Writing Star
@LilyoftheThorns (12918)
United States
December 7, 2008 6:43am CST
Hey guys, I was just wondering what it took to get a writing star at Helium! I've written 47/48 articles for them, and quite a few of them are in good rankings. But I have 0 stars, and I'm not sure what else I have to do to get myself writing stars! Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.
*I just wrote an aritcle about how to raise money for animal shelters...check it out! :) just scroll down to the bottom of the page! Thanks! Check out my other articles if you want; I have a lot of different varities...health, movie reviews fiction (a poem, novel excerpts, short stories).
http://www.helium.com/users/142041
And if you aren't a member of helium yet, and you like to write..I would appreciate if you would let me invite you! I think that might help me get my writing stars. Thanks!
3 people like this
5 responses
@iwrite (5034)
• Singapore
7 Dec 08
Hello LilyoftheThorns,
I have heard of helium but have yet to join it, I am interested if someone could guide me along. Are you able to make money out of it. Are you able to provide more details.
If you have a referral link sent it to me and I would join under you.
cheers.
@LilyoftheThorns (12918)
• United States
7 Dec 08
Yes, you can earn money with helium :) And now is a good time because they just added a couple of great things, like Upfront payment! You do have to have, I think, at least one writing star--but apparently they aren't suppose to be hard to get lol. So now on the site you can earn money based on how many times your articles are read, and you can be paid immediatly for an article.
And there are THOUSANDS of writing areas at helium; fiction and non-fictional. I have articles in both! And you can even make up your own seperate topic if you don't see a category you like. Helium also has an area called The Marketplace, where they show companies in need of certain articles; what they are looking for and how much they will pay the winner (these payments can get over 100 bucks!). They also have monthly writing contests; about 10 different categories, and a few different topics to write about in each category.
I really do enjoy Helium for everything it offers, and I check it daily to see how much my earnings have gone up. You can add friends (favorite users) on the site, and you can save your favorite articles. I love the fictional horror story I have saved on my faorites right now.
I have to have your email to invite you, if you don't mind sending me a private message with it, I'll defeniatly send you an invite, and help you with any questions! And I'll be sure to view all your articles and help you earn :) And don't worry...this will be the ONLY thing you receive from me in your email, I will delete it after the invitation is sent.
1 person likes this
@LilyoftheThorns (12918)
• United States
7 Dec 08
I always forget that we have to be friends to send/receive messgaes! If I'd remembered I would have sent you an invite and gotten this done quicker. I will defenatly invite you today, when I get your email :)
Thanks!
1 person likes this
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
1 Jan 09
Ok, from what I can see, you have a few in the Creative Writing section. According to the Users Resource that shows how to get writing stars, these articles do not count towards your writing stars, but they do count towards getting your Creative Writing Badge.
Having a quick look through your articles and doing the simple math (might not be 100% accurate as I have screaming kids in the background), not enough of your competative (have 3 or more articles to the title) articles that qualify for writing stars (eg, non creative writing pieces) are still not quite in the top 25% for the titles. That would mean, you still get no stars. Sorry, but I've got none either! lol.
You could try leap frogging to see if you can get your articles into the top 25%.
I have to say, a lot of changes have happened on Helium over the last few months, and I'm still having troubles catching up with them all!
Good luck with your writing, I hope that you get your star soon.
@LilyoftheThorns (12918)
• United States
2 Jan 09
Oh Man! I didn't know Creative Writing didn't count...that's what I'm best at!
1 person likes this
@LilyoftheThorns (12918)
• United States
29 Jan 09
I will defeniatly check out your articles! :D
And I didn't know about the creative writing badge, cool! :P Something to aim for.
But I don't know why you're seeing a writing star on my account, because I'm still not :( I only have 1 rating star and 0 writing stars.
1 person likes this
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
29 Jan 09
If you keep up with your creative writing, you can get a badge for it that states you are a creative writer and good at it! The articles are still assessed like the rest of them in order to get the shield, but creative writing is more fun to keep working on.
http://www.helium.com/users/289359 Hope this works! lol. I've only got 12 articles, so will be quick reading! I've been very naughty and searched out over 100 titles to write to, but not actually found the time to write them! lol. Too much inspiration can be a bad thing.
