Fighting Firewalls With Kindle Blogs

My humorist pal Rose Valenta recently created a Kindle version of her blog and inspired me to do the same. Why? Because many employers are getting strict about web access, blocking employees from reading their favorite blogs and sites — even while they’re on a break or at lunch.

But your boss can’t control what you read on your Kindle. And Amazon makes it easy for bloggers to create Kindle blog editions, allowing fans to bypass their bosses and keep up with their reading.

That brings me to my latest limerick:

Fighting Firewalls With Kindle Blogs
By Madeleine Begun Kane

You’re at work, but on break — want to read.
But your boss did a dastardly deed:
Your fav’rites are blocked.
Your net access is locked.
But he can’t stop a Kindle blog feed.

My News: I’ve created Kindle versions of both my blogs. So if you’d like to read this political satire blog on your Kindle device, you can subscribe right here. And if you’d like to read my other general humor blog on your Kindle reader you can subscribe right here.

Attention Fellow Bloggers: Want to know how to publish your own blog on Amazon Kindle? Amazon makes it pretty easy and has a helpful Kindle Blog FAQ here. You can also find some useful info over at Mashable and some Kindle badges and icons here.

Warning: Reading blogs on Kindle isn’t free, except for the 14-day free trial for each blog. Monthly Kindle blog subscription fees are controlled by Amazon and priced at either $0.99 per month or $1.99 per month. Moreover, only 30% of the revenue goes to the blogger.

And Now For The Sales Pitch: Each of my two blogs is priced at $0.99 per month.

So if you’re a Kindle owner, I hope you’ll give the Kindle versions of this political humor blog and/or my other general humor blog a try.

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7 Responses to “Fighting Firewalls With Kindle Blogs”

  1. Karen says:

    I put my blog on Kindle a while back and wondered why anyone would read it there. After all, it’s free everywhere else (online, RSS, Twitter, Facebook and now by email). Even worse, the links don’t work on the Kindle version (I write about free and bargain books; the Kindle version of the blog is the only one where you can’t click and buy/download).

    Of course, most of those options are blocked by some employers and some of them require you to “check” for new updates or can get lost (I know my inbox scrolls quickly and a missed message will get buried in no time). My subscribers does keep going up and I’ve started getting monthly checks (not much, to be sure, but conversely there is no effort involved after the initial setup).

    Karen
    Books On The Knob – a blog about free and bargain books
    http://booksontheknob.blogspot.com
    Twitter – @BooksOnTheKnob

  2. How much if I am willing to pay to get someone to read my global adventure humor blogs?

  3. madkane says:

    AWT, Amazon / Kindle doesn’t charge bloggers to make their blogs available on Kindles. The only fees are those paid by Kindle owners — subscription fees to read the blogs they choose to subscribe to.

  4. Linkmeister says:

    Why oh why doesn’t Amazon list which blog software is compatible with Kindle? Yeah, I’ve got an auto-generated RSS feed, but is that all that matters?

    I’m still using MT 3.15, which is about five years and who knows how many upgrades old.

  5. madkane says:

    Linkmeister, I’m pretty sure that you just need a working auto RSS feed, so you’re probably okay.

  6. If only 30% goes to the writer, does Amazon get the rest? So you’re actually getting 30% of $0.99. Yikes.

  7. Mad Kane says:

    Kitty, yes, Amazon gets the rest. And yes, it’s a paltry, silly amount of money for the writer. On the other hand, the blogs are already available on the net for free, so how much could you charge for Kindle versions? The highest price Amazon sets is for some blogs $1.99 per month, and I have trouble imagining many people paying that for something they can read for free online.