Kindle Special Offers

Does this picture look crooked to you too?

Special Offers are advertisements displayed on your Kindle. You can purchase a subsidized version of a Kindle at a discount if you are willing to accept these Special Offers. But at first you couldn't view these offers on a non-subsidized version (like my Kindle Keyboard 3G). Now you can.

From Amazon:

Kindle with Special Offers gives you the same great Kindle experience, plus Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers that display on your Kindle's home screen and screensaver--they don't interrupt reading. 

Special Offers are available on Kindle Keyboard, Kindle Keyboard 3G, Kindle, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Touch 3G.

Turning on Special Offers: copyrightjoestrazzere

• Go to http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
• Click Manage Your Devices
• In the Special Offers column for your device, click Edit
• In the popup which appears click Subscribe to Special Offers 

(The same process allows you to turn off your subscription to Special Offers.)

Some people don't like the thought of ads on their reading device. I understand this. But I suspect these same folks watch television, read lots of blogs and websites, and attend movies that have ads. Even many books have ads for other books in the last few pages.

The Special Offers presented on Kindles seem pretty unobtrusive to me. There's a small ad on the bottom of the Home page, and the standard screen-savers (showing dead authors) are replaced by ads. Pretty easy to ignore, in my opinion.

And of course the best part is that you can turn off the Special Offers if you choose.

Some of the Offers I've seen:

• Half off hair salon services (hmm, I think this offer is a bit late for me!)
• 84% off dental services (my wife works at a local dental office - I don't think she would appreciate it if I switched)
• 88% off Gold's Gym membership (that's probably something I should consider)
• Get an award-winning eBook title for only $1 (now there's an offer that's really special!)

I'm going to check these out for a while.

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This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality

	My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://AllThingsQuality.com/.