by Amber Hilton

Created on: January 20, 2008

For some of us, rating Helium articles is even more addictive than writing them! For others, rating articles can seem like a chore, especially for those whom are mostly interested in earning money. Why waste time rating articles, which offers no monetary reward, when you could be writing articles that have the possibility of earning you cash?

Well, I'll tell you why. There are several benefits to rating articles on Helium. The first and most obvious benefit is that rating is an essential aspect of the Helium system. If we aren't rating other writers' articles, then how can we expect them to rate ours? Think of Helium as a community, where we all need to work together for the greater good. This means taking the time to rate articles and rating them fairly.

Secondly, diligent rating helps to ensure that the articles on Helium are of the highest possible quality. As contributors to this community, we want to make sure that Helium retains a reputation of excellence and credibility. If we want readers to take our articles seriously, and to continually rank high with search engines, we need to be providing content of the utmost quality. Rating helps to ensure that low-quality articles are left at the bottom of the pile where they belong and articles that are offensive, incoherent or plagiarized and flagged and hopefully removed altogether.

Thirdly, rating articles will improve the quality of your own writing. By rating, we are working our editorial muscles and discovering mistakes in others' writing that we may unknowingly be making in our own. The next time we sit down to write an article, our skills will be sharpened and our contributions will be even better.

Finally, and most selfishly (but true!), rating will give you ideas for new topics for your own articles. There will always be days when you just can't think of anything to write about! Especially after a few hundred articles, you can begin to exhaust your ideas. You can try brainstorming or searching key words, but what I have found to work the best is just to simply do a little extra rating. Nearly every time that I rate I stumble across at least one topic that I would like to contribute to that I otherwise would never have considered. If I don't have time right then, I'll jot the ideas down so that I can reference them the next time I get a case of writers' block. As an added bonus, you will increase your overall knowledge of a variety of different topics and better your chances the next time you're challenged to a game of Trivial Pursuit!

Recently, Helium has given us one more reason to rate consistently. From January 7th to April 14th Helium is offering its first-ever Rewardathon. Any articles submitted during this period have the potential to earn up to $3.00/article. However, in order to qualify, writers need to have earned at least 3 rating stars by the end of the time period (among other stipulations). So, if you want your articles to make you some extra cash during the next few months, make sure that you've earned your rating stars by the 14th! For more information on earning rating stars visit the Rewardathon link found on the home page.

As you can see, there are more than a few benefits to rating articles on Helium. Whether you're thinking more of yourself, or the entire Helium community and the future of this website, it is always advantageous to rate at least as much as you write. We all know the rating system isn't perfect and there will be times when you are forced to rate on topics that you couldn't care less about, but it is worth it in the end and I wouldn't be surprised if we continue to see improvements in the rating system as Helium continues to grow in size and popularity.

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