Amazon has a program called Kindle Publishing for Blogs that allows your blog to be subscribed to and updates to be automatically delivered to subscribed Kindles. While the Kindle subscriptions won’t make you rich, the program is a good way of getting your site out there and offers a convenient way for some of your visitors to keep up on your site.
Kindle Blogs are auto-delivered wirelessly to the Kindle and updated throughout the day. They are fully downloaded onto your Kindle so they can be read even when you’re not wirelessly connected. And unlike RSS readers which often only provide headlines, blogs on Kindle contain full text content and most images.
Offline access to full stories with little to no ads sounds like a great deal but there are trade-offs like pictures will be only in black and white and Flash content/videos won’t work. Fortunately, each Kindle for Blogs subscription comes with a 14-day free trial so it can be tested to see if it is worth the monthly subscription price, it’s formatted correctly, and the majority of content works on the Kindle.
To get your blog listed on Amazon’s Blogs for Kindle page, you start by creating a Kindle Publishing account at kindlepublishing.amazon.com. This account is separate from your Amazon.com account.
After you setup your account, you can add blogs to manage and track. Click the Add Blog link to fill out information about your site.
Blog Publishing for Kindle uses your site’s RSS/Atom feed. The blog feed should be a full text, well-formed XML feed. Along with the feed address, you fill out the description of your site with title, tagline, description, author information, and other quick details.
You can preview what your blog will look like before you submit your site for final approval.
If all is filled out correctly, you’ll enter Pending Approval status.
After you publish, your blog will become available in 48-72 hours. Adding 404 Tech Support took a bit longer, as it sat in the Pending Approval status but I have been told the technical error that caught my blog was resolved so approvals should come within the normal time frame.
Part of the approval process, Amazon will evaluate your site and add details to your listing. They’ll also set the price for your site’s monthly subscription either $0.99 or $1.99. There is no free option. You’ll have to completely fill out your account information, including a bank account, in order to receive your money. For blogs, you get 30% of the subscription.
Revenue Royalties. If you are not in breach of your obligations under this Agreement the Amazon party that made the sale of Publication Content will pay you a royalty (a “Royalty”) calculated as follows:
(i) Magazines and Newspapers —
(A) Prior to December 1, 2010 — 30% of Sales Revenues (as defined below) actually received from the sale, net of any bad debt, credits, and returns.
(B) Beginning December 1, 2010 — 70% of Sales Revenues actually received from the sale, net of Delivery Costs (as defined below), and any bad debt, credits, and returns.
(ii) Blogs — 30% of Sales Revenues actually received from the sale, net of any bad debt, credits, and returns.
Payments are net 60 via EFT or check. Another point of interest to many of us pertains to copyright of the work. From the Terms and Conditions:
Subject to the authorizations granted to us hereunder, as between us and you, you retain all ownership rights in and to the copyrights and all other rights and interest in and to your Publications.
After your blog is approved, it will be listed on the Amazon Blogs on Kindle page. You can see the 404 Tech Support listing on its own product page as an example.
You can promote blog subscriptions with built-in widgets if you’re a member of Amazon Associates.
If you don’t have a Kindle, you can always subscribe with the RSS feed.