What it’s all about
What a way to start the year: Three months (and a bit) of opportunity to earn extra rewards while you build your writing reputation and portfolio on Helium.
From January 7 through April 14, 2008, Helium will reward all its starred writers with bonus payments for each new article they publish on Helium. Qualifying members can earn big money on Tax Day, April 15.
Don’t forget! Your Helium account information MUST be filled out with full name, postal address and phone number.
It’s simple: As a starred member, you can earn a bonus payment for every article submitted. And the rewards increase based on your number of stars. A one-writing-star member can earn $1 for every article submitted until April 14. A five-writing-star member can earn $3 for every article submitted.
Requirements:
- At least one writing star
- And because all our members need to rate, a minimum of three rating stars by the end of the program
- Your Helium account information filled out with full name, postal address and phone number
How it works
No stars yet? Don’t let that stop you – in fact, the Write & Rate Reward-athon is the perfect time to earn your way to stardom!
But wait: The Reward-athon gets better. Earn additional stars during the course of the promotion, and all articles submitted in permitted channels will earn the maximum reward based on your total number of stars on April 14! So aim high.
Here’s the full scoop. On April 15, as long as you have at least three rating stars, the rewards are:
- 1 writing star = $1 per article submitted between Jan. 7 and April 14
- 2 writing stars = $1.50 per article submitted between Jan. 7 and April 14
- 3 writing stars = $2 per article submitted between Jan. 7 and April 14
- 4 writing stars = $2.50 per article submitted between Jan. 7 and April 14
- 5 writing stars = $3 per article submitted between Jan. 7 and April 14
How running totals are displayed
Be sure to keep tabs on your Reward-athon earnings. The Reward-athon running total will be updated in three fields on your Earnings & Payments page: Total earnings, Adjustments and Payments requested. The Reward-athon running total will show up as a lump sum increase along with earnings from contests and Marketplace. We recommend that you keep your own record of contest and Marketplace adjustments on your account because you can request those earnings once they reach the $25 threshold.
While your Reward-athon adjustments will appear in your Account balance, you will not be able to request any money from Reward-athon: The winnings will be sent automatically to your PayPal account on April 15. We are aware that this isn’t the best approach, but given our current functionality, it’s what we came up with to run the program. In the next site upgrade, expected in March, you will be able to click on your adjustments and see a breakdown of each adjustment.
It is important to note that your Reward-athon running total will change: As you add articles it will grow, and as you add stars it will grow even more. If you lose stars, the running total can decline. Hedge your bets that you’ll be a big winner by getting the required information entered into your account settings page now. You need to add your full name, your mailing address and a verifiable phone number.
Still not sure how this will work in your favor? Let’s say you’re a new member to Helium and you decide to write one article per day, seven days a week. And it goes without saying that you’re busy rating. In one month, you’ll have about 30 articles. By the end of the first month, depending on how good your articles are, you may have two writing stars and two rating stars. You’ll have no earnings since you did not meet the three-star requirement. Fast-forward to April 15. Now you’ve earned yourself four writing stars and four rating stars. You’ve met the three-star rating requirement, and for 90 articles at the four-star reward rate of $2.50, you’ve earned yourself $225. Not bad for one article a day, huh?
Here’s how to earn Helium stars for writing
At Helium, there are three important benchmarks that must be met before you can start earning writing stars.
1. At least 25% percent of your articles must be in “competitive titles,” that is titles with three or more articles.
Example: If you have 100 articles and 76 are in titles that have fewer than three articles, you don’t qualify for three stars. When one of those 76 titles becomes competitive so that 25 of your articles are now in competitive titles, all your articles qualify.
2. To earn writing stars, you must have a certain quantity of articles. The more articles you have, the more stars you are eligible to earn.
To earn:
- 1 star: You must have between 4 and 29 articles.
- 2 stars: You must have between 30 and 99 articles.
- 3 stars: You must have between 100 and 299 articles.
- 4 stars: You must have between 300 and 499 articles.
- 5 stars: You must have 500 or more articles.
3. We don’t count the lowest-ranked 10% of your articles. So to receive a star, the top ranked 90% of your articles must have an average rank that is at or above the 75th percentile. Even better, when your average rank is at or above the 85th percentile, you will receive a bonus star on the first 4 levels. That means that you can earn up to five stars by meeting only the four-star article number requirement (you can’t earn more than five stars, though).
But be careful! You can also lose stars. If your percentile declines, you don’t lose all your stars at once. That’s harsh! Based on a statistical (bell) curve, your stars will decrease as your ranking percentile declines. So if the number of your articles rated above the 75th percentile goes down, your stars will wink out as that percentile declines.
There are some channels and subchannels that will be excluded from the Reward-athon. They are Creative Writing, News, Recipes and Religion.
How to get those rating stars
Want insider tips on how to be a great rater (and get those stars)? Read the advice of those who know.
Of course, our attorneys request that we provide more details on the program, so please be sure to read the Write & Rate Reward-athon Terms.
Get writing. Get rating. And good luck!
