My ego is taking a beating!

I just started with Helium not too long ago too...I guess it depends on what subject you're writing about...what is your pen-name over there...I'd like to read your articles..I'll give it a good rating...!!! My articles were mosly about the recent pet food recall so mine were fairly popular..but not to worry...some of my aritcles were downright rejected...hey that feels even worse...as far as being ranked 9 again...how did that happen!!

I might think about making the transition to Associated Content as it pays more anyway. You can e-mail me if you're interested and I'll give you the link. The thing is other writers that are behind you will typically go in and rate your stuff worse so that you will falter. I have had a few articles make the main showcase for AC and be ranked 4.8 stars out of 5 and drop to 3 in less than an hour because of jealous people wanting their articles on the showcase. It's frustrating, but not much you can do with flawed ratings systems.

SusieQ, don't let that silly Helium get you down. I've been on the ratings roller coaster myself many a time. Things have gone from the bottom to the top in a matter of days and then back down again. Eventually they settle, and yes, not always where we want them to be. I've got some very low scores that just never move up and I don't know why. I think with the competition going on right now, things are especially skewed because people are not really taking the proper time and care to rate properly. I didn't do any last week, just gave myself a break from it. I also get discouraged because it's always the same folks at the top of the heap, and I've gone and looked at their stuff and wondered how they got there??? I look at it that I am happy if I make it into the $5 club with the contest. I haven't even gotten any payout from them yet. I don't think it's the best site for making money, but it's another form of writing practice, so I try and look at it that way. Also how do those same people have knowledge in so many areas? Last week I just couldn't find a thing to write about that didn't involve a lot of research. Yet that old Clacky McSnackins was at the top again, week after week. It can get discouraging, but I think you have to keep your own goals in mind (writing practice, making money, and so on) rather than focus on others. Good luck over there.

I shouldn't be too discouraged. There is no guarantee that the persons who have rated your work are good writers themselves. If I were you I should forward your articles to a magazine or newspaper that deals with the subjects you are writing about. In the worst case scenario you may hear nothing back but if they like your work you get the best rating possible (plus payment).

The Helium "rating engine" is a source of much mystery and misunderstanding. I don't know when you wrote your article, but keep in mind that the ranking rarely "means" much until an article has been rated 10-15 times, by different people. And of your article appears in a "large" topic, it can take MONTHS before your article finds a natural place in the rankings. Also, remember that your article STARTS at one-below-midpoint (i.e. if your article is the 18th in a topic, it's starting rank will no.10) and all it takes is ONE time through the rating engine with someone who didn't like it to knock it down towards the bottom. I have written several articles on Helium that have gone "all over." A few days I wrote one for the ongoing writing contest there-- it started at #12, and within a space of three days rose to number one, fell all the way to 18, rose back to #6, and then nudged up ro #2 this morning. I'm just saying, don't "invest" too much of yourself in the rankings of your Helium articles.

Don't take it against you. Instead try to see why they gave what you have written a low ranking. Don't let it drown you but instead channel your frustration in trying again. Keep on writing specially knowing that you love it. Even with experienced writers there's always room for improvement. Practice makes perfect.

Dear, do not get down. Keep up the writing. I rated you another + to keep that star up there. I'm sure that the people that read it, didn't even know how to write themselves. Who cares anyway. Just do what you enjoy, and don't let anyone or anything rob you of your creativeity. God bless you, M&M

14 out of 15 sounds good to me.. Actually great. I think you should be proud of that, and also your 9 here - I am sure it will be back to a 10 soon enough!

Firstly, what a strange rating system! The higher the number the better it should be, how confusing. Secondly, you really shouldn't take it too seriously (even though I can certainly relate!). If they can just rate it without giving good constructive criticism about how you can improve your article then they're just being mean for no good reason. Have you considered they might be rating it without even reading it in the first place? Some people can be that cruel. It's really all subjective, everyone has their own opinion. If you're happy with what you're writing then that's the most important thing.

