Helium.com - Writing for Fun or Writing for Money?
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Helium.com is a site where you are paid to post articles. The question on most people's lips is - is the money worthwhile? On the face of it, the answer is no - but it depends where you are in your writing career.
For a new writer, Helium.com is a good way to get your creative juices flowing. You can get ideas by writing on topics already created by others. The forums are lively and supportive and you’ll make some good friends. There are volunteer Site Stewards who will mentor and encourage you. If you've never been paid to write before, it's exciting to see the money coming in, even though the average article earns only 5 or 10 cents per month.
Experienced writers who've already made some sales are unlikely to be interested in writing for pennies, but may find Marketplace worthwhile.
But there is a catch for all writers - one major drawback, which you must consider carefully before you take the plunge.
Once you post an article on Helium, it’s there forever (or at least, for as long as the site lasts). You can’t delete it, even if you cancel your membership.
Helium will tell you that although it keeps your work, it doesn’t take exclusive rights – so you can publish it elsewhere as often as you like. That sounds fair - after all, if you sold your article to a high street magazine, you couldn't take it back. But Helium is paying you only pennies, and this is the internet, where first rights are very important.
Why? Because search engines don’t like duplicate content. When a search engine finds a copied article, it penalises it, which means it ranks very low and is unlikely to be found by customers. Websites know that, so sites like HubPages also penalise duplicate content, or even refuse to accept it, because it affects their reputation with Google.
So by putting your article on Helium.com, you are closing the door to selling or posting it on a growing number of discriminating, high quality sites. And it's hard enough to get published, without cutting out those options!
It's also possible to get banned. If you're banned, you lose access to the site and all your unclaimed earnings. However, all your articles stay on the site and continue to earn income for Helium. You may think you'd never do anything to justify being banned. I know two people who were banned for posting links to their articles on a traffic exchange, not realising it was "illegal" under Helium's TOS. Another member was banned for having a rant on the forums. So you can never be sure.
To read more on the problems of duplicate content, read this Hub on Content Spinners which has an excellent explanation. If you already have articles on Helium, this Hub also suggests some software to ease the pain of revising - though I can't vouch for it as I prefer to rewrite the old-fashioned way!
WHAT CAN YOU EARN?
There are many Helium contributors who are happy with their earnings. However, they either have over 1,000 articles on the site, or are successful in the Marketplace and Contest sections.
Let's take Paul Lines as an example. Paul wrote about 1,000 articles last year, and expects to earn about $1,300 this year. Money for nothing, right? But let's think about this.
How long did those articles take to write? If they were opinion pieces, 20 to 30 minutes. If they required research, over an hour. So it took him between 350 and 1,500 hours to write those articles - the equivalent of working a full-time job for two to six months!
Let's imagine your boss said he wouldn't pay your full wage for two months' work this year: he'd pay a third this year, a third next year and a third the year after that. When he paid you in the following years, you wouldn't think it was "money for nothing", would you? You'd remember all the work you originally put in to earn it!
So when Paul considers whether he is "happy" with his ongoing Helium earnings, shouldn't he be considering whether they're a fair return on his original months of effort? Over the next five years, Paul could earn another $6,500. But he's still only earned $7.80 per article - if the site lasts that long.
Let’s face it, 5 years is a long time on the internet, so who knows what could happen. His topical material will date, and Helium will continue to evolve – perhaps into a site where his articles no longer fit (Helium started as a “question & answer” site, and many of the articles posted then are now being deleted. So it’s happened before!). Or Helium may change the rules, so you can no longer sit back and let the money accumulate (they're already talking about requiring a minimum number of rating stars to get paid).
Of course, Paul could revise his articles to keep their ranking high - but as well as requiring hours more work, it's just not that easy on Helium. When you revise an article, you have to use a "Leapfrog", whereby your revisions have to be approved by other writers before they're accepted. Browse the Helium forums and you'll discover how frustrating that can be, with Leapfrogs often rejected for no apparent reason.
Nevertheless, many Helium writers still declare they're happy with their earnings. They seem blissfully unaware of how many hours they've put in to create their articles - when I challenged one writer to sit down and work it out, she was utterly astonished. It certainly put her earnings into perspective!
