THE RISE OF HELIUM (Helium.com)

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	Helium.com
Date:	26/01/07 (1261 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A site where you can write about anything that takes your fancy.

Disadvantages: Poor quality of some articles that need weeding out.

I have been on review sites for what seems ages. I enjoy them. I also enjoy diversity, and sites don't come much more diverse than a new kind of site, where instead of producing reviews, a member produces articles. Joining up is simple, and upon examination of the site, what I found was a refreshing change from the opinion sites that I have previously belonged to, in that they offer members the chance to air their views on all kinds of topics, and it is more an information database than a product review writing site.

Looking through the existing categories, which range from Arts and Humanities, and stretch through to Sciences, Lifestyle, Finance, Jobs and Careers, plus a very wide range of what they label 'channels', it really is not hard to find areas where your expertise or areas of interest lie. You can literally write articles about anything at all, and they really do not mind if you articles are cut and pasted from sites where you have already posted them. What they are looking for is quality articles, though how do you define quality ? Judging by many of the articles on the Helium database, the site is in its early learning stages. There are numerous poor articles. By introducing better articles, you can actually make a fair bit of pocket money from the site by writing about subjects that interest you.

Like all opinion sites, plagairism is against the rules, though copying doesn't seem to be rife on the site. Other rules include never putting your name in articles or signing them in any way, and the reason for this soon becomes apparent, when you start to explore how the site works. Typing articles in capitals is also not permitted, and articles that aren't stand alone, and do not make sense read singularly are something the site needs raters to find, in order to remove them.

Rating other people's articles.

On most sites I write on, the ratings are very clearly defined, and you know who has rated you, or at least which members. It's never really mattered to me that much about who rates me. What I always wondered was how you can produce a site with a fair rating system. We argue the toss about ratings not being shown to people before they cast their vote, and that seems rather a good idea, thus members rating without any kind of peer pressure, although what Helium devised is very clever in many ways, though a disappointment in others. Let me try and explain. When you are in between writing articles, you simply press the rate button and away you go, rating one article in a category against another.

All you are asked to do is judge which is the better of the two and by how much. If you really do not have a clue on the given subject, you have a neutral button, and pressing this takes you onto new articles. You also have the option of flagging articles that don't meet the site criteria, which means that they are drawn to the attention of the administrators.

Whilst I really do like this system of rating and its anonymous nature, what happens is that until unsuitable material is taken off the database, you can be presented time and time again with the same articles. This is slightly tedious but if you bear with it, seeing the same articles doesn't actually mean that your rating is serving no purpose.

Earning on a day to day basis.

When another member adds an article to an area where you have written, the neat thing about Helium is that the articles in that subject are then put forward again for rating. Since your earnings depend upon both rating and public reads, what that means is that your article is capable of producing ongoing income, instead of just being part of the stockpile of articles on a site, and I really do like this system.

Help on site.

There is help on the site in the form of a forum, and members are able to post their concerns and pretty much get answers quickly. The only problem I see with a forum such as this is that as new members join, so the same questions get asked over and over again. There is also a fun area in the forum where members can converse. This is the only area of contact between members. There are no guestbooks, although members can put email links into their profile page.

Earnings.

It's pretty hard to work out what the criteria for earnings is. It certainly earns me more than Ciao as a site, though not as much as dooyoo, since one thing it lacks at the moment is any kind of award like the crowns or diamonds, though what it offers does compete very well long term. Whereas on other sites, my review is posted, read and rated, and then tucked away to gather dust, Helium's site workings mean that old articles can still earn money on a day to day basis if they are of reasonable quality.

When you reach 25 dollars, you can have a payout made through Paypal, which again is very tempting to me, since it means I have instant pocket money to spend on things I want to buy on Ebay. Neat !

Invitations.

Another area that offers members a possibility of earnings is that you are offered 5 per cent of all the article earnings of anyone that you invite. That offers great earning potential.

Overall views.

This is one site I enjoy very much. It doesn't yet pay me as well as a site like Dooyoo, though long term, could. It takes a while to get used to the site, and areas I feel are particularly frustrating are where you introduce a new category, as each of these have to be activated by staff and they can sit in the pending area for weeks. I like the opportunity to just jump in and write something spontaneouos. When I rate, if I see that the articles in an area are particularly weak and I have something more to say than is being said, often I jump in and write an article, and since these are active areas, inevitably it is very quick to get a paid response to your articles.

I think the site has a huge amount of scope and really could provide a very useful database of information. I have posted commercial reviews over to the site in appropriate areas. For example there are areas for film, music, and also areas that deal with specific areas of software need, so was able to post software reviews.

For anyone just starting out, I would say give the experience a couple of months before writing it off. They need all the good articles they can get, as they are a relatively new site. Good quality articles do move up the scale, and do pay, and now that I have established myself as a writer on their site, can say that I enjoy logging in and seeing the movement of my earnings, which, in the first month, I found disappointing. Stick with it, and it actually does pay.

It's also a very good site for creative writers as well as factual ones, and there are many areas of scope on all kinds of topics. I enjoy logging in, and find it rewarding and enjoyable. Another contrast I like is that the site is about articles, both writing and rating, and the anonymous factor works well for me, meaning that ratings are unbiased.

I enjoy it very much.

Summary: An experience unlike any review site I have ever experienced.