I have been forced into the position of reconsidering whether it is still viable for me to work from home. I love working from home and so the thought of abandoning that dream is certainly not an easy one. It is funny that in 1985 I didn't own a computer. In 1995, I didn't know how to turn on a computer. By 2005 I was still working outside the home and though parts of it I enjoyed, I have not missed the day to day operations of climbing out of bed and going out into the freezing cold weather. I had learned enough about computers and the internet by that time to make videos of the family pictures and things like that, but hadn't quite figured out the work from home catch that I would eventually find.
2011 rolled around and my life had completely changed several times from the long ago 1985, the year that my daughter was born. I now know more about computers than the average person but not enough to call myself a total computer geek. I would consider myself about mid-range when it comes to all that stuff. I did, however, find a way to earn money from home and that was always my goal from the first computer I had.
Now that has all changed. The sites that I relied on for income have changed drastically. While that is a good thing because that means great progress is taking place, the game has changed drastically and left many people without the steady income they were able to make in the past. Writing for Helium is in no way a place that I can actually earn a living at this point. There are several conversations going on about it, but I am not sure that the options, even after the changes will work out for me. It may work out for others, but I really don't think that I will be about to live off Helium any longer. I hope that I am wrong and that any new changes will give me that option again, but that isn't the case at the moment.
I haven't given up. I may not be able to make a living off Helium any more, but that doesn't close out all of my options. I have grown as the site has grown. I have just grown in a different direction. The substance that I want to give to my writing cannot be done from that type of venue. I am not by any stretch of the imagination putting the site down and I don't want anyone to think that I am. I love Helium because had it not been for this site in particular, I could never have stayed at home and earned a living at the same time. I could never have learned what I have learned from Helium in any other place. My decision has to be based from the angle of the business. I have put off calling myself a business because it just sounds too weird. However, that is exactly what I am. I am a business that must make money.
I may keep this blog updated if any changes occur that are worthwhile to pass on to anyone who has kept up with the few blogs I have done. I think in all fairness, it is time to close out this blog because of its title. Living off Helium can't be the title any longer because I am not currently living off Helium. I am living off a variety of websites and think another blog is in order to better define me as a business. I still hope to help others who seek work from home options.
With all of that said, I don't know where all of this will take me. I hope that it will take me to much greater things. I have thoroughly enjoyed the company that I have had on the Helium website. I will continue to do my volunteer work there and attempt to leapfrog those articles even if I can't figure out how I will get to them all. I cannot complain about the site. I have over 4400 articles on the site at this time and will likely add more as time goes on. I just won't be relying on it for the main source of income. I had fun with the experiment and proved that it could be done, but that was under the older system. Time marches on and so do many of the writers who made a comfortable home at Helium for so long.
Is this the end of my work at home career? Not by a long shot. I am going to continue to work and there will always be a place for information on the internet. That is what the internet is all about, or it once was. The manipulation of titles and content to make sure it comes up high in the search engines should never have been put into practice from any site or any writer. This is one of the main problems and Google caught it.
I have heard it said that some of the writers were "gaming the system". I did not ever grasp onto the idea of writing to titles that simply didn't make sense but had the right words to come up in the search engine. I tried my best to avoid titles that were nonsense titles. I could give you examples and you would see they aren't difficult to pick up on. That has been a recent trend that nearly sickens me. A good title is taken, twisted, manipulated and comes out nothing like what the original intent of the title was. It was all intended to lead the search engines to bring them up in results, thereby giving readers an article that really had nothing to do with the real topic they were looking for. It wasn't the writers trying to game the system but the websites encouraging it and in some cases, requiring it. I am not accusing any particular website of this. I think that they all were to some extent extremely guilty of it. When the cards were all on the table, it was easy enough to blame the writer because that is whose name is on the article. However, I was perfectly happy writing to titles that made good sense. I think that it is time for the websites guilty of doing this to fess up and stop trying to blame the writers for doing what they told us to do. Does that sound bitter? I am not really bitter about it. I am more disillusioned now than I think I have ever been in the entire process. The enjoyment that I once got out of writing is now gone when I write to such sites. In light of this, it has to be time for me to change my thinking and go with better options that not only pay more, but give me a voice back. That is the beauty of working for yourself instead of other people and that is the option I am going to take.
