by Stefanina Hill

Created on: July 09, 2009   Last Updated: July 11, 2009

Contributing to Helium is a great way to improve writing skills, acquire knowledge and, of course, earn some extra money. There is the potential to earn a fairly significant amount regularly on Helium, but a combination of factors must be kept in mind in order to maximize your earning potential on the site.

The first aspect of earning on Helium is ad revenue. This money accumulates automatically in your account. In order to maximize your potential to earn more ad revenue, the first and most obvious route is to write more articles. It's important to bear in mind that you can't produce large volumes of articles with little or no consideration for the quality of the pieces. If the articles you produce are consistently low rated, you will struggle or fail to acquire writing stars and in doing so cut yourself off from some of the further avenues of income on the site.

A large portfolio of high quality articles will generate decent ad revenue for you so committing some time to writing a few articles per week or, even better, per day is the way to go. Don't get disheartened if you are not producing this many articles when you start out, you will get faster.

If you find that your articles are usually low rated and that you aren't acquiring stars, then it's a good idea to head over to the community forum or e-mail the site staff for some guidance sooner rather than later. The low ratings do not necessarily mean that you're not a good writer, but Helium favors a certain style and approach and, if you aren't writing to the site's requirements, you won't get your ratings and your stars. No writing stars equals no upfront payments so you want to make sure you avoid making a big portfolio of low rated articles before seeking help.

It's also important to bear in mind that some channels will earn you more ad revenue than others. Business, finance and technology tend to earn much more than poems or other creative writing. This hierarchy is reflected in the next way to earn at Helium, upfront payments.

On Helium writing stars are awarded from one through to five in recognition of progressively higher numbers of articles written that average out at a high level of quality. Keep a check on the site rules for exact levels and aim to always keep your standard above this so that, if the rules change, you are not left with no stars at all. You can use the leap frog facility to replace old articles with new improved versions.

Writing stars are important because they allow

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