How I Earned $1,000 a Month Freelancing on Helium

I am always searching for great content to bring to freelance writers that view my blog. Writing and making money from your efforts is difficult when you do freelance work. I wanted to bring some real success stories to my readers out there. 


What I will share are regular writers that have taken their income to a whole new level. These are not billion dollar revenues, but revenues that the average Joe can achieve.


this is wonderful article is from article writer Habee on Hub Pages about her success on Helium - I know it sounds strange, writing on Hub about Helium and shared on the Write Stuff-laugh.......


Making money on the internet with freelance writing

Note: This is an absolutely true story. If you doubt its veracity, you can google something like "retired teacher earned $1,000 per month writing on Helium." I think the story was published in several periodicals. Now that that's out of the way...
How I got into freelance writing
A few years ago, I retired early from my career as a high school teacher of British Literature, American Literature, and creative writing. I loved my job, but because of nerve damage, I was approved for disability with Teachers' Retirement and later for Social Security.
For the first few months, I was pretty depressed. I missed teaching, I missed my co-workers, and I really missed my students. Some days I was in so much pain that I took enough pain meds to "knock me out." On those days, obviously, I spent a lot of hours in bed.
I would have pretty good days, too, however. On those days, I would be bored to tears - literally. I'd get on the computer and just wander around. That's how I stumbled upon Helium. I think it was in November of 2007 that I joined.
I've always liked to write, and freelance jobs were something I had considered for a while. I had a good stash of articles and stories that I'd written just for fun. These were on all sorts of topics. I discovered with a little tweaking, many of them would address some titles posted on Helium. Could I really make money on the internet with freelance writing?
Everyone at Helium was friendly and supportive, so I felt right at home. I wrote a few articles for Marketplace, never really thinking they would be selected by a publisher. My youngest daughter did most of my typing, many times while I was reclining on the couch in the office, dictating to her.
My first freelance writing jobs
Just a month after joining the site, I sold my first article. I really could make money writing online with freelance jobs! It was an account of my grandson's fishing at the beach on a then-recent vacation. It earned me a whopping $16.  At the time, I didn't care about the money. I was ecstatic that a publisher chose my article over the others submitted, and that he was actually willing to pay for it. I could work from home on my "good days" with freelance writing!
The next week or so, I sold a few more articles, each for more money than the previous. I began thinking that if I worked really hard, I could really make money on the internet with Helium. As I already mentioned, all these articles didn't have to be "from scratch." I could re-vamp some of the articles on my hard drive and use them as freelance writing.
Later freelance writing jobs
Before I knew it, I was averaging about $1,000 a month from Helium. It was becoming a real writing job. One publisher especially liked my style, and I could always depend on selling numerous articles to them every month - for $40 each. Not bad for a pretty short article. I remember one day, I got an email from Helium informing me that this publisher had purchased thirteen of my articles - in one day! And while these articles were my bread and butter, so to speak, the occasional $100 and $200 articles were certainly rich gravy. I fell in love with freelance writing!
I wrote every day that I could in 2008, from January through June. Then in early July, my mom passed away. It was a real blow for me, of course, and it seemed for a while that my muse had died along with my mother. I just couldn't seem to get motivated to write much at all. Freelance jobs didn't hold my interest at the time.
By the time I began to recover emotionally, I discovered that my favorite publisher on Helium had disappeared. Publisher traffic was slow for a while, then it began to pick up some. I started freelance writing again on the site, but never with the enthusiasm I had before. Maybe I just got "burnt out," as my students were wont to say.
Still freelancing on Helium!
I still write on Helium when I see a Marketplace title that piques my interest, and I post on the forums sometimes, too. In addition, I get money each month for page views.
Is Helium perfect? Nope! Can you really make money writing there? Yep! But you have to be dedicated, and your writing must have a certain voice to resonate with publishers. If you want to make real money online with Helium you have to treat it like a real writing job. Freelance writing is popular, and most freelance writing jobs are pretty competitive. I've found that it's better to compete with a handful of other freelance writers than to compete against hundreds.
To read related articles about freelance writing, especially about specific tips for how to be successful on Helium, click on the article links below.
If you'd like to join Helium, contact me via Hubpages, and I'll be more than happy to send you an invitation!

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