A free way to become part of 2010’s new media trends
In addition to books, magazines, and newspapers, your favorite blogs can be subscribed to on Kindle. Originally Kindle only included the bigger blogs into their repertoire, but in spring 09′ Amazon began implementing the Kindle Publishing for Blogs Beta program.
This program allows anyone to access the self-publishing tool. By doing so, you’re allowed to upload your blog for sale in the Kindle Store.
How to begin
In order to add your blog onto the Kindle platform, you will need to create a vender account. If you already have an Amazon account, unless it’s a vendor account, you will need to make a new one. It’s a pretty simplistic process and is completely free.
After answering some security questions, you will be on the way to creating a new account. Once this is done you will be able to enter the details of your blog, preview it, and publish it.
According to an article in TechCrunch, Amazon will begin to do all the other steps such as formatting the content for the device as soon as the blog’s feed is available in the Kindle Store. The blog should then be fully available for purchase in 12 to 48 hours.
Seems pretty easy, huh?
Cost of subscribing to blogs
Blogs can be subscribed to for as little as $.99 per month.
Furthermore, according to Amazon.com, the Kindle gives you full text content and images of blogs, whereas RSS readers only provide headlines.
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Pros and cons of the Kindle Publishing for Blogs program
Pros:
One positive aspect of being able to publish on Kindle is that it’s completely free. Also, blog enthusiasts will be sent the content wirelessly from their favorite blogs. Who wouldn’t want optimal delivery of their favorite content as soon as it’s updated?
Another pro is that tens of millions of Kindle-friendly devices are projected to be sold in 2010. So if you begin publishing on this platform, you’ll have the opportunity to be compatible with all those users.
Cons:
One negative aspect of selling blogs on Kindle is the amount of money you as the publisher can make. For every blog subscriber that Amazon signs up, the publisher will receive 30% of the monthly blog price.
According to an article on internetnews.com, mobile app developers typically make 70% or more of the revenue generated from product sales.
There is definitely a sizable gap between what Amazon offers revenue wise, and what many other developers make in the industry.
Additionally, if you wanted to give your blog away for free through the Kindle Publishing for Blogs program, you can’t. This might pose as a problem for publishers who were expecting to use the program to increase circulation for free. Many blogs that aren’t well-known may have a hard time getting people to pay for their content.
The choice is now yours
The pros and cons are both there. The chance for revenue isn’t as big as some areas in new media trends, but the amount of people who will be able to view your content is great. Take all of these factors into account and decide if publishing your blog for free on Kindle is worth it to your online business model.
For more on Kindle and eReader revolution, join our Kindle for Publishers webinar on January 12th.
