Why professional journalists are choosing Helium for added freelance income

Meet L. Woodrow Ross, a professional journalist and contributor to Helium.com. Ross writes about his experience freelancing at Helium.com. As an established journalist, with a rich background in print journalism, Larry shares insights for professional writers who are tapping into the vast opportunities offered at Helium.

As a professional journalist, you might question what participation in a group such as Helium would contribute to your success.  You may have worked hard and achieved some level of success and feel that Helium is for “amateurs” only.  Nothing could be farther from the truth!

 Helium offers the opportunity to polish your craft.  Your articles are rated by your peers, so you get immediate feedback on the acceptance level.  In addition, you have an opportunity to supplement earnings for your writing.  By meeting certain criteria, you will earn for each article you write.  Publishers post writing topics, and you can earn significant dollars for your articles selected in Marketplace.  This also is a barometer of the quality of your writing as more publishers select your articles for publication. To be chosen for publication over many fellow writers is very gratifying as well as profitable.

The site has a place for biographical information, and allows the writer to reach a wide range of readers and increase their readership.  The wide range of topics will allow you to hone in on subjects that fit your qualifications, but also stimulate you to branch into new “genres” and expand your capabilities.

 On a personal note, my wife was cynical when I told her I was planning to join Helium and write articles to be posted on their site.  The first couple of months were uneventful, and then the dollars began to accumulate.  Needless to say, she has a new opinion of Helium.

 You will find Helium to be very professional in their dealings with writers.  They are punctual in payment and honorable in the way they conduct the business end of the organization.

On the flip side, don’t expect a free ride.  If your writing is sub-par, it will show up in ratings, or the site stewards will provide feedback to let you know where the problems exist.  They want to see you succeed, but you have to be willing to work in order to earn at a reasonable level.

 If you are looking for a way to improve your writing, expand your horizons and earn some extra dollars, you couldn’t find a better place to start than Helium.

 L. Woodrow Ross

 Ross is a newspaper columnist/photographer, writing a weekly outdoor column for the Anderson Independent Mail.  He is a contributor to outdoor magazines, including South Carolina Sportsman and maintains a blog for the Greenville News.  He lives in Travelers Rest, SC, with his lovely wife Margaret.  

If you are interested in learning more about opportunities at Helium, email Barbara Whitlock, New Member Outreach Manager, at bwhitlock@helium.com.

 

What is the difference between 30 day and 90 day rating score?

One of the more common confusions on the boards is what 30 day and 90 day rating score are, how they are used, and how one qualifies for writing stars – or how many stars one qualifies for.

First, if you didn’t know, you can find your scores (including writing) on your My Helium page.
Second, the rating scores and amount of rates needed to get stars is explained on our help wiki.

But, again, the question most commonly asked is “What’s the difference?”  Many users are confused because they’ll have many rates in the last 30 days and a high score, but a much lower score for their 90 day average and will be confused why they have only 1 star.

Basically, this is how it works:

1. We check your 90 day rating score and amount of rates done in the past 90 days.  Do you qualify for any stars (done more than 30 rates and have a score >= 75%)?  If so, apply stars and done.  Else, go to 2.
2. We check your 30 day rating score and amount of rates done in the past 30 days.  Do you have a score >= 75% and >= 10 rates in that time span?  If so, apply 1 star.

So again, we only check the 30 day score/rates if your 90 day score/rates doesn’t qualify you for a star and your 30 day total can only qualify you for, at max, one star.

The basic idea behind it is to allow new users to quickly come in, make a few rates (as few as 10) and start earning revenue payments right away – keeping them active and contributing to the site, which helps everyone.

I hope that helps.

 

Compete for $100 Open Secrets Journalism Prize on Campaign Finance Reform

Helium has had a long-standing partnership with Open Secrets, an organization committed to keeping watch on Capital Hill and advocating for citizens. They regularly offer journalism awards at Helium. Writers in this contest compete for the $100 prize and greater writer-exposure. Check out the contest page for details.

 

If you could change the nation’s campaign finance system, what would you do – if anything – and why? Write a well-researched 750-word article by November 5^th, and you could walk away with $100, while adding to your exposure as a writer and possibly influencing public debate.

 

Campaign funding is an issue that directly affects the quality of our republic and the representatives selected. Your contributions can add to informative debate on this vital issue.

 

If you are a professional journalist looking for ways to expand your online presence, this is a great outlet for your political writing. If you are a citizen journalist, looking for ways to earn more for your writing, here’s your chance.

 

Check out Open Secrets, the contest guidelines, and find the title link on the Citizen Journalist Open Secrets page.

 

If you enjoy this opportunity, check out other journalism award opportunities at Helium, and learn about Helium’s exclusive partnerships with The National Press Club and Society for Professional Journalists.