Look out world, Here I come. You will be hearing from me. It will be my voice, not the voice of the search engines that will get my attention from here on out. That doesn't mean that I won't write articles anymore. It just means that I will be far choosier when it comes to deciding what to write to. I don't have to do it their way because it is MY business not theirs. My passion for writing has been stamped out for a while now. It's time to get back to what I loved about writing in the first place. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was never in this for page hits alone. I am not an advertiser. I will promote slightly, as I always have. But I am not going to constantly advertise to the point that I cannot do what I need to do most. That is to write. So, this blog is officially closed until further notice. If changes are made that make writing for Helium more viable as a source of income again, I will re-open it. Until then, there will be another blog about working from home in general to help those seeking information on their own ventures.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Revolution, freedom and justice for all
The title of this entry is probably a little melodramatic. I have penchant for being overly dramatic, so it shouldn't surprise anyone. Those words have been going through my mind this morning as I work on the articles for the day. I have my pace well set now. I will do three articles for the site that I can make the most money with. After I am done that, I will be free do whatever other work I feel like. Better yet, I can just kick back and do nothing at all, go for a walk or whatever floats my boat at any given moment. Life seems too good right now!
The point of this entry is to bring up a couple of points about Helium. This blog was started about Helium to track my work at home progress. It has taken a turn that I never expected when I first began the test. Helium remains my favorite place to go and the past twenty four hours just continues to prove to me why.
Many writers stopped writing for the site after several changes were made. One of the main issues was giving up exclusive rights. Many writers did not care for that because they felt as though they were being undervalued for the work that they have been doing. The price paid for an article does not match up with the demand for "forever" rights to the articles. Others, me included, didn't really care much about giving up the rights to the articles. Both sides were very vocal and the community at Helium turned into a "blood bath". That is, in my opinion, what happened. Many writers, once good friends in the community were tearing each others work down, treating each other with little respect and the list goes on. I imagine that I was just as bad as the rest at times. The good news is that it seems to have finally ironed out to some extent. What was the big change? An office staffer posted something on the forum that brought the writers back together.
Here is how it worked. Helium implemented the changes. It was likely because there was some information that led them to believe that big changes in Google algorithm (I still hate that word) were on the horizon. The changes to Helium infuriated people, scared people and made people feel devalued. People felt they were being treated more like robots than the humans they were. That is not the way Helium behaved towards writers when they first joined the site. It took a lot of people off guard. In Helium's defense, I would guess that they were afraid how the writers would react to such measures. Maybe they thought that the writers would just trust the decision or maybe they just temporarily forgot that the writer is a very important part of the business they do. In any case, I don't think that Helium ever implemented the changes to harm anyone. I truly believe that they felt it would help the site and the writer. I don't think they were prepared for what happened though.
Many writers simply walked away from the site. Others stayed, tried out the new changes. Some people were successful with the new changes, others found it too time consuming to complete the work for the amount of money offered and some just sat on the fence. Those that didn't initially leave the site hung around, did some work on Helium but had to find other ways to make up the money they were losing. Google then implements the algorithm changes, content sites all over the internet get slammed. When I say slammed, I mean down to the ground. Some were slammed so hard into the ground, they may never recover from it. Helium lost some views, but for the most part, people are still seeing good ad revenue from the articles they have written. To be honest, the articles that I have over at Yahoo! Contributor Network are faring much worse than my Helium articles. I am only seeing about a quarter of the views that I was getting previous to the big Google changes. I am still making some money from it though, so take heart, this is not the end of content sites. It is the end of bad information being passed around the internet. It is also the end of giving little to no valuable information in the name of clicks.
