PSFK has finally received the first two weeks sales figures of their version of PSFK.com on Kindle. We’ve discovered that a whole one person subscribed to the ‘trial version’ of PSFK. Amazon recently opened up their Kindle platform to allow bloggers to publish and sell their content through the e-retailers site.
During the first two week period of sales we added a button advertising the service to all our newsletters, website pages and RSS feeds – approximately 250,000 impressions. As some of you may remember, I penned the opinion piece ‘Kindle’s Not Working‘ last week and these sales figures surely prove statistically that Amazon’s technology is a failure when it comes to blog publishing and readership. It’s crazy to read that the tech media continues to be deluded about Kindle’s success when even with a 14 day free trial and massive awareness among our readership we can’t muster more than one $1.99 a month subscription.
Sure, the Kindle will remain useful for a group of people but in its current format it will remain small.
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Kinda think it is more the $1.99/month fee for a lesser version of the blog (no pics, no video, no links) that I can read for free on my laptop or iPhone. It would cost me over $1000/yr to read all my blogs on the Kindle. That’s nutty.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Just saw your Kindle posts, 1 subscriber? Nuts!
That said I think you might be missing the point on the Kindle. It’s not the device that’s important it’s the Kindle file format that really changes things. The device itself is just trojan horse that let Amazon sell a workable ebook format to the publishing industry…
Hit me hardest this weekend. I was browsing a good bookshop and a book (Seven Days in the Art World) that caught my fancy. I picked it up and strolled toward the register. Pause. Double take. I realized I’d rather have the Kindle edition (for my iPhone not the actual device). A minute online to confirm it existed and then I walked out the shop rather guiltily. I would have bought it online right there is Apple/Amazon didn’t have some weird block on buying digital content via Amazon’s iPhone apps.
As a device the Kindle seems destined to be a niche player in the new world of post-laptop computing devices. But what’s really crazy is that unlike with music, tv and news, with books Amazon and the publishing industry seem to have created a working digital format that consumers can accept. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe bad, but it certainly seems to present a rather remarkable break from the way the internet has been shaking up the industries it has hit until now.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
not available in Australia on iPhone yet = less subscribers
June 16th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
This is sad so I am the only person to subscribe. That is just sad. I can say that I love it. But the power of one is never strong. I do love my Kindle but that is mainly cause I am on the road 3 to 4 days a week and not having to carry around books with me everywhere is nice.
I must say on one side that kindle out side of the device has impressive service options. IMO it is even a better content distrobution tool then ITunes. The use of the cloud to link content across multiple devices is incredible. Also the abilty to shop on the site on my computer at work and send books to my Kindle at home or my IPod touch, plus the page tracking is even cooler. Honestly once i got my Kindle is was a bit of a Aurthur C Clark moment. It was like magic. Would you like to jump to the page last read on your IPod Touch. Just cool.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:14 am
When I paid over 2 grand for my first cell phone, most folk had the same attitude. $1.99 versus free is a huge spread, but a new trend has developed. Before long, you will not give away your web page because you will be able to drive people to the subscription model.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Ever consider it’s not Amazon’s fault but just that your site sucks, and sucks harder in Kindle form? That’s my theory.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Why do you think that because you only sold one subscription, that the problem must be with Amazon. Maybe your site is fun to look at occasionally, but not worth much to its viewers. Or not worth enough to pay for. Maybe your price point is way too ambitious. You want people to pay more for PSFK than for Time or the Atlantic? Hmmm, something about that just doesn’t seem right.
June 21st, 2009 at 10:35 pm