I just figured this out. Turns out you can read Kindle e-books on your iPhone or iPod touch or Blackberry, no Kindle required. In other words, you don’t need to own a Kindle to read Kindle e-books.

Here’s how to do it: browse to the Kindle store on Amazon via your computer and purchase a Kindle book. Then download the free iPhone or Blackberry app and, magically, your smartphone syncs with your Kindle account. Whatever books you’ve purchased are now on your phone. You can also transfer the free book samples to your smartphone.

Hey download the free sample of the Updated Edition of The Corporate Blogging Book (With a New Preface)

I installed the free KIndle iPhone app recently and am amazed at how well the books display. Even better than on the Kindle. The book covers are in full color. You can change the color of the text (white on black, black on white, or a kind of cool sepia). The table of contents is easier to read and displays less weirdly. And, as on the Kindle, you can adjust the text size. Yes, this means the books are easy to read even if you need reading glasses.

Of course, once you’ve got the Kindle iPhone app installed and your Kindle account set up, you don’t need to go back to your computer to purchase more books. There’s a great mobile version of the Kindle Store that you can access through your smartphone’s Web browser (Safari on the iPhone). You’ll see "Send wirelessly to" and then a drop-down where you can select iPhone or Blackberry, whichever you have.

So what’s the big deal about the iPhone and Blackberry - and Kindle books?

For an e-book publisher (that would be moi) it’s huge.  As in well over 30 million potential e-book readers, vs. 2.5 million.

Mahalo says about 30 million iPhones have been sold to date. That means 30 million iPhone users can read my e-book, compared with only 2.5 million Kindle owners. I don’t have numbers on the Blackberry.

What idiot would read a book on an iPhone or Blackberry?

If it’s a business book that readers typically flip through, you can quickly click around in the table of contents on your smartphone to read a bit here and there. Face it: who reads every word of a business book anyway? So as e-books become more and more accepted, there may be a lot of idiots out there.

I can’t wait to publish an iPad edition…

Posted via email  from Debbie Weil’s Posterous

Last night I was watching the Academy Awards along with 40 million other people and who knows how many Twitterers. In the midst of critiquing the dresses and hairstyles of the actresses (yes, that is what women do - I couldn’t decide if I liked Sandra Bullock’s long,  straight hair) I realized I needed an eye-popping 125 X 125 animated GIF for an ad to appear on Mashable’s home page. And I had less than an hour until the midnight Sunday deadline for the beginning of Mashable’s one-week ad runs.

The ad badge points to the just published Updated Edition of The Corporate Blogging Book in Amazon’s Kindle store.  http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Blogging-Updated-Preface-ebook/dp/B003B654MO/ I had sent over a couple of placeholder GIFs to Mashable. But they were only passable; could be much improved. So, what to do.

Aha. Put out a request on Twitter. Here’s what I tweeted:

SEEKING WEB DESIGNER who can tweak/improve a 125X125 rotating GIF ad badge in next 24 hrs. Recs? Pls retweet.

Within minutes, a fellow phoned me from Australia via Skype (I’m not normally up at 11 PM but he must have figured I was awake). A Michigan designer found my email address on my site and sent me a message. And about six other designers immediately responded publicly via Twitter. A handful of kind folks also retweeted my message (including the illustrious @JessicaKnows).  I repeat: within MINUTES.

After a bit of back and forth via email with the guy in Sydney as well as the small firm in Michigan (who had taken the initiative to email me), we were on our way to designing two new terrifically improved versions of the ad badge - one static and one rotating.

Amazing, huh?!

The point of this blog post is for me to publicly thank Rob of Just Web http://www.justweb.com.au/ (for the static image) and Marilyn Trent of Trent Design, a small Web and branding agency http://www.trentdesign.net/ (for the rotating one). And to point out that Twitter is an amazing channel if you use it at the right moment and in the right spirit. Millions of us were online and happily engaging in a collective, informal conversation. Both of these talented designers worked gratis. Or perhaps for the exposure. Or maybe just to be nice. And I can’t thank them enough.

Note that this was a tweaking project and not a start-from-scratch. It was doable. Also, I was short on time so I chose the first two who responded. 

So does Twitter have business value? You tell me.

To see the ad badges live (March 7 - 13, 2010) visit Mashable and scroll down on the right-hand side.

Posted via email  from Debbie Weil’s Posterous.

For all the hype (yes, some of it from me) about the potential of a corporate blog to connect with and motivate your customers, the fact remains that many corporate or organizational blogs are, er, dull. They talk about… themselves. Us. Our product. Our service. Yuck. I mean, do we really care? I was reminded of this sad truth by the revealing Inc.com column published by longtime blogger and entrepreneur Joel Spolsky (see here: Let’s Take This Offline).

