by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: November 23, 2010

Helium is as much about the reading and rating as it is about the writing. Everyone needs to have at least one rating star in order to earn money for their articles, of course. But rating other articles provides other benefits. Some articles might inspire a title suggestion. Other articles teach, inform, express opinion or provide step-by-step instructions for all sorts of things. 

So, the first part of the rating process is to write in as many channels as possible in order to get a wider variety of topics to come up in the ratings queue! When writers stick to only one or two channels, then those will probably be the only source of articles to rate, which can become boring after a while.

When the two articles appear, each article has to be fully read. The rating score will suffer if the articles are rushed through. If a serious effort is made to choose the article that you think is best, then the rating score will be fine.

Do not try to rate huge numbers of articles in order to get to the magic numbers of 500 with an 85% rating. Ratings are deleted from the total count after 90 days, so if you rate 20 articles a day, you will have to keep rating 20 articles a day!  8 to 10 articles a day is the best rating goal.

Also, try not to rate when fatigued, stressed out or distracted, as this task requires a certain amount of attention at the beginning. After a while, a routine will develop and the rating process will become easier.

Another tip is to read the Helium help articles for "Magazine Style" and other Helium writing standards. These articles will explain about "I" and "me" statements and a host of other writing issues. Visit the "All About Helium" community forum for rating, where all sorts of questions, answers and topics come up.

The first technical area to look for is in spelling and grammar. While a couple of typos or mistakes can be dealt with by contacting the writer and kindly pointing them out. But repeated spelling and grammar issues are a fine reason for choosing the other article as the better article. If both articles are bad, then the "skip" button can be used.

The second technical area to look for is the relationship between the article and the topic. If the writing strays so far away from the content that is promised in the title, then it is a good idea to rate the other article higher. If the article is completely off topic, then flag it, so that the writer can be notified to resubmit the article to the right title or channel. Never assume that the writer is at fault for a completely off topic article, either. Sometimes articles get mixed up in the system and end up where they do not belong.

The subjective area is up to you! But be careful to rate most articles as "slightly better" unless you believe that it is an exceptionally great article. It is also good to take a little time before assigning the "Far Better" rating and to contact the writer with some praise. After a few visits to the community forums for rating at Helium, other rater's opinions and ideas will help you to refine the subjective standards in ways that help your rating score.

So enjoy rating! Write to as many channels as possible to get a variety of articles to read, take time to read the help articles and forums, and take some time, at a steady pace of 8 to 10 articles a day, to develop a rating style that is as good as your writing style!

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