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Boosting Your Income
Helium will tell you there are lots of ways to improve your earnings on the site. They advocate promoting your articles on your own blog, on forums or on Facebook and MySpace. That’s fine, if you already do these things anyway. But if you’re going to join solely for the sake of promoting, you must include that extra time in calculating your hourly rate of earnings.
Social bookmarking your own work is also suggested. Unfortunately, this advice is being handed out by internet marketers all over the web, blithely ignoring the fact that most of these sites prohibit self-promotion. If you're caught, you can be banned. Sites like Digg, Ma.gnolia and Stumbleupon have already blanket-banned sites like Helium and HubPages or restricted the number of links, because too many users were self-promoting. And once again, it’s important to take the time spent social bookmarking into account when working out your return on investment.
The "Big Earners"
The big earner on Helium is the Marketplace, where you can compete to sell your articles to publishers on a topic they specify, for a pre-determined amount. If your article sells, it’s usually deleted from the site – which just goes to show that Helium knows duplicate content is a problem, and its publishers won't accept it!
The market for articles on the internet is cut-throat, with rates as low as 1 cent per word becoming commonplace, and new writers willing to sell an article for as little as $2. So there's no denying the Marketplace section, with its offers of anything from $6 to $75 for an article, is attractive.
Yes, you're up against hundreds of other writers competing for the same title - but you're still competing when you send a spec article into a magazine publisher, you just can't see your competition! The good thing with Marketplace is that publishers generally disregard the Helium ratings - I've known lots of authors whose articles have been bought despite ranking in the low 20's and 30's.
Get accepted by one of these publishers and there's also the chance you'll get more "off Helium" work from them. Be warned, though, that some publishers buy your work anonymously. Some writers have complained that having sold their work, they can't find it published anywhere!
The other opportunity to earn whole dollar amounts is the contest section. To win, you usually have to write a number of articles in a short space of time on specific, narrow topics. If those topics aren’t in your area of expertise, you may have to do substantial research, which can be time-consuming.
The big problem with contests is that the winners are decided on ratings, and since most members agree the rating process is imperfect, that can be a frustrating experience. There is absolutely no guarantee the best article will be rated first at the end of the contest. So you need to look at the possible return, before deciding whether it will be worth your while.
The Bottom Line
If you want to hang out with other writers and hone your skills, Helium.com can be fun.
But if your goal is to make serious money, think twice. On average, you can expect to earn around 10 cents per article per month (you’ll have some which do far better, and some which do much worse). And because you’ll have to produce a lot of articles to make a reasonable income, you’ll be tying up a lot of your material for a very long time.
My recommendation? If your dream is to be a writer, write exclusively for the Helium Marketplace section. You’ll gain visibility, you may actually sell some articles, and those that don’t sell will remain on Helium and continue to earn you pennies. But try to resist the temptation to write on non-Marketplace topics, because those articles will never earn what they’re worth, and you’d be much better off saving them to sell direct once you’ve made some publishing contacts.
Or you might consider turning them into a Hub instead! (If that idea appeals, you can sign up for HubPages here).
*
All text copyright Marisa Wright. Balloon photo courtesy of Crystl on Flickr
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Comments
Fascinating - havent tried Helium myself though. Do you think that HP are trying to take on sites like Helium with the Flagship Hubs program?
Lissie, HubPages doesn't need "Flagship Hubs" to take on Helium. Helium's articles are about the same length as a normal HP, but without any pictures, links or videos. Helium's points of difference are its debates and its Marketplace section, where your articles can be picked up by publishers.
I wonder if you were to use derivatives of your articles on a couple of sites including Hubpages, Helium, Squidoo etc, that maybe the numbers might stake up a bit more?
Hi copywriter,Yes, I guess that could work, but why would you want to link away from HubPages and Squidoo, which are probably better earners?
How do you keep "active" at Helium? What is the criteria?
Thanks for this impartial article. This is the first I hear about Helium, so don't know whether I'll write there or not. Or not, I think!
Darkside, you keep active at Helium by posting at least one article every six months. But I do notice that since I haven't been rating articles or posting on the forums, my earnings seem to have slowed.
I don't know the topic or quality of the guy's articles, but he would definitely make a lot more if he published them on his own site.
