Frequently Asked Questions

Here is a list of anticipated questions. Click on the question to display our answer. If you already a Qassia member, and are having an issue with your account, please be sure to check the Help Section too.

Qassia is a site to which you can add your websites. You can also add your knowledge, in the form of tidbits of information called "intel". The more intel you add, the better your sites will rank, the more backlinks you get, and the more money you make.

Qassia is 100 percent free, and does not require reciprocal links. You can get unlimited quality backlinks to your websites from Qassia.

We are an international web development outfit you've probably never heard of. Chances are, though, that you've come across our sites while browsing the net, because we've been putting out good, useful and sometimes crazy sites since 1996. Qassia is, needless to say, our far most ambitious project yet.

No, Qassia is an intelligence engine. We fuel the digitization of intelligence and make it available to those who want it. Qassia uses good content to help people find your sites; Qassia makes it easier for your sites to appear in search engine results.

Not really, though in South Korea there is a search engine called Naver which works on a similar principle. Naver is the top website in South Korea, and unlike most other markets, Google is far from being the top site in South Korea. Naver's content is entirely original but, unlike Qassia's content, is not shared with other search engines. (See article about Naver here.)

Knowledge bases such as Wikipedia, Squidoo, Hubpages, and Knol are also somewhat similar to Qassia. Qassia, however, is the only intelligence engine we know of, and the only knowledge base to reward contributions with credit designed to improve the ranking of websites. Wikipedia gives no credit - which is fine with the academic community behind most of the articles, whereas the other knowledge bases are trying - unsuccessfully so far - to develop an effective revenue-sharing model.

We have taken a completely different approach. We ask for intel, which anybody can add in abundance, not authoritative articles. And we have the only revenue sharing model that actually works.

If you are a website owner, Qassia will help your websites perform better at search engines. You can get unlimited quality backlinks from Qassia. Additionally, in the medium to long term, Qassia will drive traffic to your site as Qassia will be used for finding content.

If you are user seeking information, Qassia will help you find original content and useful information you might be interested in.

Click on "change email address" in your DASHBOARD.

Click on "change username" in your DASHBOARD.

No. Please refer someone who does not share your computer.

Your referral ID is your user page at Qassia: username.qassia.com where "username" is your user ID. If the person viewing your user page is not yet a member, he/she will see a SIGN UP button.

Intel, short for intelligence, is what we call any chunk of information. Intel is added to Qassia in the form of posts, which are somewhat similar to blog posts. Click here for more info.

You can add any kind of information you want. You might want to upload information about a person, or a place. Neither have to be famous. Or you might want to share your knowledge about a device, a plant, or an animal. Perhaps you know about news or an event - something that happened. If it's information, you can add it to Qassia.

No, you can have a website about chess and add intel about cheese. You can have a website about rabbits and add intel about the gossip in your office. It makes no difference.

No, the only one who can touch your intel is you.

Images, yes. You can add up to 25 images per intel. Images are not resized. Videos, not yet. We are still deciding which video sharing site to partner with. For the meantime, you can add links to videos at other sites - you can add embedded and external links.

No, we are English-only for now. Non-English versions will be coming in the middle of 2008, if not sooner.

Screening is the initial rating of intel by a fixed number of users, prior to publishing, during which the intel may be rated, but also rejected. You are free to add any type of intel, but we don't want total garbage (for example intel composed entirely of keywords instead of sentences) getting into our index.

When you upload intel, it is not published right away. It has to be screened by a set number of users. After the intel has been screened, it is either published or rejected. After intel is published, users can continue to rate (but not reject) the intel as long as it is available.

If several users have intel dealing with "French cheese", the intel with the highest score will be displayed first.

Yes. And if the rating you assign to an intel is very close to the final score that intel gets after the screening, you get a bonus. You get an additional bonus if you are the first one to rate the intel.

Just point them to your user page, which is located at username.qassia.com, where "username" is your user ID. If the person viewing the page is not logged in, he/she will see a prominent SIGN UP button.

We currently do not have a quota on the number of referrals you can make.

This is probably the user you referred has not validated his/her email address, or because we detected an anomaly. Either way, you can check by clicking on My Referrals while logged in.

Time of email validation. Consequently, please urge your friends and acquaintances to validate their email addresses.

