Get Your Blog on My Kindle

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I love my Kindle.

So much. Probably a little too much, actually. Kindleholics Anonymous, here I come. But that’s for another post.

One of the things you might not know about a Kindle is that you can read blogs on the device. Yes, it costs $1 a month to subscribe, but it’s a neat service if you’re already reading books, newspapers, etc there. Plus, you can read everything “offline” (plane), even though the Kindle has persistent EVDO connection through Sprint (I frequently check GMail or Google Reader on mine… works great in a pinch).

But how do you get your blog listed with Amazon so people can subscribe in the normal Kindle interface (w/o having to go the Google Reader circumvention route)? Here’s a great tip:

For Bloggers: How to Distribute Your Blog through Amazon Kindle Store: “Almost all famous blogs are available for subscription through Amazon Kindle but if you are just a small publisher and like to get your own blog listed on the Kindle store, here’s what you may do:”

I’m guessing most Kindle owners are people who have a little geek bent, some disposable income and travel a great deal. If that’s your demographic, give it a try. I’m headed to sign up now.

Blog Comments Suck

I agree with Scoble here on the “broken” nature of blog commenting on the social web (especially when you have a blog that deals directly with social media):

Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger » Blog Archive Why blogging comments suck «: “How do you fix this? Not easily. I wish there were a system where I could tell my readers when a comment came in that deserves a lot more attention than the others. Also, I wish we could see the social network of the people commenting (I’d love to have their Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed networks show up linked into their comment somehow and also have warnings when people leave me comments that have a huge amount of social capital, like Gary does).”

Comments have been a frustrating part of keeping this blog going since 2006. Things were great when this was a “small” blog with just a few subscribers, but with time and growth, spammers, spam queues, etc quickly get out of hand.

This isn’t just because of spam. Actually, spam is the least of my frustrations (it blows, but dealing with spam is like going to the dentist…you can avoid both, but your teeth will fall out). As Robert says, it is completely ridiculous that comments from all over the web aren’t better aggregated into our blogs. If we’re going to run these things and put out content that elicits responses on a number of platforms, it is reasonable to assume that there would be a way to keep everything at least organized on the originating blog itself.

When I installed Disqus in Fall of ’07, I prayed that a solution had been found. Things are getting better between Disqus and Intense Debate, but commenting is still a painful thorn in the side of any blogger.

I’d love just to close comments here and shift everyone to use FriendFeed as a place to discuss the contents here. Alas, not everyone is on FriendFeed. I’m still considering it, though. Late adopters and luddites be damned.

Disqus Now Gives Option of Requiring Verified Emails

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I first implemented Disqus here in October of ’07. Despite all the ups and downs, I’m still a Disqus fan.

Glad to see this new feature and I think it’ll go a long way in curving curbing (sorry, Jangro) some of the spam problems we’ve been seeing pop up:

Disqus Blog » Admin Feature: Require verified email address: “Now, you can also choose to only allow Disqus users with a verified email address. This is ideal for sites that want the most administrative control over the participants of the discussion.”

I would make a Jangro crack (even though he got a tshirt and I didn’t), but I’ll refrain.