The Amazon Kindle may seem like just another fancy gadget for techno geeks. But make no mistake, this is the biggest invention since the cell phone. And with the release of the new and improved Kindle 2, it’s even bigger.

Here’s a picture of me holding 245,000 books in one hand. Or more accurately, access to said number of books. The latest version of the Kindle is the width and height of a small book, the thickness of a pencil, and it weighs just 10 ounces. But this little device hooks you up to practically unlimited knowledge. It’s like holding an entire bookstore in your hand. (And on the actual screen, you don’t see any glare like you do in this photo.)

Anytime you feel like reading something, just switch on your Kindle, browse the available listings, and wirelessly download a book in less than a minute, for less than the cost of a paperback. (Sorry, overseas friends – the Kindle is currently available only in the U.S. because of its reliance on Sprint’s 3G network. Verify that Kindle wireless coverage is available in your area.)

This is not some big clunky object. The Kindle 2 has a very sleek design, much better than its predecessor. It’s comfortable to hold, and it doesn’t get hot like a computer. The battery charges in 4 hours and lasts 4 days. It’s easy to use, with no technical skills needed. There are no contracts or anything to sign up for (assuming you already have an Amazon account). You really just take it out of the box and follow the simple on-screen guide to get started.

But what’s so great about this?

How is a Kindle that much better than just carrying a book around with you? Well, the difference is that with the Kindle, you’re not carrying around one book, but up to 1,500. (If you actually download that many books, you can delete them to free up space, and re-download them for free later.) Never again will you have an excuse for having nothing to do, or not knowing what book to take on a trip with you.

Here’s an example of how you might use it. You arrive at the airport, and find that your flight’s been delayed by 4 hours. Other people might be upset in that situation, but not you, because you have a Kindle.

You pull it out of your carry-on bag, and flip the switch. Two seconds later, the Kindle automatically loads the book you were reading last, opened to the exact page you were on. You were near the very end of the book, so you quickly finish it. What next? With a nearly infinite selection available, you feel like a kid in a candy store.

You remember people saying good things about Tribes by Seth Godin, so you decide to take a look. You press the Menu button and select “Shop in Kindle Store.” There are handy links to national best sellers, Kindle top sellers, and Amazon’s recommendations for you, as well as options to browse books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

You browse the book selections, and instead of choosing one of the 24 categories, you just type “Tribes” into the search engine. The Amazon rating and reviews for Tribes come up, but you’re more interested in downloading the free sample chapter. And you like it, so you decide to buy the book.

Your Kindle-less friends paid $13.57 plus shipping, and waited for 5 days. But you’ll pay just $9.99 and be reading it in less than a minute. (New releases are generally $9.99, even if the print version is $25 or more. Some cost less, and some are even free.)

While everyone else is twiddling their thumbs or trying to sleep on the airport benches, you’re soaking up Seth Godin’s wisdom and not even noticing the passage of time.

At first, I basically saw the Kindle as a fun and easy way to read more books. I really don’t read enough, and I know I’m going to be reading more now that I’ve got convenient, nearly unlimited access wherever I go. I’ll expand my knowledge, and thanks to the free sample chapters offered for many books, I’ll be able to take no-risk looks beyond the topics I usually read about.

However, I found the Kindle to be even better than I expected. I thought it would be the next best thing to having a real book, but it’s actually far superior to a printed book in several ways. For one thing, the readability is just amazing.

The picture above shows someone reading her Kindle in bright sunlight, without any glare. You can tilt it at any angle, and the text is always sharp and clear (more so than it appears in this picture). Sun or shade or indoors, it all works. You don’t need a great light source like you do with a printed book. There’s no backlighting you so can’t read it in total darkness, but pretty much any indoor location will be bright enough.

There are six different font sizes to choose from, so you can pick the one that’s best for your eyes. There are 16 shades of gray, so pictures look good. It really is gentler on your eyes than a computer screen, or even a printed book. The narrow column helps you read faster and not lose your place.