Can't people see you are making the money for helium? Us here are making the money for Hubpages. Even me spending time wiriting this comment I am potentially making them money.
It is call user generated content and it is every site owner's dream for them to create a site framework and have users fill it in with lovely keyword rich, original content.
Take a look at my hub on making money from a forum if you are interested to know more.
This is great. Thank you for the information.
Yeah, .10 an article is what I average monthly on Helium. It's not worth my time. I only submit articles there that I had already written and didn't quite fit other sites.
From what I understand from reading this hub, the comments, and talking to a Helium member, it seems that most of the money earned from Helium is from the contests. He says that he's made about $60 or so. I, myself, am still iffy about it...
Great information Marisa!! Thank you so much for sharing!! You answered soooooooooooo many of the questions that have been floating around in my blonde-brain!! I really appreciate the candor and honestly!! Blessings on your day!! Earth Angel!!
P.S. The video link doesn't seem to be working any more??
Thanks for the tip on the video, Earth Angel. Looks like it's been taken off YouTube.
That was a good article and a good discussion too.
Nice info thanks. I'm giving thumb up..
Thanks for the info. I knew something was wrong with helium when they didn't want me to include any outside links in my sig file.
Thanks Again!
Dr. Footballstein
Nice thing that you have explained everything in detail I had submitted some of my articles here, around 10, but so far only 2 being approved. But I am still write the article not for helium but to other site also.
Marisa! I too am only making pennies per article on Helium. I stopped after 4 articles. I think I am the proud owner of a 28cent account.
Oh well it was fun and the first site I ever found that you could write on...and again it really sounds great when you read all their particulars before signing-up.
Great HUB regards Zsuzsy
thanks for the info, I have just joined helium and I have written one article which earned me 10c straight away. I still have one question though. Do they pay out?
Sparkster, well done on the 10c - you're doing better than average! Yes, they do pay out. They only pay out once a month though, so if you request a payout at the wrong time of the month, you may be waiting 6 or 7 weeks. You have to have at least $25 before you can request a payout.
I love the dialog. So many great points of view.
I thought it might be helpful to point out that Helium is just over one year old at this point (we launched October '06) and while it is completely true that shared ad revenue is pretty small at this point, as ad revenue grows, the distribution of that shared ad revenue will grow.
So, it is quite probably that Paul's good articles will earn him much, much more in the next five years than he made in this first year. When Helium is moving millions of dollars to its writers, the good writers with long standing articles should be receiving some very nice payouts.
Of course, Helium is a user-generated content site, so all of this is predicated on having great writers who want to contribute. We are working hard to keep Helium growing so that it is honestly compelling to writers to come and contribute. We, at Helium, know that our writers and raters are what make Helium really work!
I hope you all will come and give it a try!
Peter Degen-Portnoy
Director of Business Development
Helium
Hi Marissa,
I agree with your comments about Helium. It may be a good place to hone your writing skills but there are other opportunities that offer greater earning potential for writers. As well, with other sites, you don't have to wait until your earnings reach a certain amount as you do with Helium.
I don't like Helium because it necessiate that you always update your writings. Also, the payments are low.
Yommie, I don't understand what you mean by having to "update your writings". In fact, updating your articles is harder to do at Helium than here, because you can't just do what you like - you have to submit your updated article for approval by other writers (using the Leapfrog facility) and it's often rejected.
So long as you write on article every six months, you remain an active member.
Thanks so much for the informative article. I think that I will be spending more time on hubpages and less time on helium!
I have to admit, Helium has been good to me. It has been a wonderful way of opening my writing to topics and styles beyond poetry.
Smiles and Light
This is perfect timing! I read your comments in a forum about Helium and don't know how I found your hub, but here I am. I joined Helium last night, and was wondering if its worth the investment of my time. I want to refine my writing skills, and I find that so far Hubpages is a place where I get inspiration. Thank you for this hub.
Interesting article Marisa, I have linked to it from my Hub where I also quoted you (hope you don't mind):
Why switch to hubpages (hubpages vs triond helium or blogger)http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-switch-to-hubpages
I found Helium purely by accident. Gosh, what happened to my words? Something to get to fix, great at two or three am.
Marisa, I alway love your fantastic articles. I am so glad I found you, even if it was through Helium!
