What I Learnt Writing at Helium.com

Helium.com was what I stumbled upon the first day I became a stay-at-home mother in 2007. I had embarked on a distance writing course. I needed something more practical to fill my time. The lure of being paid for my writing was enticing enough to send me signing up.

Helium.com had a community head who was a full-time worker at Helium's headquarters. She worked with senior writers who shepherded newer writers like me, editing and guiding our write-ups known as articles.

I was fortunate to have entered the site early enough when the minimum word requirement per article was 200. The requirement stretched to 400, then 600 words. By then, I had learnt to reach the minimum word requirement with little difficulties as my writing abilities grew through the months.

Helium content was divided according to the genre, each genre headed by a senior writer who also headed a forum page that shared the genre as the forum title. Each genre was then sub-divided such that titles contributed content that matched each sub-division.

As I wrote to different genres and submitted assignments to my distance writing course mentor, my writing style started to evolve. I found my voice - as a writer.

Helium.com also had a rating system whereby writers compare two articles written by other Helium writers and rated which article was better. My critical eye was thus developed as I read and rated articles that were written by writers of different calibres.

As I challenged myself to write to different genres, I learnt to think critically, deliberate through multiple online publications for trustworthy information, and write solid articles that were unrefutable.

The various senior writers there became not bosses but friends and mama bears who looked not just into my writing needs but also the various roles I played in life. I learnt to communicate beyond the content of my articles. I learnt to make friends online and communicate well in writing.

Although Helium.com no longer exists, the seven odd years spent reading, writing, rating and earning there garnered friends that I still keep in touch with online. The other thing I could never shake off as it has become an integral part of me is the love for writing. I will treasure the happy years spent at Helium.com.

What else did I learn to do at Helium.com?

Zoning at Helium has never been more enriching and fun before! With its easy dashboard and tools, you will learn to create websites and focus on content rather than technicalities when doing so. Today, I apply the skills to blogging which runs on a similar platform.

These were some of my zones:
* How to build a Helium channel using mindmapping
* Lokemun Magar Writes
* PARENTING WRITES: Lend us your pen at parenting and pregnancy knowledge and skills
* Special Needs: Gifted Children
Special needs kids, pots and pies
* Write to Helium's Empty Titles Zone
Women in the Bible