One of the biggest challenges with any website is instructing their new members of the ins and outs of their website. No matter how well you design the interface for a website as it grows in size it’s complexity inherently increases – meaning the hurdle for new members to understand and be aware of all the intricacies of the site grows.

This is meant to be an unofficial introduction – but by no means the final word – on areas of interest on the site that new members should be aware of.

Writing

Typically the reason any member joins Helium is because they want to write. You can click “write now” next to almost any article on the site. However – how do you find interesting titles to write to?

Here are two good places to start:

  1. Title finder – find titles not only by name but also by those with the most/least articles or views, debates, marketplace, or specific to channel.
  2. Marketplace – browse titles seeded by our partners. If your title is chosen, the publisher will pay you for rights to your article.

Remember to always keep our writing standards in mind.

Rating

So you’ve written your first article and now we’ve redirected you to rating – what is this?

If you notice all the articles on Helium are written to a title – that is Helium is title based rather than article based. Each article in a title – example: “Cats and litter training” – competes against the others for the highest rank – 1 of X (where X = # of articles in the title). Ranking high (#1-3) means you get more exposure on the site, more exposure to search engines, and, as a result, more earnings.

Rating is where rankings are decided. Once you have written to a base channel you are eligible to rate in it – where base channels are the ones on the home page on the left. For example, if you write an article in the title mentioned above it’s base channel is currently “Pets & Animals” and that would mean you could potentially rate in any title in channels like Cat Training, Rodents & Reptiles, or Animal Rescue & Adoption.

You don’t get to choose which titles you rate in. Our rating engine will automatically serve up a rating pair based upon which titles need rating most, you rate, and thus you add to the rankings of Helium.

Rating now only qualifies you for earnings – once you earn 1 rating star – but also makes you a valued member of the Helium community.

User Guide

As a new member you’re going to have a lot of questions. The best place to find answers in is the User Guide. Here you’ll get answers to questions such as:

Please look there first.

Community

Helium has a vibrant, growing and vocal community which exists on our community boards. It has several boards to help new members:

Member Pages

We have many pages just for members – meaning you have to be logged in to see them – to help you manage your articles, earnings, and to get information about your account.

  • My Helium – this is the “member home page.” Basically command central for you.
  • Edit About Me – this allows you to edit your public bio. Remember that typically a bio with a picture and intro is better for you as a writer. It allows you to use your bio as a “resume” of sorts and you can’t be a featured writer unless you have both filled out.
  • My Articles – this page lists all of your articles so that you can easily find and leapfrog any ones that are keeping you from that next star.
  • Earnings & Payments – once you’ve earned a rating star you can track your earnings here.

There are many other interesting areas of Helium to explore. I hope this stars you on the right path to hit the ground running.