by Lucy E. Zahnle

Created on: January 04, 2010

Writing for Helium.com can be rewarding, but it can also be a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride. Helium gives writers of all interests and calibers a chance to get their work displayed and read. On top of that, the site offers an economic incentive so that writers realize a monetary return, however small, for their work as well as the satisfaction of being published on-line.

Along with the “high” of seeing themselves in ”print” and reading their own bylines, Helium writers also face the mixed blessing of the ratings system. Regardless of how professional, thick-skinned, or “above it all” writers believe themselves to be, most of them have at least a little bit of pride and ego invested in their work. Watching articles that they slaved over sink in the ratings can be extremely depressing, especially if they feel that the ratings are wrong and competing articles are not as good as theirs.

On the other hand, when the raters love an article and consistently rate it at number one, an author feels validated. It is as if the whole world is recognizing his or her talent. Once this happens, it can be all the more devastating when that top rating bubble bursts and the writer sees the once popular article move down the line to the middle or, horror of horrors, the bottom of the list.

Since rejection is a standard part of the highly competitive publishing industry, most writers have to learn to deal with “that sinking feeling” and keep on writing. As long as writers do not put too much stock in Helium’s ratings roller coaster, they should be able to withstand the downside of it.

However, Helium offers authors who want to try to raise their ratings a chance to do it. The leapfrog feature gives writers a chance to correct, tweak, or completely rewrite a low-rated article. Leapfrogging can be risky, though. The leapfrogged article could rise in the rankings or sink even further down the list.

One of the most positive things about Helium’s policies is that writers can publish their Helium articles in other venues, both online and in print, as long as the author still owns the copyrights to the piece. This allows authors to recycle articles they wrote for other purposes or to reuse articles they wrote for Helium somewhere else. Being able to display or reuse articles gives authors a chance to earn a higher return on their work. Most other content aggregate websites do not allow articles to appear on other sites.

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