by John W. Paulus

Created on: March 04, 2008

There really isn't a secret to getting your articles rated to the top on Helium; no magic formula, no trick to it. Getting your articles rated to the top on Helium is about one thing, and one thing only:

Quality.

My articles are consistently rated in the top 25% of nearly every topic I write for. Why is it? Am I a great writer, more talented than everyone else who writes on Helium?

Nope. There are many more talented writers on Helium, many of whom wind up with articles rated lower than mine. The difference is just that I'm committed to, and even fanatical about, my article quality.

What does article quality refer to? There are some basic characteristics of quality articles that will get them rated to the top. These are:

* Grammar. You have to know where commas go and how to use them. You have to avoid run-on sentences. You have to use punctuation correctly. And you have to write in complete sentences. These are just some of the most common grammatical errors I've seen at Helium. Learning to correctly use the rules of the English language will improve your ratings.

* Spelling. Spelling is more than just getting words spelled correctly. Spelling also includes using homonyms correctly. For example, your spell checker isn't going to tell you that in "They ate they're dinner," the word "they're" is the wrong word. You've got to do your basic spell checking, but then you've also got to proofread the article yourself to find these sorts of errors.

* Formatting. One of the most frustrating things when rating articles is being unable to follow the writer's argument because you are distracted by the formatting. Putting an extra line break in between paragraphs, avoiding "all caps" whenever possible, and using numbered or bullet-point lists all greatly improve formatting issues.

* Content. Content is king on the Internet, and this is as true at Helium as it is anywhere else. If your content stinks because you can't stay on topic or because you don't have true knowledge of what you are writing about, your article is going to be rated at the bottom.

There are other things, no doubt, that you can do to get your articles rated to the top. However, mastering these four quality-related concepts has to be your first step toward getting higher ratings.

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