by Amber Hilton

Created on: November 16, 2009   Last Updated: March 25, 2010

Helium offers several ways to earn money from ad revenue on the site. Which options you choose to participate in will depend upon how much time and effort you want to put in. I am weary to say that anyone could make a living on Helium, but if you put in a lot of hard work and time, you could come close. However, for the amount of effort that most users are willing to put in, I would say that Helium is better thought of as a way to earn some extra spending money and get people reading your writing. Either way, if you really love to write, it doesn't have to feel like work.

I encourage you to check out the site guides, because Helium is very straightforward about what you are paid for, but I will go over each option below as well in less detail.

#1. Upfront payments. This one is relatively new for Helium and makes it more like Associated Content, except with Helium, the upfront payment for articles is set according to how many writing stars you have rather than what an editor thinks your article is worth. Currently, the maximum that you can make for a single (400-word plus) article is $2.50, but this requires five writing stars, which can take awhile to earn.

#2. Empty Title bonuses. Helium is willing to pay writers an extra $1.00 per article when they post to an empty title (meaning no one else has written to it yet). You can search for previously published empty titles by selecting the "Write" link in the upper left-hand corner or you can suggest a title of your own. Once it has gone live on Helium, be sure to be the first to write to it and you will get that extra $1.00 for your efforts.

#3. Rating bonus. The success and quality control of Helium is built upon the community rating system, so it is no surprise that Helium strongly encourages its writers to rate the work of other writers. Currently, you must have at least one rating star when monthly payments are calculated in order to get your share of the revenue. However, if you have five rating stars (this is the maximum that you can currently earn) at the end of the period, you will receive an additional $3 bonus. It's not much, but it adds up over time and rating articles is very easy to do.

#4. Revenue share. Helium writers not only earn upfront payments for their articles, but they earn a percentage of the revenue share as well (rating star minimum discussed above). Helium is pretty private about what the percentage is or how exactly this is calculated, but the more that people click on your articles,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>