Helium (especially Barbara) really, really helped me with trying to learn to write.I am new to writing, although I always wanted to. Helium is a great place to learn how to write Correctly. Sadly, though, as Marisa has said, they have that ownership thing standing there. I wrote a lot of things, now I wish I had waited. As for pay, I wasn't there for the money, although money would be great.
Since June, I have accumulated a little over $16.00. I don't strive for the contests, only entered a couple. I have not tried for Marketplace. I have heard people do better with the contests and Marketplace. I don't have time. I have a family of seven that wants my time.
GREAT Hub, not a surprise, Marisa. Don't forget me. I'm Betty Jo from Ar. USA
As if I would ever forget you, Betty Jo!
Marisa,
Thank you.
I really enjoyed the information on this Hub. I am new to writing online and just learning the ropes as I go along. I don't know if I will ever decide to try and make money writing online, so perhaps, Helium is a good place to at least practice.
I could definitely use the mentoring, with my writing skills.
tDMg
LdsNana-AskMormon
I have just reread this article.
Helium is a great place to learn to write correctly. Articles at this time must be at least 350 words limit. Songs, poetry and recipes excluded.
On Hub Pages I have more freedom in writing. It has been less stressful. Although I haven't written much.
Good writing Marisa. bjp
hi marisa thanks somuch for this hub. wish ihad seen it sooner. you really are a great writer.
Hey Marisa,
You do make a lot of good points about writing on the internet.
In general…Helium, Hub Pages, and Suite 101 (as we’ve discussed before) all have both something and nothing to offer writers.
It’s actually hard to make money as a part time writer in any medium…much less making a fortune in writing on the internet so, I’d like to highlight that, and not single out one site.
As for the Helium experience I truly believe it helps aspiring writers learn a lot about themselves and the publishing climate.
I’ve sent many people there who are struggling to figure out why they keep getting rejection letters… why they are having a hard time getting freelance work…and why they are having trouble figuring out what editors want.
Spending time at Helium is kind of like an eye opening experience if you go there to learn about your style, mistakes, and figure out what you need to do to improve your skills.
I feel that traditional sites for writers can’t accomplish this because when you depend on others to critique your work…you don’t learn to rely on yourself…which is vital to making any kind of presence as a writer.
I’d say that that’s a handy tool to own in this day of instant publication.
As far as rights to an article…I’d say if you want to sell anything, don’t put it on the internet…but rights to an article doesn’t mean rights to a topic (unless specified).
I could sell the exclusive rights to an article about Brittney Spears being driven over the edge by her abusive husband….but…
That doesn’t mean I’m not free to write about being driven over the edge by a spouse using some of the same material and research using a different slant.
Every one has different reasons for spending time writing articles, hubs and blogs…but anyone who dreams making easy money without a great amount of effort…is going to be disappointed no matter where they post their stuff.
Peace Out
Sangay Glass
Hi Sangay, good to hear from you! I'm not singling out one site as better or worse than the rest - it's simply that Helium and HubPages are the only ones of which I have personal experience.
The new Site Steward program at Helium has led to people like yourself mentoring other writers - but that is a relatively new concept and it success is entirely down to the devotion of volunteers like yourself.
Thanks for the great hub. My wife joined Helium and I joined Hubpages. I think I'll encourage her to go for Squidoo or Hubpages and not Helium.
Thank you for this information. I am a new hubber. All this is new to me. I appreciate reading about other opportunities. I look forward to reading more of your work.
yes its true that to make a living online be it Helium , hubpages, blogs , site etc.
it takes a good deal of effort and time.
But once you have made a reputation people will be eager to read your articles and your articles will get lot of traffic.
But many people are not ready to wait .They prefer to jump the gun.
They go for programs promising to make them rich overnight and loses their money.
Marisa , let ur article serve as an eyeopener for those people.
Duplicate COntent is an argumentive subject but I do agree with yorr advice :) You never know what SE's will decide to do a few month from now and how it will impact your earning potential.
Nicely written
Great article, I have'nt heard of Helium.
