Earnings

Well I hope that is true with regards to earnings not relating to ranking. I've come across what was supposed to be a film review and the article is mainly about the book, a do's and don't guide where there was only one example of each, and one written in a foreign language. Unfortunately these were articles I came across so couldn't flag 2 of them, but all 3 were at number 1 out of quite a few articles. Lisa x

Nothing to do with Helium but top avatar Lisa although now my son is 14 he is too cool to wear stuff with gunnersaurus on it.

Writing stars: 1
Reward-athon articles written: 19
Rates in the last 90 days: 25
Rating score: 83.52 (for details, see "A look at rating percentages")

Estimated Reward-athon bonus: $19.00



OK, got an email today, here are my stats - can someone explain this rocket science Helium stuff to me....? I have done about 25 reviews in total, but think I have done 19 in the last week...(if this is to be believed) How do I get my Writing Stars up?

I think it's as obvious as it sounds... post more!

I find the categories weird, I dont know if they take book reviews for example...I already churned all the travel I want to, and a few others besides.


and what the heck is a rating star...I have to get mine up apparently. Which would be great if I knew what it was

(and dont say RATE MORE, as I might just lose the will to live..!)

helencbradshaw wrote:

(and dont say RATE MORE, as I might just lose the will to live..!)

Rating stars are based not only on the amount you rate but also the quality of the rating. You can't just wildly click, the system knows if you have clicked too quickly and the system also spots rating that is wildly out of step with the rating in general.

You can get ratings stars quite quickly but you need to maintain them

helencbradshaw wrote:

I find the categories weird, I dont know if they take book reviews for example...I already churned all the travel I want to, and a few others besides.


and what the heck is a rating star...I have to get mine up apparently. Which would be great if I knew what it was

Go to the literature channel and you'll find places to review books on the drop down menu. Cookery books have a place on the food channel, travel books on the travel channel.

Can I remind writers taking part in the Rewardathon that some of your titles (I forget the ratio but you can check in the T and Cs ) must be in competitive titles.

Simply posting over lots of articles for which a new title is created won't qualify you. Those will only count if you also write in titles with at least three titles in them

fizzywizzy wrote:

helencbradshaw wrote:

(and dont say RATE MORE, as I might just lose the will to live..!)

Rating stars are based not only on the amount you rate but also the quality of the rating. You can't just wildly click, the system knows if you have clicked too quickly and the system also spots rating that is wildly out of step with the rating in general.

You can get ratings stars quite quickly but you need to maintain them

Helium wouldn't know a quality rate if it came up and punched them in the face, if the order of articles in a topic is anything to go by. All this is, is a system like Ciao's. It doesn't measure quality at all. In my mind, rating stars are about quantity of rating and are out there as a carrot to get people to use what I see as one of the worst systems on any site.

And what happens if you do rate against the norm? Is it simply discounted or do they make an effort to find out WHY you rated against the norm?

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

fizzywizzy wrote:

helencbradshaw wrote:

(and dont say RATE MORE, as I might just lose the will to live..!)

Rating stars are based not only on the amount you rate but also the quality of the rating. You can't just wildly click, the system knows if you have clicked too quickly and the system also spots rating that is wildly out of step with the rating in general.

You can get ratings stars quite quickly but you need to maintain them

Helium wouldn't know a quality rate if it came up and punched them in the face, if the order of articles in a topic is anything to go by. All this is, is a system like Ciao's. It doesn't measure quality at all. In my mind, rating stars are about quantity of rating and are out there as a carrot to get people to use what I see as one of the worst systems on any site.

And what happens if you do rate against the norm? Is it simply discounted or do they make an effort to find out WHY you rated against the norm?

As I said it's a combination of factors. The system largely works. If you find anaomlies you can contact the steward for that section with the url of any article you think has slipped through and they will look at this. It does happen but mostly the sytem does see the not so good writing plummet and is subsequently removed.

Every so often articles are cleared and this gets rid of some of the dross.

I disagree.

For me, a system that (largely) works should be at least 95% effective. The last time I checked, a few weeks ago, across a few topics, sometimes up to 25% or 33% of reviews are (IMO, of course) unsorted and complete tripe is ranked highly. Sometimes, it's one rogue article in the top three of a busy category, but in some categories, articles that should be top are ranked 7th out of 30 behind rubbish.

That's an awful lot of reporting I'd have to do for a site that has yet to prove to me it's worthy of my time. That sounds a bit off, I admit, but if you have to invent schemes just to get members to rate articles, then that's a big warning sign that there's something intrinsically at fault in the system. That indicates to me that Helium are aware of the shortcomings in the system but instead of fixing the system (i.e. admitting they're wrong), they dangle incentives instead.

Are these Stewards Helium staff members?

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

I disagree.

For me, a system that (largely) works should be at least 95% effective. The last time I checked, a few weeks ago, across a few topics, sometimes up to 25% or 33% of reviews are (IMO, of course) unsorted and complete tripe is ranked highly. Sometimes, it's one rogue article in the top three of a busy category, but in some categories, articles that should be top are ranked 7th out of 30 behind rubbish.

