by Paula Mitchell-Bentley

Created on: November 03, 2008   Last Updated: November 15, 2008

I've been writing for Review Stream for several weeks now. Their website is cumbersome to use, to say the least. You do not get a profile page, a way to see all the reviews you have written, or even a way to see how many views your reviews have received.

The premise is simple - write a review about anything - anything at all and make money. This, however, is one of those times where if it seems too good to be true it probably is. They offer $2.00 for each review that they accept. Until you read the fine print and then you realize that you may be paid the "bulk rate" which is only $0.40. That is one fifth of the original amount that is in big print. They state that if the review you write meets all of their guidelines then it will earn the $2 amount, if not then the review will either be rejected or paid the bulk rate if you checked that box.

Their guidelines simply state that the review must be 100% original, from your own personal experience and be mostly opinion instead of description. That is how they define "valuable". I've written more than one review and had it rejected immediately upon submission saying that it is not valuable. If you then go back and rewrite your review, it may be accepted. My opinion is that the review should be at least 250 words to be accepted although that is not stated anywhere on their site. I've heard of people who had their reviews rejected immediately and e-mailed them. They asked what they deemed valuable in a review only to be told that it wasn't valuable and they weren't going to share their "know-how" with them as to how they determined value.

I myself have had some quite nasty communications with them. When you send in a review, it is supposed to send you a confirmation email from their site. Just sort of a yeah, we got it kind of message with your review attached. They then claim that they will either accept or reject the review within 72 hours. Well, I stopped getting the emails and ran a search of my user name on their site. They had published my reviews without notifying me!

I e-mailed them right away to inform them of the problem. They told me that it was the fault of my email provider - which is hotmail. Right, so all of a sudden I'm going to get all of my emails except ones from them. I emailed them again to try to clarify my issue only to be answered quite rudely that it wasn't their problem. I have an article similar to this one here on Helium published on Triond detailing why I don't think people should bother writing

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