If you’re selling a service or product and not self-publishing on Amazon’s Kindle platform, you’re not leveraging one of the Internet’s traffic giants.

With more than 54 million hits a month, Amazon is the ultimate traffic-driver; even if you never own a Kindle why n ot get your e-books, special reports, or killer articles into Amazon’s Kindle store.  Not only will it make you a few bucks, it will position you as an authority in your field.

Let’s face it – if we see someone’s name on a book, or for sale on Amazon, we take it for granted that the person who wrote it is an expert!

I’m not going to run on about the current economy or feed you a line about making millions. But I am going to tell you I think Kindle, when used as a marketing tool, will be one of the biggest buzzes in 2009.  No bull.   Here’s the deal:

* very few people are even aware of this technique
* you’ll be one of the few smart ones who jumped on the bandwagon as an early adopter
* if anyone is going to learn how to do this right, better you than your competitor

Here’s Why It’s Imperative You Publish on Kindle

When your Kindle marketing materials (i.e. e-books or reports) are sold through the Kindle store, they will appear in Amazon’s search results, just like a “real book.”

Stop a second and think about what that means! If you write an article (not a book) and sell it in Kindle format, you have as much a shot at Amazon’s 54.2 million monthly visitors as the guy who wrote a “real book” on the same topic.

Will everyone who sees your “book” buy it?  No, of course not – because right now less than one million people own Kindles (by latest estimates).  BUT, the cover you design and your book’s description will include your website URL – you WILL get traffic ported over from Amazon.

Are you getting how important this is?

Yes – it’s fantastic to sell your article to Kindle readers, but the real hidden gem (and I mean HIDDEN!) is that you can write an article, upload it in Kindle format, and it will have the same “apparent value” as a print book. Why? Because as soon as your Kindle “book” is published, you’ll get your friends to get over to Amazon and leave glowing reviews.

Within five days of publishing my article on Kindle, it ranked #15 in the Kindle store self-help/creativity category and #30 in ALL Amazon books on blogging! How fantastic is that!

Plug Into a Whole New Demographic

Kindle owners are a whole new demographic for your business – - and getting your marketing message in front of them is

1. Easy
2. Cheap
3. Effective

Successful Internet marketers publish on Kindle to get their business in front of Amazon’s 54.2 million visitors – - even if “only” less than a million people own a Kindle.

Here’s how to get your piece of the Amazon Traffic Pie

The 3 Steps to Successful Kindle Marketing

1. Write a killer article that revolves around your business. No PLR, no fluff, no off-the-cuff crap. I mean an article crammed with “you are never going to find this valuable information anywhere else on Earth” brilliance.

2. Somewhere in the article (front page, middle, back page) tell the reader about you and your business.  Be sure to add your contact info, Website URL, etc. But don’t scream SALES SALES SALES! or you’ll be really, really sorry! Think of this as an opportunity to build your expert status.

3. Get yourself a Kindle account (they’re free), a book cover design, and then convert and upload the article to your account. Your new marketing materials have just launched.

“Is it really that easy?”  Absolutely.

Converting Your Article to Kindle Format

To upload to Kindle, you’ll need to format your article so Kindle can properly read them.  You can absolutely do this for free and by yourself. When you open a Kindle account, there’s a free FAQ on formatting. I won’t B.S. you – their FAQs are pretty awful – but if techie stuff doesn’t bother you, you’ll be fine.

*To set up an Amazon account, you must have a US bank account and a US SSN, EIN or TIN. If you are not in the U.S., don’t despair! I can publish your materials under my own account.  Let’s talk!

The last two days have seen extraordinary opportunities opening up for publishers (authors) on the Amazon Kindle platform.

Yesterday, Amazon announced it would increase payment to publishers (via an option) a 70% royalty fee on titles that met the following criteria:

• The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
• This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
• The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
• The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
• Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70 percent royalty will be calculated off the sales price.

Delivery costs will be based on the size of the Kindle file.  As an example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.

In my mind, this is a no-brainer.  But bad news  for all those smarty pants who are madly converting out-of-copyright books to Kindle format – those don’t quality for the new option.

I love selling my stuff on Kindle, so this is manna from heaven for me.  And you, too, I hope.

(Two little suggestions:  Amazon, PLEASE get better at answering questions in your Kindle forums.  And PLEASE refine your conversion process.)

Now today, Amazon delivered the second of its one-two punches and announced it’s opening up its platform for application developers (think iPhone apps!).  Now, software developers can add interactive content to the Kindle.  Read the press release.  “Travel books that suggest activities based on real-time weather and current events, cookbooks that recommend menus based on size of party and allergies, and word games and puzzles–just some of the possibilities with the new Kindle Development Kit.”