You have poised questions about submitting to other ezine publications, as well. dhuffman
I was with Helium until a week or two ago....only wrote about 13 articles there. I made the big mistake (it was purely ignorance, not intentional) of trying to increase traffic to my articles...thought I would get my name in front of people and increase my earnings. Apparently, I did it wrong and I need some education on what constitutes bad ways of doing that, which is my problem I guess, not theirs. I now know that it is 'illegal' (my word) to use traffic exchanges to drive traffic to Helium articles. I know this, because when I requested a payout, I was kicked off the site.
Since they keep the articles posted forever, I now have links to them on my website. Figure I may as well make use of them for myself and put them on my site for clips.
I do miss being able to access my account, but it hasn't been all bad. Helium got me submitting my writing again after a long time, and they've given me fresh clips.
I've only been a hubber for 2 or 3 days, but I already like it here a lot. The people are friendly, and the writing good (at least what I've read so far).
Marisa, you write a terrific article....will look for more of yours.
Great hub. I get frustrated at the quality I see on Helium. Good quality writing certainly does not always rise to the top. I get so frustrated rating... I was lucky enough to sell an article to a publisher and get paid for it. However, I still only have about $18 and you need $25 to cash out. Once I get that $25, I am quitting. Of course, I have to keep adding an article once in a while or my earnings will go down.
Brilliant Marisa! Now I'm scared :( I had a "rant" haha. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to sue them for this type of continued earnings?
Erinn, there are a couple of highly disgruntled and vocal critics of Helium on the net. They keep threatening to sue, issue copyright notices etc but I don't believe they've actually done anything yet. The agreement we sign when we join Helium is very clear, so I suspect any legal challenge would fail anyway.
I hadn't signed in for awhile, about three months I guess. I couldn't find one article I had written. They had sent me a letter asking if i wanted to donate my articles and i said no. I have given up on seeing them again. Now I make copies of erverything I do. I did see an article i had written somewhere but I couldn't find it when i went back.
Be careful. Your work is yours and not some bird kicking back and using you. Even if you don't think it's any good, it's still original. Be your own advocate.
Don't give your stuff away unless you do so freely. It takes sweat and time to produce, and if it doesn't, great.
thanks for putting up a topic with a lot of interest and good advice.
I have a published book and get criticised by "the powers" for content that is too familiar--even though I was the expert in the field i wrote about.
I 'm doing it for the fun, and I don't expect to make much money. But it's good to see if I can, if you know what i mean.
Good luck. Great post!
Is Adsense the only monetization on Helium? One of the big draws to both Hubpages and Squidoo is that you have some other affiliate opportunities which if done right will outearn the Adsense.
Yes, Adsense is it - and there's no disclosure on how your share is calculated either.
Great hub Marisa - I have written for both Helium and for Hubpages - the difference for me between the two is that putting the hubpage together is lots of fun. You write, you find items for sale at Amazon and Ebay that come somewhere near to complementing your article then comes the best bit - looking for videos online and also at the work of other hubbers who you can link to. So you read other people's work , link if you wish, and become a fan; in other words it is extremely interactive without having to engage, except for the purposes of learning "how", in forums and such. Nothing against forums except they take time which is something I don't have a lot of. cheers and thanks for your expository anne
This is a great hub- never heard of Helium but after this definitely prefer Hub. Agree with ajcor- definitely makes writing and interacting fun.
Hi Marisa
I'm so glad I found your hub, and I only did so because of a lovely comment you made on a forum. I have jusy signed up to Helium too, and was wondering if I was being naive in thinking that the marketplcae was the only real benefit of the site. I am so glad I'm not mad!
Thanks, Sam
Hi Marisa,
Yes, you are right. The only real opportunity to promote one's writing on Helium is in Marketplace, and even there, the pickings can be slim. Standard SEO web content requests are not going to pay the bills. A writer should look for the offerings that seem like they come from non-SEO type web sites, or from brick and mortar establishments. These can be good for a portfolio. Also, be prepared to have some publishers be absolute flakes or frauds.
Also, Helium users should be aware that they will never know how much they are earning per page view. And they will never know if they earn the same amount per page view as other members. This is all secret. Some members seem to get page view earnings for their aritcles, while others with articles in the same title and similar rank earn little. I'm not a fan of the idea that there's any real money in page view pay anyway. It's a poor return on the time investment, as you point out.
