Have you noticed how much press Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo , keeps getting? So when we launched Mahalo Answers , the first thing I did is say: “Here are the top 5 Answer sites out there. I have (including here , here , and here ), so I asked him to show us how he does it. Here’s an edited excerpt of what he taught in his Mixergy program. (Download

Santa Monica-based Mahalo , the human-powered search engine run by Jason Calacanis, is in the spotlight again, this time for putting a price on being a top Twitter user. According to Mahalo head Calacanis, he is offering the micro blogging service $500,000, to have Mahalo's new Answers service featured as a "suggested user" for three years. Mahalo Answers is Mahalo's question and answer service, Calacanis had originally offered $250k to Twitter for the position, saying that his offer was meant to "get the attention of Twitter CEO Evan Williams, founder Jack Dorsey" along with investors Fred Wilson and Bijan Sabet.

Founder and CEO of Mahalo , Jason Calacanis is the original community CEO, or as we like to say OGSocial. Kevin is also well known for breaking Apple related news to his followers before the press even has a clue. The press can’t get enough of him. It’s interesting (to me at least) the vast audiences that tech founders are able to assemble. Through their own products and others, they manage to build massive communities that in many cases, hang on their every word tweet.

Sean and I arrived late, lalawag style, and took our places in the press pit. Speculation was that Mahalo had been acquired or secured additional funding, but it turns out that the news was more on a personal level. Press Twiistup 6 took place last week and this time around, under new management, the event went through a few changes. Instead of a one evening mixer that highlighted the showoffs and gave people a chance to mingle and get to know the companies, it was expanded to a two day conference with panels, and plenty of time for mingling.

We are also home to DemandMedia (Richard Rosenblatt) and Mahalo (Jason Calacanis). In today’s “attention deficit” economy you need PR more than ever and this doesn’t come through press releases but rather a continued, authentic conversation.” ExpenseBay Wins Showoff Twiistup 6 has come to an end.