First my local newspaper stopped carrying much local news...then the San Jose Mercury News kept shrinking and shrinking to the point where it's just several sections now...where did it go?
Did the newspapers run out of things to say or did folks just stop believing what they were saying?
At any rate, where did they go?
Lots in the past several months. For starters, Google has killed the golden goose by not allowing duplicate article backlinks. Google's "no follow" policy has essentially killed the biggest advantage of article marketing. My article on Mexico City is now buried back in the SERPs and falling...six months ago such an article would have shot to the top and the first page might have had three or four entries.
This has had a major effect on article marketing sites. In the past month I have been spammed by one site, had my article distibutions cut in half by another and have experienced a greatly reduced number of generated backlinks.
My service provider is giving incentives to upgrade membership and has actively been reducing the number of submissions...roughly by half...to ensure that they do not submit to "black hole" sites. These "black hole" sites have actually become a negative as the author may in fact be penalized by Google et al by having articles placed there.
That's not to say that the article marketing industry will not come back, but for now it is certainly down. The questions that remains is it in fact 'out'....
Medical professionals: The caregivers of the world who practice the healing arts. (We recognized nurses first because they hold the front line.)
Legal professionals: The enforcers who help ensure our society follows the rule of law and protects the innocent. 
Journalism professionals: The reporters who form the fourth estate to hold our government accountable and keep us informed of breaking news.
New assignments have just been added to the Helium Marketplace. Take a visit, read the publisher's guidelines, write an article, get paid fast! These are just a few of the many assignments in Marketplace this week. Check back early and often to see the latest. Marketplace Tips You need a professional name and photo – Really! So don't blow it like these two writers just did: A new publishing partner (part of a huge national chain) posted a title on Helium. The editor liked the top articles and was willing to run a byline with photo for the authors. Problem was one author had a very poor quality picture and the other one had no picture posted at all! As newspapers work on a tight turnaround time, sending emails and getting pictures wasn't an option. Don't let this happen to you! Present your professional best on Helium all the time PS: This Marketplace Alert was sent to a limited number of writers. How did you get so lucky to receive it? You've probably written about subjects related to the above assignments. It could also be that our publishers are looking for articles with a stamp local to where you live. Or maybe you're a new Helium member, and we didn't want you to miss this opportunity! | Know other writers? Writer's Guide to the Helium Marketplace.Get the answers to all your questions. Enjoy the Helium Marketplace – and good luck with your articles! Helium is now on Twitter as "HeliumWriter"! Get the latest word on what's happening—as it happens! |
New assignments have just been added to the Helium Marketplace. Take a visit, read the publisher's guidelines, write an article, get paid fast!
These are just a few of the many assignments in Marketplace this week. Check back early and often to see the latest.
Marketplace Tips
You need a professional name and photo – Really!
So don't blow it like these two writers just did: A new publishing partner (part of a huge national chain) posted a title on Helium. The editor liked the top articles and was willing to run a byline with photo for the authors. Problem was one author had a very poor quality picture and the other one had no picture posted at all! As newspapers work on a tight turnaround time, sending emails and getting pictures wasn't an option.
Don't let this happen to you! Present your professional best on Helium all the time
PS: This Marketplace Alert was sent to a limited number of writers. How did you get so lucky to receive it? You've probably written about subjects related to the above assignments. It could also be that our publishers are looking for articles with a stamp local to where you live. Or maybe you're a new Helium member, and we didn't want you to miss this opportunity!
Are you ready to improve your star status and increase your earnings? This information will give you the ammo needed to track, improve or keep your high ratings while grabbing extra earnings with Upfront Payments and Empty Title Bonuses.
What does it all mean?
Writing Stars: Stars are based on the intersection of your number of articles and your writing score. Find the details on Writing Stars, as well as the chart that explains where you are, on the Helium Stars & Badges page of our User Guide.
Writing Score: Seeing your stars twinkle on and off? You’re probably on the cusp between scores. Focus on getting your percentage up, especially before the end of the month when Upfront Payments are calculated. Need a little feedback to improve? Visit the Writing Critiques Forum.
