by Jennifer Claerr

Created on: February 24, 2008

Getting high ratings on Helium is simpler than it seems. There really is no mystery to it at all. Follow these simple guidelines and your profile will be star-studded in no time.

Use Proper Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

This is the first and most important thing you have to do in order to achieve high ratings on Helium. If you're one of the few people on the site who is actually writing according to the rules, you're going to have an easy time of it. This is because there are so many badly written articles on the site. In some cases, these poor quality articles do rise up in the system. However, if you write well you should be able to get about half of your articles into the top quarter of the rankings for their topic. So be sure to click the spell check link each time you publish an article. Also, take a few minutes to proofread, since there are some homonyms which the spell checker can't catch. Also watch out for punctuation errors, such as spaces before punctuation marks, and failure to place spaces after punctuation marks.

Use Proper Formatting

Improper formatting is one of the primary reasons that I down-rate articles. If your article is just one long paragraph, or if your paragraphs are stacked on top of one another like stages of a pyramid, it will look sloppy and will be difficult to read. Simply taking the time to hit the enter key twice every time you complete a paragraph will make a world of difference in how your article is received by raters.

Get a Clear Idea of the Purpose of Your Article

It's important to really have a very clear vision for your writing before you sit down at the keyboard. What is the purpose of your article? Which points do you want to make? Where do you intend to lead the reader? What information do you wish to convey? Articles with a very solid intent are rated higher, because they impart your ideas to the reader much more effectively. For example, if you're writing about romantic vacations, don't meander from generalization to generalization about your topic. Instead, get really specific. Come up with specific hotels, restaurants and other entertainment spots which would make great vacation spots for lovers. Spotlight a certain city, or several different cities. Stay focused, and don't wander off of your topic. Your highly specific article will most likely get rated higher than everybody else's vague expressions.

Create a Strong First Paragraph

Most raters don't read the entire article. They simply don't have enough time. Your

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