Mahalo Tasks are the way that members of our community work from home to help us improve our site in exchange for payment in Mahalo Dollars. Most tasks involve writing 300 original words and doing some Internet research. Most of our tasks pay M$3 or so. How To tasks pay M$5 - M$15.

You will need to register for a Mahalo profile before you can do any Mahalo tasks. This is free and it just requires an e-mail address. Click on the "join" link in the top right corner of this page. Mahalo Tasks can be reached by clicking here or on any Mahalo page through the Mahalo How To link that is at the top of each Mahalo page. Click through that, and then click on the button near the top right that is labeled View More Tasks.

To find out about all the other activities that you can do to make money on Mahalo, please read the Mahalo page entitled How Mahalo Works. To find out more about Mahalo Tasks, please continue reading this Mahalo page.

The Mahalo Dollar (M$) is the currency of all Mahalo sites. Each Mahalo Dollar is worth $0.75 US. Mahalo Dollars can be earned by completing Mahalo tasks, by providing the Best Answer on a tipped question on Mahalo Answers, and by participating on various Mahalo teams such as the Mahalo GoTeam. Mahalo dollars can be cashed in for US dollars.

More information on this is available on the Mahalo page entitled How Mahalo Dollars and Payments Work.

When you go to the front page of Mahalo Tasks, you will see a long list of boxes. Each of these boxes contains a single "open" task. An open task is one that has not yet been claimed by another user, and is available for you to complete. Each box contains the same information:

- When the task was first assigned
- How many Mahalo Dollars you can earn by finishing the task
- A description of the task
- The page you will be working on
- The specifics of the assignment
- The amount of time you have to complete the task

Clicking any of the links for open tasks will take you to that particular Task's page, which will provide more detailed instructions on completing the assignment. If you click on "claim this task", then it will usually be assigned to you right away, and you can begin work.

You can work directly on that page, filling in the appropriate boxes and including all the sources you used to find the information. Most of us work in a word processor though, and paste in sections as we finish them.

By clicking "Submit," your work will automatically be saved and sent to Mahalo's Quality Control (QC) team. They will then evaluate your work for accuracy, originality, grammar/spelling, citation of sources and general adherence to Mahalo's high standards for content. They will either approve the task or send it back and allow you to try again. Either way, you may receive feedback and advice for future Tasks.

If your task is approved, you will receive the Mahalo tip that appears at the top of the task. You will also become the page manager (PM) of the new Mahalo page that was created by your task. For tips on how to be a good page manager, please read the Mahalo Page Management Guide. Especially note that Mahalo pages can earn you ongoing revenue through Google Adsense, but you are expected to update your Mahalo pages at least every 30 days.

DOUBLE BRACKETS FOR INLINKING

Put double brackets around all proper nouns, years, dates and any other terms that Mahalo has or should have a page about. This will create an internal link (inlink) to that page.

• [[Mahalo]] is an Internet [[search engine]]. will look like this:
• Mahalo is an Internet search engine.

To refer to a term differently in the text than what the page is called, you can use a pipe to separate the term, placing the page title first and the text second like this:

• [[New York State|NY]] will look like this: NY, and it will inlink to the page titled New York State.

BOLD AND ITALICS

All video game, book and movie titles, as well as ship names need to be in italics. To use italics, put two apostrophes on either side of the word or phrase you want italicized. Put the apostrophes outside any brackets that you have put in order to inlink the term. Here is an example:

• ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' will look like this:
• The Great Gatsby

You may use boldface sparingly for emphasis or for subheadings within a section. To use boldface, put three apostrophes on either side of the word or phrase you want bolded. Put these outside of any brackets that you need to inlink the term. Here is an example:

• '''The Great Gatsby''' will look like this:
• The Great Gatsby

CITATION OF REFERENCES IN TEXT

Whenever you write a fact in a text section of a Mahalo page, at the end of the sentence, just after the period with no space after the period put <ref>URL</ref> to link to the authoritative website where you found this fact. Take a look at this sentence as an example:

• [[Barack Obama]] is the 44th President of the [[United States]].<ref>http://www.mahalo.com/barack-obama</ref> will look like this:
• Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States.http://www.mahalo.com/barack-obama

Click that footnote number and it will take you to the bottom of the page, where your URL is now automatically listed in a "References" section.

Please note that every fact must be cited. This means that you will need to verify everything that you write. Do not rely on your personal experience, education or opinion. Especially, do not show your opinion nor any bias in your writing. Not even favorable opinion or bias. Remain neutral. Present just the facts. If it makes sense on your topic to present popular opinions, then present both sides and let the reader make up his or her own mind which one makes more sense. Make sure and cite references for these popular opinions, too.

WHITE SPACE

Hit "enter" three times between paragraphs. Otherwise, there won't be any space between your paragraphs. Write many short paragraphs, rather than one long paragraph. Whenever appropriate, break paragraphs up even further into bullet points or numbered lists of statements. All this makes your web page easier on the reader's eyes. Remember though, that the first text section on your page - the guide note - needs to be free of bullets or lists, for page formatting reasons. For more information on writing great guide notes, see How To Write a Guide Note.

