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Two Tools for Bloggers
Isn’t it fun being a blogger? You’re always trying to keep up with the latest and greatest without (in most cases) spending any money. People are talking apps and tablets and eReading and you’ve just figured out WordPress and how to optimize each blog post.
But I’m here to help! Without spending any money building an app or creating a new version of your blog for the tablet, there are two new tools you definitely need to check out!
Your Blog On Kindle
The first is a super, super easy way to publish your blog for the Kindle. Yes, publish your blog for the Kindle.
Here is how you do it:
- Go to Kindle Publishing and set up an account.
- Log in and add a blog.
- Enter your bank information (just need account number and routing number, which you can find on a check) because they’re going to pay you every time someone subscribes!
- Fill in all of the necessary information, including the blog name, the RSS feed, and a description.
- Click publish
Seriously. That’s all you have to do. It takes 48-72 hours for them to approve the blog and decide the price (that’s not up to you). So check back in a few days to be sure you were published. Then you can add an Amazon Kindle logo to your blog so your readers know you’re offering them an even easier way to read your content.
Thanks to Brankica Underwood for the awesome tip! You can subscribe to Live Your Love on your Kindle by clicking here. And subscribe to Spin Sucks by clicking here! They give you a 14 day free trial so, if you decide you don’t want it on your Kindle, no harm, no foul.
Your Blog Like Flipboard
OnSwipe is the other tool. It’s “insanely easy tablet publishing.” What it does is allows you to create an experience of your blog on people’s tablets.
Have you experienced Flipboard? It’s like that. It allows your readers to flip through the pages, and share them, directly from their tablet. The nice thing about it is you don’t have to have an app or spend a gazillion dollars. In fact, it costs nothing. All you have to do is install the plugin.
Go to your admin in WordPress, click on “add new” in your plugin directory, type in OnSwipe, install it, and activate it. That’s it.
While, it’s not quite there yet (they’re still in beta), eventually your content will be more than the articles you publish. It’ll be your tweets, videos, Instagrams, and more. Do you hear that Julio Varela?! You can publish your Instagrams!
So there you have it. A 30 minute (if that) project for a Sunday afternoon. I’d love to hear if you did one or both and where we can find your information, once it’s all approved and active!
And here I thought I was sharing new info on publishing your blog to Kindle with you. Next time. Great tools.
And here I thought I was sharing new info on publishing your blog to Kindle with you. Next time. Great tools.
This is great... I am getting all of ours up on there! thanks!
bryanwillmert You're welcome Bryan. :)
I think you just gave me my motivation to step up my blogging. It's been lacking as of late.
patrickreyes That's what I like to hear!
Nice. I'll check flipboard out
idoinspire0 I don't love Flipboard (but a lot of people do). But I do love having Spin Sucks look like Flipboard! So you'll have to let me know what you think.
ginidietrich Great, you are keeping up the Sunday post, love it. What happened to the Saturday evening post from DannyBrown ?
I need to revise my A-lister list and add Brankica I emailed her a few weeks back with a simple question (from a simple person) about keywords and she gave me some great tips. Yep an A-lister in my book.
Now I read today is going to hit 70 in Chicago, get off line and on the bike ?
John Falchetto ginidietrich Brankica I was enjoying some fine chilled Chardonnay. Maybe I should do a Sozzled Saturday section? ;-)
DannyBrown John Falchetto You don't seem like a chardonnay guy to me Danny. More like scotch.
It's 60 degrees (just hit it) so i'm headed out on my bike RIGHT NOW (before it starts to rain)!
ginidietrich John Falchetto I can be demure and sophisticated with the best of them, missus. :)
DannyBrown Don't see how Chardonnay and posting are mutually exclusive... ginidietrich Brankica
John Falchetto ginidietrich Brankica I'm a guy. I can't multi-task.
Could be wrong but I think the blog publishing on Kindle is just for the U.S. market at the minute?
DannyBrown I've heard rumblings about that, but haven't been able to confirm it. I think, though, you're likely right.
ginidietrich Here you go:
http://dannybrown.me/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Amazon.com-Spin-Sucks-Kindle-Store-Gini-Dietrich.png-1583×782.png
DannyBrown BOOOOOO!!!
ginidietrich Then again, maybe Canadians are just smarter at what blogs they allow over here... ;-)
DannyBrown Probably. Canadians always think they should be keeping up with Americans, but I think it's the opposite.
ginidietrich Don't worry about SS not being available in Canada, only bears and maple syrup up there.