Total non-Creative Writing articles: At Helium, we help you determine how your Creative Writing pieces are doing separately from your other work. Your Writing Stars are based on the number of non-Creative Writing pieces only.
% of articles in competitive titles: Basically, you need to maintain at least 25% of your non-Creative Writing articles in competitive titles. (A title becomes competitive when it has three or more articles written to it.) Caution: If this percentage nears 25% or dips below 25%, add more articles to competitive titles or you’ll be in danger of losing your Writing Stars! (See Point 1 under the Writing Stars section on the Helium Stars & Badges page.
Rating stars: Your Rating Stars are based on the higher of your 90-day and 30-day scores.
Rates in past 30 days: Great news! You now need only 10 quality rates in 30 days to get that first Rating Star and maintain 30 rates over 90 days. Get the low-down on Rating here in the User Guide.
Rates in past 90 days: You now need 30 quality rates in 90 days. Get the low-down on Rating here in the User Guide. Your Rating Stars are based on the higher of either your 90-day or your 30-day score.
There are more statistics just for you on your My Helium page!
Log in, write, rate, earn!
Team Helium
Dear Jack,
You may have noticed a new badge on your About Me page labeled "Premier Writer." Here's the scoop:
This is actually "Marketplace Premier Writer." Many of our Marketplace publishers have asked for a way to tap into Helium's quality by offering their titles only to writers who pass a certain threshold of credentials.
You're one of them! This is a great opportunity for Helium's top-quality writers.
You have:
Soon, you’ll see titles on the Marketplace page marked "Premier" in the "title class" column. Only you will be able to write to them. Here are the details on the Marketplace Premier Titles program.
One of the true laments from management today is that employees cannot express themselves with the written word. Owners and stockholders have the same complaints about management. Today in the age of the paperless office the importance of the written word is increasing especially as direct live voice contact becomes more and more problematic.
If you want to communicate, you have to write. The written word, whether digital or etched into stone, remains the primary means of relaying data, information, thoughts and ideas.
Many businesses lack the ability to generate a well written business letter or well scripted marketing collateral. Not having this ability puts these businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
Who wants to consider a business proposal that is awkward and full of errors? What impression does a homepage with spelling errors project? Good business writing is not just a nice frill -- it is a necessity.
Every text that is written by your business is a reflection on your business. Misspellings, poor grammar, awkward syntax and weak logic project a negative image. These weaknesses can relay the impression that you are uneducated, unsophisticated, lack personal pride, are lazy, ill or all of the above.
Since the consequences of poor writing are surprisingly severe, it is better to not write anything than to write poorly. No writing leaves the issue up in the air; poor writing tells the world just where you establish your standards.
Pick up three or four pieces of written material from your company. How does your company rate? Do you require employees use spelling and grammar checks before sending out important letters or email? A spell and grammar checker can act as an editor and prevent simple typos and oversights; a first line of defense against poor writing.
Or do you or your people have difficulty clearly expressing themselves? If so, take a step back and look at your capabilities. You can either send everybody to Adult Ed and Junior College to learn how to write or hire someone that already can.
For your people that can write having their own writing style is fine as long as it is correct and in good business taste. You don't have to go to military speak but neither is this the time to wax poetic and verbose.
Using slang in a memo to a company CEO may look cool at first but be perceived as 'low rent' when the CEO reads it. Always think first, what impression do you want to give?
If you are hiring for a position that requires writing skills, ask the applicant to write several paragraphs about what attributes they will bring to the company. For assessing writing skills what they write about is not as important as how they write it.
For managers this is more important since written reports are part of a manager's job description. Never hire a manager before you clearly know their writing skills.
To write well it helps to read. Read whatever interests you and read as much as you can every day. If you read a newspaper; look how style and syntax relay the message.
By reading well written material the rules of grammar and syntax become more formalized in your brain. Simply put, the more you read, the better you write.
Clearly writing practice makes for improvement if not perfection. Good writers write everyday and take pride in each piece they write. Good writers make sure the intended meaning is the meaning expressed. It is not only challenging to write well but fun if one develops positive attitudes about writing. Besides, what's not to like about writing well?
