by UmiNoor

Created on: February 25, 2010

How you get started at Helium will depend very much on your objective for wanting to write for Helium. Whether your objective is lofty (to share your expertise and knowledge and to give voice to your opinions) or basic (to make money by writing articles). the way you get started as a new writer on Helium must enable you to achieve your objective.

What prompted me to join Helium was the fact that it offers upfront payment to its writers regardless of nationalities. I was delighted with this fact but after going through the Help page, I discovered that only starred writers can get upfront payment. Thus, began my quest for that first writing star.

I want to achieve at least one writing star as soon as possible with minimal effort. It seems that with a minimum of four articles, I am able to get one writing star. So I submitted four articles and waited for the star to appear next to my name but it didn't. I was disappointed. Where was my writing star?

I went back to the Help page and apparently I needed an average writing score of 75% to earn one writing star. My four articles has an average score of less than 75% so it's no wonder I didn't get my writing star.

So I submitted three more articles making sure that I can get ranked well. How I did this was to choose titles with only two articles. I felt that it's easier to compete with two writers for the top position than with many writers.

I managed to rank at position one for two of the titles but that was enough for me to get an average score of nearly 80%. And I earned my first writing star.

But as easy as I got my first writing star, I lost it a couple of days later when one of my top ranking articles was demoted to position number three.

I repeated my strategy of looking for titles with only two articles and wrote to that title. I did get ranked at number one but it was short-lived.

From this experience, I learned three things about getting started as a new writer to Helium.

1. It is possible to achieve one writing star even if you're a new writer who've written the minimum of four articles. I did it with seven articles and that was because I was ill-informed.

2. Your writing star is volatile. You have to always be on the top position for all your four articles. However, if you write more articles, you need only 90% of your articles having an average score of 75% or better to maintain the writing star.

3. You cannot just be pursuing for writing stars. You must write what you know best and enjoy what you do. If you let the stars dictate your life, you'd always be anxious to know if the star is still yours. Write often and write quality articles and you'll be ranked well by your peers.

One good advice several people at the Helium forum gave to new writers trying to earn money at Helium is to rate articles. The more you rate the more rating stars and the more ad revenue share you'll get. Ad revenue share gives you a passive income unlike pursuing for that elusive writing star which makes you eligible for a one time upfront payment.

So write more, rate more and you're off to a good start as a new writer to Helium.

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