Need help from some Helium writers. My question is when there is only two

LOL. The star system seems to be an unsolvable mystery. I admit most of the articles I am competitive in are better than mine and I am okay at being lower on those articles. I just can't understand when the writing is noticably different and my article is ranked lower. Maybe I just don't understand writing and the other articles are better. LOL Well, if I have any ideas or you have any ideas about the stars we shall share. LOL If I ever figure it out I will be celebrating so much that everyone will know about it. LOL

LOL. If you are talking about me, I now use spell and grammar checker. I have been trying to improve my writing. LOL HONESTLY.

I wasn't but I just read your pine smell article and you need to try harder!

Well, I leapfrogged them, but it didn't help. The leapfrog was accepted but the other article is still no. 1. Maybe I haven't figured out what Helium wants. Honestly, these other writers are great writers, but the articles they wrote competing with mine, look like their children or worse, me wrote them compared to their other articles. That's why I wonder if there is a computer putting 5 star writer articles in first place???

I love the old movies and the old readers digest books. That is when everything was proper. LOL It was also when people thought. I loved the books of that time.

So, I just took a look at the pine smell article ranked in 1st place and she broke a cardinal rule in using the title in the beginning of her article. That is a helium no-no along with writing in the first person. The fact that the article appears to be ranked higher than yours means a) you need a better lead (she has a good one) and you need to fix your grammar. Her article is concise and informative and gives a variety of good ideas for making the house smell like pine. Personally I hate pine scented stuff. Messes with my allergies. However, essential oils are the best thing for scenting your home or anyplace else. Everything else will lose the scent and need to be refreshed with oil. Just a tip. Back to your article: The real issue you have with grammer is your verb tenses. That is something we are going to have to work on. Read more, watch old movies where people knew how to speak English... you know, movies from Carey Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, etc.

I leapfrogged the articles just to get my star back. LOL I was wondering if the last day of the month is calculated on the first day of the following month or if the last day of the month is calculated on the last day of the month. I was hoping to improve my earnings, not that it will matter much, but I thought it would be nice to get an extra fifty cents per article. LOL Now I have my star back I will probably try to keep it this month. I am trying to make payout every month. I somehow have a problem doing that with helium's page views, so I have to count on the articles' upfronts. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

If you want to keep your star you have to stay active so keep posting!

Happy New Year ms.f. Okay, have you started working on your first article yet? It's the New Year. LOL I am taking your advice and trying to be more patient. LOL That has wound up on my New Year's resolution list.

MsF she can not change the titles for articles already there, especially if they have already been indexed. She already has too many different names on her articles and confuses the search engines. Maybe your husband can help her to understand how t use SEO.

hehehe not yet but time will come that i will. my husband is a writer/editor and contributor in the Manila Bulletin and he's very particular with catchy titles. please PM me your articles and how i will be able to access it. thanks.

I think I may try to leapfrog them again later, but my biggest problem I guess, is if they aren't competitive they shouldn't be affecting my rating right? My writing rating keeps going down and then I will lose the star on payout calculation day. Otherwise, I can usually keep the three stars. I guess I need to concentrate on the articles that are competitive. I needed the advice. It's very frustrating.

I guess I will have to keep adding enough articles to get to the fourth star. Everytime I add an article it seems my percentage drops though. I have enough articles that I should be able to add a few more to Helium without hurting anything.

I don't think I would bother to leap an article in a non competitive title, but that is entirely up to you. Instead I would focus on dropping in more articles to keep my count up and my writing star in place. It can get frustrating at times, that's for sure. I no longer sweat the small stuff. The struggle to keep stars, percentages and all is too time consuming. Once you build up more articles, these problems seem to work themselves out. For example, once you hit four writing stars, you get tenure, which means your stars are no longer affected by your writing score. So unless something drastic happens, you keep your stars and your payout. Work toward the fourth star and watch the difference it makes.

LOL. You're not being a jerk. Part of my problem is I started writing for money a couple of years ago and different people have different styles. I would get feedback and adapt my writing. For now, I have no style of my own nor one that is working for me. I write on AC and Helium. So far, I think I am doing okay, but maybe it is my writing. LOL Or at least the style of my writing.

It's your grammar and your rushed approach and you know it. She writes like she is speaking quite often and that is where her writing fails to come together cohesively. Bat, if your writing score fluctuates between the 90s and the 80s I would say you are doing well. Once you hit 4 stars you won't have to worry about all that stuff as much (if you haven't alrady).

I really don't spend a lot of time on Helium. This semester's classes just started, and I'm re-tooling my time management. I've probably only posted 10 articles or so. Like I said I've only made money in the marketplace. I also do some freelance work form www.ebookcrossroads.com. There's a great adventure travel site there called funtripslive.com. Ebooks also has work in about any genre that might interest you. I enjoy Helium, though. I've also joined AC due to some of the things y'all have mentioned, but I really haven't taken the time to scratch the surface. I am going to investigate the upfront payment thing on "H". It seems like it might be worthwhile, and not as time consuming as some of my other endeavors. Thanks for your postings. They've been a help.

This Mommaj is always a great joker. 2 articles mean the title is not competitive. There is no difference in writing score whether the article is 1/2 or 2/2. Only when the third article comes in, then the title becomes competitive. Art, you are right, if the article is 10/20, then leapfrogging is a good idea. If I were Mommaj, I would leapfrog those articles in the middle. Hopefully the comma or full stop is not on holiday. I wonder why she always runs out of comma and other little punctuations.

Thanks, anything. I have been trying to keep my stars for the extra money. Although it doesn't seem to matter. LOL I only had two stars this payout period. I agree that they need some sort of uniform rating. I guess with all the differences in the ratings they think it will even out. Just guessing.

Someone should remind MommaJ that she only just started earning on helium and maintaining stars and that if her articles are doing so well on AC she can afford to take some time and concentrate on helium and write to channels that pay better!

LOL. I may have to read that board because I haven't taken the time to yet. LOL OOPS. Actually, I found it really hard to navigate in Helium so I didn't do too much searching.