Is it too late to start a new site?

I get this question a lot, and I’ve faced it myself when helping professionals “position” themselves. Should you bother? So, is it too late?

Yes, if:

• you plan on repeating what is already found on established sites.
• a condition of success is 150,000 subscribers by the end of the month.
• the topic is interesting to you on most days.

No, if:

• you’re the best at what you do.
• you’re obsessed with a topic and have a unique voice to put behind it.
• it doesn’t matter if you’re catering to 5 people or 500,000.  Either way you’re going to want to cover your topic.

10 Things Amazon Could Do Over the Weekend to Make the Kindle Great

I bought the Kindle 2 on the day it was released and received it last week.  Since then, I’ve bought and read two books on it and am starting a third.  Remarkable pace for me (a guy that used to read 3-5 books a year).  When not reading, I had some ideas that would make the Kindle even better.  Plus, Amazon could do these things next week – no need for hardware redesign or huge R&D.  Here goes:

1. Kindle Friends - Let me see what my friends are reading and where they are in the book.  Also a way to discuss or message them about the book.
2. Kindle Clubs - Wider sweeping than “Friends”, Kindle Clubs center around particular genres or titles.  You don’t only have to have a giant Oprah club, but you could have a club for marketers, or organic gardeners.
3. Note Sharing – Ability to share all or select notes with everyone or Kindle Friends.
4. No books over $9.99 – This is the one thing that’s driving me nuts.  I know all about the price of content, but publishers should knock the prices back on all titles.  Everything.  Some books you may actually take a hit on, but there are others that are pure cash cows and you’ll more than make it up.
5. Book rentals – Almost like a for pay library.  The longer you take to read a book, the more it costs.  If rentals are .50 a day, then after 20 days, you’d just own the book.
6. Consistent samples – The samples you can download range from pages and pages of endorsements to a chapter and a half.  They should standardize the sample.  Maybe just make it Chapter 1 and 2.
7. Best sellers by price – or a bargain bin – When I flip through the Kindle Bestsellers, many of the titles are free or well below the $9.99 price point.  What’s that tell you, content creators?  Would be great to be able to sort through these gems separately from the full priced (and some over-priced) titles.
8. Kindle University – A derivative of the “Personal MBA“, Amazon could create lists of titles that would provide beginning, moderate, and advanced coverage of specific topics.  How about a series on woodworking, or a series on marketing?
9. Zoom in on a cover in the store – Easy enough.  Let us see the cover in the full screen.
10. With “page count” also show “locations” – In books, you read page by page.  With the Kindle, readers track their progress through % read and “locations”.  For example, instead of “page 30″, it’s “location 235 out of 3765″.  Kindle users will eventually start to think in locations rather than pages, so help the conversion by listing both in the book description.

There you go.  Something to work on over the weekend, Amazon!

Great time to be a “content creator”

There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the news how this is the “worst year for books“.  Personally, I’m trying not to buy in to the bad news.  If you watch this interview with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, you’ll learn that 10% of all books Amazon sells are through the Kindle.  That’s a remarkable number for a few reasons.

1. The publishing folks I know quickly disregard the Kindle (thought this was DOA)
2. I’ve only ever seen 2 Kindles “in the wild” (mine was one)
3. It’s an expensive machine ($359 before you get your first book)

Despite this, I’m proclaiming it a success.  We don’t know how many units have been sold, but if you read reviews from folks that own Kindles, they quietly rave.  Why quietly?  Maybe it’s because they are dropping close to $400 on a device that really does one thing really well (displays text).  That might be a little embarrassing (especially if you’re a techie that shows off how his/her iPhone can do back flips).

Plus, it’s centered around reading.  You won’t see an iPod-esque, action-packed ad around a guy reading Stephen King’s UR.  In fact, one spastic colleague I told about my Kindle blurted out, “That’s so dumb!  You read books?!”  Took him a few seconds to realize what he said, but it eventually sunk in and he went on to declare how many websites and manuals he read each day.  Apple’s Steve Jobs even told us that “the fact is that people don’t read anymore.”

Despite these opinions, still, 10% of all books going through Amazon are direct to this device.  Plus, now you can get your Kindle books on your iPhone!

So, who’s the big winner?  I think there are a few:  Authors, Amazon, publishers, and entrepreneurs.  If this device continues to spread…

• Publishers will see an increase in existing sales
• Authors will have a real option in self-publishing
• Amazon gets deeper control of the whole distribution chain (and are a sneeze away from controlling production)
• Entrepreneurs have another option for spreading their message(s).

So, don’t get caught up in this “worst year ever” stuff.  There’s a ton of opportunity out there!