What next, King of the Jungle? ?

For Part I Selling Your Book on Kindle

Okay, you have a Kindle account and are ready to sell.  What next?

Before you can do anything, you need to prepare your book for Kindle formatting.  Unlike e-books that can be spruced up with beautiful graphics and color pictures, Kindle books are best suited for non-graphical books.

Kindles can only display four shades of gray – - so if your book depends on a lot of pretty pictures, it probably isn’t suitable for Kindle conversion.  Think of what a basic paperbook book looks like (black print on off-white paper) and you’ll have a good idea of how your book will look when displayed on the Kindle screen.

As someone who enjoys creating a beautiful document, I was disappointed that I couldn’t use all those colorful images in my Kindle book, but . . . . I compensated by creating gorgeous covers! (see below for how to create a Kindle cover).

In brief, there are four steps to get your books/articles uploaded and converted

1.  Prepare your content for Kindle conversion.
2.  Upload your prepared content to Amazon.
3.  Amazon converts your document to Kindle format.
4.  You may preview and edit, or publish immediately withour further editing.

You may upload several formats to Amazon, including HTML, unencrypted .mobi e-book files, Microsoft Word (.doc), plain text (.txt) and Adobe PDF).  Amazon’s preferred format for uploading content is as a single HTML file. If you are using Microsoft Word, the recommendation is to ‘Save As HTML’ (in a filtered or simplified format, if available).

While plain text (.txt) files are supported, you need to use as little formatting as possible in your text files. Use as few hard line breaks (ends of lines terminated by hitting ‘Enter’) as possible. Ideally, every paragraph of your text will be one long line that is automatically wrapped in Notepad (or similar editors) at the edge of the editor screen, and re-flows the text when you resize that window.

Adobe PDF files are supported, but the quality of conversion is difficult to guarantee.

Steps for Simple Kindle Document Preparation Using Microsoft Word (no table of contents)

First, pick up a paperback book and look at the formatting.  Most books are single-spaced with a double space between paragraphs.  You’ll want your Kindle document in basically that same format.  Here’s the easiest way to prepare your document:

1.  Tab in the first line of paragraphs (Not all Kindle books have tabbed paragraphs, but visually it’s easier to read on the Kindle if tabs are used on the first line of a paragraph)

2.  Single space your document

3.  Double space between chapters or sections

4.  Use Microsoft Word’s Heading styles on each chapter title (or section title).  To do this, highlight the name of the chapter, then click on the Heading 1 style button.  *If you do NOT want a Table of Contents, you can skip this step.

5.  Spell check! (I have a note taped to my monitor reminding me of this step).

6.  Save As: Web Page, Filtered (if you’re using Word 2007, this setting is under Save As: Other Formats)

If you own a Kindle,  send your document as an e-mail attachment  to your Kindle account e-mail, i.e.  janedoe@kindle.com   Amazon will automatically convert your document to Kindle format and send it back to your Kindle wirelessly.

This step isn’t required, but I always do it so I can view the document on my own Kindle to make sure all formatting is correct.   Once I’m satisfied with the results, I’ll upload the document to Amazon.

For more information, video, audio on Kindle, see below.

For the past many years, authors like me have supplemented their book and article-writing income by selling e-books. Promoting and selling e-books was a quick and easy way to re-purpose short stories, magazine articles, and books (fiction and non-fiction) with virtually no overhead.

The good news: profits were high; the bad news – - sales were dependent on the author’s ability to drive traffic to a website.

Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Electronic Reading Device, all that has changed.

Now you can sell your creative works (fiction or non-fiction), set your own price, and have a potential audience of the tens of thousands of Kindle owners.

Because the bulk of my writing career has been in the magazine article writing field, I owned a huge backlog of articles and their electronic rights. When the Kindle was released, I realized I could convert all of those articles to Kindle format, create an attractive cover, and sell them through Amazon’s Digital Text Platform.

A Little Background on Kindle Publishing

I started by converting one non-fiction article I had written a few years ago for a history magazine. The topic was post-Civil War carpetbaggers. Okay, not a sexy subject, huh? That’s why I was shocked to look at my account a few weeks later and realize I’d actually sold three copies.

Since then I’ve posted several more articles and am converting four of my e-books to Kindle format. Hopefully as you read this, those books and even more of my articles will be online in the Kindle store.Before you can start selling your digital documents in the Kindle Store, you’ll need to set up an account with Amazon.

If you’ve been buying books from Amazon, you already have an account. However, you’ll have to take the extra step and give Amazon the business and financial information necessary to pay you.

Setting Up Your Kindle Publisher Account

First, go to Amazon’s Digital Text Platform page and sign in with your normal Amazon account username and password. If you don’t have an Amazon account, click the “Sign Up” button.

