Any Questions

As I seem to have been one of the first of regular RWF people to get to grips with the site (correct me if I'm wrong) if anyone wishes to ask me anything about it feel free to do so. Rach is there too but you can't expect her to do all the work, after all she will be out in a cafe somewhere, wearing a beret, drinking beaujolais, reading Descarte, with her onion ladened bike parked outside. Nothing cliched there at all.

You forgot to mention the bumbag.

no, I did mention you

Taking a look though seriously about Helium, it seems like a new concept in review writing and not a bad one at that, though getting in now as members means that we can make a difference to the quality of reviews presented on the site. I love the fact that members do not know who they rate, are presented with two reviews and asked which one is better. That seems such a cool way of rating and quite addictive.

I quite like the scope of the site. As its an information site, more of a sort of Wikepedia than a straight review site it means that you can write about anything you want. I like that open brief as I am able to indulge my pet subjects of history and religion as well as getting some mileage out of stuff I have already written. It looks promising.

I think that a thread should be opened on rating guidelines since they differ from other sites. i.e. no name in text, no direct copying, and how to flag those reviews that infringe the rules as this won't be obvious to everyone.

steerpyke wrote:

As I seem to have been one of the first of regular RWF people to get to grips with the site (correct me if I'm wrong) if anyone wishes to ask me anything about it feel free to do so.

I have two for you:

-what is the difference between initiating and writing an article?

-I have 1 active article and my account still shows $0.00. I wonder when and how the money is flooding in. The FAQ say

Quote :

How do I earn money with Helium?
The more visitors to Helium who view your articles, the more money you can earn. Make your articles engaging, informative and insightful--it will make a difference in how your articles are rated.

That's all I could find about the subject and I don't find that very helpful at all. How are articles paid?!

Sachsa is right - it's so hard to find helpful info on this site! I can't even find out how often they update your balance? Every day? Every week? When someone reads your article.

I have $0.06 by the way....I am saving it for a rainy day

Okay the difference between initiating an area and writing a review is that if you initiate, you have to wait for your article to become live, as it goes through admin to see if it is suitable content. Writing an article is when there is already an existing topic.

As for the money, patience is required. At the moment, with the site being relatively new, it takes a little while for your reviews to be rated and sorted into the right order. My best one so far has taken a week to get sorted and slotted into a good position and paid for. It does happen, and seems to happen quicker, when you help them shift the pile of reviews waiting to be sorted.

Quote :

Sachsa is right - it's so hard to find helpful info on this site! I can't even find out how often they update your balance? Every day? Every week? When someone reads your article.

I have $0.06 by the way....I am saving it for a rainy day

Patience works. My balance is healthier than that. Rating is essential because somewhere on the forum, it mentioned that unless you rate a fair share, your reviews stay stagnant. Looks like its updated daily.

What is the minimum payout? Lisa x

25 dollars, but I believe that to be pretty easily attainable.

My point is: How are articles rewarded? Per rating? Per view? And how much? Is it 1cent per click/view/whatever? More? Less? I've got absolutely no idea....

I don't think any of us are. It doesn't appear to be click thing, and I shall ask on the site's forum and try and get a clear answer. So far my earnings are a little more than Ciao, and a lot less than dooyoo.

The thing is, some of the articles are soooo awful you lose heart.

But doesn't that make you want to improve the database ?

That could be rather like pushing an elephant up a hill...

Not that I have been yet, got details, but it is not something I can envisage looking at for the next 6months what with other commitments/priorities right now.

The site is in its infancy. The reviews are short and snappy, as opposed to long and boring. On ciao we grumble that the reviews are TOO LONG and on here TOO SHORT, but it really isn't about length for me. It's about CONTENT,

I have earned more here than on ciao since joining (same period)

One thing about rating that I found annoying is the rather small window where you have to use scrollbars to read the full text (even for short articles). And I found it puzzling to compare ciao cafe style articles to each other where one writes about a car accident he observed and another one about how he had to move to Switzerland at the age of 11.

I still don't understand what is a category, a topic and a article. To me it looks like if you write a new article the title of the article is at the same time considered a topic where other users can post an article too? I find the whole writing concept there very confusing and not very well explained.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

I have earned more here than on ciao since joining (same period)

I still wonder HOW, and nobody seems to able to explain

That was one of the points I brought up. No one is looking above those boxes at the topic. Theoterically if someone writes something that does not fit the topic shown above those boxes it should be flagged as inappropriate.

My balance increased to $0.01 - and I still don't know why :-)

Btw, could it be, that there is no writing date displayed with the articles? Could not find one.

in general you need not to view this place as a review site like Ciao or Dooyoo but regard it more as a sort of Wikipedia. The information here is used by search engines to respond to google type requests. Often the short answer is sufficent in topics but its still fair to say the more indepth articles are the ones that earn money. The higher up the ratings ladder your article sits the more it is read and thus the more money it earns. The best way to view the process is to write the best article in each topic so hopefully the rating process excelerates it into the money zone.

Yeh it kind of puts me in mind of Ciao when it was first online. There was an area where you could read the original reviews, and it was a bit like this to start with.

OK I joined, posted a travel one. I then got pushed into rating some reviews, one against the other sort of thing.....dont think I have earned anything yet..