Anyway, the thing is, Helium has always been a different sort of community. For those who have been there for a long time, they know what it was once like. Helium cared very much about the writer, all writers. The good, the bad and the in between ones. In fact, many Helium writers will tell you how much they have learned about writing by joining the site. When that felt lost in the shuffle somewhere, it began to resemble too many other sites. Writers felt comfortable moving away from the Helium site because nothing seemed to be setting them apart from the rest.
Yesterday, in what appeared to be out of the blue, a post was made on the forum. "Dialogue needed" and it was posted by a Helium staff member. This is a staff member that has been around for quite a while and his presence on the forums has been very limited over the past year or so. Helium has been busy growing. Jim posted something that should make the Heliumites happy. He wanted us to tell him how we felt about things. What are our plans for the future and will Helium be a part of that? What made you leave if you left and what would make you come back? These aren't the exact questions, but that was the gist of it. With this post, it opened up a floodgate of very useful information for Helium staffers to think about.
Forgive the long post, but I think that it is important. Helium members responded. Most of them said they miss the way the community used to work together. This was a big issue. This includes the presence of Helium paid staff. It makes us feel more a part of the process. Honestly, if it isn't for the members, no website is going to make it work. People contribute to it. When a business begins to get too big for their britches (not necessarily talking about Helium), they begin to forget how they got where they were. They offered something that people couldn't get elsewhere. Loyal members of any website expect things from that website. One of the things Helium members expect of Helium is to remember that without the writer, there is no product. Sure, there is a ton of information on the website currently, but those current things become old news and eventually dwindle to nothing. I don't think Helium did it on purpose. I also think the members were just frustrated for different reasons, they began to bicker with each other and it sometimes went way too far. That was the main issue that people brought up over and over again.
There was still a split about exclusive rights. Many people didn't care either way and many said "no way, no how". They fought it by leaving the site and it appears that the site is hearing that voice now. I look for great changes in the site over the 2011 year. Heliumites put out some really great ideas on the boards that I think might, to some extent, come to life. We, the writers, know more about what happens in our personal earnings, what is going on in the social networks and what makes things work best for us and what could help us better determine where we should concentrate our efforts. Helium has made a very good decision in including the writers in a "dialogue" with them. It was a much needed pep rally that will result in action.
I hope that the writers who left because of exclusive rights will keep an eye out. It looks like there will be some changes to that rather new and controversial rule. This is our small Libya or Egypt. I thank God that it isn't our human rights that were trampled on, that it was only these issues that can easily be resolved. The point is, some revolted and it was enough to possibly make the change. I wasn't part of that Helium revolution and I don't apologize for that. I had no real qualms with the exclusive rights and still don't. But for those that it matters to, I am glad that things are working out the way they appear to be working out. I hope that we can get back to the type of community it once was because that is the only real thing that kept me there over other sites. It looks like it may just happen.
The point of this entry is to bring up a couple of points about Helium. This blog was started about Helium to track my work at home progress. It has taken a turn that I never expected when I first began the test. Helium remains my favorite place to go and the past twenty four hours just continues to prove to me why.
Many writers stopped writing for the site after several changes were made. One of the main issues was giving up exclusive rights. Many writers did not care for that because they felt as though they were being undervalued for the work that they have been doing. The price paid for an article does not match up with the demand for "forever" rights to the articles. Others, me included, didn't really care much about giving up the rights to the articles. Both sides were very vocal and the community at Helium turned into a "blood bath". That is, in my opinion, what happened. Many writers, once good friends in the community were tearing each others work down, treating each other with little respect and the list goes on. I imagine that I was just as bad as the rest at times. The good news is that it seems to have finally ironed out to some extent. What was the big change? An office staffer posted something on the forum that brought the writers back together.