That's an awful lot of reporting I'd have to do for a site that has yet to prove to me it's worthy of my time. That sounds a bit off, I admit, but if you have to invent schemes just to get members to rate articles, then that's a big warning sign that there's something intrinsically at fault in the system. That indicates to me that Helium are aware of the shortcomings in the system but instead of fixing the system (i.e. admitting they're wrong), they dangle incentives instead.

Are these Stewards Helium staff members?

I would agree there are some reviews at number 1-3 across the board. Would be interested to see what the system did with a rate that was "against the norm".

it seems to make the Ciao PF look fair...

All I can say is that I have earned alot and that's with cross posting lots of articles and not too much extra work.

I have hardly made an effort with the Rewardathon and as it currently stands I'll have a payout of £200 quid

But from what you've said, you've posted a couple of hundred articles across and earned £200. That's earning potential equal to, or slightly less than, Dooyoo (or even Ciao, to be honest) and not the pot of gold that other people have suggested that Helium is. That's fair enough if people are being honest about the whole system, but it's being hyped up (deliberately and somewhat erroneously IMO) as some kind of holy grail when, let's face it, it clearly isn't.

I should clarify - I meant that of the articles that count towards my Rewardathon earnings most of them are cross posted ones. I have not posted "hundreds" of articles for the Rewardathon. If i had I would have potential earings way over what I am expecting.

When the Rewardathon is over, those articles I posted will still earn me money. But with Dooyoo articles, once all the members who are going to read it have done so, it pretty much stops earning. For me that is the attraction of Helium. You won't get rich but it helps that they have an endless earning life.

Compare Helium with Trivago - other members have enthused about Trivago's earning potential but I don't find that especially appealing. I can do lots of work then if someone does more, my earnings go down. I want to know what i have earned and get that amount of money. I see their payment structure as forcing you into doing more work for fear of seeing your share drop.


The Rewardathon, admittedly, isn't for everyone, but the rest of the time there is no harm done from cross posting. After all only the Rewardathon depends on you rating. If you don't mind not qualifying for the Rewardathon, what's the harm in posting and earning?

But again, that's you. You've invested time in posting across a large amount of articles and activity around the site. You've obviously bought into Helium, which is fair enough. I posted around twenty articles and gave Helium about three months of time and my earnings currently stand at about $12 ($11.18 to be exact) which means since last April, I've earned about $3 in those sustained earnings. If I extrapolate that to 250-odd Dooyoo articles that I might cross-post, the earnings are less than Dooyoo even then!

The advice given on this forum is "post lots and you'll get rewarded", but a good deal of posters here have issues with the overall Helium experience (and the overall experience is more important to me than just the cash) - the rating system (both in its implementation and its effectiveness), the fact that site activity does seem to play a part in your rewards, regardless of what people say, the amount of time things need to get through the system, the fact that every competition I've seen on the site deals with quantity, not quality etc.

These things are glossed over, which is why my suggestion to anyone interested in Helium is not to throw everything on to the site at once, because if you don't like it, like me, you're giving Helium content for nothing and Helium have shown that they're very strongly against deleting your work if you find the site's not for you (unless your articles don't match their so-called standards, natch).

As I keep saying, earnings accumulate over time. One of my articles has earned over $13.00 dollars - far more than any single article I've ever written for Dooyoo.

I also cross post over at Epinions where I' not very active at all with regards to reading and rating. However, I do OK every month and I even got a $100 bonus at the end of last year. Again, earnings accumulate and i do next to nothing except see my money grow.

I see where you're coming from but if you've posted something in one place and you can earn more then why not.

But your earnings appear to be the exception, not the norm.

Ciao's Favourite Member wrote:

a good deal of posters here have issues with the overall Helium experience (and the overall experience is more important to me than just the cash)

That'll be me then.

You'd have to pay me to use that rate system as it stands. And I mean minimum wage - not the 3 dollars sat in my account. Nice concept, flawed execution.

The earning potential is there - but it's not as enjoyable as Dooyoo. Probably less so than Ciao. A genuine shame as I had high hopes initially. It's not a site I feel I can dip into every so often and enjoy.

I have been "flagged" for formatting and grammar...!

I feel like I am back at school. At my age too. I even had headings and everything.

However as I am in print in an international travel magazine next month, I might take Helium's advice and ignore the flag!

I too succumbed and tried Helium out, posted a little over 10 articles and came to the conclusion that there was no real hook to keep me interested with the site. It did bring about me revising a couple of reviews that I should have done a long time ago, but other than that I have not really gotten any particular benefit from the site to keep me interested for a longer period.

And I too dislike the rating system. It nearly caved my head in.

helencbradshaw wrote:

I have been "flagged" for formatting and grammar...!

I feel like I am back at school. At my age too. I even had headings and everything.

However as I am in print in an international travel magazine next month, I might take Helium's advice and ignore the flag!

I've been flagged also Helen from someone who's spelling, and grammar is far from perfect.

Well I've now earnt $0.02, but I've only posted 9 articles at present. I'm certainly willing to give the site a fair go, and at the end of the day most of the articles I post of there can be cross posted elsewhere. Lisa x

Does anyone ever get flagged for "poor content"?