Any one bubbling with enthusiasm in freelance writing will naturally get excited the moment one comes across a site like Helium that promises payment to articles and excellent writing opportunities and perpetual earning potential for the future.

How to get started as a new writer in Helium? Know these three important things:

1) Helium offers readily in a platter multitudes of article titles for you to write under numerous channels. (If needed, you can also initiate your own article title and get it approved). Under each title, there will be articles written already by several authors and you have the opportunity to add your own "voice" there. You can also be the first-to-write, if the title is empty.

2) Helium is a "write and rate" site; since there are multiple articles under the same title, the articles are to be sorted out in the order of merit and all Helium members are expected to rate the others' articles to help this sorting process.

3) Helium offers "writing stars" and "rating stars" to its writer-members based on the quantity and quality of writing and rating they do. The stars have a significant bearing on the earning potential of authors in the site. If you are going to write for the joy of writing and earnings are secondary to you, you can straight away jump into writing at Helium. But, if you are particular to earn money by pumping in your writing skills into the site, then you must be adequately well informed on "how to earn money at helium" and also in detail about the "writing stars and rating stars" at Helium.

== Grab the Writing Basics ==

Do not get too much into all the the other things at Helium at this stage. Do not allow the bubbling initial enthusiasm to fade. It 's time now to jump into posting your first article in Helium. Just before that, grasp the following fundamentals of writing for Helium, which incidentally would be of value for writing in any other website:

1) Write in an easy-to-read-and-grasp style. Your write should be catchy, informative, to the point, to the title, brief (400 to 1200 words) and interesting. Make sure that your writing is free of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Avoid excessive and irrelevant usage of first-person narration in your articles.

2) Write in short paragraphs (not more than 4 to 5 sentences per para) with judicious use of bullet lists, numbered lists, sub-titled paragraphs etc.

3) Be prepared to do some research (which could be done on the Internet itself), collect data and information and write them in your own original style (no plagiarism). Give link to reference sources wherever necessary.

4) Write on subjects which more and more people search for: finance, health and fitness, information technology and business, if you are curious to earn more from Helium.

== Write Your First Article ==

Now you can straightaway go to the "Title Finder", type in the key words on a subject that you are enthusiastic to write about, select a title that suits you and click the "write now" button. The screen for entering your text appears before you.

Another, better method to look for the right titles for you to write is to goto Helium's home page after logging in, look at the left side of the screen under channels, where you can see "Arts and humanities, Autos, Business, Celebration and holidays". You can click at a channel most comfortable for you to write. Let us say, you are interested in writing on Autos. Now, click "Autos" and in the next screen, you will find sub-channel lists ("antique cars, auto repair, buying cars etc). You can click on any one that suits you best. Now you will find at the center of the screen, brief write-up of several articles with appropriate titles (already written, and inviting you to write on them). If you click "write now", you can straight away go to write your own article under the existing title.

Alternatively, if you want to write something on an "empty title", you can get scroll down on the previous (sub-channel listed) screen, you will find "writing assignment" titles and if any of them are withing your reach, you can click the appropriate title and go to the writing input screen.

Can you now go ahead happily typing in your article there? No! That's not the right way.

The best course of action is this: Bookmark this "write now" page in your browser. You can even close your Internet for the time being.

Open your word processor and and write your article there. Thoroughly check your article for spelling, grammar and other mistakes. Check your formatting. Save your article in "plain text" mode and close the file. Now, reopen the file, check once again its looks and formatting and then "copy" the entire text, open the saved bookmark of the "write now" page in your Internet browser and then "paste" your article there.

Add suitable links to any referenced web-pages in your article. Take a "preview" and see how your article will look after posting. If everything looks fine, fill in the title key word for your article and then "publish" your article! Hooray! You are a published writer now!

== Other Things You Should Know as a New Writer to Helium ==

1) How to rate Helium articles

1) How the Writing Star and Rating Stars are awarded

2) How you are going to earn in Helium and receive the money

3) What is "Market place" and what are "Contests" and how they offer earning opportunities for you

4) What is Helium community, how you can benefit by reading discussion board postings by other members, Helium staff and Site stewards and how to interact with them.

5) How you can contribute to charity through Helium

6) How you can become a citizen journalist and so on.

Now that you have done your first writing and rating, it is time for you to explore the site further and learn all the above exciting things at Helium.

Go ahead and get hooked to Helium!

Learn more about this author, C.V.Rajan.
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