by Greg Schwartz

Created on: December 19, 2009   Last Updated: June 24, 2010

Helium is a content-driven website where good writers have the potential to make some nice side money.  You can write articles, essays, short stories, even poems - and get paid for them.

There are many different ways to get paid on Helium, and some ways will work better for you than others.  Here are some helpful tips to maximize your writing revenue on Helium.

- Earn Upfront Payments

Most channels (with the exception of creative writing, recipes, and a couple of others) will pay an Upfront Payment for every article you write, assuming you have at least one writing star.  This payment can range from $0.50 to $2.50, depending on how many writing stars you have at the end of the month.  Writing more eligible articles (as long as you keep a consistently high writing percentage) will net you higher (and more) Upfront Payments.

Any topics with five or more articles already written to them will not yield an Upfront Payment.  However, you can still write an article on that same subject and get paid for it by using the next tip:

- Suggest new titles

Every time you write the first article on a new topic (in one of the appropriate channels, and assuming you have the necessary writing stars) Helium will pay you a $1.00 Empty Title Bonus.  So by writing to a new title, you could make $3.50 for the same article you might have otherwise earned $2.50 for.

- Pick relevant topics

People will be more likely to read your article if it's about something timely or interesting.  While it's true that you could still earn an Upfront Payment and Empty Title Bonus for an article on groundhog mating rituals, you'll get the same payments (and probably more earnings) from an article about a current topic such as health care or the economy.

Not everyone is a news reporter, but you can find an angle on just about any story.  For example, you could write about how the recession is affecting small comic book stores, such as the one in your town.

- Use the Marketplace

The Helium Marketplace is a great spot to find income opportunities.  Many of the publishers who post article requests here pay a lot of money ($20, $40 or even more per article).  In many cases, even if the publisher doesn't buy your article, you can still post it on Helium and earn your Upfront Payment and maybe even Empty Title Bonus.

- Keep a rating star buffer

You don't want to lose your 1 rating star and miss out on any revenue you would otherwise earn, but sometimes your rating percentage

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