Inhaling the Helium: More Pay Per Write Opps

August 23, 2007

With all the interest in payment per post services, it’s not surprising that there are variations. Helium, whose “We Need You To Write” Google AdSense ads are everywhere, has been accumulating a large base of articles by unpaid writers. Each writer gets their own blog, and their AdSense ads are displayed.

If you don’t drive traffic to your own posts, well… no clicks of course means no pay, but you can’t click your own. In short, many Helium members probably don’t earn a cent. (I’ve never seen any stats to show top earnings, but I’ve also never looked. I just know that my posts have generated a grand total of about 6 pageviews.)

However, the company has been working on a way to broker content for bloggers and publishers. Publishers list bounties and payments are US$20-100 per article. Helium takes 20%, which is a lot lower than some other similar services.

Though, considering that a publisher could simply advertise their need for writers at various blogging job forums - often for free - it makes me wonder why Helium tried this. On the other hand, now that Helium has a name, there’s maybe some degree of trust. Newbie writers might feel safer that they’ll be paid for what they do.

Category Posted in online careers, freelancing

One Response to “Inhaling the Helium: More Pay Per Write Opps”

Peter Degen-Portnoy Says:

December 11th, 2007 at 1:26 pm

Thanks for talking about this. We put this together to create a rare triple-win; writers get paid and published, publishers get custom content with less work (the Helium rating engine helps the publisher), and Helium gets all the unselected articles.

We are working to have many more titles and publishers to increase the writing and earning opportunities for our writers.

- Peter Degen-Portnoy
Director of Business Development
Helium