So I was coaching with another writer the other day, and we were doing a comparison of total dollars divided by total articles to see how much our average per article was on Suite101, Helium.com and Associated Content.

Per Article Average Payment

Suite101 still has the others beat, per article, on average @ $20.82 per article, with most articles about a year 1/2 old.

AC comes in second, per article, on average @ $14.75 per article, with articles being between a few months to several years old.

Helium comes in third, per article, on average @ $3.73 per article, with articles ranging from a few months to about two years old.

As you can see, Helium still sucks when it comes to earnings, but… they have a past to overcome. Recent months, Helium is getting much better. Along with adding upfront payments, they added an empty title bonus, and have continued to increase the amount they pay for marketplace articles. I’ve slowly been watching them improve, a little at a time, and take into consideration the things the writers on their site ask for. I really like the communication.

What I Don’t Like About Helium

As I’ve written before, there are things I don’t like about Helium, such as the rating (which I’m not certain is 100% accurate), and I dislike the titles of articles not being in the proper title case. I’m not sure why Helium doesn’t put their titles in title case, but it irks me every time I see it.

I also detest the ‘groups’ they are doing, like professional journalist group, legal group, etc. Actually, to be honest, I like the concept. What I don’t like is that I can’t get into any of the groups, but that doesn’t mean I’m not qualified to write to those topics. I was a paralegal who has let her license lapse, but I have hundreds of TCLEOSE hours (Texas Criminal Law Enforcement stuff), and I have no way to prove this to Helium. They wanted to talk to an old boss or see my current license listed on a site. Well, I was my own boss (mediation) and my license is lapsed, but that doesn’t make me any less qualified to write on legal topics. I was a teacher for several years, but I can’t get the teacher one because I can’t verify what they need (current license or talk to an old boss – well, it was a private school that no longer exists, and the other one is in Dallas and I can’t find it listed anywhere, so maybe it’s closed too?) For journalism, they want to talk to an editor of a print mag I’ve been published in. I even offered to MAIL them the magazine, but no, they want to talk to the editor. I’m an editor – I won’t waste an editor’s time to get me to write for a competing publication/publisher. Sorry, won’t do it. Yes, I know she said most of the editors have been friendly, but it’s MY issue that I won’t ask them to do that.

So there are a lot of articles I’m qualified to write to that I simply won’t write on Helium for because they won’t verify me… or can’t verify me. I started to go looking for all the info and the old copies of my licenses and such and was going to find them and send them via email scanned, but right now, I’m still in the Houston area and all my stuff is at home 10 hours away. I finally said, “Screw it. It’s not worth it.”

Most of the time it doesn’t bother me, until I see a markeplace article with zero articles submitted to it, in a field I can write on, about something I am passionate and can write about well, and I can’t because I’m unable to go through my papers to send Helium what they need/want.

Other than that, I’ve been watching how things are performing on Helium, and they really are improving in revenue share too… at least, my revenue is starting to go up now.

Note to Helium:

If you would change from monthly payments to weekly payments, I think a whole lot more people would write for Helium. There are a ton of folks on my board who have said they only write for AC because of the immediate payment on accepted upfronts. AC pays DAILY. I think Helium could at least consider weekly payments, and those writers who really need cash faster would benefit and probably would write for the site more.

Helium Zones

Okay, back to the Zones on Helium.

Helium Zones appear to be similar in scope to a Squidoo Lens for those of you who have them. You can link to things, categorize things, you pick a topic to have the zone on, and make the things in the zone relate to the topic. If you do a zone on a popular topic that is well done and has a lot of great information, you can ‘request a link’. This means Helium will consider linking to your keyword in your zone on articles that use that keyword. For example, if you were to have a zone on Freelancing, and Helium approved your zone for linking, articles that have the word ‘freelancing’ in it would find that word linked to your zone for more information.

It’s a great concept. It’s relatively new. I’ve had one zone since it was in Betaville, and now I’m floundering my way around, but I created three zones total and requested a link on two of them. Today, I added a few people as friends too.

You can find my zones here:

• Freelancing:
  http://www.helium.com/zone/921-freelancing

• Michelle L Devon (michy):
  http://www.helium.com/zone/2114-michelle-l-devon-michy-

• Fiction Writing:
  http://www.helium.com/zone/2112-fiction-writing

Rate My Helium Zones!

Be sure if you stop by to scroll to the bottom and ‘thumbs up’ me so my score goes up, and also, vote in the polls! If you have a zone,a dd me as your friend, and I’ll come visit and rate yours too! If you have freelancing articles, check the freelancing one and leave a comment so I’ll feature you on Mondays!

If you have an adsense account with Google, there’s a place to enter your own adsense account. I don’t have a clue if it’s rotation, share, or what, but at least it’s a chance to get a little bit of extra revenue from Helium.

Helium really is making positive changes. With the continued decline of AC, the editorial push of Suite101, Helium is fast becoming a place new and nervous freelancers can get their feet wet and make a competitive income for online content.

Also, I like the way the cream does seem to rise to the top here. A lot of folks have talked about leaving Helium because they aren’t making any money, but most of those folks are consistently ranked in below 5 on the article listings by rank. Put some quality time into the writing and rate at least 5 rates or so per day, and I don’t think most folks will have a problem getting their stars up fast, especially since Helium accepts nonexclusive rewrites.

While I won’t say Helium is the best place to make money right now, I have been saying all along that I’m impressed with the direction they are going, and they are definitely a freelance site to watch.

Hope you’ll check out my zones and if you make a zone, come on back here and leave the link to it in the comments so everyone can come visit and rate your zone too!

Love and stuff,
Michy

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