I see you have your writing star now, so your articles should be earning for you now. If you have trouble findign time to do the ratings, then just do 2-4 a day for 4 out of 7 days, and your score should increase. I do mine while feeding my baby, though her feet get in the way these days! lol.
@cowgirlheart (114)
• United States
9 Dec 08
At this point, I think you have to know the person who hands out the starts to receive them. I've been writing to Helium for awhile now, 26 articles and I rate "all the time". Even though from what my numbers say on my articles in my "About Me" pages that more than 75% of my articles rate in to top 75%, still no writing star.
I had a Creative Writing Badge and a Marketplace Badge earlier in November, but then they "disappeared" just before they payout dates came along (the last 5 days of the month).
I was just there checking it out, and my badges are back! Of course, now they don't count towards earnings, unless they manage to stay there until the payout dates come around again.
My opinion, now that I've been writing on other sites and actually earning money is that Helium is a waste of time. After all the time and articles, my earnings are up to a whopping $4.00. The marketplace article I submitted over a month ago is still "in review" - and still no payment for it either.
I don't know if invites improve any rankings either.
If you want I'll send you info on other sites I've found, just connect us as friends.
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
7 Dec 08
Right now I have one writing star after weeks of having none. Previously I've had up to 4. I'm not happy with their rating system at all, but what can one do? Complaining doesn't work there. LOL
I'm working on my rating stars right now and as soon as I get those stupid things done I'll do some actual reading. I don't read the rating articles (my way of protesting being forced to) but I figure a monkey could tell which one was better.
@LilyoftheThorns (12918)
• United States
7 Dec 08
LOL! I don't read the whole rating articles either...I tend to just read how each one starts, and then I just vote for them that way. I just don't understand how they award the stars there, is there a page on the site that explains it?
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
12 Dec 08
As near as I can figure it, rating stars depend on how many you do and the quality. Quality seems to be defined by not randomly choosing: if, say, 75% of people think article A is better than B and you disagree intensely (i.e. not just 'slightly better'), my guess is that's considered lacking. It's hard to tell, since 'quality' is an undefined term...
My single rating star came first. Took about ten days, I think, though I was below the minimum number of rates for that time.
@puddytat101 (657)
• United States
13 Jan 09
Hi there, sorry I don't have time this morning to read all posts. I can however tell you that besides the number of articles you write, they must remain the top 75 percent. They don't count your lowest 10% articles. So if one of your articles drops below that, try polishing it up a bit with the leapfrog option under tools.
I'm sure you're already aware of all this, but I just wanted to help ya out. I've been a member of Helium since Sep 2008. I'm almost to payout. I don't get a lot of time to write. I work all the time lol. Go figure.
For instance, I have had more rating stars than what was necessary "number" wise. Meaning I didn't have enough articles but they ranked very high. They also give you consideration in this area which is very generous to say the least.
They've got more ways to earn now, including a dollar for each empty title if you beat the crowd. Also, rate articles as much as possible. I know it's tedious but you get extra money for that too. If you have 500 rates in 90 days by the 24th? of the month, you get $2.50 for each additional article published that month. Not a bad deal! Cash out through Paypal with $25.
Keep up the good work! It takes some true effort on Helium, but rest assure it's very much legit! Never, ever drop below one rating star and one writing star. If you don't have those by the end of the month, no pay, but you're earnings will roll over to the next month.
I'm rambling again. Sorry to hog the post space. Good luck!
@LilyoftheThorns (12918)
• United States
13 Jan 09
You aren't rambling! You're very imformative, thank you! :)
I didn't know you get paid for rating! I mean, I don't have anywhere near 500 rates, but I do have a little over 100.
And I saw that thing about getting a buck for writing in empty categories...but didn't it say you have to have at least 1 writing star for that to work for you?