Doing Little Cartwheels of Joy Because of Helium
@justdroppingby (296)
Philippines
June 18, 2010 12:52pm CST
Normally I'm not a very expressive person, at least not in a non-written way. But I'm so thrilled and happy right now I'm literally bouncing off my seat and doing little cartwheels of joy in my head. I just got an email from Helium congratulating me for making the Helium homepage (www.helium.com), and when I checked the site I got a shock of joy when I found out that my featured article on computers was smack right on top!
Yipee! (Did I not say that I'm happy and overexcited?)
I know this may sound a tad too precocious, but it's the first time that I've been featured on Helium, or on any writing site for that matter. I only joined Helium 3 months ago and have only submitted nine articles to date, and no, I haven't even made 10% of the minimum payout. In fact, I've been quite disappointed with the site for some weeks now because of the occasional inability to log in and my creeping fears that they won't release payments or eventually reject writers from my country. Of course all these were shoved to a quiet corner of my head right after I received the news. In a way it has made me feel appreciated as a writer.
Of course, it wouldn't be too bad if being featured meant receiving some sort of prize or compensation. Not that I'm complaining...I'm pretty happy (smug even, don't worry this won't last) with my 15 minutes of fame and short-lived bragging rights. I just wonder, though, how long an article stays on the Helium front page? And do page views really get an exponential boost after being there?
(still doing little cartwheels in my head, with a bit of a victory booty-shake at the end. so sorry for this, thanks for bearing with overexcited me)
4 people like this
4 responses
@puccagirl (7294)
• Israel
24 Jun 10
I don't know so much about Helium, since I am not active there myself, but I do know enought to know that what you did is impressive. So congrats, and feel free to feel as excited as you wish! You deserve it, after all!
1 person likes this
@Wanderlaugh (1622)
• Australia
23 Jun 10
Well done, and don't get put off by slow income. You need at least 50 articles to start making money. Also remember to try some of the marketplace articles and the contests, to boost your payouts.
For the record: Helium's problem with the Philippines has been plagiarism from cut and pasters,and a lot of them. So if you've been featured, you can also assume you've been given a clean bill of health.
This is good portfolio material, so you can say what you've done when going for writing gigs. Remember Helium does have a high profile, and these features do count as kudos.
1 person likes this
@justdroppingby (296)
• Philippines
23 Jun 10
I must admit that 50 articles is quite overwhelming... but I will keep that in mind. It's sad to know that Philippine writers in Helium have gained a negative reputation because of the actions of some. Even sadder to think that the honest writers should suffer too. To date I'm still having erratic success at logging in to the site - sometimes I can access my account, sometimes the "we regret we are not currently set up to provide an optimal experience for writers in every country" message.
Thanks for the encouragement! I really appreciate it. I've just started out freelance writing online, and I'm still getting the hang of things. Cheers! for us.
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
18 Jun 10
Congrats! You deserve to feel happy. Recently I had my article featured on the front page...at the bottom, mind you. It does make you feel happy. They only kept in on for a day and then switched it out. It was not a timely article, however. It was about modern art and I had written it a couple of years back.
One other time, I had written about bird watching, which appeared on the front page, and that did much better. They kept it up for a few days and even put it on again later. It did well financially too. The last article didn't really see much change.
Best wishes, and I hope you enjoy your moment in the sun!
@justdroppingby (296)
• Philippines
23 Jun 10
Yep... I did enjoy it, even if it was only about a day that I saw it up front :p It made me wonder though... what exactly is Helium's criteria for featuring articles on the front page? Like you said, it seems pretty random, but then again there must be some sort of calculation involved.
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
18 Jun 10
Congratulations!!! Take a screen shot. It won't last too long. But that is something worth saving.
1 person likes this
@justdroppingby (296)
• Philippines
23 Jun 10
Yep I did save it! Took a screenshot right after I saw it on the home page. You can see it on my blog: http://everyday-experiments.blogspot.com/2010/06/doing-little-cartwheels-in-my-head.html. Thanks!
