Say hello to a Born Again Leapfrogger!
@Sandra1952 (6047)
Spain
February 4, 2010 5:42am CST
I've always thought leapfrogging was a waste of good writing time, so I've only ever done it if I've found glaring typos, which doesn't happen very often, I have to say.
Two of my friends from MyLot have now joined Helium, and they are rather concerned that I have no writing stars and they do. I wasn't too concerned about this, as I earn a respectable residual income, but one friend in particular has analysed my articles and advised me which ones to leapfrog to get my writing score up and earn some stars. She's much more practical than I am.
Anyway, on Monday, I decided to try it out, and I'm keeping a chart to see how the articles do after leapfrog. I have to say, I'm amazed at the results. Of the 12 leapfrogs so far accepted, 7 have gone up from almost at the bottom of the pile to the top 25%. One zoomed up from 54 of 58 to 5 of 58. Even an article that was rejected for the leapfrog has moved to number 2 in the rankings.
So, before I write anything new, I'm going to work through my 200+ articles leapfrogging like mad. I hope to have a writing star by the weekend.
How about you? Do you leapfrog? Does it work for you? Any good tips for my other leapfrogs?
2 people like this
7 responses
hope you get a star@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
4 Feb 10
Hello, Judith - I'm working on it. I was really surprised how much difference the leapfrogging has made already, as I always thought it was a waste of time. It's certainly made me reasses my Helium strategy, and it's nice to have friends over there as well as here.
2 people like this
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
4 Feb 10
Congratulations! I think the longer you leave your articles on Helium that they just kind of fall to the end. It's especially important to leap frog with a big group of articles like that. I don't like the rating system too well because the newer articles usually go to the top. It's always good to remind everyone of your article by leapfrogging and putting it towards the top again. I am sure you will have a lot of writing stars by the weekend. Good luck.
2 people like this
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
4 Feb 10
Good for you. I know you are a great writer and I am sure that once you get your articles looked at again that you will get those stars in no time. Then you can start making upfront payments which will be nice. Better than not getting anything for them. Try to leapfrog the ones that are lower than 50% first. When you leapfrog if the leapfrog is accepted your article starts at the 50% range and moves from there.
1 person likes this
@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
4 Feb 10
Hello, MommaJ. You're much more experienced on Helium than I am, so thanks for your advice. I always thought leapfrogging was a waste of time, but the last few days have proved me wrong. As you say, it's good to bring older titles back into the ratings, and at least when I have some writing stars I can go for empty titles and up front payments. I've found my enthusiasm for Helium again.
1 person likes this
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
5 Feb 10
MommaJ: I hate to bring up AC when we are talking about Helium, but did you see that they are looking for a featured writer on parenting over there? You probably have more articles on parenting than any other AC writer!
@livewyre (2450)
•
5 Feb 10
Hi Sandra I am really interested in Helium, but I confess that I don't really know enough about it. I've seen it mentioned hundreds of times over the years and I think I have even visited the site, but didn't sign up or anything. I am interested in writing articles and think (without being too big-headed about it) that I would not only enjoy it but could even be good at it... I got into blogging in a big way for a while, but the decent paid blogging opps are few and far between now.
Can you give me a brief idea of what Helium entails and how you choose what you are going to write about, and what sort of earnings one could expect? Sorry it's a bit off topic - but to answer your question, I have not leap-frogged since I was in the school play-ground...
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (51818)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
4 Feb 10
Care to explain what you mean by "leapfrogging"?
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (51818)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
4 Feb 10
Oh, I see you already have.
1 person likes this
@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
4 Feb 10
Hello, Dawn. Leapfrogging is Helium's term for editing. If an article is slipping in the rankings, you can make changes, resubmit it, and hopefully 'leapfrog' the earlier version. I did explain it to Lamb in Box 1, but I think Alice distracted him. 
2 people like this
@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
14 Feb 10
Hello, Divalounger. I was amazed at how quickly my writing score went up once I started leapfrogging. It's now 12 days, and my score has gone from 61% to almost 74%, so it definitely pays off. I've been advised not to bother with leapfrogs unless the ranking is below 50%. That makes sense, because if the leapfrog is accepted, it enters the rank at 50%, so it's an automatic improvement. Good luck on Helium, and welcome to MyLot.
@GardenGerty (169449)
• United States
4 Feb 10
I have not done much with Helium, I guess I need to get busy. I have a dozen articles there, I think. I will have to find time to get busy with that site again.
@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
4 Feb 10
Hello, Gerty. I've discovered that, the more time you can spend on Helium, the more you get out of the site, both earnings wise and creatively. I've earned more in the last 3 months than in the previous two years, and I find I'm enjoying improving on my older articles. It's definitely worth devoting some time to it.
1 person likes this
