Helium offers me tons of money and millions of readers. BS? Let’s see.

Update: It appears that they don’t want me to link to their site anymore. I guess that answers my question.

It isn’t often that I get offered millions of readers and money on top of that. I hate to turn it down. Helium has offered to pay me eight dollars for every one of you good readers that clicks their sales link and writes an article for their site. They also, as a kicker, told me that I could expand my audience by millions just by posting my existing articles on their site. I asked for proof, but alas they have none to offer.

I tried to make a counter offer, a simple link exchange, but apparently they “are not set up for reciprocal linking”. Instead, they just want to pay me. Frankly, I think they’re a bunch of nutbars, but who am I to stand in the way of me making money?

So here is the deal they are offering:

• I post their link.
• You click on it, join Helium, and write an article for them. (They say they’ll pay you, but how much is anyone’s guess)
• I get my eight dollars.
• I spend the eight dollars on a Little Caesar’ Pizza™ with Crazy Bread™ and a Coke™ (or something else)

I would like to sweeten the pot for everyone. If you do as they say AND link to me in your Helium article, I will post a weekly blog entry that links back to your helium posts. After the article is up, just send your link to:

heresyourheliumarticlelink@poewar.com

Here’s their link:

Update: It appears that they don’t want me to link to their site anymore. I guess that answers my question.

If the response is positive, I’ll make this a regular feature. if you think this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard, post a comment below.

Want to see what they wrote?

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I noticed your site is a large writing resource center, but I didn’t see Helium. Helium is a great resource for writers. Writers come and write articles on a wide array of topics, what ever they are passionate about or have expertise on. Every article they write has potential to earn money! There are lots of opportunities to get published and earn money at Helium, like writing contests!

Every article is published immediately, which means instant recognition from our 10 million monthly viewers. We have a Marketplace feature where publishers post titles they want articles written for. Helium members have the opportunity to write them, get published on their site or e-zine, and get paid!

If you think your viewers would be interested in earning money writing at Helium and getting published then add us to your writing resources. You can also add a banner in your sponsors section. You can earn $8 for every person who writes their first article, through our affiliate program.

If your interested in expanding your audience, offering your viewers an opportunity to get published, and making money for you and your viewers than go to http://affiliate.helium.com and join our affiliate program now!

If you have any questions please email or call me anytime.

Thanks and take care,

Crystal Hoyt | Affiliate Management Intern

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Hi Crystal,

I noticed the same thing about your site. It seems pretty good, but it
doesn’t send me any traffic at all. I’ll tell you what. If you you put
a link to my site on your front page, I’ll be happy to do the same for
your site — free of charge.

Best of luck,

John

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If you join our affiliate program, we would PAY YOU $8 for every person
who wrote at Helium. Once you put our banner on your site, you can
click through to make your first $8! Then you can post any articles
that you have already written or you can write new ones. Then you can
create an About Me page which links back to your site! That could
expand your audience by millions!

Let me know what you think John,

Thanks and take care,

Crystal Hoyt | Affiliate Management Intern

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Hi Crystal,

I did read your first message. I understand your desire to pay me for
a link. I’m offering it to you for free. All you have to do is link to
me in the same manner. Thats what we bloggers do. We link to each
other. As for creating an “about me” page on your site, I am not sure
where you are getting your million hit figure. Can you give me a list
of sites that have received one million or more hits from an about me
page on your site? That would be reassuring.

Best of luck,

John

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I’m sorry we currently are not set up for reciprocal linking. The ads
we have on our site are from Google Adwords. That is why I mentioned
the affiliate program again, my apologies. If you are interested in
being linked on our home page I would suggest you get set up with
Adwords. As for sites that have received significant audience expansion
from an About Me page here is the list, I am not privy to that knowledge
nor do I think I would be able to share.

I still think there’s a strong synergy between our sites so I highly
recommend a short 3 month test. If you don’t like the affiliate
program, if you’re not making any money than you can walk away. I don’t
think it would hurt your site, if anything I think it would be another
great resource for your viewers. So why not!

Let me know what you think John,

Crystal Hoyt | Affiliate Management Intern

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Hi Crystal,

I don’t mean to be argumentative, but if you have no knowledge of
people who have achieved what you promise, then what is the basis for
your claim?

As for AdWords, I do not advertise my site. It receives a substantial
amount of traffic without me having to do so. Most of that traffic
comes from people who link to me for free because they see the value
of my resource, as you have.

You came to me looking for a relationship, and I am happy to form one,
but I am troubled by unsubstantiated claims of millions of viewers and
slightly sad that the only relationships your site is interested in
(and apparently capable of) are financial. I believe it speaks to the
primary motivation of your site. It claims to be “where knowledge
rules” but at the moment it seems that dollars are ruling the day.

Can you address these issue? I would love to feel more comfortable
about a potential relationship but I don’t want to be a part of one
that exploits you, me, or the people who come to my site.

Thank you for your time,

John

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Note: Still waiting for a response to that last one…