 

For questions, write to me at bwhitlock@helium.com.

 

Writer testimonial: How Helium launched my writing career

This is the first in a series of articles by Helium members testifying to ways writing for Helium has helped them further their career and earning goals as a writer.

I’m Glory Lennon , and I’d like to share how Helium has helped me as a writer.

Well, that’s a no-brainer. I was an amateur, a complete novice who started writing a garden advice column for a dinky (and I mean dinky!) little town paper as a favor for the editor (The grandmother of my son’s best friend) who needed something to fill space.  It turned out to be more than filler after many people said they liked my writing. I thought I had something there.

When I found Helium I had already started several novels and had many short stories in my stash but I didn’t know what to do with them. Was Helium the place? I was skeptical but I posted one old garden column. It ranked very low so I figured I didn’t have what it takes to make the big time. Seven months later after reading many other Helium articles and learning what was expected, what did well and how to be a better writer I posted a second article, this time a short story. That did better and so I was hooked.

About 400 articles later I was contacted by the editor of a Canadian based indoor gardening magazine Maximum Yield, who was looking for a monthly contributor for their new USA edition. She had read some of my Helium articles on gardening, (my favorite channel, besides creative writing, and the one which has proven most profitable to me) and she liked my no-nonsense way of telling people how to garden. So, now my name is seen next to my articles in this beautiful magazine all over the USA and Canadian.  Shortly after that I was appointed Steward for the Tree and Shrub sub-channel at Helium’s Home and Garden channel.  Is that the big time?

For someone who never thought she would make a penny putting simple words together, who marvels every time she gets “fan E-mail” and is astonished to find editors willing to pay for her articles, I would say yes and Helium had a great big part of it, for sure and certain.

I love Helium and everyone there. It is a place where everyone is in love with the written word and is so willing to help and guide those starting out so that they in turn once they become better writers can do the same for other novices that show up at Helium. It’s an amazing and wonderful cycle and I encourage anyone who longs to write to start at Helium. There simply is no better place.

I know this is much more than you wanted but it had to be said. I’d be nowhere without Helium. Now I have a novel Violet’s in Bloom serialized in a zone too. Jim Bessey encouraged me to do it and so there it is. Now I’m kind of a novelist just like Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas and Henry Fielding all of which serialized their works. Imagine that!

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Thanks Glory! . If you’d like to share your story too, send your testimony, name and Helium About Me page URL to me at bwhitlock@helium.com.

 

Helium Member Cathie Beck Publishes “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship” today

Helium is proud to announce that member Cathie Beck’s “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship” is officially published today!

Described as a wild ride of a memoir—a “Thelma & Louise-like” tale of love, perseverance, friendship and triumph, Cathie’s book can be purchased on Amazon.com and you can read more about the memoir on her Helium Zone and her website.

Kirkus calls “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship” a “searing portrait,” and ForeWord Reviews says, “Beck’s writing is breezy, polished
and fun to read.”

Visitors to Cathie Beck’s website can get free “Signature Cheap Cabernet” wine and she has also promised to launch a Helium-based presence on her book promotion to help other Helium authors get their books published and promoted.

 

September’s Helium Citizen Journalism Award Winner

We’re excited to announce the latest winner of a Helium Citizen Journalism Award contest.

Mark Sullivan won the 1H2O Citizen Journalism Award by writing about whether future wars are going to be fought over water or if leaders will be able to resolve conflicts as they have in the past Be sure to check out more information on this contest and the current winner on the 1H2O website.

Be sure to check out the current Citizen Journalism contests and let your voice be heard.

 

Badge Group Sorting

You really don’t know how tempted I was to call this “Badges?… We don’t need no stinkin’ badges…” as that phrase comes up every time we change anything about badges – but I managed to restrain myself.  Moving on.

As most posts, this idea came to me as I was reading the boards and I decided to move it to the blog to make it more “sticky” and central.  You can see the original thread here if you’re interested but we never really go into the following discussion.

The basic idea is this: In badges, we have the ability to “sort” in the sense that we can group collections of badges together.  We currently do this in a very rudimentary way in that we show the writing/rating stars first by themselves… then everything else (or it may surprise you to find that writing/rating stars are, architecturally, badges).

However, there is nothing to say that we can’t expand the number of collections (I’ll move away from using the word “group” as it’s used in another way with badges that you’ll see in a minute and would likely cause confusion) in order to provide more semantic value to badges.  This is especially important to consider as the number of badges available number several hundred with no sign of slowing – though no user can get every badge, they can still accumulate (potentially) a dozen (or more) which begins to get confusing, visually.

