For the last week I have been busy on Helium.com. If you are not familiar with Helium, it is a website that allows writers to publish articles, get rated, compete in writing contests, and earn a little bit of money doing it all.

I signed up on Helium because I planned to write a blog post comparing various citizen-journalism websites and places where writers can get paid for their work. I must admit that at first I was not really that impressed with the website. Since I planned to write about websites where writers can earn money, Helium’s star and rating systems did not sit well with me (more on this in the next blog post). But soon I realized that while Helium is a good place to potentially make some money at, it was an even better place to improve your writing.

Helium is a great place to practice writing because of they give you a title and let you decide what the article should be. While some may see this as limiting or even boring, I see it as perhaps the best way to sharpen your writing skills. Helium allows you to randomly browse through the various channels they have and write an article about a subject you never really thought about.

The first article I wrote was about a topic I would have never have considered writing for were it not for Helium. I was browsing around the website and went to the Debates section. The first title that caught my attention was whether it was a good idea to buy a new car in 2009. In Helium debates you have to pick one side of the issue by voting for the poll, and then you write an article for the side that you picked. It took me about 45 minutes to finish a 450-or-so word article about why buying a new car is always a bad idea, especially so in 2009. Writing the article was kind of fun because I had to think about and research a topic that I never really thought about.

And, in my opinion, that makes Helium a good website for writers and journalism students. You are given a writing prompt, the title of the article, and have to produce an article or a piece of creative writing. For those of us who try to write something every day, having a place with thousands of ideas to pick from can be a great resource.

Helium also holds writing contest where writers compete for cash prices. Writers are provided with 15 article titles for each contest, and can write to as many of the titles as they choose. Based on how high their articles rank at the end of the contest, they are awarded points to determine the winner. Prizes vary in different contest, but a majority of them pay $60 for 1^st place, $40 for 2^nd place, and $30 for 3^rd place.

Along with the regular writing contests, Helium also has Journalism contests sponsored by organizations such as the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, OpenSecrets.org, and PETA. The winner of the current Journalism contest sponsored by the Pulitzer Center will get his article featured on the organizations main webpage.