December 27th, 2008
Mahalo Answers is the new extension (service) for the “Human powered Search Engine” - Mahalo. The idea is the same like Yahoo! Answers, people post and answer questions. But with Mahalo Answers, you can actually get paid for your answers, that is when your answer is chosen as the best answer.
The amount paid per question is set by the person who asks the question. He can either make it “free” (i.e best answer is not paid) or provide some money for the best answer. It’s up to the questioner to determine the price, minimum amount is $1 and there is no maximum price.

How do I earn money?
If your answer to a question offering a tip is selected as the best answer, we will deposit the tip into your Mahalo account. All tips are in Mahalo Dollars. Each Mahalo Dollar is currently worth $0.75 when paid out via PayPal. If you answer a direct question offering a tip and the asker doesn’t request a refund, we will deposit the tip into your Mahalo account.
How will I get paid?
Once you earn more than 40 Mahalo Dollars, you can request to be paid via PayPal on your tips settings page. Each Mahalo Dollar is currently worth $0.75 when paid out via PayPal. When you submit your request, we’ll transfer the full balance, or the portion of the balance you choose, to your PayPal account on the 15th of the following month. (source)
There are plenty of categories of topics available on the site. So, if you are good in any one of the topics, you have a pretty good chance of making some money while helping others.
One Advantage
Paid systems such as this, is a good platform for getting speedy and professional answers for your questions. Obviously, the more money you pay, the faster and the more informative answers you will get.
Otherwise, often times in similar free platforms or discussion forums when you post difficult questions which needs some research (and maybe some testing) on the respondent’s part, usually you get only partial answers.
Challenges
One of the challenges for Jason Calacanis (founder) now is to get people on board, and get them to use the system. And perhaps the real challenge will be to persuade them to use the system regularly.
He also needs to make some targeted buzz to attract certain group of professionals who can answer the questions in their own field best. Because, while he sent out email saying that the buzz generation was successful, I don’t think it’s there yet.
It hardly generated any buzz in the blogosphere, at the moment there are exactly 141 results in the Technorati for the keyword “Mahalo Answers“. And currently, the “Blog” section at Mahalo Answers itself (www.mahalo.com/answers/blogs) has no questions about blogging; neither free nor paid.
Given the fact that it is relatively easy to generate buzz with these kind of service in the blogosphere, I don’t know why Jason has chosen to concentrate on media tours instead. He could easily capitalize on “make money online” theme with bloggers and internet users in general. Since the system already has its own currency, they could have come up with effective affiliate program to let members refer other people and earn money too.
Summary
Well, let’s hope that it’s just the beginning for Mahalo Anwsers. After all, it’s still in Beta. Good luck to Mahalo team on the project!
P.S Here is what I asked on Mahalo Answers to drive some traffic and awareness to my blog. Got over 100 views on the question and some traffic to the blog, and paid the best answerer $1. Pay attention to Jason Calacanis’ comment on my question ;)