I just posted an article from AC onto Helium. There were already two articles

Well, I see nothing at all wrong with your article but then I can't seem to keep my rating stars so guess I'm not the best at 'rating' I still don't agree with that system though and although I have finally, after a year, reached pay-out there I've made 4 times that amount on AC. Guess you can tell where my loyalties and time is spent these days.

Mommaj really needs a good spanking! Article usually takes a couple of days to a week to settle down. Next time, seal your lip until a few days is over before screaming so loudly! Since your article is now at the top, I can give you some feedbacks to push it down to the bottom!

Now your article is 1/3. So now you should be happy. You need to wait until next day to see exactly what happens. Again let me tell you that it is hard to retain the writing stars as your articles increase. Maintaining rating stars is easy. Just that you need to rate little carefully after reading the articles.

It takes forever for an article to slip into its proper rating on Helium. Or so it seems if you keep checking on its progress. I have experienced this myself on occasion. I would post an article that I thought was better than the existing ones, and it would end up on the bottom. And as long as I kept checking on its position, it would just sit there like a bloated toad. Finally, I would just give up checking on it, amybe even complain about its ranking. Then, one day I would notice that it was at the top of the stack. And even knowing this pattern of behavior, Helium gets my goat everytime.

Ok, let's start with your rating star. Set a goal to get the bonus and start rating as if your life depended on it. This is important to just spend a little less time reading those random discussions on the home page and start reading the articles that are there for you to rate. I used to hate rating but I have found some very interesting articles as well as a number of titles I would like to write to. Once you get the 5 rating stars it will be easy enough to keep them. As for your writing stars, would you say-- or would anyone who knows you say that you write the way you speak? I was looking at one of your articles the other day on finding friends after you are married and the other articles were not necessarily that much better but, in my opinion, the arrangement of information, the language and the tone was what got them voted above you. I can not emphasize enough the importance of a strong lead (think like a news reporter) and summarizing the gist of the entire article in the first paragraph. This is what lets the reader know what he or she is in for. By the second paragraph you have to have been specific about the subject. After that you can get into explaining all the whys and hows. At the end you need to reiterate your point with a strong closing or at least a resolution that sounds like you are done talking about the subject. I think sometimes you take a light and friendly approach to writing that can be seen by readers who are writers and who are rating articles as not serious or too casual. I remember looking at one of your pieces and thinking I would have voted it down from the first paragraph because to me it read like something a young person would have written. It wasn't bad writing it just wasn't on the level of a professional. I think that you put a lot of effort into writing and you have shown you can meet deadlines with the calls to content and you volunteer your editor time on AC so you are definitely commited. You just need to polish a little and that can definitely be done. I think some of the best training is reading and looking at what has been published in periodicals, not necessarily online and most certainly not helium and AC because the articles are not screened. I have even come across a few that should not exist because they read like someone in elementary school did them. The spelling and grammar are horrendous and this is the drawback of the two sites. The one thing you absolutely must do at helium is post more articles. The more you post the more chances you have of getting those writing stars. I went from 0 to 2 to 0 and back and forth for a couple weeks and it made me crazy! Then I posted a bunch of articles to competitive titles and suddenly there were my two stars. I have even managed to earn three stars well below the 100 article mark becaue of my writing score. You have to figure out what works for you. Which of your articles are ranked the best? Look at those and compare them to the ones that are ranked the lowest. See if you can see anything you can do differently. Compare your articles to writers who have 3 or more stars and see if you can see what they are doing differently. Sometimes you may be making simple mistakes with verb usage that you are not aware of. Don't forget that helium offers mentoring where a writer can work with you at improving your articles. I will try and spend more time looking at your stuff while I have time off and see if I can offer any specific suggestions.

Helium, as you say, can be so annoying. I looked at your article, and the other two, and I couldn't see the reasoning in it, as I thought yours was superior to both. The peer rating system that Helium is so proud of seems hit and miss to me, and our writing stars are in the hands of others - a bit like our stars on here. I can pass on a good tip about rating - I think it was Scheng who came up with it. Rate at least 10 pairs of articles a day, and make sure some have the 'better by far' option checked, and you will soon reach 5 rating stars. I have to say I was sceptical, but I though it was worth a try. Within a week, I was up to 5 rating stars from 3, and I've maintained that for the last 2 months, so I get the $3 rating bonus. I think it is even more difficult to work out the earnings algorithm on Helium than it is on Mylot, and that's saying something. What Helium has got going for it is that you can post stuff from other sites, so it's a handy residual earner. It took me almost 18 months to reach my first payout, but I have been paid again, and am almost up to another payment, so it does come good eventually. I've now been a member for 2 years, and have earned over $70; not megabucks, but it all helps, and I think the changes Helium have made have helped increase earnings for many members.

Many of us have had our ups and downs with the writing stars. I have a lot of articles, and never paid much attention to them until recently. Once I started paying attention, it began to drive me crazy. If you really want to lose your mind, try doing a contest. Your articles will be up, down, and up again all within half a day on Helium. It's enough to make you want to cry. If you can hang through all that, eventually your scores will come back up to where they should be. And, as a desperation measure, you can keep on Leapfrogging them. I think that all of that Leapfrogging time takes away writing time, however. So you have to decide what's the most important thing for you. If you allow the writing stars to prevent you from adding to the number of articles you have, that's not really helpful either. The point of writing is to learn by doing, and to continue to write no matter the consequences. No one said writing was an easy profession or one where you get lots of praise (like school). You have to want to write for its own sake. All this is easier said than done, of course. It's hard to take a hit when your scores go down. Continued good luck with your writing!

I did suggest that you should post one of your articles in last place and ask for crtiquing in one of Canellita. I didn't realise that you had already done that, lol. I do agree that the article in 1st place seems to be a little short on concrete info. As far as I can tell, it's all in the second last paragraph. The one in 2nd place seems to be taking a different approach to the question from you, but I think he does address the question. Anyway, you asked for help wth your article, not for me to look at other people's articles, so I'll try to help. Canellita and Scheng1 have probably told you about the importannce of opening paragraphs on Helium. Your opening pargraph does appear to be weaker when compared with the other 2 articles. I'll see what I can suggest to improve it. Line 3 : change "mind" to "minds" Line 5 : "3-7 year old" nothing wrong with that, except that you changed to "three to seven years old" in the next sentence. It's good to be consistent, so I would suggest changing that to three to seven years old. Line 6 : Something you probably missed, "Continue" should have a small "c" The rest isn't really opening paragraph territory anymore, and nothing major just some "the"s "s's and caps. Point 3 and point 4 : "Visit Fire/Police Department" can be changed to "Visit the Fire/Police Department" or "Visit Fire/Police Departments Point 5 : "Join local Library activities" can be changed to "Join Local Library Activities" since it seems that you stuck with a theme of caps for all the other headings except this one. It kind of stands out. As far as I can tell, you have a decent article. Just brush up on all those minor errors, and possibly rewrite that first paragraph, and you should be able to move up at least a notch in your ranking.