Susieq, Please don't be discouraged! I know it's easier said than done. But, I have submitted many articles to magazines and anthologies hoping to get published. I've only gotten one little story and photos published in Birds and Blooms Magazine. I sent a story for the anthology "Cup of Comfort" and made it into the top 100, but they wittled that down to 60 and I got the ax. It's hard I know. I have another friend who was writing for Associated Content. It's another writing/make money on the web site. She has 3 books published and I think she is an amazing writer!! They have not published ONE of her articles yet! So. . . all this to say, Writing is a form of expressing yourself, and you just keep on writing and writing. Do your best, write from your heart and if one person doesn't like what your wrote, others will! Keep Writing! Have you ever gone to www.writing.com? It's not a paying site at all, but it's a place where you can write your stories, and post them on their site and ask to be critiqued. I have been a member of writing.com for years. Check it out. Like I said, it's not a money making site, but the pay isn't always in the paycheck, sometimes it comes in the form of personal growth, learning, and experience! Write On!

I'm not thrilled with Helium. For one thing, you have to spend a lot of time rating other articles for your articles to even get read, that is what gives your articles a rating, how much time you rate to bump your articles up to be read. At least that is how I took it when I read their FAQ. If you don't spend time rating, your article will sit down at the bottom.

Helium exhausts me too! There are people trying to make a living there, so they are writing 40-50 articles a week and spending hours rating to bump theirs up (of course you can't rate your own, but eventually you can rate others in the categories you write within). I write well also, but it's way too much effort and not enough bang for my writing buck!

Susie, all "someone" is trying to tell you is that Internet rating systems are flawed. :P If you've received constructive criticism or anything useful from the raters, take it under consideration and keep improving. If it's just a number, don't worry about it. :) I'm just starting to seriously work on becoming a writer myself, so hey, I KNOW you're miles better than me. lol BTW, any chance we could read some of your work?

Well you have your 10 back here so you should feel good about that. I also just starting writing for Helium. I wrote my first article and it was a 6 out of 14. I checked it today and it was a 4 our of 14. That made me feel good. Maybe in a few days your rating will go up to. Just wondering, have you made any money from Helium?

Don't give up, keep trying and you can do anything, the rating on here could be because someone doesn't agree with you, not becasue what you have written id not good...keep at it...

Do not get discouraged. You can just keep on trying. Do they give you advice on how to make it better? Or do all the people only come and rate it. It could be you don't have enough friends on there if that is the case. I know a place you can submit them and then get advice on how to improve it. It seems like a good thing if you can handle constructive criticism well. It is a 'make money ' site that gives points. If you want to check it out I can sens you a link to it. I don't want to post it as it may be off topic. Never give up!

I think the rating on helium are crap. I had absolute jibberish (literally) articles ranking above my religion thesis.

Dont take it too harshly, i'd probably get like 20 out of 15 or something :p I think you probably are a very good writer but maybe,not to be rude or anything, there is always room for improvement. Try to take critisism and use it to your advantage. Is there a comment feature on there? If so read some of the comments, learn why people rated you like that, so you can better yourself for next time :) Lifes all just one big learning experience. As for your ten going down, im sure it will be back up in no time, ive already rated you positively a few times so i'm sure other people will too. Hope i've helped.

14 out of 15 is still good.. 9 out of 10 too.. u shouldn't ask for more.. u know... sometimes ppl just love to bring down ur rank...

Something that recently was talked about on the Helium community was the fact that people were flagging bad articles (off-topic, poor writing) in the titles rather than rating them downwards. The problem with this is that they are getting so many articles flagged that they can only focus on violations of the user agreement. So any article flagged for anything other than user agreement violations remains at the exact place it was. So an article that is off-topic that has been flagged several times rather than rated downwards can remain at the top of the pile. The staff over there is also encouraging us (now that they are aware of this problem) when we get two equally bad articles to rate one of them worse than the other, rather than just rate them the same. They only cull the titles from the bottom, and articles tend to sit there if they are rated the same. So they want those of us rating to send one of the bads to the bottom, so hopefully it is there the next culling. By the way, if your article on the bottom and it is decent writing, they won't cull it. It will take awhile to get this information known to the writers, cross your fingers and maybe it will be common knowledge by the end of the year. ;)