What to Consider When You’re Writing Your Helium Articles

If this is your first time reading this article, here’s a primer on Helium and what it’s playground provides. You should know that I’m in the 1000 Posts in 100 Days Challenge which was started by Murray Lunn and that I will be documenting my journey through disclosing what Helium is and how to make money with it through article marketing.

Yesterday, we went over the About Me page and talked about more ways to make money with Helium. In that article, I walked you through creating your profile from scratch. There were also tips given on how you can introduce yourself and how much information you want to share. Overall, making money with Helium depends on several things – reading, writing, rating and crafting your About Me page.

Basically, no matter what, the most important place you want to work on is your profile. This will be the most traffic pulling page because for many who do not know you, this is where their first impression of you truly begins. So it’s here that you want to take some time into polishing your image. With that, we’ll continue along the lines of traffic and talk about some of the ways you can get more readers to your About Me page but most importantly your articles.

Page Rank For Your About Me

As you become a regular with Helium, obtaining a high pagerank for your About Me page should be one of your goals. That’s because it is here that traffic to your articles will be carried forth and also here alone that you present who you are to the online community whether it’s from the search engines or whatnot.

Here are some tips to consider:

• Write articles that rank in the top 3 of the title.
• Be top ranked of titles with more than 10 articles.
• Win contests.
• Write lots of articles which simultaneously links to your profile.
• Join community discussions.

Some further tips on linking:

• Link to high-ranking sites outside of your articles.
• Interlink your own articles.

Split Titles For Better Performance

In titles with more than 10 articles, Helium did a test which showed that when you split the titles and maintain the keyword within, they perform better in search engines. Not only that, it basically ranked the title and it’s variation higher! According to Helium, they didn’t change the inner content,  they left it intact with all the links however a splitting of titles brought in more rank.

After having done this with over one hundred titles and determining that we were getting a high rate of similar success, we have decided to formally adopt a process of dividing articles in deep titles among similarly worded titles that maintain the same meaning. – Earn Money with Helium

So if you can move content from within your title to generate a couple of variations, Google will be able to rank it higher and thus your article will produce more traffic for you. Start with a few and if you feel comfortable split the topic again.

SEO Tips with Writing Articles

From The art of writing good titles for the internet, user John McDevitt wrote a compelling article which explains why your title should attract both the search engines as well as your intended audience.

Here are his pointers for having a great title:

• Is it informative? Tells your reader what is to come.
• Are the keywords worded like a search query? This helps build rank.
• Is it precise? Not flashy but on spot, specific.
• Is it engaging? Grabs the reader’s attention with energetic language. Gives them benefits.

Moreover John ties it all to an acronym – SUIT.

• S – Search – What are people searching for online?
• U – Unambiguous – Never keep a reader guessing.
• I – Interesting – Does you article arouse the reader, give benefits and invite input?
• T – Timeless – Standing against all times and is never outdated.

John goes on to explain brilliantly the grammar of an SEO title. Now here is the kicker which I think makes sense because I’ve never been a title maniac but I will just have to try the craft just so I can perform better. Overall, the formula which John gives is:

Topic (SEO keyword phrase) + Energetic verb = SEO effective and engaging title

It may take you awhile to find the right title. Sometimes longer because once you hit the nail, the rest is just formatting the presentation. This road takes you towards copywriting where the craft of pulling in readers will be your mission. Finding a title that works might be a strenuous exercise with keywords for now but if it converts, why not take the time to practice it?

Formatting Your Articles

Besides the title which attracts the reader, the way you present your article is another factor where the information you give out can be judged. This can mean the difference between good ranking and none.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• For titles, keep words at 6-12, use proper punctuation, no periods
• Body paragraphs are better at 5 sentences for short attention spans
• If using subheadings, use 3-5 words
• Avoid insertion of too much keyword phrases in your article

As we mentioned in the SEO aspect of titles, including the keyword into describing what your article will be is one step of the process. It should be something clear, specific and concise. Then when you get into writing the body, the keyword frequency can be tricky here because you want to avoid stuffing your readers with the same word.

Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind:

• one keyword in the headline
• one keyword in the subtitle
• two keyword in the body (not first sentence)

Overall, spread out the mentions and this will keep your article strong. You don’t want to be penalize by Google. You don’t want to hurt Helium as well. No matter what article marketing program you use, this is good consideration for your long-term efforts.

So when you’re getting into the process of writing your article, you may want to look at your word density. This is almost like keyword density but it looks more at the other words in your overall article and how much they’re used. Helium suggests you keep it at under 4%. Basically, this means to not repeat yourself.

Finally, with all the technical talk on the proper ways to write an article, if you write the way you sound which carries a conversation and reads naturally, keyword stuffing and word density might not be a problem at all. These are only some rules of thumb to keep in mind.

You might also want to revise, edit and proofread your final draft with proper spacing between sentences and paragraphs. It is your style, grammar, punctuation and spelling which will be seen so consider them as you are proofreading your draft one final time. Give your reader something towards your article presentation.

In the end, with practice, writing your articles and keeping the criteria above within bounds will bring you more towards success with Helium. After all, if you’re going to write for pay, why not invest the time to know how you should write now?

Interested in writing with Helium? Comment below and I’ll send you an invite.

What other thoughts do you have on Helium? Share them below.

Some more resources to consider:

• Sugarrea – 11 Experts on Link Development Speak Out
• The Total Package – SEO Tips That Makes Sense!
• SEOBook – 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity
• Search Engine Watch – Link Building 101

IMAGES: Hand Graphic and Little Man by Filomena Scalise

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