Read it in bed just like a regular book. You don’t need to turn any pages – just push one of the “next page” buttons that will naturally be under either of your thumbs. You don’t need a bookmark either – set it down when the phone rings and it will eventually go into power save mode, but it will never lose the page, even if you turn it off or start reading another book.

You can search within the book, mark sections to come back to later, and type up notes while you’re reading. Move the cursor to any word, and the built-in dictionary gives you a definition. You can have the Kindle read to you with its text-to-speech feature, but it sounds as bad as a GPS unit, and I don’t see why anyone would use this unless they have severe vision problems. You also have web access (currently in the experimental stage), though I found using Wikipedia to be painfully slow.

The Kindle also has a number of advanced features that I don’t really need, like the ability to take a Word or PDF document on your computer and email it to your Kindle account, having it converted to Kindle format for a charge of ten cents. But the advanced features stay out of your way, and don’t interfere with the basics.

Things the Kindle could do better:

1. When someone’s Kindle arrives on their doorstep, they’re eager to get started immediately. And while it’s easy to learn how to use it, you’ll quickly run into the problem of not having any books on it. Needing to stop and decide what book to start with really breaks your momentum. The Kindle should come with some books to get you started. Why not give the user Kindle access to all the books they’ve previously bought from Amazon?

2. They need to expand their selections, but of course they’re already working on that. They’ve got a huge number of books already, but if you’re looking for something in particular, it might not be available on the Kindle.

3. With the profit margins being so high on electronic books, they can afford to offer package deals. Like the complete works of Michael Crichton, for a huge discount.

4. The Kindle really needs a carrying case. While it’s easy to hold, it’s not so easy to take with you, because the way you would naturally carry it would put a thumbprint on the screen. I see now that there are some fancy cases available on Amazon, but the Kindle should at least come with a cheap pouch just so you have something protecting the screen. If I were to take it on a plane right now, I’d stuff it in my carry-on after wrapping it in saran wrap!

Is it worth the price?

The Kindle 2 sells for $359, the same as the Kindle 1 sold for. So far, they’ve focused on making the new model much better instead of bringing down the price. The Kindle 2 looks and works great, so I don’t see a need to wait for the next one.

Some people balk at the price, but I think it’s perfectly reasonable. Remember the $600 iPhone and PlayStation 3? Don’t forget that you’ll save money on books. If you buy 24 books at $9.99 on the Kindle instead of $24.99 for paperbacks, the Kindle pays for itself.

I know, it would take a while for that to happen, but the point of the Kindle isn’t to save money on books. It’s to immerse you in knowledge, insight, thought, and entertainment wherever you go. That’s worth a few hundred bucks to me.

Oh, and for your first Kindle book, consider UR, Stephen King’s $2.99 novella written exclusively for the Kindle. It’s about an English teacher who orders a Kindle after his ex-girlfriend asks him, “Why can’t you just read off the computer like the rest of us?”

If you’ve tried to sell a product online before, you know that there’s a lot more to the process than just creating the product. People say “if you build it, they will come,” but it’s not true. Many people have trusted that advice, only to spend countless hours creating a wonderful product that nobody bought.

Why would people not buy your product, if it’s so good? Well, there are many possible reasons.

• Did you convince your audience of your credibility?
• Are you a good enough copywriter to create a compelling sales page?
• Did you get powerful testimonials from well known people?
• Did you build up enough buzz before launching?
• Did you sign up key people as affiliates?
• Worst of all, were you doomed from the start because you didn’t research whether there was a big enough market for your product?

The list of pitfalls goes on and on. There are so many intricacies to a product launch that it takes enormous effort to master the process. Jeff Walker learned so much about how to successfully launch a product, that he was able to sell his Product Launch Formula for $2,000 a copy. But $2,000 is probably a lot more than you want to pay, right?

There’s now a much cheaper alternative. Dave Navarro and Naomi Dunford have come out with a new ebook called How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook. From the title you can tell that this is specific to writing and selling ebooks, but actually most of the information applies to any kind of online product launch. (In case you’re wondering, no, they never reveal what **** stands for.)

