Ed. Note: First, a big thanks to all of you who’ve already joined the Winner Circle. Stay tuned for more details as we’re developing an FAQ for the new suite of tools, and new content is coming your way, too. ‘Til then, enjoy your stay and let us know how we’re doing. – Shari

Have you heard of Helium? A client asked us that the other day and while we had (and had in fact registered once upon a time), we hadn’t circled back there for awhile. When we did we were pleasantly surprised and thought it worthy of a blog post. In our client’s case, she uses Helium to test her words on a community following and seek input, and she’s also participated in rating other work, which keeps an author looking objectively at their own words.

So, let’s break it down: Helium is a community where active, engaging writers share their work. Helium’s community members can then provide feedback, mentoring, and training.

According to Helium’s website, “Our writers have outlets ranging from autos to travel, from poetry to creative writing, to political debates. Writers whose quality rises to the top are even eligible for paid assignments through Helium Content Source.”

Helium Content Source, the other part of the site’s equation, provides media and e-commerce companies with valuable content from “vetted professionals and the cream of our writing community.” They provide, via you as a member, a variety of content options to publishers from custom content to full editorial assignments.

What we really love about the site is that it gives writers plenty of ideas/prompts to get your content up there, as you can see from Helium’s writer dashboard below. And, you must write something before you’re allowed to rate something in the community — an excellent practice, and a way to get better known, too. The site also has great traffic and those we’ve encountered who use it have actually made some money doing it, too. Write on…