How to kill your Helium writing score

Helium is a great place to write but sometimes their selection of titles irritates me. If I were smart I would just leave them alone but I am really tired of people thinking that since I am now over 60, I am some frail old woman who can't think for myself. Believe it or not, I can still walk and talk. On top of that, I can still do all the things i could when i was younger. So the topic was "Flattering hairstyle for women over 60". The first article talked about faces changing shape as we age and other nonsense. My take is here.

This is going to kill my writing score and once posted, articles are there for good. Sometime it's just important to me to state what I believe is the obvious. If the title had been about flattering hairstyles for teens, it wouldn't have mattered. Right now, none of them are flattering and who decides anyway?

Sold another stock content article

So I'm not getting rich. Still it's nice to know that someone is willing to pay for something I write. It's interesting that things that I don't see as important are sold. I wonder why that is? I guess I will never know. Strange sites buy these things. Two have been sites that provide articles for client's newsletter. Never thought that there would be a service to provide content for others. Thank goodness for the Internet. What an amazing place to live.

A collection of writing tips

This may be my favorite lens on Squidoo. I found all these tips on StumbleUpon and think that they are great. So, it is the featured item at the top of the blog. There is a lensrolled lens on the right that has even more information. No one can say they have writers block now.

So much for goals

Instead of writing articles on Helium, I wrote two lenses on Squidoo and spent a lot of time playing with StumbleUpon. I am not close to meeting the goal I set and think that it might be a little to lofty. So changing the goal to something more manageable. I want to have 10 more before the end of the month.

Raising a grandchild takes much more time away from writing than anything else. I can now only write during school time. He wants my undivided attention when he gets home. Need to work on time management because I want to get quilting in too. So with a revised goal, I should be less stressed. I am creating my own writers block.

Sold stock content today

Articles are bought from Helium by different companies. This is my second article sold. Helium pays us $5.00 so no one is going to get rich but it does up my monthly earnings and that makes me happy. It is even more gratifying when someone likes what you do and purchases it.

In the meantime, Diane contacted me about a Helium project that writes articles for a website. They are all beauty and fashion so anyone who knows me will realize that it's a stretch. Still, I can research with the best and am quite good at it. I emailed the Helium rep in charge of the project and hope that she will approve me. They pay slightly more.

More free promotion

Note today to Helium How-to Guide writers. The promotion is not directly for me but if other Helium writers check me out and read one article, that's one more hit. The guide itself has stopped earning mega views but $50.00 is still a lot of money.

"Hi team,

As you may already know, our Helium.com members have seen enormous success by utilizing StumbleUpon.

Ann Hinds received over 35,000 views in one month for her How to keep food cold in an ice chest guide. Believe it or not, she's still receiving views with just a little under 50,000 total. By the way, that's $50 in revenue earned from ONE How To Guide."

As far as the writing 100 articles goes, I still need to do 88 more. This is really a struggle.

Procrastination

I think I've written 2 more. I did write 2 more and then decided to grab a topic page. It's not helping me make my goal. Still topic pages are good. As a channel manager, they want us to have topic pages to manage. I really need to write articles. I think I will play with the prompts I used in my article to see what I come up with.

4 down, 96 to go

I know stuff. Now I'm looking for titles for the stuff I know. Today it is crafts, embroidery, quilting and other crafts that I have done. Free cross stitch flag patterns was the last topic. Found some really cool ones that even I want to try. I think it can be done. The problem is they all need to be quality so it's not like I can just knock them off. My score is bordering 85% and I want to keep the bonus star.

Rethinking goal

OK, so since I posted the goal which is supposed to make me accountable, I have written one article. Let's see, I can blame family problems, financial problems or the weather. I am rethinking the goal although I really don't want to change it. I guess I will stay with it, it is lofty and it would be fun to make it. OK, it stays.

GRAND magazine names Helium in the top 12 websites for Grandparents

GRAND, The Online Magazine for Grandparents, has named Helium’s Grandparenting Channel one of the “Top 12 Websites for Grandparents”. The sites were chosen based on a number of criteria including content, ease of navigation, web traffic and the overall look and appeal.

Helium is honored to receive this award and proud of all our dedicated writers who work to provide the best content on the web. We especially want to congratulate Ann Hinds, Helium’s Grandparenting Channel Manager!

The Top 12 sites will be published in the 7th Year Anniversary Edition of GRAND published on Sept. 1 as part of the site’s National Grandparents Day celebration.

New goal

It's time to set a new goal. This time it is money motivated. I want to go to Tuscon in October but know that it will take money. I also need to have 500 Helium articles to keep my 4 stars. I am in danger of losing my bonus star so need to clean up some of the older articles. I want to write 100 articles this month. Keeping the 4th star pays more. I am currently at 207. It's a long way to 500.

Debate over children who do not grow up speaking English as a 1st language

I had a talk yesterday with a friend who told me that if children in America do not grow up with English as their first language, they will always lag behind in school. She is from Mexico and seemingly quite successful so I don't understand her logic. I know that the kids in the classroom where I volunteer are struggling. Still, I believe that they can not only learn but excel and that it is now a challenge for me. I think that her perspective if flawed and that we will need to have further discussions on the subject.