As noted below, I have recently included my blog in the Kindle Publishing for Blogs service. This makes my blog available to those with Kindle devices (and apps too, I believe) for a small monthly fee of $1.99. The idea to do this originally came from my friend Mat, who runs a blog on aquaponics.
Creating an account and linking the kindle feed to my blog posts took about 15 minutes. It was very easy and straight forward, though there is a substantial amount of personal information I needed to divulge for payment. This is primarily because Amazon reports my earnings to the IRS (they also report to the tax collection branches of several other countries) for income purposes. It also costs $8 for Amazon to mail out a physical check, compared to the direct deposit that is 100% free. However, direct deposit requires a bank account number and routing number.
Creating the blog link is very simple, and requires basic information about the nature of the blog and how frequently it will be updated. The minimum frequency for blog updates is 1 or 2 times per week though, so anyone who has very infrequent blog posts may want to strongly consider posting more frequently.
After a short content review process, my blogs were up and available in the Kindle market. Amazon advertises 24 to 72 hours, but mine were up in just a few. Though the content review may seem harsh, it isn't very strict. I have a second blog on information security, and includes many references and guides to hacking. This blog was also approved without incident, which surprised me.
The interface is extremely simple. It shows the numbers of active subscriptions to your blog, the number of trial subscriptions, and how much you can expect in royalties.
Despite the positive experience, there are still some things to be aware of. While Amazon claims no rights to the contents of your blog (you retain all rights to the material you post), Amazon retains the right to republish any work and at any time they see fit without compensating you for it. Also, they can hold specials or promotional events where your blog is available for free up to 30 days. And no, you don't get compensated for it.
Of course, the primary question is "why would anyone pay $1.99 a month to read something that they could get here for free?" Well, the easy answer is that they would be paying for the convenience of reading this blog on their very expensive Kindle or smart phone. But, as a writer who is trying to market the literature, the point is not to make money from the blog.
By making my presence visible on the Kindle market, I'm increasing my marketing surface area. Even if someone is not necessarily interested in purchasing a subscription on their Kindle, they may very well decide to come to this website and view my blog for free anyway. This brings me to the main point of this blog entry.
Imagine you have the money to put a commercial on TV. Let's say $10,000. You can buy a single time slot for $1,000. If you buy 10 time slots on one channel, then only those people who watch that specific channel at that specific time will see the commercial. You will most likely get interest from less than 5% of the viewers. Because each channel has a theme (History, Sports, Movie, Biography, etc), you are getting the same demographic. In other words, you're showing the commercial to the same people over and over again.
Instead of wasting the money to show your commercial multiple times on the same channel, what if you bought 2 time slots on 5 channels instead? In this way, you are reaching more people by adding viewers from 5 channels instead of 1. You are also appealing to a wider demographic. You expose more people by diversifying your marketing approach.
Now, let's take a step back and look at a larger picture. You decide to advertise on the radio and in magazines. No longer are you only reaching people who happen to be watching TV during that time slot, but those who are reading magazines and listening to the radio as well. Your surface area increased again.
As a self-published author, you should be continuously looking for an additional outlet for information. When people begin to see your work in multiple places, you will build a small amount of reputation, and they are more likely to take a chance with your literature.
So, what of Amazon and a small (if not pitiful) stream of revenue? As a writer, you should not be selling blog posts about your literature, but your literature itself. Any money you make from your blog is a good bonus, but should not be your main concern. Just consider it advertising that you are getting paid for instead of the other way around.
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