Writing at Helium - Can it be profitable ?

I've actually stared writing at Helium for supplementary income. I've been writing at helium for some time now and I've published 8 articles (ranging from 450-800 words) mostly regarding personal finance issues.

Helium is a site which enables everyone to write on almost any topic and be rated by community members. Helium pays writers according to article views which are obviously affected by quality and quantity. As your articles stay on Helium "forever" they continue to generate earnings for a long term, dependent on popularity of course.

As much as money making goes Helium has not proven, as of yet, to be a profitable venture for myself. Minimum payout is at 25$ and I've made almost 33 cents so far. But the joys of writing are also a sort of compensation.

I've been writing mostly on personal finance issues.

My tips for writing on Helium:

1) Write often - From my earning experience for a long term residual income from Helium you need to write often and by that I mean very often. I think 30 new articles a month will eventually help you achieve minimum payment at the end of each month. That is a lot of articles. This brings me to my second tip.

2) Sometimes quantity is preferable to quality - By this I mean publish quality articles but if money is your objective use the Pareto tool. 80% Quality in 20% of the time. Getting that 100% quality is time consuming and very costly.

3) Rate - Helium uses a rating system. The more you rate the more your articles will be subjected to rating. From there on it's up to you.

4) Write about things you know something about - Don't go posting on the wildlife of the African bush beetle. If you're ignorant in that subject it will show.

5) Try to be consistent in your writing - A great way to get to good articles is view what the writer of one article has also written on that same subject.

6) Make use of Helium Market Place - If your articles are good this is a good way to make extra money as publishers are looking for quality articles for their needs and are willing to pay for them. Same goes for Helium Contests