Upfront Payment: Helium Vs. Associated Content

Helium and Associated Content are both sites that new freelancers can publish their articles. Each site pays their members based on the performance of their articles. They also both offer authors upfront payments for their articles, though each site's version of upfront payments don't have much in common.

Submission of Articles
Members of Associated Content can submit their articles for upfront payment. Only original articles that have not been published elsewhere are eligible for upfront payments. Articles submitted for upfront payment will typically receive a response from Associated Content within one week. If your article receives an offer for upfront payment, you can accept it or decline it. If you accept the offer for upfront payment, the article will be published and will also earn performance payments. If the article does not receive an offer, you can still publish the article on Associated Content for performance payments.

Helium articles that are submitted are automatically eligible for upfront payment if other criteria are met. Some categories in the helium community are ineligible for upfront payment. Helium decides which categories are eligible and this information is posted on the site. There is no guess work involved and the articles do not go through an approval process. Just check to see which categories are not eligible for upfront payment.

Amount of Upfront Payment Received
Associated Content makes offers on articles that are submitted for upfront payment. Offers typically start at $3 and go up to about $20 per article. After the offer is made you have the option to accept or decline the offer. The article will not be published unless you decide to accept the offer. This leaves you free to market the article elsewhere if you are not satisfied with the upfront payment offer from Associated Content.

Upfront payment on Helium is dependent on your star rating. Helium assigns star ratings to it's members based on how many articles they have published with Helium and how the articles perform against other articles. The amount of stars the member has on the last day of the month will determine the amount of upfront payment received for each eligible article published within the month. Payments start at 50 cents per eligible article and will increase as more stars are earned. So, if you have published 20 articles in eligible categories during a month, and you have one star rating, you will receive a $10 upfront payment for those articles. This payment is in addition to any performance payments your articles have earned throughout the month.

How Upfront Payments Are Received
Associated Content pays upfront payments separately from performance payments. On Associated Content, articles that have received an offer for upfront payment will be paid as soon as the offer has been accepted. So, if you have accepted an offer of $5 for one of your articles, the money will be deposited into your paypal account within a couple of days. You will not have to wait for the payout date to receive your upfront payments from Associated Content.

Helium tallies up the amount of upfront payments you will receive at the end of each month. The amount of upfront payment will be dependent on your star rating on the last day of the month. So, if your rating suddenly goes up at the end of the month, you will earn more. You will also earn less per article if your star rating suddenly drops at the end of the month.

The total amount of upfront payments earned will be added to your balance at Helium, along with your performance earnings. You will be able to request payment once your total balance has reached at least $25. Helium pays its members once a month.