Review: Why Professional Online Writers Shouldn't Write for Helium.Com: The Worst Site to Produce Content For

Many moons ago, I wrote for Helium.com for about ten minutes. During the short time I was on Helium.com's site, I quickly figured out, other than being a big time suck, the opportunities for making money for a professional online writer simply aren't there. Then, when I looked at the Helium.com pages of other professional online writers I know who do make money writing, they too had all stopped writing there; a sure sign I was correct.

While Helium.com might be a place where a beginning writer can test out their skills, as a place for a professional writer, it's not only an enormous waste of time but also a bit of a scam.

Amateur Writers Enjoy Helium.com

In the past, I've had discussions with other people who write on Associated Content as well as Helium; people who defend Helium as being a place where they make money. In every single case, when I've checked out the person's number of articles and their average page views per article, they have some of the lowest page views on Associated Content. Then, when I look at their articles, one quick glance tells me they don't know how to write an article to attract viewers on the internet. Which is why, with the paltry money they're making online, they think Helium is a 'good place to make money'. Any professional writer, who does know how to make money, will tell you - it's not.

Quality of Articles on Helium.com

While some people criticize articles on Associated Content and, sure, some aren't of a particularly high-caliber, the majority are. On Helium.com however, the opposite is true. Helium, more than any other content site I've been on, has a huge number of writers who wouldn't know a grammatically correct sentence if it smacked them in the face. The length of some 'articles' is as low as 100 words (that's not an article, it's a poem), and in many, if I could actually find the point of the article, I'd need to be digging with a shovel.

As a professional writer, most don't want to be associated with a site that's caliber of writing is so low it drags the writers who can write down with it.

Helium.com's Rating System

To make any money on Helium.com, you have to rate other writer's articles and have to do a certain number every month. If you don't, you don't get paid for the articles you wrote. Not one professional writer I know would waste their writing time rating other people's articles just to get paid for what they've already written.

A professional online writer writes, and for every 15 minutes they waste rating articles on Helium.com, that's more time they could be spending writing another article or doing research for one.

Helium.com's Reason for Rating.

If you know anything about Google AdSense, you know right away why Helium.com has its writers rate other articles - it brings in 'page views' for Helium and the potential that writers will click on the Google AdSense banner ads at the top of each ratings page.

A website's revenue comes from ad income - pure and simple. There's no other reason for Helium.com to be wasting their writers' time like this, except to be making money off the backs of their writers, while not paying them for it. A scam in every sense of the word.

How Much Money Can You Make on Helium?

For the amount of time writers put in at Helium.com, the pay-off is minute. I've communicated with several people who have told me how much they make on their articles and, even the ones who make high amounts it's only because they have huge amounts of articles up there. When you actually calculate how much they're making per article, it's obscenely small - usually around 20 cents per month.

On Associated Content, I get an average of $6 per article, as an upfront payment. In addition, I also earn around 40 cents per article per month on page views, which gives me an average of $6.40 per article just for the first month. My top-performing article has already made almost $300 in page views and brings in a consistent $10 every month. Other articles I've written have done almost as well.

I earn enough money on Associated Content every month, it pays my rent, utilities, cable bill, telephone bill, cell phone bill, transportation costs and puts $200 in my retirement account. The only money I need from other writing clients is for spending money, so much of my income every month goes directly into my savings account.

I have yet to find any Helium.com writer that can say that, yet there are a fair number of us on Associated Content who live off or almost live off our income here.

For any professional online writer, Helium.com should be the last place you consider writing for. With sites like Associated Content, Demand Studios and others like them paying far more money, why waste your time on a site that won't even pay you for the articles you've written, without having you do gyrations (the rating system) to get it.

Helium.com Review - An excellent review on Helium, with points I absolutely agree with - Hubpages