Here is how it worked. Helium implemented the changes. It was likely because there was some information that led them to believe that big changes in Google algorithm (I still hate that word) were on the horizon. The changes to Helium infuriated people, scared people and made people feel devalued. People felt they were being treated more like robots than the humans they were. That is not the way Helium behaved towards writers when they first joined the site. It took a lot of people off guard. In Helium's defense, I would guess that they were afraid how the writers would react to such measures. Maybe they thought that the writers would just trust the decision or maybe they just temporarily forgot that the writer is a very important part of the business they do. In any case, I don't think that Helium ever implemented the changes to harm anyone. I truly believe that they felt it would help the site and the writer. I don't think they were prepared for what happened though.
Many writers simply walked away from the site. Others stayed, tried out the new changes. Some people were successful with the new changes, others found it too time consuming to complete the work for the amount of money offered and some just sat on the fence. Those that didn't initially leave the site hung around, did some work on Helium but had to find other ways to make up the money they were losing. Google then implements the algorithm changes, content sites all over the internet get slammed. When I say slammed, I mean down to the ground. Some were slammed so hard into the ground, they may never recover from it. Helium lost some views, but for the most part, people are still seeing good ad revenue from the articles they have written. To be honest, the articles that I have over at Yahoo! Contributor Network are faring much worse than my Helium articles. I am only seeing about a quarter of the views that I was getting previous to the big Google changes. I am still making some money from it though, so take heart, this is not the end of content sites. It is the end of bad information being passed around the internet. It is also the end of giving little to no valuable information in the name of clicks.
Anyway, the thing is, Helium has always been a different sort of community. For those who have been there for a long time, they know what it was once like. Helium cared very much about the writer, all writers. The good, the bad and the in between ones. In fact, many Helium writers will tell you how much they have learned about writing by joining the site. When that felt lost in the shuffle somewhere, it began to resemble too many other sites. Writers felt comfortable moving away from the Helium site because nothing seemed to be setting them apart from the rest.
Yesterday, in what appeared to be out of the blue, a post was made on the forum. "Dialogue needed" and it was posted by a Helium staff member. This is a staff member that has been around for quite a while and his presence on the forums has been very limited over the past year or so. Helium has been busy growing. Jim posted something that should make the Heliumites happy. He wanted us to tell him how we felt about things. What are our plans for the future and will Helium be a part of that? What made you leave if you left and what would make you come back? These aren't the exact questions, but that was the gist of it. With this post, it opened up a floodgate of very useful information for Helium staffers to think about.
Forgive the long post, but I think that it is important. Helium members responded. Most of them said they miss the way the community used to work together. This was a big issue. This includes the presence of Helium paid staff. It makes us feel more a part of the process. Honestly, if it isn't for the members, no website is going to make it work. People contribute to it. When a business begins to get too big for their britches (not necessarily talking about Helium), they begin to forget how they got where they were. They offered something that people couldn't get elsewhere. Loyal members of any website expect things from that website. One of the things Helium members expect of Helium is to remember that without the writer, there is no product. Sure, there is a ton of information on the website currently, but those current things become old news and eventually dwindle to nothing. I don't think Helium did it on purpose. I also think the members were just frustrated for different reasons, they began to bicker with each other and it sometimes went way too far. That was the main issue that people brought up over and over again.
There was still a split about exclusive rights. Many people didn't care either way and many said "no way, no how". They fought it by leaving the site and it appears that the site is hearing that voice now. I look for great changes in the site over the 2011 year. Heliumites put out some really great ideas on the boards that I think might, to some extent, come to life. We, the writers, know more about what happens in our personal earnings, what is going on in the social networks and what makes things work best for us and what could help us better determine where we should concentrate our efforts. Helium has made a very good decision in including the writers in a "dialogue" with them. It was a much needed pep rally that will result in action.