Once your account is open, log in and click the “My Account” tab. Here, you’ll configure your account details, including your full name or company name, the type of business you have (corporation, individual, etc), and your bank account information. (You DO want to get paid, yes?)

Tomorrow, let’s prepare your book or articles for uploading to the Kindle Store.

Amazon plans to start selling its Kindle reader in over 100 countries and territories on Oct. 19.

Amazon is selling the Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless to customers in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America, for US$279 for a reader with a 6-inch display and the ability to wirelessly download books and other content globally, the company said on Wednesday.

The Kindle will not be sold in China because Amazon is unable to ship the Kindle and offer Kindle content to Chinese customers, the company said.

Bestseller books will cost $11.99 or more for international customers, with about 100,000 other titles available for less than $5.99, Amazon said. These prices are higher than in the U.S. where most bestsellers sell for $9.99.

In the time that I’ve worked with authors and entrepreneurs, it’s clear that many of them think promoting their services or products online is too expensive. Fact is, it can be.  Bad news is, spending big bucks on pay-per-click or advertising doesn’t always translate to online sales – at least not for the "ordinary Joe".

If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know that I’m keen on relationship marketing – building conversations with blog readers and site visitors, being your authentic self, and establishing yourself as a trusted expert.

Three quick and easy techniques I’ve used time and again are: 

1. Blogging

2. Publishing on Amazon’s Kindle

3. Social networking

Here’s my quick take on each:

Blogging

For authors, blogging can be as second nature as breathing. For non-writers, blogging may be torture (that’s why you hire someone like me to write your posts!)

It’s well-known – search engines love blogs-particularly those that are updated at least a few times a week, and are filled with solid, no-B.S. content. Search engines swoop through blogs like bed bugs in the Bates Hotel–spidering content on a daily (or even more frequent) basis.

Entrepreneurs use blogs to build a solid readership, add to their e-mail lists, and get comments so meaningful it gives them plenty of ideas about which to write. 

If you’re an author, build your blog readership BEFORE submitting a proposal.  Book proposal committees love a built-in audience.

Cost: Zero, if you use a free blog service like Blogger.com or WordPress.com

Publish on the Amazon Kindle Platform

Regardless of Sony and iPhone’s chest-beating about beating the Amazon Kindle in the digital reader wars, Amazon has one thing no one else has – access to more than 300,000 books and articles delivered wirelessly (immediately) to the Kindle.

Publish your articles or special reports to Kindle, and you will achieve INSTANT expert status.  Remember – we ALL love to do business with the best!

Truthfully, Amazon did NOT make it easy for people to convert their own books and articles to Kindle format, but it’s doable. If you’re willing to do tech-stuff, you can do it yourself. I started converting my own work several months ago, and there is a learning curve.

The good news is, by converting your work to Kindle format, you can get your books, articles, and reports in front of Amazon’s 54.2 million monthly visitors. If the conversion process makes you want to shoot yourself, contact my amigo Steve (the Kindle Guy) and tell him Nancy sent you.

Cost: Zero, if you convert the work yourself.

Social Networking

Millions have jumped on the social networking bandwagon over the past few years. In fact, one person I know brags that he’s on 34 different social networks. Don’t know about you, but I’d rather be on the RIGHT three networks, than the 34 where my audience does NOT hang out!

How can you tell where to find your audience? Take an afternoon and cruise through MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Tumblr, et al, and search for your target keywords. You’ll quickly discover which services house your audience; once discovered, devote your social networking time to that service only. Quality over quantity matters.

Seek out questions in your field and answer them.  Remember, it’s about letting the world know that you’re the expert.

Cost: Zero

I saw a blog post today over at iReaderReview.com, asking if authors could make a decent living by Kindle publishing. The blog post author, switch11, said that “J. A. Konrath put up a post talking about how he’s making $1,250 a month off of his book’s sales – these are unpublished books that he’s giving away for free on his website and selling for $1.85 on the Kindle Store.”

One of the factors cited in how more Kindle authors can become “rich” is the (relatively) small number of Kindles currently on the market.  Although Amazon won’t release sales figures, it’s estimated there are about a half-million Kindles currently in use.

I totally disagree that the number of Kindles sold will impact the possibility for author success.   Why?  Because when Amazon made a Kindle app for the iPhone, they opened up the Kindle store to more than 20 million new readers.

It’s not the number of Kindles on the market, it’s how well you’re marketing to people who have access to the Kindle store.

What do you think?

Will E-Books Rule Them All?

Do you remember in Lord of the Rings how the Age of the Elves was ending as the Age of Man began? I think we’re seeing the same colossal change as the Publishing Empires of Old fade (so sorry, Elron), and the Era of Digital Media blossoms.

