Amazon opens Kindle Blog Publishing Program to all Blogs

Amazon has opened the door to its Kindle Blog Publishing Program to everyone.

The program, previously limited to a small number of blogs, formats and sells subscriptions to blogs to Kindle users. Blogs can’t be offered for free, and Amazon takes 70% of the subscription charge, with the amount charged determined by Amazon based on their perceived value of the content being offered. Prices for blogs currently in the program are around the $1.99/ month level.

Positively, although with some limitations, the program isn’t georetarded, so bloggers worldwide can participate. The only catch is in the payment options, which for non-US bloggers means the single choice of receiving a US dollar check via post. If the monthly payments are high enough, this isn’t going to be a huge issue, but likewise, it makes receiving small payments a waste of time. For example, a US dollar check here in Australia costs between $15-$30 AUD (about $11-$22 USD) to bank, and often takes 45-60 days to clear (depending on the bank.) Notably the Blog Publishing Program isn’t linked to normal Amazon accounts, so there’s no way of transferring that money across to be used on a book or something similar.

An application takes 48-72 hours to hit the Amazon store, although you do get a preview of what your blog will look like on a Kindle, as per the shot of The Inquisitr above. Having only played with a Kindle once before, and a long time ago at that, one thing that was interesting to see was a lack of support for video; that means that at least for The Inquisitr, a number of posts are incomplete.

You can apply for the Amazon Blog Publishing Program here and The Inquisitr will be available on The Kindle by next Monday.

(via Alley Insider)