In his column, Joel writes:  "So, what’s the formula for a blog that actually generates leads, sales, and business success?"

The answer, which Joel gleaned from author Kathy Sierra at a conference:

"To really work, Sierra observed, an entrepreneur’s blog has to be about something bigger than his or her company and his or her product. This sounds simple, but it isn’t. It takes real discipline to not talk about yourself and your company. Blogging as a medium seems so personal, and often it is. But when you’re using a blog to promote a business, that blog can’t be about you, Sierra said. It has to be about your readers, who will, it’s hoped, become your customers. It has to be about making them awesome."

He then goes on to give some specific examples: for example, if you sell camera attachments, don’t write about technical specs. Instead blog about "10 Ways to Become a Better Photographer."

Those words, for me at least, come from the Department of Redundancy. I’ve said them myself so many times. They are in my book, THE CORPORATE BLOGGING BOOK, which was first published in 2006. I’ve said them on this blog. Read a blog post from Feb. 15, 2005. I’ve said them in countless presentations.

Thanks to Joel for making the point again. I should also note that Joel’s column is an official announcement that he is retiring from blogging. He says it takes an enormous amount of time that he now wants to put elsewhere, in order to reach a non-blog reading audience and also grow Fog Street Software.

Posted via email from Debbie Weil’s Posterous.

So how do you discuss that which cannot be discussed in polite conversation? Namely, obesity. Southwest Air even uses the words "delicate policy" to describe how employees should handle a supersize passenger who requires two seats. The incident this week with director Kevin Smith (whom I’ve never heard of but who has 1.6 million Twitter followers) raises two difficult questions:

1. Does having 1.6 million followers entitle you to rant and rave profanely , loudly and publicly just because you have a very large, er, online presence? Update: does being a celebrity (albeit one some people haven’t heard of) entitle you to be a boor?

2. Is it fair to other airline passengers to be seated next to someone who physically spills over into their space?

My answers, politically incorrect though they may be, are no and no. I won’t go into the specifics surrounding the recent incident with Southwest Air (see the Southwest blog  and Kevin’s blog for details). But I want to make several points. First, social media leverage does NOT, in my opinion, give you license to publicly AND PROFANELY bash a company or organization. It gives you the power, but not necessarily the license. There are always exceptions. But there is something called good taste. And Kevin Smith doesn’t seem to have it. Maybe that’s part of his schtick. But it doesn’t work for me.

My gut is that there are some unintended consequences here. Kevin is raising more issues than he perhaps intended. Namely, what does it mean in American society to be obese? How big do you have to be before you are perceived as obese (leaving aside the BMI definition)? Is obesity a medical condition? Is it a handicap? Is it a syndrome like Asberger’s or ADD? All require accommodations of some sort, some legally mandated, some not.

Second point, obesity is a real problem. It’s a problem for 39-year-old Kevin, a young man (see his Wikipedia entry). It is likely contributing to health problems he is having now or will have in the near future (think diabetes Type 2). It is shortening his lifespan. And it is OUR problem. Obesity is a nationwide epidemic that contributes to billions of dollars ($1.5B)  in additional healthcare costs that we all, in one way or another, are paying for. Jargon but true. Bottom line, obesity is a hugely controversial issue. This is about much more than Kevin and whether or not Southwest Airlines treated him courteously. (For the record, I do not condone embarrassing or humiliating someone in public.)

I realize I’ve come full circle here. By kvetching as loudly as he did, Kevin has in fact sparked a conversation about obesity that we should be having more openly.

Posted via email  from Debbie Weil

Attn: Cupcake Lovers. Learn Why Dot Gov Is the New Dot Com.

A quick update to let you know that registration for the next edition of Sweets and Tweets is now open. The event will be held Wednesday March 10th at 7 PM sharp at the very cool Baked and Wired cupcake cafe in DC’s Georgetown. Tech celeb Anil Dash, founder of the new DC-based incubator Expert Labs, is our speaker. Microsoft’s U.S. Public Sector division is the sponsor. This is an intimate event that appeals to the #gov20 + geek + cupcake eating crowd.

Sweets and Tweets features leading voices from DC’s diverse technology community on the use of social media by the public and private sector, from the White House and federal agencies to local startups. I host it every few months when the stars are in alignment for the right speaker and sponsor. More info about the  March 10, 2010 Sweets and Tweets here.

Photos and coverage of the last event, featuring Mark Drapeau as speaker, here.

