My crystal ball tells me that e-book readers will be a strong possible source of income or quality blogs in the near future. Not as the subscription service that is available from the Kindle, mind you, because I’m having a hard time seeing it being successful. Think about it, more and more mobile devices have internet access and great screens. Why pay to read on the Kindle when you can get it for free on your iPhone, right there in Safari or using Instapaper? And if that won’t convince you, then add the fact that more and more websites actually have mobile editions.
Back to the e-readers. High quality blogs already produce great content, obviously, and the e-book spinoff isn’t far off for a lot of them. They publish reports, how to’s, and other things they can hawk for a couple of dollars (or a small bundle) to make more money. If they’re good, we’ll pay. If not, we won’t. Add some marketing and social media and you’ve got a pretty solid business model right there.
If you’ve got the necessary following, that is.
With the e-book readers on the march things won’t be different just for blogs, but for e-books as a means of publishing. Reading larger chunks of text on screens isn’t as bad as it once was. In fact, today’s screens are more than good enough for some serious reading.
The problem is location.
I don’t want to read a book at my desk all the time. Actually, I don’t want to do it there at all, I’ve got comfortable chairs and sofas to sit in. And besides, 24″ screens are great for design and things like that, but reading? Not the perfect match.
Enter the e-book readers, no matter if it is a Kindle or a Sony e-Reader or whatever device you’ll read on. I already bring the iPhone and read up on things using Instapaper, but I can very much see myself cozying up with an interesting e-book in some kind of reader.
And more importantly, that means I can see myself actually buying an e-book!
Call me old fashioned, but I like my paper. E-books don’t do it for me today, because I don’t want to read it on my MacBook Air or at my desk. An e-reader could change all that.
Which leads me back to the beginning of the post. I believe e-book readers will help quality blogs make more money, thanks to the fact that they make e-books more interesting. Question is, are you ready for it?
