Earnings

How are your earning doing on Helium ?

going reasonably well, especially considering I have had a few months off from writing. Have made about $120 dollars since joining (jan 07) and at the moment am making about $10- $15 a month just coasting on stuff I wrote months back.

It's great isnt it. I earn between 200 and 300 dollars a month and even articles that do not do well in competitions continue to pay long afterwards. Hey steer, you must be earning a whack out of introducing me to the site.

Its certainly helps but have decided to keep my day job for a few more months.

You entering contests again ?

not really had the time to dedicate to contests but may get back on board when I'm all settled in the new flat...soon.

I am up to $10 or so and I haven't done a thing on there for months!

About $3

How many articles have you got published Helen?

Not sure. Less than 10 I guess. Might be 5 or so. I dont particularly like the site, as articles seem to be tenuously linked to their category...so no back catalog to post and as I dont like the rating system I havent spent much time there writing new stuff.

helencbradshaw wrote:

Not sure. Less than 10 I guess. Might be 5 or so. I dont particularly like the site, as articles seem to be tenuously linked to their category...so no back catalog to post and as I dont like the rating system I havent spent much time there writing new stuff.

I agree with Helen. The rating system totally sucks, and there simply isn't the same fun on "Speaker's Corner" type articles with no comments or feedback.

Ken

It's a great shame you see it that way. Yes comments are great, but by goodness when you get into the Helium experience the earnings are amazing and that speaks volumes more than "Nominated !" comments made by insincere people.

I agree with Rachel. The earnings on Helium are excellent. And once you have posted your articles they are always there earning money. So even if you take a break you are still making money. On Ciao and Dooyoo your articles have an earning life that doesn't last very long. Once all the regulars have read it its pretty much dead in the water as far as making money is concerned.

My current biggest earnning article is at $12.comething

Thingywhatsit wrote:

It's a great shame you see it that way. Yes comments are great, but by goodness when you get into the Helium experience the earnings are amazing and that speaks volumes more than "Nominated !" comments made by insincere people.

Except it's only a minority of people that see it this way and the vast majority of people have serious issues with various aspects of how Helium operates inclusing the rating system and the lack of quality control in topics where crud is still top of the pile MONTHS after being posted.

I think if you read the forums in the success area you may feel differently. It's not a minority any more. It's a lot of people, earning a great deal of money.

I don't doubt that some people can earn big time on the site, but that still doesn't mean the rating system is any cop (and Helium know this given the amount of carrots they've introduced to get people to rate) or effective (topics that I looked at last week are really not sorted by quality despite having articles that are months old) and if you think the majority are earning "a great deal of money" then you're, at the very least, mistaken.

I certainly don't think that the site is tailored for those that want to dip in from time to time and thevast majority of big money earners are on the site for a substantial amount of time each day.

You might be a success story on Helium, but to suggest that your earnings are the norm is misleading. Additionally, the earnings factor is only a small point in getting people interested in Helium. Having to wade through the clunky rating system and watching poor quality articles rise to the top of the pile while better ones sink is arguably more important. You'd have to be paying me a lot more than I'm getting from the site (or was getting from the site) to overlook these hugely annoying aspects.

Is the effort worth the reward (not just monetary)? For me (and people like Helen), the answer is definitely "no".

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

I don't doubt that some people can earn big time on the site, but that still doesn't mean the rating system is any cop (and Helium know this given the amount of carrots they've introduced to get people to rate) or effective (topics that I looked at last week are really not sorted by quality despite having articles that are months old) and if you think the majority are earning "a great deal of money" then you're, at the very least, mistaken.

I certainly don't think that the site is tailored for those that want to dip in from time to time and thevast majority of big money earners are on the site for a substantial amount of time each day.

You might be a success story on Helium, but to suggest that your earnings are the norm is misleading.

I do think the emphasis on self-promotion via blogs, forums etc is all a bit bleurgh too. If you are super active then I have no doubt the site is set up for you, anyone with less time on their hands would struggle to make any amount of money. The featured article thing is also heavily flawed as it seems to just be the same group of members constantly and your rankings certainly bear no relation to your earnings!

Only people who have added a photograph to their about me page can be featured writers so that's easy to achieve.


And really you don't need to be that active. As I said already, your articles keep earning forever unlike Dooyoo and Ciao where they die pretty quickly.

I've only recently become more active and I've earned several hundred dollars.

fizzywizzy wrote:

Only people who have added a photograph to their about me page can be featured writers so that's easy to achieve.


