.

As soon you as you submit your article, it will be placed in the middle of that topic. For example, there are already 5 articles under "How to pick a lemon" topic. Your article will be numbered "3" in this group. Then your article will be send to other members to get rated along with a different article in that category. It will go up and down for a while if another person submits another article under this topic.

If your article scores in the top five, then your chance of getting read is higher. The more clicks your article gets, the more money you will earn.

The Cons:

• Recruit your friends and family to sign up as your referrals. They will have to write, recruit others, and you earn money on their hard work. If Emily Dickinson signs up under you, and wrote a significant piece of work, you earn money from her writing. Do you think for one minute that is right or fair to her? Nobody should earn any money from anyone's writing.
• The contest is designed for only a certain people. These are the people that can write 15-20 articles per week. Therefore it is unfair as a whole. You'll see the same number of writers winning in the contest, week after week. Do you sometimes ask yourself where the heck do they get all of this knowledge, or where the heck do they find the time?
• Community board is a mine field. Go in there and you will find out that buddy system exists. "I recognize your writing." Said one post. It is bad business because they will support each other through the rating. Most people agree that it's unfriendly to go there.

As you can see, Helium has more pros than cons. If they would have a limited number of articles per writer then that would make the contest more approachable, reasonable, and justified to everyone. The writers can choose to write in many channels, but they can only submit, let's say, in the human number of 5 in each channel. This allows all writers the same chance to compete. It is fair! It is justice! Toss all of these articles in the rating system and then may the best writing shines.

If Helium improves on this part of their policy, I think it will be a very big popular and ideal site for all type of writers. The earning is small, but the experience of seeing your writing in print is priceless.