John Falchetto ginidietrich Additionally, only folks living in the U.S. or the U.K. can have Publisher Accounts with Kindle.
Which is kinda stoopid.
ginidietrich DannyBrown Sweet. I've found my niche. Gonna start a blog called "Spin Sucks, eh?" and corner the Canadian market.
KenMueller ginidietrich HA!!!!!
DannyBrown ginidietrich Seriously, I think it's a metric thing. If you figure out the conversion rate you can subscribe. I'm good at this. Let's see, how many Imperial Gallons are there to the liter....?
KenMueller LOL!!! That, literally, made me laugh out loud!
ginidietrich Then my work here is done. Ok, no it isn't. I'm sticking around.
KenMueller You might even be able to get two LOLs out of me. After I get back from my bike ride.
ginidietrich You do that. I might exercise, too. gonna get up from THIS end of the couch and move to THAT end. yup.
KenMueller How was your exercise??
ginidietrich amazing. It was like a triathlon. Not only did I move from one end of the couch to the other, but I ALSO got up and walked to the kitchen, got some cookies, walked BACK to the couch, and THEN I threw Shadow's new toy to him a few times (A stuffed Mr. Bill that screams "Oh, no!" every time he grabs him).
Now I'm headed out back to grill some chicken. whew!
KenMueller Wow! That's a lot of work! And you didn't even consider lifting the cookies to your mouth. That makes it more like an Ironman.
ginidietrich yeah. I do. But only out of necessity. Dang kids won't feed me!
Gini,
I love my Kindle, but I had no idea I could blog on it. That is so cool! I am what my sister calls "technologically challenged," but I'll bet she didn't know this. Can't wait to tell her. My Kindle is with me everywhere, and it will be so much easier to blog on that. Thanks so much for the tip. I just listened to about three of your podcasts, and was interested so I came to your blog. You can be sure I'll be listening to on on Inside PR again...and following your tips on your blog. Thanks again! Cindy Cromeans
blessedinandout The way you do it is not to actually create your blog posts there. You'll still create them, but then Kindle automatically publishes for you. So people can read them on their Kindle, or through their Kindle app, and not have to wait to get onto your blog. It's really, really easy to set up. Let me know if you need help!
And thanks for listening to Inside PR! We have fun doing those podcasts.
Thanks for the post - I got half-way through the Kindle process a few weeks ago and forgot to go back and finish it. Now I am waiting on approval.
As for OnSwipe, I never heard of it but it sounds interesting so I installed the plug-in. Let's see what happens?!
patmcgraw So you did finish it then?! Great! OnSwipe is really cool!
ginidietrich patmcgraw OnSwipe seems to be getting a mixed response from the WordPress.org community:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-onswipe-onswipe-not-so-great
Shame they don't allow you a preview option to see what your blog looks like on its system. And if the criticism that OnSwips doesn't allow any view except the OnSwipe view with iPad is right, that would put me off the platform altogether.
DannyBrown ginidietrich patmcgraw Danny, as always, thanks for sharing. I have a couple of friends with iPads and have asked them to take a look at my site and offer feedback - should make for an interesting post! Will keep you posted on what I learn...though it might be a quick test.
patmcgraw ginidietrich Look forward to hearing back on your take, Pat :)
ginidietrich Finished and approved so I added the icon with link to my website and will be donating any proceeds I may receive to the Ronald McDonald House. Again, thanks for the reminder!!
Am I glad I got up early today :) Just saw your tweet and thought, OMG, Gini is recommending stuff, I gotta go check it out. Thanks so much for the mention and the link love!!!I love the Kindle option and love how the blogs look on Kindle. With Kindle app available for every computer and gadget over there, I can't see a reason not to publish your blog or not to subscribe (considering you don't need the Kindle reader itself).Thanks Gini!!!
Brankica You're very welcome! Thank YOU for the awesome tip! I still have to add the Kindle logo to the blog, but it'll be up today (assuming I don't need dashal help).
Thanks for this. I jumped on the Kindle train early (though haven't gotten any subscribers yet), but OnSwipe is completely new to me. Gonna take care of that now!
KenMueller What?! And you didn't tell anyone?!
ginidietrich yes, I did. A loooong time ago. Before I met you!
KenMueller Sigh...
Wow.. I never knew about this one and thank you so much for sharing this one. I am really going to do this. Seems like a great chance to add some more value to the readers.
Justicewordlaw And it's super, super easy! You can seriously get both done in less than 30 minutes today.
ginidietrich Yeah I will be adding this to my list to complete.
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