Subscribe to my Blog On Your Kindle!

I know that the masses aren't going to flock to an amateur blogger's site; I don't expect to make any money. I anticipate one subscriber though at least, maybe two (if I can talk my girlfriend into it). But, my blog is on the Kindle list with the big boys, albeit a lot further down methinks. Sure, you can always just hit it on the web; but why do that when you can really use your Kindle to the max and subscribe in a civilized way that will drive me on to ever-more-interesting blogger heights? Erm...because the web one is just as good, and free? You have a point...

...but, one of the intriguing things about the web is how it levels the playing field as far as presence is concerned. I don't have to be Oracle or Microsoft to have a web page, or to publish a blog. Li'l ol' me, with some resourcefulness and my programming skills, can create enough assets and presence to rival many a big shop. This has always appealed to me, and the Kindle blog capability, which is free, just adds to it, thank you Amazon. I blog...and have a website...and an FB page...and a Twitter account...and membership in forums...and come up in Google links... therefore, I am.

That aside, how did I manage this? Yesterday, the news hit the wires that Amazon was opening up it's Kindle blog publishing platform to Kindle owners. I have a Kindle, I love it, I have a blog, I contribute to it frequently, I'm a tech nut...add it all up, and I was a perfect candidate to give it a whirl. 

If nothing else, it's incentive for me to blog hard; one day maybe, somebody I haven't promised to take out to a nice dinner will subscribe to my blog, a complete and total stranger. On that day I'll drop my clients, tell my girlfriend to quit her job, move us out to San Diego, blow my savings on a top-end 'Benz, and live the high life with the blogerati. 

Or, I'll smile, text a couple of people the good news, tweet it, and greedily wait for that first south-of-$10 deposit from Amazon. 

Anyway, the process, if you're interested; this assumes you already have a blog with an RSS/atom.xml feed of some kind set up properly (Blogger for example):

- Go to the Kindle Publishing for Blogs Beta site, Kindle Publishing for Blogs Beta

- You can't use your standard Amazon credentials, you have to create a fresh account. 

- Fill out the surprisingly simple form; basic identification, a couple of security-in-case-you-forget questions, and provide a bank account number for Amazon to dump your hordes of riches into. 

That's all there is to signing up. Following this, you get taken to a page showing three tabs: Dashboard, Reports, MySettings. 

- Dashboard: provisions your blog. You click "Add Blog" off to the right, then provide your blog's RSS/Atom feed address (nice, I don't have to republish my blog, they actually pull my existing Blogger blog in and format it for the Kindle automagically), title, tagline, description, publisher, screenshot, masthead/banner, and website address. Easy enough

- Reports: Two reports are available; single issue purchases, and monthly subscriptions. Mine are empty (hint). 

- My Settings: change password, security questions, the usual sort of thing. 

And that's it. Preview your blog, publish it, and 48-72 hours later, you're available for purchase. 

Note: if your blog is simple, primarily text and image based, your published results will probably be more consistent. If you have all kinds of Flash gew-gaws and whatnot in there, the formatting may be less consistent, since Amazon will just omit the gadgets, either truncating, or just leaving in, the space they usually take up. 

Make my day...buy a single issue! If you like it and are the sort that can spare a few bucks for an aspiring blogger...subscribe for a month! 

Free or paid, thanks for coming by :)