Only basic common sense should tell you that anything that is written or in text, such as a webpage or a handout brochure needs to be reviewed thoroughly before posting or printing. If you dare put out 'junk' that is full of holes, you will be shooting down your efforts before you start. So don't even try.
Review all of your written materials to see if they need to be improved or rewritten. Be your own editor first and then have some "outside eyes" look at it. Take all criticism constructively and use that criticism to improve.
Look in the mirror when you come up with excuses for poor writing. Excuses such as lack of formal education do not count in the marketplace. Some with little or no education have excellent writing skills while many university graduates cannot write a simple sentence correctly.
If you write poorly your message will be muted and not accomplish what you intend it to do. Good writing is a challenge and not something one can fudge or postpone.
If you can't do it, hire someone that can. Always remember that for better or worse you and your company are what you write.
It's happened to most of us that write and if it hasn't happened to you yet it will. It's only a factor of time and exposure.
Someone has stolen your labor intensive work and put their name on it. Or, taken your work and rearranged the paragraphs and put their name on it. Or, taken all your good ideas and reshuffled the words and put their name on it. Or any combination of the above.
If you publish and distribute on the web you may have hundreds of articles on a large number of websites, blogs and article databases. That's a lot of exposure. If I google the articles name I might find one that has not given proper credit. Usually they are novices and correct the problem. This type of plagiarism is easy and simple.
It's also a question of monetary gain. My own personal cases of plagiarism did not amount to any monetary gain. Nobody sold my content and made money. So if that is the case, back off and let it go. Notify the infringer and let it go. If big money is involved, talk to a lawyer.
But there are several ways I have found to protect myself. The first is that if I am going to put the article in a public place in the public domain, I want to post the article on my website first. This is proof it is mine.
The next is a bit more involved and it has to do with the content structure.
When I first started writing business articles I wrote nuts and bolts types of articles; what is a balance sheet, what is direct marketing, etc. The problem with these types of articles is that they can be rearranged rather easily and become a 'new' article. There is actually software out there now that purports to do just that.
That's right. There is software out there that can take linear, step by step nuts and bolts articles and rearrange them so someone else can put their name on them.
And of course people can do the same thing. From one hundred dollars down you can buy an article on just about anything from someone else and put your name on it. The only problem is the quality is so bad you may want to use a pen name, which defeats the whole purpose in the first place.
Fortunately this rearranging software only works on content that can be broken up easily. What if the content can't be broken up easily? What if the thread or train of thought of the article is such that it can't be reshuffled and still make sense? What if the text has lots of fragments and subtly intertwined expressions? Ha...just think of the headache of taking it apart and rearranging it. The truth is it takes so much time and is such a pain that it's easier to just write the article from scratch. Go figure...
I also try to spice up my content with slang, offbeat expressions, punctuation and whatever else happens to be handy. Poke, jab, kid, enrage, prod, insult do anything outside the linear behavioral model and your content becomes very difficult to repackage as well as livelier and more interesting.
My strong suspicion is that a lot of these rewrite and write services are offshore, especially in India where English is spoken. So if you add a lot of local zip and slang to your content they won't know that is. It has to be straightforward and linear for them; otherwise they can't do it.
Here's an example. I'm writing an article about the Revolutionary American flag with the snake on it that says 'Don't Tread on Me'. The title I chose was" 'Don't Tread on Me' Snake Motto is Foundation for the Modern Free and Inquiring Mind."
Rearranged, it going to have a lot of rough spots. It's even a tough title as it is...
In the text I open up freely and let it go. The bodacious and frolicking text is very hard to duplicate and repackage. I also consciously try to make the story thread or trail a convoluted and unpredictable one. It can only go this way or it makes no sense. At this point I have probably beaten all the copiers. They of course can take the general idea of the article, but to get another article they will have to write their own.
And so it goes. We all get copied and we all get mad. I just try to make it harder to copy. With fragments. Lots of fragments. Don't forget the fragments.
Think fragments. Mucho fragments...