I’ve bought both Dave’s and Naomi’s products before, so I didn’t need much convincing. Plus, people actually hire Dave as their launch coach. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a launch coach, but it makes perfect sense when you consider how much the launch affects your sales. Naomi saw this firsthand when she launched Online Business School with Dave as her launch coach, and made five figures in three days.

Their sales page very clearly says what’s in it, so I won’t repeat that. I’ll just tell you what I thought about it. First, the good.

The information in this ebook is essential for running a successful ebook launch, and nobody else is really talking about it. I didn’t even know that there was more to a launch than just saying “Here, I wrote this. Buy it!” It turns out, there’s a lot more than that.

This ebook contains a lot of information (113 pages), covering the entire launch process. It takes you all the way from testing your market, to actually writing your ebook, to running the launch, to making money even after the launch is over. It’s very thorough, and it includes lots of worksheets to help you stay on track from start to finish.

It’s hard to imagine this ebook not easily paying for itself when you put it into practice. And even if it doesn’t, for whatever reason, there’s no risk. Dave and Naomi will not only give you your money back, but you can actually get double your money back! (Getting your money back is completely hassle-free, but getting double your money back requires completing their worksheets and showing that you actually tried.)

Now, the bad. Yes, unfortunately there are some things I didn’t like about it. It’s still worth buying, but I have to mention these things.

First, if you’ve bought any of Dave’s or Naomi’s products before, you know that they usually make them really entertaining. Dave’s “What’s Holding You Back” was a pleasure to read, even for people who aren’t productivity junkies. Naomi’s “SEO School” was so much fun that some people probably bought it even though they don’t care about SEO.

But How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook doesn’t have a lot of personality in it. This is something you would buy just for the information, not to be entertained. Maybe I’m being a little picky in expecting information about product launches to be fun, but hey, that’s what I like.

I found some parts of it far too basic. Some of it is written for people who don’t have a blog yet. If someone doesn’t even have a blog, I don’t know what they’re doing writing an ebook. Then again, I’m just speaking from my perspective. If someone is new to blogging, or not even blogging yet, they’ll find this part very helpful. Writing an ebook without knowing how to leverage a blog would surely be a disaster.

I thought it was too long, and it contained lots of really bad typos. Not to be the spelling police or anything, but typos always jump off the page at me, and this ebook has way more than its share (though the copy I have is three months old, so it might have been cleaned up since then).

Finally, there’s a glaring omission when they talk about AWeber. I can’t believe they didn’t mention using pop-overs and lightboxes to increase your newsletter subscribers. I understand that some people don’t want to do this because they consider it too intrusive, but anyone who uses AWeber needs to at least be aware of these options. Darren Rowse wrote about his amazing results with pop-overs in How to Drastically Increase Subscriber Numbers to Your Email Newsletter.

Overall, I’d say that How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook provides lots of critical information for anyone who sells ebooks (or any other online products, really). If you want to maximize the success of your ebook launches, this is a much cheaper alternative than Product Launch Formula. And it’s half off the regular price until Thursday, February 5th (the sales page shows the regular price, so verify the reduced price at checkout).

Are ebooks worth the money?

About three months ago I recommended an ebook called Learn More, Study Less by Scott Young, priced at $39.95.

A lot of people complained about the price, but this is by no means the most expensive ebook out there. One that comes to mind is Desperate Buyers Only (which I haven’t read) by Alexis Dawes, priced at $77. And there are yet more expensive ebooks out there, some well over $100.

But this is the internet age. With so much free stuff out there, can an ebook ever be worth the money? Absolutely!

What Is Money Really Worth?

First, I think we need to look at some conflicting beliefs people have about money.

Whenever someone writes a post about how money isn’t that important, almost everyone jumps on board and says “Yeah! That’s right! All that matters is [choose from family, health, happiness, etc].” But when it comes time for them to buy something, they do a complete 180 and attach far too much importance to their money, being unwilling to part with just a few dollars for something that can be worth much more.