Register soon if you’re interested. Space is limited and tickets tend to go fast:

Posted via email  from Debbie Weil’s Posterous

Hugh Macleod of Gaping Void genius has started sending a daily cartoon to his email list. He’s giving it away, right? Yes and no. He is in fact giving away a JPEG of a cartoon. Like today’s, which is a warm up for Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14th. But he’s also teasing us and goading us to think of his JPEG image as something much more valuable. It’s a taste of what he’s really got on offer: a 11 by 14 inch handsigned print that he’s selling (you heard that right, SELLING) for $125. His message is the same everyday: "Buy The Print Here - Forward this email to a friend." And then he customizes the copy for the particular cartoon. Today’s says: "Hundreds of Love Birds have committed to say "IT" with a gapingvoid fine art print this Valentine’s Day. Let me be your mouthpiece: I know how to deliver the goods!"

This is CONTENT MARKETING at its finest and most literal. Hugh calls it selling by giving or gift economics. And he’s not the only one who does it. Give away a piece of content. Show rather than tell. Instead of saying, "I’m a cool cartoonist. Buy my cartoons," Hugh attaches the cartoon to the message. It’s interesting that this approach to marketing (one that David Meerman Scott articulately addresses in his books) is still both misunderstood and underestimated.

It makes so much sense. It’s why so many knowledgepreneurs write a blog. It’s why we send out an e-newsletter. To illustrate what we know with a provocative turn of phrase. And get it right in your face, as often as possible. And yet not be obnoxious about it. You have to keep doing it. Day after day, week after week. I’m curious to know if Hugh is selling more of his prints now that he’s started this daily, drip drip drip approach to marketing.

Cross posted via email from Debbie Weil’s Posterous

It’s one thing to be Tweeting and obsessively checking your email in order to procrastinate about a writing project. It’s yet another to find yourself cleaning the toilet. The lizard brain, as Seth Godin calls it in his new book, LINCHPIN, will always win. Unless. Unless you identify the cunning excuses. And push through what Seth calls the resistance. Gitoutahere lizard brain. The toilet is looking good. Freewriting works. It breaks through writer’s "perfection anxiety." And I’m on a roll.

Thank you, Seth.

Congrats again to Seth for today’s hugely successful launch of LINCHPIN. It’s a stunningly provocative book. He asked a bunch of "big thinkers" to write reviews: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/the-20-media-tour.html. LINCHPIN is currently #8 in bestselling books on Amazon. Buy it and read it if you haven’t already:  http://bit.ly/SethLinchpin

Lizard brain image courtesy of http://lizardbrainz.com/index.htm

Posted via email  from Debbie Weil

I am writing today. I am updating The Corporate Blogging Book for a new Kindle e-book edition. First, I cracked open the procrastination nut with 20 minutes of freewriting. This really works. Mark Levy, author of Accidental Genius, turned me onto freewriting. He just finished revising his wonderful book and a new edition will be coming out soon. Essentially, freewriting means just what it sounds like. You sit down at the computer, apply your fingers to the keyboard and type, er, write, without stopping for a period of time.

[Update: the new e-book edition has shipped.] I've discovered I can write over 1,000 words in 25 minutes if my wrists are feeling limber. And no, it's not all gibberish. Mark has amazing tips in his book about how to freewrite effectively. They are all about shutting up the lizard brain, a term you may have heard of. The lizard brain is the primitive, limbic system that overrides everything else in our brain: it is fear, sex, hunger, etc. Especially fear. And for many of us, myself included, it's what prevents us from blogging more, writing a new preface, updating a book, crafting a new presentation, etc.

Seth Godin uses the lizard brain as a linchpin concept in his new book, LINCHPIN. Think of your lizard brain as resistance, Godin says. You have to mindfully push through the resistance. Pretend everything you are writing is a draft. Ship (or publish or present) whatever you've set as your end goal EVEN IF it's not perfect. He writes page after page to articulate this idea, prodding us to give up all our excuses. He's uncannily good at enumerating the excuses. I use so many of them: the idea isn't good enough, I'll wait until tomorrow, I'll check what's happening on Twitter, etc.

But here's what stopped me cold this morning: page 131.

Seth Godin writes: "I stopped writing this book a dozen times. Each time, the force that got me to pick it up again was the resistance. I realized that my lizard brain was afraid of this book, which is the best reason I can think of to write it."

Now there's an admission I haven't heard before from Seth Godin. Writing a damned book is hard. Seth has pumped out so many he makes it look effortless. It's not. Somehow that admission gives me huge courage. Enough blogging for today. It's another form of writing warm up and, as such, a good thing. Back to the new preface.