And really you don't need to be that active. As I said already, your articles keep earning forever unlike Dooyoo and Ciao where they die pretty quickly.

I've only recently become more active and I've earned several hundred dollars.

Genuinely interested to know what you had to do to earn that sort of money. I have been a member for a while, have fourteen articles up yet have not even come close to cashing out. Is it more about huge volumes of work then? My reviews are ranked highly.

I have about 250 articles posted, ranked high, middle, bottom. Oddly, some of the lower ones have done quite well earnings-wise.

My top earning article is about what you can/can't take your hand luggage on a plane. I guess it keeps earning because its something people use the net to check quite a lot.

Other high paying ones are so diverse you can't account for why they are biggies - the history of the rocking chair, how to look after opals, what you need to know before climbing Everest, the history of Russian ballet.

I have links on other sites to only a couple of my articles so that's not how I do it. It is just writing articles on topics people want to read about. And choosing good keywords helps too

fizzywizzy wrote:

I have about 250 articles posted, ranked high, middle, bottom. Oddly, some of the lower ones have done quite well earnings-wise.

My top earning article is about what you can/can't take your hand luggage on a plane. I guess it keeps earning because its something people use the net to check quite a lot.

Other high paying ones are so diverse you can't account for why they are biggies - the history of the rocking chair, how to look after opals, what you need to know before climbing Everest, the history of Russian ballet.

I have links on other sites to only a couple of my articles so that's not how I do it. It is just writing articles on topics people want to read about. And choosing good keywords helps too

250! No wonder then, I might have to cross post a couple more then.

dididave wrote:

fizzywizzy wrote:

I have about 250 articles posted, ranked high, middle, bottom. Oddly, some of the lower ones have done quite well earnings-wise.

My top earning article is about what you can/can't take your hand luggage on a plane. I guess it keeps earning because its something people use the net to check quite a lot.

Other high paying ones are so diverse you can't account for why they are biggies - the history of the rocking chair, how to look after opals, what you need to know before climbing Everest, the history of Russian ballet.

I have links on other sites to only a couple of my articles so that's not how I do it. It is just writing articles on topics people want to read about. And choosing good keywords helps too

250! No wonder then, I might have to cross post a couple more then.

But many are cross posted or slightly adapted from Dooyoo and Ciao articles.

In fact I have been able to make a couple of articles by adapting some of my lengthier travel ops - for example, splitting it into the public transport, the activities and/or the accommodation options in a given city or resort.

fizzywizzy wrote:

dididave wrote:

fizzywizzy wrote:

I have about 250 articles posted, ranked high, middle, bottom. Oddly, some of the lower ones have done quite well earnings-wise.

My top earning article is about what you can/can't take your hand luggage on a plane. I guess it keeps earning because its something people use the net to check quite a lot.

Other high paying ones are so diverse you can't account for why they are biggies - the history of the rocking chair, how to look after opals, what you need to know before climbing Everest, the history of Russian ballet.

I have links on other sites to only a couple of my articles so that's not how I do it. It is just writing articles on topics people want to read about. And choosing good keywords helps too

250! No wonder then, I might have to cross post a couple more then.

But many are cross posted or slightly adapted from Dooyoo and Ciao articles.

In fact I have been able to make a couple of articles by adapting some of my lengthier travel ops - for example, splitting it into the public transport, the activities and/or the accommodation options in a given city or resort.

Might try that although I only have two MASSIVE travel ops on Disneyland Florida and Seaworld

I think the point that the two of us is making about earnings is that the potential is there. Many review writers are used to not posting more than a couple of reviews a week, which is fine on their chosen sites, but and it is a big but, if they choose to post all their articles to Helium in one day, then they are quite entitled to.

The rating system is getting much more efficient and there are all kinds of things going on to ensure that this is the case.

Thingywhatsit wrote:

I think the point that the two of us is making about earnings is that the potential is there. Many review writers are used to not posting more than a couple of reviews a week, which is fine on their chosen sites, but and it is a big but, if they choose to post all their articles to Helium in one day, then they are quite entitled to.

The rating system is getting much more efficient and there are all kinds of things going on to ensure that this is the case.

So Rachel, as someone in the know, what are they do about the continued poor categorisation when you are trying to rate? Meaning why do I get constant review about beauty and make-up when I wrote one review on a man's razor? I don't think anyone has ever argued that Helium has not got potential but the progress has been very slow to the casual observer and negative in some cases.