I hope that the writers who left because of exclusive rights will keep an eye out. It looks like there will be some changes to that rather new and controversial rule. This is our small Libya or Egypt. I thank God that it isn't our human rights that were trampled on, that it was only these issues that can easily be resolved. The point is, some revolted and it was enough to possibly make the change. I wasn't part of that Helium revolution and I don't apologize for that. I had no real qualms with the exclusive rights and still don't. But for those that it matters to, I am glad that things are working out the way they appear to be working out. I hope that we can get back to the type of community it once was because that is the only real thing that kept me there over other sites. It looks like it may just happen.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Why Helium writers should put in their two cents
Helium writers have been given the opportunity to put in their two-cents on certain issues on the site. It is very important that every writer who complained about the new changes say what they feel about it. A dialouge has been opened up for the writers to state their views on the changes and on the Google algorithm and even the site in general.
Why is it so important? Because you wanted Helium to address the issues and you wanted Helium to listen to what you had to say. It may seem a little late in coming, but they are listening now. Give it a chance and maybe, just maybe the site can be better than ever before. But it is up to you, the writer, to give a voice to the situation at hand.
I know there are others out there that have been loyal to Helium for one reason or another. There is a reason for that and giving up on that now seems a little out of place. If they can make it better, if they give the writer a voice again, if they are willing to work out the issues that have been concerning so many writers, then we, as the writer, have the obligation to voice the opinion that we have felt has been squelched for a while.
I won't go on and on about this. I think you all know that the site started out including the writer in the forums and accepting the ideas of the writers to make the site better. It worked out well for them as the site got better and better. I have to agree that there has been a huge change in that attitude between Helium staff and the writer. This is one of the most important relationships to the site and many felt that it changed far too much for their taste. Give it a chance, voice your opinion and let's see if we can make the site better so that we all benefit from it. That is all I have to say about it. I hope to see you in the forums.
Why is it so important? Because you wanted Helium to address the issues and you wanted Helium to listen to what you had to say. It may seem a little late in coming, but they are listening now. Give it a chance and maybe, just maybe the site can be better than ever before. But it is up to you, the writer, to give a voice to the situation at hand.
I know there are others out there that have been loyal to Helium for one reason or another. There is a reason for that and giving up on that now seems a little out of place. If they can make it better, if they give the writer a voice again, if they are willing to work out the issues that have been concerning so many writers, then we, as the writer, have the obligation to voice the opinion that we have felt has been squelched for a while.
I won't go on and on about this. I think you all know that the site started out including the writer in the forums and accepting the ideas of the writers to make the site better. It worked out well for them as the site got better and better. I have to agree that there has been a huge change in that attitude between Helium staff and the writer. This is one of the most important relationships to the site and many felt that it changed far too much for their taste. Give it a chance, voice your opinion and let's see if we can make the site better so that we all benefit from it. That is all I have to say about it. I hope to see you in the forums.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The times, they are a changin'
The Google changes do not appear to have had a lasting effect on me so far. I am happy to report that and hope that most others are finding the same thing. Times are still changing quickly in the online content world though. I see them as wonderful changes that will bring back the great commaraderie of the past and leave behind old wounds that were carelessly inflicted on others in the name of trying to be the top dog. That is a good thing for all work at home people. It means less commercialism and more of the reason I ever got on the internet to begin with. To talk to old friends and meet some new friends and maybe learn how to make a little money along the way.
All three of those things have happened since I first connected to the internet back in the early nineties. There has been so much progress in technology and the way we use it. It will be nice to go a little backwards to a time where people actually cared about how they treated others whether they are on the computer or in real life.
The world is in a lot of conflict right now. With Egypt having come to an entirely new level in deciding that government needed change and with Lybia fully embroiled in a battle to get Gadafi off his seat of power, Google algorithm is the last thing we should be thinking about. Yes, yes, I know, we have to make money to survive. Hey, I'm in that boat too and don't plan to go down without a fight. The point is, there are so many things going on in the world, history making events that we should be more focused on. Here we sit talking about why Google did what they did. In the end, I don't really care why they did it. They did it and there is nothing we can do about it but find other ways to fit into the world of internet money making.
