So with Christmas coming up quickly... I'm sure some of you are probably wondering how you can make a little more money... and how can you use the web to do it?

If you wanted to sell an eBook and you don't know anything about programming, you would need to look at getting a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor to create a web page for it. If you are concerned about making your code standards compliant there is a free editor called XStandard, which claims to be the leading standards-compliant plug-in WYSIWYG editor for Windows and browser-based content management systems (IE/Mozilla/Firefox/ActiveX). The editor generates clean XHTML Strict or 1.1, uses only CSS for formatting, and ensures the clean separation of content from presentation.
http://xstandard.com

I haven't used the program, but if you're just trying to make a few sales for Christmas, I wouldn't worry too much standards at this point. The editor that comes with the full version of Netscape or Mozilla will serve your purposes quite well. You can drag images onto the screen and type in it using controls like you would find in MS Word.
http://www.mozilla.org

Other free WYSIWYG editors include:

Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view")
http://nvu.com/

Trellian:
http://webpage.vendercom.com

Sure, the look of your site might not be overly fancy, but the important thing to keep in mind is... it is your text that sells. Your headlines, sub-heads and copy are far more important then a fancy look. If you don't believe me, just ask Jim Straw at http://www.businesslyceum.com

If you find yourself wanting to start with something a little more, you can find all kinds of templates here:
http://homebusiness-websites.com/templates This complete business package comes with templates, eBooks, software tools and scripts and has everything you are likely to need for only $19.95.

So if you don't have a lot of experience, but think you can use a WYSIWYG editor well enough to build a web page, the only thing you need to worry about is your copy. There are a few free guides around that will give you a few ideas. Try this search on Google:

Sitehost4u.com is owned and operated by AMS Computer Services. I've been hosting clients who need hosting on their servers since 1997. You can get a starter hosting account there for $5.99 per month. They will also register the domain name for you for $20.
http://sitehost4u.com

Once your book has been written you can join ClickBank for a one-time $49.95 activation fee, and no monthly fees. They can accept the payments for you, allow you to have affiliates and manage the whole thing for you. From sending you YOUR check, to paying your affiliates for you.
http://clickbank.com/options.html

You can create the eBook in almost any word processor and then convert it to pdf format. There are a number of free tools around that will help you do this. Here is one:
http://www.pdf995.com/

An online service that will convert your Word document for free (up to 2MB) can be found here:
http://www.gobcl.com

Once you have this setup, contact people you personally know and tell them about it. They can sign up for an affiliate account for free from Clickbank to help you promote your eBook. Some people will help you, others won't.

You can also burn the eBook to a CD and sell copies locally using Flyers. You would want to make sure that the flyer explains it is a book on a CD that requires a computer with a CD player to read it.

Now is the time to do it. According to an article by eWeek:

...it says "Forrester Research is projecting that online holiday sales this year will hit $13.2 billion, which represents a 20 percent increase compared with last year."

For those of you who joined this list and are new to all of this, any questions you have may be posted to my discussion board at and if I can, I will help you take some more of the mystery out of it.