It’s not a good idea to waste money, but it’s also not a good idea to hoard it. Money is meant to be spent on things that improve your life. What kind of a world do we live in where people will drop $20 for a pair of tickets to Sex and the City, yet balk at the cost of a $20 ebook?

Many people who read blogs think they’re getting such a good deal…all this information for free. But nothing is free. What is your time worth? $5 an hour? $50 an hour? How many thousands of dollars do you spend each year by using your time to read “free” information?

The Value of an Ebook

The reason ebooks cost money while blog posts are free is simply because ebooks are much better. Not every ebook is going to be for you, but if a particular ebook is what you need, it should have a lot of useful, insightful, original information, perfectly targeted for its niche, impeccably presented, and instantly delivered. Not to mention that it’s probably from someone you know.

No spending countless hours combing the web for free information that may or may not be out there somewhere. No getting in your car and burning gas to get to the bookstore, only to pick up something that will clutter your home for the rest of your life. No buying a book from an author you know nothing about, only to find out you don’t like their style.

Of course, not every ebook delivers. I just read an ebook that normally costs $19, but I got it for free. It’s fine as a free ebook, but it’s sure not worth $19. That’s why it’s important to know the author or get a referral from someone you know. You can do this by reading blogs (yes, even though our time is precious, there are lots of blogs worth reading).

So why do I think that one ebook is overpriced at $19, while I think “Learn More, Study Less” is worth $39.95? Simply because ebooks are not a commodity. The difference in prices is miniscule compared to the difference in value. While double the price of the $19 ebook, the $39.95 ebook has a free preview, a money-back guarantee, and a 50% affiliate program (so the ebook is free if you refer two people). It’s also by an author who has acquired thousands of readers with his unique ideas. It’s also well presented and beautifully laid out and illustrated. And now having read it, I can say that the information it contains just doesn’t exist anywhere else, as far as I know.

What about p-books? (By p-books, I mean “paper books.” As e-books become more popular, it becomes more important to make a distinction.) Why are p-books often cheaper than e-books? It’s because the p-book publishers know they’ll sell millions of copies, so they can afford to sell them dirt cheap and still make millions of dollars. Bloggers don’t have nearly as large a market, so they’d be crazy to sell their ebooks for pennies above cost like the big book publishers do.

Support Your Favorite Bloggers

In fact, many people severely overestimate the income of bloggers. Did you know that only 1 blog in 1,000 makes $20 a month? Even Scott Young, author of “Learn More, Study Less,” who is in the Technorati top 4,000 blogs out of 2 million, only expects his blog to earn roughly $15,000 – $25,000 in 2008. An impressive accomplishment for sure, but hardly a princely sum.

A lot of bloggers have a donate button where you can send them a little money to support their efforts, which is perfectly reasonable, seeing as how their earnings almost always work out to be less than minimum wage. I like to support my favorite bloggers, but instead of just making a donation, I prefer to buy their e-books (or p-books if they have them). That way, it’s mutually beneficial.

Yesterday I bought Randy’s Pausch’s p-book The Last Lecture and Darren Rowse’s p-book ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. Do they need the money? No, not really. Darren supposedly makes over $20,000 a month just from his two blogs, plus he has his book proceeds and his income as VP of Blogger Training for b5media. Randy’s a smart guy and I’m sure he has enough life insurance, plus Hyperion paid $6.7 million for the right to publish his book (I don’t know what Randy’s cut was). They don’t need the money, but I like supporting them because of the work they’ve done. Besides, my blog is mentioned in The Last Lecture, page 184!

I think that buying an ebook can very well be a good investment. You have to do your homework and buy wisely, but an ebook can give you instant access to the latest information that may not exist anywhere else, presented in a style that resonates with you (or you wouldn’t read their blog), in a format that doesn’t take up space, while letting you support a deserving blogger. Isn’t that worth a few dollars?