by Jeffrey Jason Hill

Created on: May 02, 2009

We've all been there. You've just written your heart out and there's nothing else you can think about save what rating you're going to get in a few minutes, or hours as it were. The one I hate the most is when I get into these contests, and I know I've written at a high quality, only to see it near last place.

The fly in your ointment comes when you see it remain that way for days, perhaps weeks. The biggest thrill I've had on Helium so far is getting into a contest on, say, politics, and see my name in first place shortly after the contest has begun. I've really been a member of Helium for about ten months but only recently have I turned on the juice as far as writing consistently on it is concerned. It's a real downer, though, to see a contest article - or worse, two or three - rated at the bottom, pulling your ranking in the contest down with it. I've gone from first place in a contest to not even being ranked in the top 20 anymore. Each day brings you closer to the contest's end. You wonder how this happened.

Surely I'm not the only one this has happened to. Maybe many people liked the article or maybe the people who saw it wouldn't know good writing if it hit em in the face. Let's face it, there are some rather poorly-written pieces that we all have to sit through, wanting to be fair and read the whole thing. Because we want that unknown person out there on Helium ranking our article to be fair and read each and every word we wrote. So, even though you know from the first couple of sentences that an article isn't written well, you have that thought lurking in the back of your mind: Should I read this and waste four or five minutes I'll never get back on this piece of junk?'

Please don't misunderstand me. I joined Helium in July 2008. It is now May 1, 2009. After I joined last July, I maybe wrote four or five articles. I was new to the world of online writing. I shopped around. I found and joined Triond, HubPages, and Helium. Eventually I realized I was spreading myself too thin. As you may discern from the fact that I'm a writer, I am sensitive to a fault. I soon realized, especially on Hubs, that hardly anyone was reading my pieces. I abandoned the world of online writing within just a few weeks.

Then a curious thing happened. Just one month ago, the beginning of April, I started looking at Helium again. I scoured and bookmarked many links, including My Articles, User Guide, Helium Stars and Badges, etc. Something drew me back to Helium, to the exclusion

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