by Ryan Richards

Created on: October 21, 2009

Helium is quite possibly the best thing to happen to writers since the inception of the pencil. It truly is a writer's best friend. Helium is a website where writers, poets, reporters and story-tellers alike come to let out their creative juices and make a little money doing so. The site is based around one simple concept: quality pays. Where else do you know of that you can write an article on the benefits of shower gel over traditional bar soap, and get paid to do so?

Quality, it does an article good. People notice the time and effort you put into your articles and stories,the proof is in the pudding, or in this case the writing. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I've been rating articles and been disappointed at the dross some folks churn out, thankfully Helium's rating system ensures that quality is pays better than quantity. If there are 54 articles or submissions for the title you wrote to, no one's going to read #43, they want to read #1 or #2, and the more reads your article gets; the more money you make. Now, that's not to say that you can't make any money or have any fun if you're new to the trade. Between "empty title" bonuses and "upfront payments", it really is as easy as waxing wise on a subject you love.

Helium loves to inspire it's writers to go above and beyond what they are capable of. Not only do they pay for regular articles on the site, but there are other ways to make money and gain recognition for your work. The Marketplace is a prime example. This section of Helium is where external publishers seek out talented writers to freelance articles for various publications such as websites and magazines. These publishers pay well, very well, but the competition is steep. The payments range from $10 to over $100, so bring your 'A' game, everyone else is!

Writing straight-forward articles like this one not your style? Not to worry, at Helium they've got you covered. The other way Helium challenges it's members is by running creative writing contests. This is great if you know a lot on a particular subject as the object here is to write multiple articles on a variety of individual topics that all fall under the same idea. To explain, on the the main site, one may write about Halloween; whereas in the creative writing contest there will be 15 or so topics under the heading of Halloween. These contests are run on points where the #1 article overall gets 5 points and it trends downward through the subsequent entries. The goal is to accumulate the most points by writing to the most articles with the topics provided, and of course have the best ratings to do so.

There are plenty of reasons to love Helium, ask anyone of it's writers. This site has a tight-knit crew of loyal writers who really enjoy doing what they love and seeing how they stack up against the competition. I write for a handful of other sites as well, but when I have friends interested in writing online, the first place I send them is here, Helum.com.

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