So, first, terminology:

• Badge: single instance of badge architecture.  I.E. Channel Steward Arts & Entertainment
• Badge Group: group of badges served out of single template (most importantly using a single icon).  I.E. Medical Professional Badge group: Medical Doctor, Registered Nurse, Pharmacist, etc.
• Badge Collection: collection of badge groups sorted for visual needs. I.E. “star badges” (writing/rating) and everything else.

So the basic premise of this is to examine how we might further narrow the collections, suggestions of a strategy, and a request for feedback from the community.  This is not something currently slated for development however it is something which is beneficial in two ways:

1. It is easy to implement.  Would require no changes to architecture, only to data (badges) and some UI tweaks (for visual presentation).
2. It is likely needed soon.  The argument being that a user having dozens of badges becomes useless unless they are sorted and displayed in a manner which presents meaning and value – in all senses of the words.

My initial proposal for sorting follows.  Feel free to constructively criticize:

1. Star Collection - first both for legacy and because provides a “baseline” for credibility / credentials.
   • Writing Stars
   • Rating Stars
   • (any future star badges)
2. Credential Collection - establish authority in subject areas.
   • Professional badge groups – medical professional, journalist, etc
3. Results Collection - show success in areas, which builds upon itself.
   • Contests won
   • Marketplace articles sold
   • Stock content articles sold (proposed)
4. Helium Collection – things internal to Helium.
   • Marketplace Approved/Premier
   • Channel Steward badges
   • Editorial Advisory Board
   • Creative Writing badges

Would love to hear your feedback, thoughts and constructive criticism, as I said.

Hope this helps.

http://www.helium.com/smf/index.php?topic=49902W

 

Why is it very important to cite sources?

Most people, thinking of the importance of citing source, may just think about the rating end of it. Citing sources can indeed help in how well the article is rated. However, there is a much more important reason for using citations – to prevent claims of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is something that people don’t usually like to talk about, and even less often, want to think about, but it does happen. Helium is committed to stop it from happening, and it is grounds for removal of your account entirely.

Plagiarism isn’t just copying words verbatim; it can also be copying the ideas of someone else. In addition, rewriting something someone else said and using that is still plagiarism. Rearranging words or rephrasing something doesn’t correct this. If it isn’t from you, it is plagiarism.

This includes instances where you might own a book, and use information from it. Books are copyrighted, and unless you wrote the book, using information from it is plagiarism. This sounds grim, doesn’t it? What can you do, if you’ve researched a topic? After all, some of the things you got from the research are going to come out, aren’t they?

The answer is really pretty simple. If you include a word, sentence, or paragraph in your article, word for word, first put it in quotes. Then cite the source of the material. This is extremely important, and it will be something the plagiarism team will look for. Even if you rephrase it, cite the source. In all cases, if you aren’t the one who came up with the idea or the words, cite the person or people who did.

Keep in mind, too, that a majority of the work needs to be your own. All of this is agreed to every time you write on Helium and check the box in order to submit the information, and it is contained in more depth, in the User Agreement.

Sometimes information will be totally rephrased, but will be largely from several sources. At the end of the article, cite them all as sources.

Not only is this important in regard to protecting yourself against plagiarism reports, it shows that you have taken the time to research, which raises the value of the article to most people. Articles written from personal experience naturally won’t have many citations. Still, if you quote or use from anyone, any book, any magazine, or any article you didn’t write, take the time to add quotation marks and cite the source. Not doing so could mean losing your account and much more. Plagiarism is punishable by large fines and possible jail time. Don’t get nailed for this just because you didn’t cite your sources.

We want you to succeed at Helium!

 

Reasons to invite those you know to write for Helium

You’re a writer, so it’s natural for you to share opportunities at Helium.com with other writers. But did you know that Helium has scores of professionals who share their expertise in articles, even though they don’t self-identify as writers? And everyone has expertise to share about something, including one’s own town/city. So when you think of people to invite to Helium, think broadly.

Of course, writing well is a prerequisite, but we all know that writers don’t hold a monopoly on quality communication. Read this article to learn why you should be inviting your doctor, nurses, dentist, car mechanic, accountant, financial planner, psychologist, teachers, business owners and neighbors to write for Helium. And see how to spot expertise in your neighbors too.

Professionals can boost their resumes with published articles that document their professional expertise. Having titles that detail professional know-how on a resume elevates that candidate to a prospective employer by highlighting demonstrated expertise. Plus, you can show what you know more expansively in articles than in a resume or interview. Learn how you (and your friends and family members) can Advance Careers by Writing Expert Articles at Helium.com.

