Daily Archives: July 14, 2015

Jul 14 2015

Amazon Prime Day, July 15, 2015

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

AMAZON PRIME DAY, JULY 15, 2015

July 15, 2015 is a one-day sale exclusively for Amazon Prime customers.

It’s a Black Friday type of event in the summer, but instead of benefiting retailers across the USA, it’s just for Amazon Prime shoppers.

Smart move, Amazon. A special sale just for you, so you’re not splitting the business with hundreds of department stores.

But to take advantage of the savings, customers must join Amazon Prime.

If you’re not already a member of Amazon Prime, you can still sign up. In fact, you can get a one-month free trial.

I have Amazon Prime. I love the free two-day shipping. I also watch free movies with Amazon Prime Video (not all Amazon videos are free, only those in Amazon Prime Video, but there are many movies and television shows included).

You can also borrow one free book per month as a member of Amazon Prime. It’s different from Kindle Unlimited, since you can borrow as many books as you want with Kindle Unlimited, but only one book per month with Amazon Prime. Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime are two separate things. Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping and free streaming of videos, whereas Kindle Unlimited does not.

You must be a member of Amazon Prime to enjoy the savings on Amazon Prime Day. Kindle Unlimited doesn’t count.

(If you want to borrow a free book as an Amazon Prime member, shop from your actual Kindle device, not from your pc or laptop. Otherwise you will only see the Kindle Unlimited option. Note that there are about 100,000 books included in Kindle Unlimited which are not available to Amazon Prime members.)

Prime Day lists several kinds of products that will be on sale, from electronics to clothing to video games, and much more.

But it doesn’t list books. It will be interesting to see if any books are on sale for Prime Day. If so, they will probably be print books, since Amazon Prime is mainly about free two-day shipping. We’ll see exactly what is or isn’t on sale on July 15, 2015.

There is also a Prime Day #PrimeLiving photo contest. You could win $10,000 in Amazon gift cards. (Visit Amazon and click the ad for Prime Day on their homepage to learn more.)

You can take advantage of Prime Day savings as a member of:

  • Amazon Prime
  • Amazon Prime free trial period
  • Prime Fresh
  • Amazon Mom
  • Amazon Student

Prime members can shop for savings from any device. (You don’t have to have a Kindle to enjoy savings on Prime Day. You can shop from a pc, laptop, mac, iPad, iPhone, android phone, or tablet, for example.)

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

Jul 14 2015

More changes to the WordPress Reader…

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

WORDPRESS READER UPDATE

It looks like the WordPress reader is changing again.

I like scrolling through my WordPress reader to check out recent posts from blogs that I follow. I spend time every day reading several posts.

It’s always a shock to the system when the layout or functionality of the WordPress reader changes.

Here are a few things I notice with the current WordPress reader update:

  • Who wrote the post? I must really squint to see who the blogger is. Is this good or bad? It’s easy to fall into the habit of looking for your favorite bloggers, sometimes ignoring other posts. Will this help focus more on what looks interesting than who wrote it? But there are some magical bloggers, no matter what they write, we know it’s going to be worth a read, and we get excited when we see their posts.
  • Presently, if you proceed to click on a post that you’re not sure if you want to read in its entirety, the reader screen opens full screen, rather than in a window. And once it’s opened, the options have moved around and changed. I really don’t like this; it lacks visual appeal, and it’s hard to find any options. Tip: Skip the middle man. Click the link just under where it says There’s More. This will save you a click and you can read the post on the actual website instead of in your reader.
  • The word count was replaced with estimated reading time, like 20 sec read or 3 min read.
  • Visually, the layout has changed, too. Maybe it’s more mobile friendly. But it looks ridiculous on my very large monitor, with huge empty sidebar areas.

How do you feel about the WordPress reader changes?

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.