As noted in an early eBiz column, season started with a promising lift over Thanksgiving weekend, which is traditional launch of Christmas gift buying. But unlike year before, good news continued all though season. And online cheer came at a time when offline retailers were fighting for their share of a downbeat seasonal market.

Encouraging statistics were released by Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen/NetRatings in their group "eSpending" report of online spending and traffic. The gist is that U.S. consumers spent $13.8 billion online, up 15 percent from 2000 holiday season.

The Jupiter Media Metrix Holiday 2001 E-commerce Series delivered some very encouraging news, showing that traffic at online sites was up 50 percent from a year earlier, and up 95 percent from 1999. Not surprisingly, traffic and sales peaked during first two weeks of December, a week or two earlier than peak for offline retailers. In each of weeks ended December 7 and December 14, online spenders exceeded $2.5 billion in purchases.

"With holiday-buying season behind us, we're left with one inescapable truth: Internet has become an integral part of holiday shopping," said Charles Buchwalter, VP media research at Jupiter Media Metrix. "Unlike 2000, when online shopping started strong but then fell off, online shopping this year started strong and ended even stronger."

There are two principal ways people come into How-To manual business.

The first way is that you have an idea for a how-to manual, you sit down and write it, then try to sell it.

The second way is that you have a problem, you go looking for a solution, and you either don't find one and decide to solve it yourself then write a how-to manual to share what you've learned with others who may be having same problem, or else you find information about your problem, but it is so badly written or so confusing or doesn't really solve your problem that you say to yourself, "I could do better than that!" So you sit down and write a how-to manual.

Whichever way you arrive at front door of how-to manual business, understand that almost certainly you have ability to put down on paper (on into electronic form with a word processing program, or dictate into a tape recorder) your experience or knowledge. And that experience or knowledge can be of benefit to other people. Potentially a LOT of other people. A lot of other people who want and need what you know so much that they are willing to pay for your manual. And pay handsomely.

Let me tell you something right away, based on my years of experience in this business: you do not need a college degree in English to write how-to manuals! You just need an idea, a plan, and persistence to see it through to completion.