Easy & Cheap. It’s getting easier and cheaper than ever to produce your how-to manuals for distribution, from traditional print media to electronic formats that can be distributed over Internet immediately!

Profitable. Finally, this is an incredibly profitable business! People who need what you know will pay more for your 30- 90 page how-to manual than they pay for a hardback book at bookstore! And mark-up on your product can result in substantial profits on even just a few hundred or a few thousand sales.

Pricing. And that’s point I want to end this article with: one of biggest mistakes self-publishers make is that we tend to underprice our manuals! Manuals that contain specialized knowledge are virtually always priced higher than books in stores. This is because you are making available specific information that a specialized segment of marketplace is seeking. Your customers desperately want your information -- and they are ready, able and willing to pay for it!

3. Missing prices and shipping charges. How much? You shouldn't have to put something into a shopping cart or enter your credit card information to learn how much an item costs, including shipping. Unfortunately, you still find this mistake at sites that have had plenty of time to get their act together.

4. Unreadable text. Say what? Creativity gone haywire seems to be hallmark of some Web designers. Orange letters on a blue background, olive green on black, light gray on white and blue on blue were combinations that sent me packing, as did lettering too small for over-40 eyes.

5. Inconsistencies. Huh? One site says, "To sign up, click on Sign Up link at top of every page." But site does not have any "Sign Up" link, only "Sign In." Such carelessness wastes time of earnest shoppers and gets them frustrated and fed up, never to return.

Blunders are equally rampant at well-funded corporate sites and those from home-based businesses. The good news is that many of errors are extremely easy and inexpensive to fix.