What if you can’t think of any published writers or professionals to share Helium with? How about your friends who aspire for a writing career? Helium is a great place to get a writing start, because there are so many opportunities and because you get peer assessment in a supportive community. Some compete to advantage and some don’t make it, but it might be worth a try if you notice areas of expertise in others. If they don’t seem writer-types then you can interview them for your own articles. Countless article options are open to you if you keep a close watch and listen with a writer’s ear.

And what about hyper-local content, always in high demand from publishers, especially newspaper partners? Everyone has expertise to share about your town, city, state and the places where you’ve traveled. Review every restaurant you eat in, movie you see, book you read, museum you explore, business you frequent, hobby you do, sport you play, etc. And don’t just write one article about each thing — write about all aspects of each.

The 19th century British poet and essayist, Matthew Arnold, once wrote about the secret to good writing: “Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.”

So now you know some good folks to invite, and you’ve expanded your thinking to more than just self-identified writers. How do you invite writers to Helium, and how can this benefit you?

You earn 5% on all the ad revenue your Helium invitees earn at Helium (in perpetuity with minimal active participation). Just make sure you do the invite process effectively, because if your invitees join outside of the process they can’t count on your account. Here’s how to be sure your invites count:

1. Send an email to your invitee ahead of time. Let them know you’re inviting them to Helium; and ask them to only register from the special link that email contains, so you get referral bonuses. Have them clear helium.com from their spam folder or check the junk folder to make sure they receive the email from Helium.

2. Choose a title to use as invite bait — a topic of interest to that writer.

3. Click on “Article Tools” next to the title or article.

4. Click on the My Invites link within that menu.

5. Follow directions for how to send out invites. (Only send these out after you’ve given your invitee a heads up.)

6. You can keep track of your invitees — who’s accepted or still pending as well as those that expire due to inaction– by going to your My Invites page (via the My Helium button on the main menu).

7. Help your friend submit that first article. Give a shout out once it’s up. Send suggested titles you can find on the site via the Title-Finder tool to inspire him/her to write more.

So many people who have ideas to share. You can help make it happen, and profit for the effort. If you’d like any help or suggestions, my inbox is always open: bwhitlock@helium.com.

 

Tony Verna Publishes His Civil War Novel on Helium

Helium is pleased to welcome author Tony Verna to our site. Tony is a highly-respected director of live events for television. In 1963 he created the Instant Replay that we all take for granted today. Over the years he has published four books about the television industry. He brought his first fictional foray right here.

In a project supervised by Paul Kerstein, Helium’s Director of Content & Community and managed weekly by Jim Bessey, one of Helium’s Senior Stewards, Tony Verna’s new novel Beyond the Blue and the Gray emerges chapter by chapter in our Novel Excerpts channel. We’re using a companion zone to promote Tony’s work and package the chapters in one place.

Blue and Gray debuted on August 31 with Chapter One: Smoke and Mirrors. Chapter two was released just after Labor Day. Each Monday a new installment of this novel will be published on Helium and in the novel’s zone. Every chapter will be linked from the zone page, so readers can backtrack as needed. Verna’s novel totals 60 episodes, so this project will continue well into 2010.

What does this mean for Helium’s writers in general?

Many of us have a novel “waiting to happen” — waiting for time and the inspiration to keep writing. So far, Helium has hosted thousands of short stories, poems, personal essays, and novel excerpts. Until now, we haven’t formalized a way to publish a novel in successive chapters because there was no infrastructure to easily handle serial fiction. Most of the pieces have been in disparate places: author profile pages, our open publishing platform, peer review and critique, and more recently — Zone pages for members.

Novels can be intimidating for authors. However, when you break one up into a series of chapters over a period of months, the impossible becomes manageable. Tony and Helium found a unique way to approach this issue. Each of his installments is a stand-alone story under a stand-alone title. The magic comes in working with a Zone, which brings the whole package neatly together for readers. While Tony’s novel arrived complete, your book could be a work in progress that you release over time for feedback from our readers. Once you’ve started, you won’t want to stop!

What about copyright?

One member, who says she’s already “hooked’ on Blue and Gray, likes this idea. She wants to give it a try, but worries about copyright issues. Here’s the scoop: your published work at Helium IS protected by copyright, as it has been all along. You share non-exclusive rights with Helium. Many well-respected authors have produced novels in serial form — in newspapers, magazines, and on the Internet — and later published the same work (often with added material) in book form. You’ve probably seen “this novel first appeared in installments in Esquire Magazine” (or similar) in novels you’ve read.

This is a way to “get published” and to get motivated to write the novel you’ve been putting off for years. At Helium, we hope you’ll join us in following Beyond the Blue and the Gray. We hope the experience inspires you to begin your next novel and share it here with our readers. Your feedback and creative input for this project is always welcome.

(Special thanks to Jim Bessey for writing and submitting this post.)