The Positive Side of Writing for Sites like Helium.Com

An Opportunity for Everyone

Recently, having read many articles on the negatives of sites like Helium.com, I decided that it was perhaps time to redress the balance and to tell the real story behind successful writing on Internet sites, based on my ten years' experience as an on-line writer. Unlike many of the other articles I have read, I discovered a niche and, in doing so, began learning how any writer can gain success on-line and earn substantial amounts for the effort put into their written work.

*Competition.
*Knowing your market.
*Learning and growing.
*Linking.
*Succeeding.
*Rating.

Competition.

While many have tried the Helium contests or simply found that they are not really competitors in the writing market, what I hear all the time is gripes about ratings being inaccurate as a measure of the value of work. Competition to me is a learning process, and gives me a measurement of how my work is seen by others. Many of those who give up on sites like Helium do so because they can find no fault with their own work and take the rejection of their work as a sinister indication that the rating on the site doesn't work.

Knowing your market.

Instead of doing this, I examined the writing guidelines very thoroughly in my early days on the site. Being accustomed to working as a professional writer for magazines, I was also familiar with how important the type of work you do is to different markets. Magazines have guidelines just like websites do, and these guidelines give writers an indication of what is and is not acceptable. The self indulgent writer who ignores guidelines will always fail. What happens is that their work does not compare well with other written work, and the community sees it as non conformist.

For magazine style articles, I always follow guidelines and look to see what is required of me. If I was to submit the wrong kind of work to the wrong kind of market, the fault doesn't lie with the editorial staff when I am rejected. Similarly on websites, reading the most acceptable of article standard helps you to learn and gage what works on a particular site. Helium is no different, and somehow my style works very well indeed.