As a staff member in Helium's Content & Community team, I help facilitate this distinct writing community, provide writer support and share in many colorful editorial tasks behind the scenes.

Word-craft remains my first love, with community-building a close second. For what are words without a community reference point? Getting to know our members in this supportive writing community keeps me fueled.

Folks who venture into the world of writing often face isolation and few pats on the back. Helium offers a counterpoint. I am proud to be part of Helium.com, where citizen journalists find their voices, and writers - both professional and avocational - get the audience and recognition they deserve.

I come to Helium from - and in the midst - of the teaching world. I continue to teach some of my own, while offering online writing classes to a mostly homeschool crowd at http://writewell.lifewerks.com.

My path toward teaching and writing followed a long educational roadmap: I spent my first 25 years in schools, the next 8 teaching at a boarding school and these last 13 homeschooling.

My university studies began at a small liberal arts college, where I hoped to become a journalist, to a deeper search that led me to graduate studies in political philosophy at the University of Virginia.

All this bears fruit in my Helium work. Words have no meaning without knowledge to share. Words serve few if they never find an audience.

Now if a writer writes in his mind, but no one ever sees his words, does anyone hear it? (A writer's version of the philosophical paradox: If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?)

My passion is ...

writing

I know too much about ...

working with words and people

My parents always told me ...

work hard and work with a commitment to high quality

My childhood ambition ...

to be a famous writer

My favorite memory ...

the births of my children

Why I write ...

I love crafting humor into my writing

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Madeleine L'Engle

My first job ...

MacDonald's cashier

My best moment ...

the births of my children

My inspiration ...

inward

Arts & Humanities > Helium Dos & Don'ts Internet writer's guide to marketing your Helium articles on the web

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Your success as an Internet writer and your earnings at Helium can be enhanced by learning more about how to get the word out about you and your articles. Now you need to shift your self-perception from writer to marketer.

There are two important ways to market your writing on the web: Create links from other Internet sites to your Helium articles, and use social networking and bookmarking options energetically as a community (the Digg, Del.icio.us, etc., tags you see at the end of your Helium articles).

Make the most of your links:

Incoming links from other Internet venues into ...

More..