Wow! Very informative Hub here. I've had a Helium account for a while, but never really did anything with it. I've tried quite a few of these types of websites, just getting a feel of them. I tend to stick with the ones that I like best. Thanks for the great info here!
Thank you, This is very well written. You make some strong points and support them effectively. I agree.
That said, article farms are a way for me to write parallel content, indirectly promoting my print books and artwork by introducing myself to the public, but I do need to be vigilant about the time I spend on such pieces, since they are, when compared to my normal rates, unpaid.
I must say, Helium was the first writing site that I found. Over time, I have found that I like a lot of other great writing sites (Hubpages and HowToDoThings.com are a couple of my favorites). However, I wrote a ton for the reward-athon and feel good getting paid $3 an article plus whatever commission comes in. Now I am maintaining my account using contests (I am won one and took second on a different one this week for a total of $100 on my fifteen articles in addition to the passive income they will bring in over time). To maintain your account you only have to write one article every 180 days. Now they have an economic stimulas bonus going on to make people rate (which sucks), but it could increase earnings up to 150%, which will last for six months and should be interesting. While Helium isn't a site I spend much time on, it is exceptionally easy to write for with titles already picked out for you and worth maintaining my account.
Plus, with special contests and things like the reward-athon, the earnings potential is there.
Aidan, I'm glad you feel $3 an article plus a few cents a month is rewarding. Some of us value our writing more than that!
Great overview of Helium. I am a member of helium, but find it very hard to earn there as I dont have many articles. I prefer to write for squidoo, triond and here.
Nice information, very well written.I´m a big fan of social sites, and many people are making the mistake of submitting only their own content to those site.
I write mainly on Xomba.com and tend to make about $100 a month on there. One month a made over $300! It's a great site that should be considered with Hubpages and Helium.
I have wasted a lot of time on Helium and posted some stuff there. Wish I had read this before I joined them. I prefer hubpages now.
Wonderfully written, Marisa. They waited until I had the minimum cash out amount (took me a year and a half to get it) before telling me that I couldn't have it because I did something illegal. They just kept it.
On the upside, I use the articles as clips to get other jobs, so it wasn't a total waste.
This is a very good guide for writers so that they may know what to expect from Helium.
Great Hub! I agree with everything you've said here about Helium. I liked it when I first discovered it, but quickly became irritated with their whole peer rating system and the 'stars' and the contests. At this point, I don't enjoy it much and rarely post content there, but I do pick up a quick $25 or $40 at their Marketplace section each month.
I find that once I put content on Helium, it's like it's frozen or something---as you say, no chance to edit or update, no feedback (or worse, idiotic feedback), very little sense of community. Also the contests are very, very frustrating and as you point out, TONS of work. I won a couple 3rd placers, then quit because it was just too damned irritating. I'd be in #1 place for the $75 for four days, then right at the last minute drop off the charts.
Some writers just rave about Helium. I like it here much better. I post what I enjoy writing here for fun, and sell my writing outright at freelance sites if I'm looking to earn money.
Thanks for validating all my feelings about Helium here.
Great Hub1
I am a helium member and just started my journey i hope for the BEST!
I wish I read this *before* writing my four article for Helium! Some super advice - I intend to continue with my hubs and will just stick a "toe in the water" at Helium.
Very well written, I enjoyed reading this article.
well i write for both money as well as fun...!!
I signed up at Helium a few days ago. Seems providential that I should read your hub today. It clarified a lot of things for me, especially since I am not in the habit of reading ine print. I am also new at HP. Thanks, Marisa. You've gotten yourself a new fan.
Nice Hub, Marisa. You've made a lot of good points. I'd like to add, though, that Helium is also a site where writers with experience also write. I've written for newspapers in the past (straight news and features), and I signed up with Helium as a way of "taking a mental break" from "real work" (and, at times, the stress of daily living) and just doing something that involved thinking about subjects that are entirely unrelated to the any of the day-to-day concerns, worries.
In the case of someone like the guy who picks up over a thousand dollars a year for doing little or not work once his articles are written, I don't think a spare thousand dollars a year is a bad "bonus" for doing little or no additional work - even if that bonus only lasts for a couple of years.
Maybe one other point worth adding is that some writers take a long time to write an article, while others can just whip them up in twenty minutes, with zero or few reasons to make any corrections. That may be one key factor when assessing the worth of writing on Helium, or any similar site.
