Questions to Ask Helium to Avoid Hot Air
Michelle Rafter's blog had a couple of guest posts about content aggregator Helium. Tim Beyers warned writers off writing for Helium and Helium new member outreach manager Barbara Whitlock said that writers should.
Being the sometimes practical and often cranky man that I am, I just want to know about the money. Helium announced that it had paid writers more than $1 million since its inception, and half of that in the last six months. That may sound attractive, but the real question is something I like to remember by the clumsy acronym HMWEM, or How Much Will Erik Make?
You see, when it comes to connecting writing and making money, I'm not interested in a good story. I want to see numbers on the page. Looking a bit further into Helium's press release on its million dollar mark, we see the following:
Being the sometimes practical and often cranky man that I am, I just want to know about the money. Helium announced that it had paid writers more than $1 million since its inception, and half of that in the last six months. That may sound attractive, but the real question is something I like to remember by the clumsy acronym HMWEM, or How Much Will Erik Make?
You see, when it comes to connecting writing and making money, I'm not interested in a good story. I want to see numbers on the page. Looking a bit further into Helium's press release on its million dollar mark, we see the following:
- Since 2006, writers have posted 1.25 million articles on 125,000 topics.
- Over 1,000 writers have earned more than $100 from their work for Helium.
- "Top earners" have made more then $5,000 "in a matter of months."
- The average story will make 80 cents.
- There's no indication I can find about how many "top earners" they have. But according to one mention on helium, there was one person who made $5,000 in six months. He averaged an hour a day, according to the release. That's 30 hours a month for six months, or 180 hours. So, he managed $27.78 an hour in revenue. But apparently there is no other big earner mentioned. Could he be the only one? Also, how many articles did he have to write?
- On a "bulk sale" of content, some writers got $5. When you read this in context, it makes it sound like $5 was the high end.
- According to the site's press page, there are more than 100,000 writers on the site. So, at the tops mathematically, it's an average of $10 per person.
Labels: aggregators, Helium, online, pay
posted by Erik Sherman | 5:56 AM
10 Comments:
Wow. This is even more pitiful than I imagined. Breaking that $5000 down was really useful.
Jenny
Love the HMWEM test. I need to remember that, only it will be HMWJM.
Writing it down now...
Jackie
Holy smokes, Erik. This is great stuff. If you're trying to talk me out of my skeptical experiment with Helium, you're doing a good job...
Helium's approximately 20,000 starred writers do most of the writing on Helium and not all of them are active. See my May 18 blog post on the $1 million dollar announcement for more details.
http://awarewriter.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/heliums-million-dollar-for-writing-spin/
As I mentioned in one of my comments on Michelle's blog, I made a total of 61 cents over a period of 10 months for an article that took 3 weeks to research and write. I won the Sunshine Citizen Journalism award with that one. Obviously I didn't write for the money.
John
The Aware Writer
"Helium isn’t a substitute for a full-time job, but it can be combined with other freelance gigs to provide additional revenue. Plus, the freedom to also write what you want is appealing for many."
True of anything that even pays a penny. Let us worry about accruing income from wherever. I loved your What Will Erik Make thing! Laughed. I have talked to Whitlock on the phone--and she was so vague, I gave it a pasadena. If someone is dying to see their name in print, I guess it's an OK place to be exploited. I was syndicated by Lexis-Nexus and made $40 in 3 yrs! Lexis-Nexus.
Hi Erik,
Earning at a site like Helium -- or in the freelance online writing world in general-- involves several variables:
1. Productivity: You need to build up a large body of articles to see the long-tail returns for your articles on Helium. You continue to earn as long as you maintain one rating star, which only requires 10 minutes once or twice a week.
2. Targeting: If you target your writing to high SEO-value search phrases and to high-ad revenue channels like health, science, technology, business and personal finance you increase your chances of earning well. At Helium you also earn better if you initiate new title groups to earn 1st article bonus plus upfront payments for the first five articles in title groups.
3. Marketing: You have to market your work throughout the web, and target high value link sources, to drive traffic and readers to your articles.
Earning well on the web does take an entrepreneurial kind of energy. It's not just about enjoying the writing process and only writing to what interests you.
While those whose earnings may fall short of their goals can point to the site as not making it for them, they must also ask themselves if they followed the advice to maximize their chances.
Freelance writing is not an easy way to meet all your income needs, but those who work hard and smart find greater rewards. You also have to be able to come out on top of the competition. Not easy.
If anyone would like to ask me follow up questions or inquire about Helium, my inbox is always open: bwhitlock@helium.com.
Barbara Whitlock
New Outreach Manger
Helium.com
http://www.helium.com/users/13060
Ms. Whitlock, thanks for your post. While your point that earning money in writing online does take a number of factors - productivity and marketing (targeting and SEO are just part of marketing) - you miss an even more important one: a smart business model. I speak as someone who makes a fair amount of money both online and in print and as someone who has been called freakishly prolific.
Incredible productivity and impressive marketing don't mean a thing of the underlying business model does not allow the writer to see a reasonable return on the investment of time. Frankly, the Helium business model does not provide what a writer needs to make a substantial amount of money in a reasonable amount of time. If you have to write the equivalent of a novel to make income for a week or two, there is something wrong and the writer would be better served by working under a better model.
Talking about the "long tail" is fine, except that it generally doesn't work as most people think and is really good for the aggregator or reseller, not the individual contributor. (Anyone who is interested might want to check a BNET post I had on the subject: http://bit.ly/122mov.)
You say that "freelance writing is not an easy way to meet all your income needs." Of course you have to work hard and smart. I've yet to find an easy way for people to make their income needs. As with any business, freelance writing takes work.
More importantly, it takes smart effort. If you spend your time working for peanuts, you will remain a monkey at someone else's beck and call. It's only when you start to say no to bad opportunities and target good ones that you can begin to do well financially. I know this from my own experiences and from teaching many writers how to better market and plan their businesses. And given Helium's approach to business, it is clearly not a good opportunity for freelance writers.
Right on the money, Erik. (Pardon the pun.)
It is infuriating to me that Helium and bidding sites like eLance tout their business models as profitable options for freelance writers. Freelancers who actually support themselves with their work know that these models perpetuate embarrassing low rates and the notion that all writers should be starving. This economy and the information age will certainly change the way freelancer writers do business, but the basics still prevail-- attract repeat customers who actually pay a fair, living wage. For the most part, only customers who demonstrate their value of my work -- via decent rates -- are worth my time.
Thank you for your post, Erik and your response to Ms. Whitlock. When I read about organizations like Helium, I wonder if their full-time staff is receiving meager checks like their writers are. Somehow I doubt that.
Laura
I've had an article posted on Helium for some two years or more and I think, so far, it's earned about 85 cents. I've been told to earn money, you have to rate other articles. Also, when I asked to have my article removed, they said they cannot do that, but I can change the byline on it if I want. I'm not embarrassed by the article, though it was quite personal, but I wanted to write it again for another paying outlet. I'm trapped there, really.
I've been a member at Helium for two years and did a lot of research on earnings. In the past, most writers averaged about 10 cents per article per month. Earnings have about doubled since they changed the model so that you only earn if you have a rating star.
I'm not sure if I can add a link in the body of this email so I've made my name a link to a great article comparing the audience and earning potential of various writing sites, including Helium. I'd like to say I wrote it, but I didn't - it's very good!
Regards
Marisa
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