by May Monten

Created on: February 27, 2009

Writing for your own blog and writing for Helium are quite different. The only thing they have in common is that in both cases you are writing and then putting your writing on the internet for others to read.

Helium requires that you write articles that follow a certain structure. Articles have to be at least 400 words long, and Helium strongly urges that you follow certain writing conventions such as writing an introduction, an article body, and a conclusion for each article.

Blogging is unstructured. You can choose how to write your posts. You might choose to write a 400-word neatly-structured article, but you could also choose to post only a few words (perhaps with a picture or a video). Or you might choose to ramble on for thousands of words.

Blogging often uses pictures, videos, and audio clips in addition to, or sometimes instead of, words. Helium articles, at least for now, use words only.

Although Helium has tighter restrictions than blogging, it offers some advantages. There is a built-in community at Helium that is very active. If you want feedback on your articles, or advice on how to become a better writer, there are many people who are eager to help. It's a community that is especially welcoming to beginning writers.

Also, you are more likely to earn money writing on Helium than you are by blogging, especially if you are just starting out. Helium takes care of all the advertising, and then shares the revenue with the writers in various ways. You won't get rich writing for Helium, but you are likely to make more money than you would on a new, or even on an established blog. It's hard to "monetize" your own blogs, and many bloggers will not make any money from their blogging at all.

Helium also offers contests every week that have cash prizes, and they have what they call the "Marketplace," which brings publishers who are seeking freelance articles to the site. Helium writers compete with each other to have their Marketplace articles selected. The payment for a single selected article ranges from about $16 to $200. This is an opportunity unique to Helium that you wouldn't have on your blog.

Blogging has its own advantages, though. It is more interactive. People can easily leave comments on your posts, and many bloggers attract a group of regulars who read their blogs every day.

Also, with blogging you have more control over your work. At Helium, you retain the copyright to the work you submit, and you are allowed to publish it elsewhere (with publishers that don't require exclusive rights), but you are not allowed to remove your articles from Helium, and Helium has the right to do whatever it wants with them. When you blog, you can delete your articles, or change them, or do whatever you want, and no one else has the right to use them in any way without your prior permission.

So blogging gives you more freedom to write the way you want, and more control over what happens to your work, while Helium offers more help, especially for new writers, and more support. Helium also gives you the opportunity to earn more money than you are likely to earn by blogging. Writing articles on Helium and writing posts on blogs also exercises different kinds of creative muscles, so there are many people who choose to do both.

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