How Helium.com Denied Me Over $300 in Cash, Content and Contest Winnings - How to Avoid Getting Banned or Scammed

Helium is Full of Hot Air: Writer Beware! Read This Testimonial Before Writing!

This is the story of how I lost $300, almost 300 articles and hundreds of hours of my time to Helium.com. Additionally, Helium has kept the revenue-generating content I submitted to their site, but refuses to reimburse me for my contributions. Once you read this you should either (1) be convinced that Helium.com is a scam site and not worth investing your time and potential into or (2) know how to avoid losing what you do make on Helium. A potential participant should be immediately suspicious: one Helium.com-sponsored Google Adsense links claim you can "Write to Win $15,000." This is highly misleading. Even if someone took first place for every week of their Write to Win contest they would only win $1,800.

Nonetheless, I spent a long, hard week writing to win just one $300 prize. I was sitting at my computer at 6:30 AM (PST) on the last day of the contest, finishing off what I thought was my last submission (of between 100 and 200 articles for the contest alone). With two and a half hours to go, I was positioned somewhat securely in first place, poised to win the $300 first prize. I knew the person in second place might overtake me, but was willing to accept the $200 prize if it came to that. Suddenly, looking at the contestant positions on the site, I noticed someone I hadn't seen all week on the roster - and they were quickly climbing up the ranks!