Helium.com

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Helium.com, Inc.
Type	Privately held corporation
Founded	2006
Headquarters	Andover, Massachusetts, USA
Industry	Internet information providers
Products	Citizen journalism, User generated content
Website	helium.com

Helium.com, Inc. (formerly known as Helium Knowledge) is a website where writers are paid for contributing articles, and visitors can read these articles for free. User generated content in a given category is rated up or down by other writers in a form of peer review system. As with social news sites like Digg or Reddit, user ratings determine the rank of an article. In this case, however, the ones who rate are the writers, and multiple answers/articles exist and compete in most topics. In turn, high-rated articles receive more page views and earn more money for writers.^[1] According to Alexa's website global traffic rankings, Helium.com's rank has hovered around 10,000 since January 2007; but has risen to remain consistently between 4,000 and 5,000 in 2008.^[2] The site's number of users has grown from over 5,000 in October 2006 to 100,000 in February 2008.^{[3] [4]}

Contents 1 Articles 2 Partnerships 3 Payment 4 History 5 Technology platform 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Articles

Contributors to Helium can write an article on any topic. Articles are arranged by categories and sub-categories, e.g. Writing (main category) has sub-topics such as Creative Writing, Writing Tips, and The Business of Writing. Contributors may create their own topic, or post an article to an existing topic (which may have been created by another contributor, or by a Helium staff member). Each writer can only submit one article to any one topic.

If a contributor creates a new topic, it is not published immediately, but instead is held for vetting. If approved, the topic is created and the article appears, usually within a day or two. It is then open for other writers to contribute to. Articles written to existing topics are published immediately and are not vetted or edited by Helium, although they may subsequently be removed if flagged as inappropriate.

Articles within a topic compete with each other for "ratings". Rating is done by contributors on a "rating screen" where the articles are shown anonymously, two at a time, and contributors are asked to vote for the better article. This process is repeated until all the articles in a given topic have been ranked in order. Each time a new article is posted to a topic, the rating process is repeated. Rating is anonymous to prevent bias by contributors.

The current system of rating does not give precise guidelines as to what "better" means. This issue is strongest among creative, opinion, and other subjective article categories. Another ratings issue is that expert articles are habitually given to non-experts to rate.

There is a flagging system which enables contributors to report plagiarism and otherwise poor articles.

[edit] Partnerships

Helium has entered into partnerships with a number of non-profit organizations, including the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and National Press Club (USA). The Pulitzer Center is sponsor of "Global Issues/Citizen Voices essay contest"^[5] aiming at engaging citizen journalists in what the center considers underreported issues. The National Press Club allows the best citizen journalists among Helium's writers to apply for membership. Reportedly, it is the first time in the National Press Club's 100-year history that it has made outreach to a non-traditional news outlet.^[6]

Another partnership used to be with the TV show Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria where viewers can submit essays to Helium.com and the best essays get featured on the TV show; but this has since expired.

[edit] Payment

All articles stay on the site in perpetuity and will continue to earn income for the writer so long as the writer is actively contributing to the site. The articles of a writer who has been inactive for more than six months will cease to earn revenue for the writer. Writers earn a share of the ad revenue from ads appearing with their article, plus an amount based on the rating of their article and the number of times it is read. Helium does not disclose the formula from which this is calculated, and the formula may thus be changed at any time.

In May 2008 Helium increased the ad revenue share by between 50% and 150% for the top quarter of writers, as determined by the rating system, by introducing a Writers Stimulus Package.^[7] However, earnings had been dropping prior to this program having been introduced.^[8] The program additionally requires the writer to maintain one rating star, the formula for which is not disclosed. Thus the entire bonus is entirely dependent on Helium's rating system, the accuracy of which continues to be repeatedly questioned by members.^[9] Several members claim to have made statistical analyses which demonstrate that Helium's rating system generates swings in article ranking well outside the normal 95% confidence interval. Helium dismisses all member input on this subject as being anecdotal,^[10] but does not publicly release its own statistics, citing them as proprietary information. It is likely the current rating system will remain.

Earnings vary considerably depending on the categories and topics chosen. New writers can expect to earn only a few cents per article per month. Long term Helium writers typically have hundreds of articles on the site, and/or promote their work heavily elsewhere, and/or make major efforts in contests and the Marketplace (see below).

Writers are encouraged to promote their work by writing blogs which link to Helium, or on MySpace, Facebook, forums and social bookmarking sites - all of which can make a substantial difference to earnings. Writers can also win prizes varying from $5 to $75 in Helium contests, and submit work for purchase by publishers in the Marketplace section. The winner of Helium contests is determined by ratings, however ratings have no bearing in the Marketplace section (although they are still conducted) - instead, the publisher is free to choose their preferred article for publication.

Helium earns money from Google AdSense advertisements displayed on the site, and from commission on articles sold to publishers on Marketplace.

[edit] History

Previously HeliumKnowledge.com, Helium.com was launched in October of 2006. Initial press releases suggested the site was a quick-reference alternative to other sites like Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers. The article review system for Helium was, from the start, touted by Helium as being significantly different than those of other encyclopedic sites. This review system has been the primary topic of numerous Helium press releases.^[11] More recently, Helium has increased rewards for affiliate marketers who bring new writers to the site.^[12] As of May 2007, according to Helium, the site has approximately 100,000 registered users, 80,000 of which are active contributors, and 300,000 total submitted articles.^[13] Since then, several Helium writers have challenged the active-inactive ratio on the basis of observed evidence. The raw data has not been released by Helium.

[edit] Technology platform

Helium is built with the web application framework Ruby on Rails^[14] which enables simple but powerful integration of database-driven dynamic content in the user interface.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Wilson, Chris "Taming Internet Flamers and Attracting Adults to Boot. New user sites find ways to add civility to the cacophony"

[1] US News & World Report Sunday June 10, 2007.

• Forrest, Rachel "Beet-L-Juice. Can a vegetable be sexy? Yep."[2]Seacoast Online Wednesday July 18, 2007.
• Wingfield, Brian. "The Pundit Economy. Helium Seeks Hot Air"

[3] Forbes.com Wednesday July 25, 2007

• Business Wire (July 26, 2006) [4]
• ABC News (March 24, 2008) "Writing for Peanuts and Loving It: Online Writing Platforms Attract New Writers With Small Fees" [5]

[edit] External links

• Helium.com - Official site.