Wish you could answer questions and earn cool prizes doing it? Mahalo Answers makes it easy to earn "Mahalo Dollars" using your expertise and research skills in Mahalo Answers. Every time you are selected as the "Best Answer" on a question, you receive a "tip" in Mahalo Dollars, which you can then use to buy cool items and gift cards in the [Mahalo Store]. This guide on how to earn money with Mahalo Answers will walk you through the steps for answering questions, writing "Best Answers" and earning cool stuff in the Mahalo Store.

• Mahalo Answers is a question and answer site that allows users to earn money by answering questions. Users who ask a question have the option of assigning a tip for the best answer. (There is no maximum tip amount, but the user must pay upfront.) Users earn tips by providing the most helpful answer. The best answer is selected by the asker or voted on by the Mahalo Answers community. Follow these simple steps and you'll be earning money in no time at all!

• To start earning money with Mahalo Answers, you will need to set up an account.

1. Go to the Mahalo Answers homepage.
2. Click Join at the top-right corner of your screen.
3. Enter your email in the space provided.
   • You must enter a valid email address to create an account.
4. Enter a username.
   • Choose wisely! Your username will go a long way towards how the Mahalo Answers community will perceive you.
5. Enter a password.
6. Click Join.
7. Mahalo will send you an email with a link to activate your account.

• Familiarize yourself with the rules, point system and community.

1. Read Mahalo's Terms of Service.
   • A violation of the terms may result in the suspension of your account.
2. Learn about Mahalo's Tip Guidelines. Here's what you should know:
   1. Users have the option of offering tips to reward the best answer to their question.
   2. Mahalo uses its own currency called Mahalo Dollars (M$).
   3. Each Mahalo Dollar can be purchased for $1.
3. Learn how points work.
   • Points are not the same as tips and can't earn you money; however, the more points you have the more you will be able to do within the Mahalo Answers community.Mahalo: How Points Work

• To earn money, you have to earn tips. To earn tips, you have to answer questions. Mahalo Answers offers a variety of questions such as:

1. Basic knowledge or research questions.
   • For example: Who brews Mcsorley's Irish pale ale? and How many calories do you need to burn to lose 1 pound of fat?
2. Debate questions.
   • For example: Ethical Debate: You caught someone having an affair, would you tell on them?
3. Opinion questions.
   • For example: What's your favorite fast food restaurant, and why? and Would you buy one of these? The Ipod Human?
4. Community questions.
   • For example: What would you like to see in a Mahalo Answers iPhone application?

• No matter the type of question, focus on providing helpful, well-written, well-researched and on-point answers.

1. Log in.
   • Enter your username and password.
2. Find an interesting question.
   1. The default allows you to scroll through all the open questions, starting with the most recent.
   2. To narrow your search, you can select a tab at the top of page: Open Questions, Offering Tip, Popular, Answered and Undecided.
      • If your goal is to earn money, you may want to focus on tipped questions.
   3. You can also select a category from the right side of the page.
   4. Order the questions using the Sort By feature. Choose Newest First, Oldest First, Unanswered First, Highest Tip or Most Interesting.
3. Click on a question.
4. There are two ways to answer a question.
   1. Click the Answer this Question button following the question text.
   2. Scroll past other answers to the bottom of the page.
      • Type your answer into the box that reads Answer this Question and click Submit.
5. You will be directed to the final submission screen.
6. Type (or finish typing) your answer into the text box.
   • You may wish to Enable WYSIWYG, which will allow you to create a numbered list, bulleted list or include an external link.
7. Embed a video.
   1. Paste a YouTube or Hulu URL directly into the answer box.
   2. Click Video and enter the URL in the space provided.
8. You can also embed a photo.
   1. Enter a Flickr URL or the URL of a .jpg, .gif, or .png file in the answer box.
   2. You can also click Photo and enter the URL into the space provided.
9. Need to add an audio file?
   • Enter the URL of an .mp3 file in the text box or click Audio and enter the URL in the space provided.
10. Add sources.
    • Type your sources into the What's your source text box.
11. Click Submit Your Answer.

• Now that you know how to answer a question, it's time to think about how to write amazing answers.

1. Be original!
   1. Do your best to summarize findings into your own words.
   2. If quoting a source is necessary, clearly show that it is a quote and link to the source.
2. Often, a question has more than one part. To provide the most helpful—and best—answer, answer each part of the question.
   • Make sure to give the asker what he or she asked for!
3. Research your answer.
4. Make sure to include quality sources and list them in the sources section.
   • This gives the asker a chance to verify your answer and proves your answer is legitimate.
5. Organize your thoughts into a clear structure for easy reading.
   • Paragraphs, bullet points and numbered lists are excellent organizational tools.
6. If needed, edit your answer.
   • You have 60 minutes to edit your answer.
   • Try proofreading your answer after you submit.
7. Go the extra mile. Embed videos, photos and audio files for an impressive answer.
8. Avoid sarcasm and general snarkiness.
   • The objective is to be as helpful as possible, not to alienate the asker or other users.
9. Reply to comments asking for more information or an explanation of your answer.

• Now it's time to start earning those tips! Get the most out of Mahalo Answers by following these suggestions:

1. Pay attention to Jason Calacanis' (jasoncalacanis) UPDATE posts to learn about new features.
   • Mahalo Answers loves to make earning money even easier for users. For example, currently all untipped questions are automatically worth M$1 and prior to that untipped questions were worth M$.25.
2. Use the sort feature to find the questions with the least number of answers by choosing Unanswered First.
   • Not only will you help the asker by offering a helpful answer, but you will have a better chance of getting Best Answer.
3. Build a reputation as a user who gives helpful answers.
   1. Write Best Answers!
   2. If every answer you give is great, sooner or later you may start receiving direct questions. Direct questions are questions only open to you.
   3. If you are an expert on a particular subject, focus on that subject and really shine.
   4. Remember, any user can tip your answer. So even if you don't get Best Answer, it's still possible to get a tip.
4. Show your Mahalo spirit by becoming a top member of the Mahalo Answers community. In addition to answering questions, you can participate in many ways:
   1. Ask questions.
      • Consider putting a few tips back into the community.
   2. Comment on other users' answers.
   3. Vote for Best Answers on undecided questions (and no, you can't vote for yourself).
   4. Rate answers to move bad answers to the bottom of the page and good answers to the top.
5. Avoid trying to game the system.
   • This will just lead to the suspension or deletion of your account and is not conducive to earning money.