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If you've ever done an assignment for an editor "on speculation," you are writing to a single judge/editor of your finished work as to whether it fits his style, slant, and word length in the "voice" that he wants for his readership.

When going through a slush pile of articles, most editors can tell from the first paragraph whether or not an article is suitable for their publication.

The advantages of writing to Helium publishers is (1) your article is guaranteed to be read because it was requested by a Helium co-partner; (2) you know the number of competitors you're up against; and (3) even if your article is rejected, you won't receive a form letter of rejection, but your article will simply transition to the Helium site to earn ongoing blue writing stars and monthly earnings from page views. (Some very short topics don't transition, but the guidelines will tell you that.)

You have nothing to lose, not even precious research and writing time, because most articles will transition and be read by Helium's worldwide audience along with thousands of Helium raters.

If you're an experienced writer, you may be strongly motivated to write for a quick payout with contracted publishers pre-approved by Helium. Most publishers request that you have earned at least one blue star on Helium, which requires at least four to 29 articles that rate in the top quarter. That makes you a "Marketplace approved" writer.

Marketplace "premier writers" must have at least three stars, which means they've written at least 100 to 299 articles, with ranks that put them in the upper quartile. (A two-star writer can earn a bonus 3rd star by rating in the upper 85th percentile.)

Experienced writers can quickly eliminate themselves as competitors if they don't carefully follow the Marketplace publisher's guidelines. Every online and print publisher has a targeted readership, a characteristic slant and tone behind specified content written in a designated word-length. The word length is rather non-negotiable because it is intended to fit within the style of the publication, possibly with pictures, graphs, sidebars or whatever else the editor has in mind.

Article writing is teamwork and professional writers understand that. You should stay as close to the specified length as possible; if anything stay under the word count by 5% to allow the editor room for filler material. It is simpler to enlarge an accompanying photo than it is to edit and shorten a too-wordy article.

Most editors

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