Mahalo How To pages are the best resources on the Web for how to complete a specific task or project. The topics range from How to Grill Fish and How to Play Guitar, to How to Get Into Law School and How to Become a Forensic Scientist. Because we have become such a trusted destination for this vertical, Mahalo How To pages are some of the most profitable pages on the site as well.

Right now, if you want to build a How To page on Mahalo, we ask that you go through Tasks...and the only way to get a How To Task is to be a member of the How To team. We want to give everyone the chance to start building and claiming their How To pages, which is why we're very pleased to introduce the first-ever How To Rush Week!

Here's the idea:

Everyone who wants to join the How To Team should claim 1 How To Task that's labeled "Rush Week!" Please only claim 1 How To task, and please only claim a task if you're NOT currently a member of the How To team.

Everyone will have 3 days from when they claim their topic to build a How To page. If your task is accepted, you will receive 7 Mahalo Dollars and 10 points.

If we think your completed How To meets our level of Mahalo quality and thoroughness, we will then invite you to join the How To team and start taking on more How To tasks at your own pace.

As well, we will have prizes! The 4 pages we judge to be the overall best in terms of quality will receive an extra M$25 award.

So how do you build a How To task?

There's a few basic steps:

(1) In the top box, fill out the Guide Note as usual. Include general information about the topic of your page, and give our readers an indicate of what kinds of material you'll be discussing on the page.

(2) Research your topic thoroughly and outline a step-by-step process that will allow people to complete the task at hand. For example, if your topic is How to Can Tomatoes, spend a while doing your research and making sure you understand, step-by-step, how to undergo this process.

(3) Write the How To in as organized a fashion as possible. Be sure to include an Introduction (which should include a list of the materials people will need before getting started) and then easy-to-follow steps, each in its own section of the page. Start with step 1 and taking readers all the way through the process of completing the job. (Click "add another step" when you run out of boxes). Don't assume people will just know where to begin or be familiar with the topic more generally - write with a beginner in mind. Think about whether or not a reader could print out your page and use it as a guide while actually doing the task.

(4) Include a few "related mahalo pages" that link up somehow with your task. They don't need ot be other How To pages, or even pages that already exist on Mahalo. Just think about what 4 or 5 topics would also interest people reading your page.

(5) Include some general "tips" for someone who is starting on this project. Is there any particular insight you can provide them that will help them with this task? Is there any key things they should remember as they work through the process? Is there a certain website they should look at before embarking on the job? This is where to let people know about it. (If you have more than 1 tip, use the "Add new item" button to add more boxes).

And that's just about it.

Good luck, everyone!

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