Time certainly marches on quickly. My niece just gave birth to a new baby boy. He's healthy and she and her husband are extremely happy! I am too. What does that have to do with internet writing? Well, it doesn't. It has to do with the real life that I lead in real time. It is an historic moment for the family and instead of worrying about how I can change things up in my writing, I am going to concentrate on the wonder and magic of the little life that just entered this sometimes cruel world.
Listen everyone, it will work out. Stay focused on what is important in your life and believe that it will all work out in the end because it always does. Maybe it isn't perfect. Then again, not much is in this life. I named this blog "Beginning my work at home career" and based it on whether or not I could make a living off Helium. I have proven to myself that it can be done. It is hard work because it takes hours and hours of time that I could spend with the family. With all the changes, that will all change as well. I will still make the same amount of money, spend much less time doing so and have time to spend with my family like never before. We can all sit and wallow in our fate that Google threw upon us. I wasn't one of the one hit hard by this. In fact, it appears to me that my Helium earnings have doubled as of today. Will I argue over that? Nope, I certainly won't.
The blog will likely be more off topic in future presentations. I have already proven my point of making a living off Helium. Now I am out to share the knowledge that I have gained over the past four years as a Helium writer and how I will survive after all the changes. I haven't worked from home in those four years. It is much closer to about two years. But the knowledge gathered during that time could be very helpful to some who are just getting started or want to get started. There is still hope and a lot of it..... Stay tuned. I'm not nearly finished yet!!
All three of those things have happened since I first connected to the internet back in the early nineties. There has been so much progress in technology and the way we use it. It will be nice to go a little backwards to a time where people actually cared about how they treated others whether they are on the computer or in real life.
The world is in a lot of conflict right now. With Egypt having come to an entirely new level in deciding that government needed change and with Lybia fully embroiled in a battle to get Gadafi off his seat of power, Google algorithm is the last thing we should be thinking about. Yes, yes, I know, we have to make money to survive. Hey, I'm in that boat too and don't plan to go down without a fight. The point is, there are so many things going on in the world, history making events that we should be more focused on. Here we sit talking about why Google did what they did. In the end, I don't really care why they did it. They did it and there is nothing we can do about it but find other ways to fit into the world of internet money making.
Time certainly marches on quickly. My niece just gave birth to a new baby boy. He's healthy and she and her husband are extremely happy! I am too. What does that have to do with internet writing? Well, it doesn't. It has to do with the real life that I lead in real time. It is an historic moment for the family and instead of worrying about how I can change things up in my writing, I am going to concentrate on the wonder and magic of the little life that just entered this sometimes cruel world.
Listen everyone, it will work out. Stay focused on what is important in your life and believe that it will all work out in the end because it always does. Maybe it isn't perfect. Then again, not much is in this life. I named this blog "Beginning my work at home career" and based it on whether or not I could make a living off Helium. I have proven to myself that it can be done. It is hard work because it takes hours and hours of time that I could spend with the family. With all the changes, that will all change as well. I will still make the same amount of money, spend much less time doing so and have time to spend with my family like never before. We can all sit and wallow in our fate that Google threw upon us. I wasn't one of the one hit hard by this. In fact, it appears to me that my Helium earnings have doubled as of today. Will I argue over that? Nope, I certainly won't.
The blog will likely be more off topic in future presentations. I have already proven my point of making a living off Helium. Now I am out to share the knowledge that I have gained over the past four years as a Helium writer and how I will survive after all the changes. I haven't worked from home in those four years. It is much closer to about two years. But the knowledge gathered during that time could be very helpful to some who are just getting started or want to get started. There is still hope and a lot of it..... Stay tuned. I'm not nearly finished yet!!
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