Up for public viewing and consumption are two master marketers, Steve Jobs from Apple and Oprah Winfrey from The Color Purple. Remember that movie? That was where she got the name Harpo. Of course, Harpo is also Oprah spelled backwards.

Recently one of Oprah’s favorite things is the Amazon Kindle ebook reader. What is this Kindle reader that Oprah endorsed? According to Amazon.com, the Kindle is Amazon’s wireless reading device. You can read both ebooks and RSS feeds from your favorite sources like newspapers and blogs on the Kindle.

Amazon Kindle does not use WiFi for its wireless capability. Instead, the Kindle uses EVDO which is a standard that advanced cell phones use. The benefit is that you don’t have to locate a hotspot like you would for a WiFi device.

From the looks of it, Amazon Kindle is cool. The main drawback that I see to mass acceptance is it’s price tag of $360. Despite this relatively high price, you can download thousands of books for free from many online websites. One such site is Project Gutenberg where there are over 19 thousand books available for download. Another site is Google’s book search. You can find a very good list of these Kindle book websites at http://thekindle.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/free-books-for-the-amazon-kindle/.

Now back to sales and marketing. How can you use Kindle to further your marketing effort? After all, why would a master marketer like Oprah endorse the Kindle if there wasn’t something in it for her besides the affiliate commissions? Good question. Here is one idea that you can run with … Make your whitepaper and/or free report available in Kindle format. Make sure to embed links back to your website in your report. The really cool thing about the Kindle is that it allows users to click on links in the PDF. If you make your whitepaper or free report truly useful, people will follow the links back to your website where you can provide more information of value to them.

As far as mass adoption of the Kindle, the jury is still out. Amazon introduced the Kindle last year. I’m not sure what the sales numbers are but I can tell by looking at the number of downloads that it isn’t very high. However, now with the weight of Oprah behind the Kindle, it could very well take off and catch fire this coming year.

Now about the price. $360 is still a lot of money for most people. Below I’ll provide two ways for you to get the Kindle for “cheap” or “free.”

Method 1: Get Amazon Kindle for Cheap

1) Amazon Kindle is available for sale both on Amazon and on eBay.
2) Use the method that I wrote about in my post http://alextran.com/sales-psychology/how-to-save-money-on-ebay. So if the Kindle costs $360 with a Buy It Now option, your net with 25% off will be only $270. That’s a savings of $90.

Method 2: Get Amazon Kindle for Free

1) EZSuggestions is running a consumer poll right now.
2) Submit your vote, fill in some info, and qualify to get the Amazon Kindle for FREE. The website URL is http://ezsuggestions.com/amazonkindle.

So to recap, smart marketers should get the Amazon Kindle for cheap or free using the methods above. Then use the Kindle for lead generation using the idea that I put forth. Have fun Kindling.