No, credits are applied instantly. Referral credits are applied the instant the referred user validates his/her email address. Intel credit is applied when the intel is published (the required number of users have screened the intel and the screening process is completed). Credit for screening work is also applied when the screened intel is published.

1. Your websites will be displayed when users browse through our tag-based directory. We will display a limited number of websites at the top of the page, in the space other sites use for "sponsored results". (The main space on the page, below, is reserved for intel.) How do we select the limited number of sites to display? We choose those sites that are owned by the users with the largest number of Qassia dollars in their account.

2. A link to your website will be displayed every time your intel is displayed or referenced.

Users will be able to browse through our cascading tag-based directory, or search. Matching websites and intel will be displayed for each tag or search.

It's something we've developed. It's a directory, but based on cascading tags rather than categories. On the landing page, you have the 20 most popular tags. Click on a tag, and you then get the 20 most popular tags that also have the first tag. And so on.

For example, if you click on "cars" at the landing page, the next page might have a list of secondary tags such as "imported", "used", "classic", "hybrid", etc. Click on "imported" and the subsequent page might have a list of tertiary tags such as "German", "Jaguar", "Lexus", etc.

The directory is available from our front page, if you're logged in. You can also find out more here.

Yes, but not to index their content. We occasionally crawl your site if you're participating in our Sticker Mania promo, and have specifically given us permission to crawl your site. Check your dashboard for more info.

Credit is measured in a currency we invented, called 'Qassia dollars'. The more you contribute to the site, the more Qassia dollars you earn. The Qassia dollars are added to your account, and you can view detailed statements showing your deposits, just like in a real bank account. The more Qassia dollars you are worth, the better your websites will rank.

Qassia dollars are not real dollars (that's why we call them Qassia dollars, not US dollars or Canadian dollars or whatever). Qassia dollars are a measure of your industry - the more you contribute to Qassia, the more Qassia dollars you get. Qassia dollars CANNOT be converted into real dollars. You CANNOT redeem Qassia dollars. Think of them as 'points'.

By referring a friend to Qassia, by screening intel contributed by other users, or by adding intel of your own. See this page.

The more Qassia dollars you have, the better your websites will rank.

Eventually we will introduce auctions for front-page advertising, site-wide links, and other novel ways for you to burn through your hard-earned Qassia dollars. For the meantime, what matters is the amount of Qassia dollars you have in your account. Your net worth determines how high your sites will rank.

Right now, no. We have no plans to sell Qassia dollars. However, we may eventually add a Qassia dollar account to account transfer system. That means you might be able to transfer your Qassia dollars to the account of another user. It is conceivable that, with such a system in place, some users will be willing to sell their Qassia dollars for real dollars. But we need to vastly improve infrastructural security before we set up such a system.

We carry advertising on the landing page of our site, and when navigation or search results are displayed.

When advertising displayed next to your user page or intel generates income, that money goes to you. We have by far the best ad revenue sharing plan on the Internet.

If you have a Google Adsense account, we run ads on your user page or next to your intel using your Google Adsense account number. Consequently any advertising revenue generated by your user page or intel goes straight to you. Click here for more information.

That's between you and Google. The most common form of payment is check. You can find out more at Google Adsense.

Real dollars. Google don't use Qassia dollars.

We are currently testing and refining our system with a limited number of participants. We are observing how the users interact with our site and tweaking our system to make sure it functions smoothly. Once we are confident we have everything right, we'll go into public beta, and then launch.

You can sign up on the profile page of the user who referred you. Right now we are in private beta, so that's the only way to sign up.

Sorry but you need to be referred by another user.

Hopefully only a few more weeks. We still need to introduce and fine-tune a number of features.

We launched the private beta edition of our site on January 4, 2008. We hope to come out of private beta very soon. Non-English language versions will follow by mid-year.

	OTHER PAGES

About Qassia - What is Qassia about? What can Qassia do for you?
Share Your Intel - What we mean with intelligence and why we need it from you.
Ad Revenue Sharing - Details about how we give you advertising revenue.
When Momentum Beats Relevance - Why promoting a site is hard and how Qassia can help.
The Sweatshop in the Digital Age - Why there is something seriously wrong with the web.
Watch the Dollars Pile Up! - How to earn lots of Qassia dollars very easily.
How to Promote Your Websites on Qassia - How to get the most out of Qassia.
The Qassia Directory - Why our directory represents a milestone in the evolution of the Internet