by Natalia Jones

Created on: October 26, 2009

Helium is one of the best places to earn a steady income from writing online. Of course it is a leap of faith at the beginning, because as with many things in life, if you're new you have to work your way up to the top. It is no different at Helium, but while this concept is generally accepted in the brick and mortar world, it is met with some resistance in a virtual environment.

Earning money for your writing at Helium is a straight forward process. To make the most on your investment of time, the following suggestions can be taken into consideration.

Learn the System

There is a very specific system to earn payments at Helium.com. All new writers must pay special attention to their writing and rating stars as both are instrumental in receiving payment. To be eligible to earn anything at Helium, a writer must have at least one yellow rating star. The blue stars are called writing stars and they are calculated according to the number of articles and the average rating percentage.

The number of blue stars is especially important because they determine how much the writer makes per article. The payments range from 50 cents for one blue star all the way up to $2.50 for a five starred writer. There is a table in the Help Section of Helium that details the specifics.

In addition to this it is best to note that not all the categories are eligible for upfront payments and if this will affect your decision to write or not, you should ensure you know which they are.

Write Quality Articles

Helium writers make money from a combination of;

* Upfront payments i.e. the money earned simply for submitting an article to an eligible title, which are paid according to the blue star pay scale, and

* Page View Revenue Sharing or a part of the income generated when visitors read your article submissions.

The higher an article is rated by your peers the greater the likelihood that it will be read because it will appear first in a search. It follows then that it pays to write quality articles in order to maximize page view earnings.

Don't Forget to Rate

To qualify to be paid at all writers must contribute to the rating cycle. This means that writers at Helium are asked to make a commitment to the system of which they are a part, and read what others have written and rate the competing articles. Simply put, if you don't have a yellow star at the end of the month, you will not earn a single penny. Luckily this is not an arduous task and there is a bonus of $3 per month if you manage to get all five rating stars at the end of the month.

Open a PayPal Account

Although you will see your earnings come in to your Helium account, you can only access it if you have a registered PayPal account. So make sure that you can receive payments from PayPal in your country before you get started typing those brilliant articles. Helium will transfer balances upon your request as long as they are above the minimum threshold of $25.

Getting paid at Helium is a simple process, but it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the rules of the game before you sit down to play.

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