BULLETED AND NUMBERED LISTS

Type * before every item in a list, or # to make it a numbered list. Otherwise, the list will not format correctly on the completed page, and will just look like a regular paragraph. Make sure to align the * or # all the way to the left. Capitalize the first word in each bullet or number.

Earning belts on Mahalo Answers currently allows you to claim more Mahalo Tasks:

• White Belt - 2 Tasks
• Yellow Belt - 6 Tasks
• Green Belt - 8 Tasks
• Purple Belt - 10 Tasks
• Brown Belt - 14 Tasks
• Black Belt - 20 Tasks

You can also suggest a topic to Mahalo and put in a request to complete a task for that topic.

If you search on Mahalo for a page we don't yet have, you will see this message: Get paid to help Mahalo build this page! Click here to get started! When clicking on request, a request will automatically be sent to Mahalo after you fill the amount you would like to get paid for the task. Mahalo will generally accept amounts ranging from M$1 for non-popular terms, to M$3 for more popular terms and M$5-M$10 for some text-heavy terms.

If the payment is considered too high for the assignment, we will offer a lower payment. When you make the request a Mahalo staff member will accept or modify your request, a counter offer could be made if the dollar amount appears too high for the page. Mahalo may deny your request if the term requested can be re-directed to a term already on Mahalo.

On Mahalo pages, we strive to give our users the best possible information without bias or filler. Please keep this in mind when working on your Tasks. When writing Guide Notes, make them as clear and concise as possible, including only true, verifiable information. Try to avoid using anecdotes or personal experience. Instead, include as much information gleaned from online research as you can.

Also, avoid sounding biased in your writing. Whether you're working on a controversial hot-button topic or a seemingly mundane one, try to avoid expressing personal opinions. Even if you love oatmeal and it's your favorite breakfast, "Oatmeal is delicious" would not make a good opening sentence.

When completing Fast Facts, include a citation to specific information such as statistics, numbers and other details. You can include the citation by pasting the URL of the source into the space below the Fast Fact itself. If a Fast Fact is not applicable for the topic, simply click on n/a.

For more information on what to do with your pages after completing these assignments, see the Mahalo pages entitled How To Write a Mahalo Page and Mahalo Page Management Guide.

Once you submit your work to Mahalo, within a week we will perform what we call a Quality Check (or "QC"). Mostly, we're looking for "stop errors" -- problems with the writing or facts that would cause a person to stop reading and question the content. These could include difficult-to-read sentences, particularly incorrect spelling/grammar, factual errors or a failure to cite sources for information.

If the QCer approves your task, then you will be awarded the tip and 10 points towards your next belt level. Don't worry about moving your information onto the Mahalo page itself -- this will be done automatically when your submission is approved. You will also be the page manager of the new Mahalo page generated from your task. This means that you will share in the Google Adsense revenue that is earned by your page. This is only true if you keep the page updated. Please read how to do this on the Mahalo Page Management Guide.

If your submission is rejected, the QC Team member who looked over your work will offer you constructive feedback and will offer you a chance to try again.

During Mahalo "Barnraising" competitions, we will be placing a large amount of similarly themed topics into Mahalo Tasks. The users who complete the most tasks within a pre-set time limit (typically a few days) win a variety of prizes. New Barnraising competitions typically begin on Mondays or Tuesdays and continue through the weekend.

To participate in a Barnraising, all you have to do is start grabbing tasks labeled BARNRAISING and get to work.

The same belt levels apply during these competitions. That means, if you have a Yellow Belt and have already claimed and completed 3 Tasks, you will need to wait for those to be approved before moving on to your next task.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

• Tasks can be claimed at any time
• The competition begins when the first tasks are reviewed and accepted
• Open to all belt levels
• Belt levels can still only claim their standard maximum number of tasks
• Late submissions will not count towards a user's total
• No borrowing content from other sources, including Wikipedia

Mahalo's "How To" pages are the most detailed, step-by-step guides on the Internet to doing all sorts of different projects. For some great recent examples, check out our pages on How to Trim Roses, How to Clean Hardwood Floors and How to Grow Thyme.

We are allowing the public to write How To pages for us through Mahalo Tasks, and are compensating M$7 for each accepted How To that gets built. Even better, we are offering users the opportunity to manage these pages, which involves keeping them fresh, up-to-date and heavily promoted around the Web, in exchange for 40-50% of the revenue they generate in Mahalo Dollars. This is a great deal, as most of these pages go on to perform very well in search engines and can be worth up to hundreds of dollars per month.

In order to get permission to write and manage How To pages, we first ask that users join our How To team. You don't need to sign up...All you have to do is participate in one of our How To Rush Weeks! For complete information on joining the team, check out our page How To Join The How To Team.