The top section of your Guide Note should be about 3 or 4 sentences. You should give a very general overview of the topic of the page, including "journalism"-style information: who, what, where, when and why. No plagiarism in this section or anywhere.

Avoid relying too much on your personal experience. Though this top section of the note can be very general, and does not require rigorous research, it also should be verifiable information that you have received from an informed source.

As well, the Guide Note should be totally free of bias. Avoid giving your own opinion of a subject and instead stick to "just the facts." This is true of pages that are politically or culturally charged, but extends to all other kinds of pages, too, even on topics that are generally considered inoffensive. For example, a page on cinnamon buns should not say "Cinnamon buns are a delicious treat for the whole family" or "Cinnamon buns are my favorite food." This may very well be true, but Mahalo Guide Notes should be more like an encyclopedia entry, free of personal perspective and limited to factual information about the subject.

The 2nd paragraph of a guide note consists of the latest news available on the topic, be sure to include a citation for the news event. When you update your page with newer news, move the older news down below the fast facts. Be sure to return to your page and update the news paragraph when breaking news happens. If news breaking news is unlikely periodically challenge yourself to find a news item to use for an update.

The Fast Facts we'd most like to include on the page are featured on that page's template. If any of the facts do not apply to your page, it's okay to click the "n/a" button to the right of that box and move on to the next fact. Please do not invent or guess at facts; you will be asked to provide a link as a citation, to indicate where you got your information.

If you want to continue to add facts beyond the suggestions Mahalo has made, click the "Add a Fact" button and continue. If your fact does not need a title as well as the information (such as "Spouse: Michelle Obama"), just type the complete fact in the box marked "Fact Value."

Every Mahalo page should include, in addition to the main Guide Note and Fast Facts, one additional subsection providing more detailed information on the topic. On most page templates, we have suggested a potential subsection for you, but you can decide to write a different subsection as well, if you like. Just click "Edit" and change the box marked "Section Title."

As with Guide Notes and Fast Facts, your subsection should be verifiable and free from bias and personal opinion. Typically, it's a good idea to use one or more of the links provided in the right-hand column of your page as a factual resource in writing your subsection.

Once your Guide Note, Fast Facts and Subsection are finished, click Save and you're ready to move on to curating links!

Guide Note columns also contain the following sections:

- "Related Mahalo Pages": This is where users can find other pages on Mahalo that relate to the page they are currently reading. Note that this page's "relateds" are also about working on Mahalo: How to Market a Mahalo Page, How Mahalo Works and so on.

- "Categories": Mahalo pages are organized by category. Clicking on a listed "category" page will take you to a general listing all the Mahalo pages in that category, and will also highlight the day's most popular pages on that subject.

- "Page Managers": If the Mahalo page is being managed by a Mahalo staff member or a user, you will see a box that says "Managed by" and the avatar of that manager. This box also lists how long the page has been managed, how many views it has received since becoming managed and how much money the manager has earned from that page. If you don't see a Page Manager box, you will see a box that invites you to "Claim This Page," allowing you to become the manager!

- "Recent Contributors": This shows you a list of all the people who have contributed to this Mahalo page.

- "Discuss on the Message Board": Every Mahalo page has its own message board, where you can discuss the topic of the page or anything about the Mahalo page itself.

- "Embed this page": Every Mahalo page also has its own widget, which you can embed on your personal blog on other websites. The widget is basically a condensed version of the Mahalo page, that includes a lot of the links and original information.

You need to paste the URL of the website from where you found your information between, what we call "ref" codes. The image to the left displays exactly how it will look.

"Inlinking" is when you use a small code to link to other Mahalo pages. You can use double-brackets around any text on Mahalo and it will create a link to the Mahalo page (or search results of no page has been created) on that topic.