E-books have long been the step-child of the publishing world; tolerated to a degree, but looked down upon by those who wrote and published “real books”.  With the launch of Amazon’s Kindle 1, 2, and now DX (and of course, Sony and Plastic Logic), not only are “real books” available in digital format, but anyone who wants to write an e-book can knock one off in an afternoon, publish on Lulu, Kindle, or their own site and (in effect) toss a virtual rock through Barnes and Noble’s front window, along with a note declaring “just try to keep me out!”

So how can an author or entrepreneur benefit?

There has never been a time in the history of man (or elves) with such an information-hungry audience.  As infopreneur Eben Pagan notes in one of his vids, we have left the culture of manual labor behind and have moved into the era of “mind-work”.  And with that era comes the need for information—and lots of it.

For you authors reading this, that means more and more eyes on your work (and hopefully bucks in your pocket).

For entrepreneurs, the outlets for digital media provide you a) a legitimacy that comes with having your name on a published work; b) cash; and (perhaps the most important) c) being seen as an authority in your field. Why? Look at the “authority” figures in your own industry – - you listen to what they say, you read their blogs and newsletters, and buy their products, hoping to emulate their success.

Plus (and this is a bonus) – - when media folks search Google for an expert in a field and your name keeps coming up, who do you think they’re gonna call?

[note: Because I'm known in a particular little niche (Internet genealogy), I've been interviewed by the New York Times, Kiplinger's, Better Homes and Gardens, plus numerous websites).  Trust me . . . it PAYS to be seen as the industry expert.]

Action Steps

I loathe going to meetings and coming out without any action steps, so:

1.  Dust off the articles, special reports, or books launguishing on your computer

2.  Polish, edit, update

3.  Sell on your site, format for Kindle, and pop them up on Lulu.

4. Let everyone you know that you have valuable information for sale.

5.  Once your stuff is on Kindle, gets your pals to leave you a glowing review on your Amazon page.

6.  Wash, rinse, repeat

Great article in the Washington Post about the future of digital readers. An interview with Verizon exec Tony Lewis says he expects Kindle’s competition to launch in 2009.

Already experts are betting that new iPhone apps will “smoke Kindle”, but the Post article points to one huge factor in Kindle’s favor: In terms of solid relationships with publishers, massive traffic, and the ability to price to sell, Amazon is the “Wal-mart of the supply chain”.

It’s not really about connectivity or technology, the Post says, it’s about who has the biggest piece of the book-pie.

Amazon announced today that there are now more than 185,000 books, blogs, newspapers and magazines available for immediate download.

As a Kindle owner, I can tell you there are things about the Kindle that I don’t like (i.e. no back-lighting) but they’re fabulous when it comes to portability and pricing. Because I travel so frequently for business, I appreciate being able to carry dozens of my reference books with me on the Kindle.

Plus, you can’t beat the $9.99 price for NY Times bestsellers (and most other hard covers).

I have to admit, in my recent 5 hours of being trapped at the Charlotte, NC airport because of a US Airways screw-up, the Kindle was a life-saver.

Popular Mechanics announced its picks for the 2008 Breakthrough Awards awards in what the publication called The 10 Most Brilliant Gadets of the Year. Amazon’s Kindle was #3, behind Microsoft Photosynth and Spore.

Using the 10.3 ounce Kindle you can read almost any popular book, newspapers from all over the world, or Internet blogs from Amazon’s Kindle reader. You can read the Kindle anywhere; it’s wireless, but there are no wireless fees. Instead of WiFi, Kindle uses EDVO like the advanced cell phones, so you don’t have to search for a hot spot.

Amazon.com Inc. announced in July that 11 Christian publishers will make a majority of their catalogs of books available for use on the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader.

“Of the 135,000 books available on Amazon.com as a physical book and on the Kindle, Kindle books already account for over 12 percent of units sold,” says Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle. “ 

Authors – if you haven’t converted your book to Kindle format, you’re missing the boat.

Technology publisher Apress announced that more than 200 Apress books are now available direct from the Kindle Store as Kindle Editions.  Apress supports the needs of the professional IT developer audience, with publications on topics such as Java, Windows, databases, and all programming languages. 

Apress books will be available in the Kindle Store immediately on publication in tandem with its own PDF eBooks.

“Kindle is reigniting a love of reading—after purchasing a Kindle, customers purchase, on average, just as many physical books, and their total book purchases on Amazon increase by more than double,” said Jay Marine, Director of Product Management for Amazon Kindle. “This commitment from Apress moves us closer to our vision for Kindle, which is to make any book, ever printed, in any language available wirelessly in less than 60 seconds.”