Lisa, I hear what you're saying - but the guy who picks up over a thousand dollars a year isn't earning it for "little or no work". Even if he "whips up an article in twenty minutes", as you suggest, it took him 333 hours to write those articles! Per hour of effort, it's still not a big return.
This is really a wonderful hub Marissa, thanx for the real dig about helium. I am a member too & have written 2 articles till now & earned 1 cent :)It has been driving me nuts completely but after going thru this article I understand Helium in a much better way. I prefer Hubpages to Helium any day!! Thanx a bunch & keep up the good work!!
Wow, that was very informative and helpful. I've also joined helium and have been wondering whether to submit my articles there or elsewhere. This hub really helped me to put Helium and its policies into perspective. Thanks!
It seems Helium is considered inferior to HubPages by many as far as earnings. Thanks for the informative post!
Thanks for the information! Its a great oppurtunity for those writers that are just starting out!
Marissa as you know, I was with Helium. I loved it there I became addicted to be honest. Yes. Now addicted to hubs instead as hubs gives you more scope with pics, ads, videos etc to make it more personally attractive at your own disgression.
I learnt a lot at helium and do advise other new writers to give it a go. As they pick and help you to write much better. New writers will learn more about the art of writing there, than here. Here no one is fussy about correct english and punctuation. If you wish to be paid to write then writers really need to learn correct writing english. Not like mine. I do not use sentence structure and that lets my writing down.
Anyway I entered contests there etc. And in total I have earned about $150.00 so really loved it and glad that I was there. still do the odd article there too. But lost my writing rating a long time back.
I have never heard about this before. Thanks for the information. I will have my self a try!
Hi marissa, just got around to this . Helium is as close to a rip off of a writers talent as any I have encountered so far. I was just banned from the forums for pointing out the overall nonsense the so called rating system employs. It was a forum titled-- voice concerns, frustrations, or just vent. I did, pow now Im Banned from the forums lol. Like i care anymore. Three months of intense writing 17 articles and i've made a whole 69 cents lol. As you know I am a poet mainly as we met thru helium, and every word you have written I can vouch for. Don't care about money? just starting out? ok maybe its ok there. But in the long run forgetabout it. There are some strange things going on there and more and more posts in the forums are pointing them out , then pow , the posters are banned. I have to say visually helium has it down pretty good, but that is abpout the only thing good . I will never write to a general article there agian, nor post another poem. Maybe a market place, maybe, the problem with that is if a publisher does not pick it, then it transitions back to the site, helium posts it and now it's there forever and you get squat for it.
I had one article deleted, wrote to helium about it, had a few email exchanges over why it should not have been deleted, they agreed with me finally and said yep i was right, should not have been deleted, So all I have to do now is re write it and resubmit it. Like thats gonna happen lol. Told them they deleted a top rated article , they should put it back, why should i have to fix some thing they broke?
Any way People Stay away from Helium if you care about your work lol, the morons who rate there will kill your ego, OOPs wait I rate there, Im the exception, I can read most of the others can't lol.
Thanks George. I'm surprised I haven't been banned on the forums myself! I've been called the "Forum Gadfly" before now. Maybe I've just been there too long! Although I never write there any more.
I too tried and now i am inactive there..
Never heard of Helium being that bad, well I don`t even know the system they use to pay its contributors, if it`s similar to Hubpages, a revenue share on your page impressions, 1300$ would be a nice sum. As everyone should know, writing is just not enough in order to earn money online. Basic SEO skills are required, social media skills and any ways that could lead in decent amounts of traffic.
PS. $1300 is fairly low for 1000 articoles, they could be worth at least 10.000 if sold them anywhere on the freelance sites, for the minimum price of 10$ a piece.
Alex
Yes Alex, that's the point I'm hoping to make. $1300 does sound like a nice sum, but not when you think what you could have earned with those 1000 articles elsewhere!
Marisa: Really enjoyed this article. I tried Helium for a very short period of time, and found that I just wasn't motivated enough to stick with it. You bring up a lot of great points about doing work for them, and for me, it wasn't worth it.
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working
cristina327 says:
12 months ago
Thanks for this hub. It is very informative and very helpful.You made a good analysis. Great job.