Kindle Blog Publishing and Expectations

Amazon Kindle is one of the top e-book readers on the market. It’s a very handy device for those who are addicted to books and want to be able to carry tons of books with them on the road. But what’s more impressive about Amazon Kindle is its publishing platform. Thanks to Kindle, many small publishers and bloggers have found their way to Amazon.com, gaining recognition and a decent following through one of the most popular retail websites around. Kindle Publishing for Blogs is a very easy to use service that allows bloggers to bring their blogs to Kindle store and start selling content subscriptions. While you are not going to make millions of dollars from this platform, you can make a nice amount of change.

Publishing your blog to Amazon Kindle store is quite easy. You are going to need a blog and decent content if you want to have any chance of gathering steam on Amazon.com. But once you submit your blog to Kindle store and gain a few subscribers, there are going to be a few more responsibilities on your shoulders. What many newbie bloggers do not realize is the fact that paid subscribers expect a different quality of material than free visitors. In other words, when you are paying for something, you expect to get a decent amount of value for your buck. So you want to put your best effort forward to keep your paid subscribers satisfied.

I personally realized this the hard way. I used to have a blog that was not quite popular and was not getting too many visitors on a monthly basis. I certainly did not expect it to do anything special on Amazon but decided to test out the service regardless. After a few weeks, I started getting e-mails from subscribers who were not happy with one thing or another. That’s what happens when people pay for content. Of course, it’s not a bad thing to get feedback from your readers. But do expect your paid subscribers to be more demanding. With that in mind, here are a few issues you want to pay attention to when publishing your blog to Kindle:

• Post Frequency: when you define your post frequency for your listing on Amazon.com, make sure you stick by it. Don’t tell people that you are going to post something everyday only to do it once a week.
• Post Quality: your paid subscribers will expect more from you. Don’t just assume that they won’t realize dips in the quality of your content. That is actually a good thing as it’s always nice to have someone to keep you on the right track. Any feedback is good feedback in my opinion.
• Blog Description: do not tell people that you are going to talk about topic A when you know you are going to be discussing topic B on your blog. That’s not the way to go when selling your content online.
• Content Type: make sure that you have plenty of text on your blog. Amazon Kindle is not capable of handling all types of content at this point. So don’t sell subscriptions to the type of content your Kindle visitors can’t consume on their device.
• Fresh Content: do not rehash your old posts too often. Your visitors are not stupid. It’s even worse when they have paid to get their hands on your content. It’s OK to do it once in a while, but to do it frequently every month does not work.

There is nothing wrong with making money off of your blog on Amazon. But make sure you treat your Kindle readers as real customers. They have paid for your content. So you better deliver.

What are your thoughts on Kindle publishing and its challenges?

P.S. don’t forget to check Blogging OT’s page on Amazon.