How We Got Two (Practically) Free Kindles

Let me just say right now that this is not some 'Do this and get a free Kindle' type of post. There was too much random kindness involved for this to be easily duplicated. This is a nice story about how we were lucky enough to get two Kindles for about five dollars.

Kindle number one came from an internet user known only as Zarcon on Reddit.com. During a conversation about the book World War Z, Zarcon recommended I check out another zombie series. After telling him that I would be sure to check the series out once I get a reader, he made an offer that surprised the heck outta me. He offered to send me a free Kindle 3 3G that he had bought before Christmas. Someone gave him a Kindle Fire and he had no use for the old one. One week later, I had a free Kindle 3 with a set of simple instructions - Enjoy your new Kindle. Pay it forward. When I can afford to, I have sworn I will - and I mean it.


Kindle two is a lot less of an awesome story, but one that may help you guys a little bit more. Through a series of different techniques, this Kindle cost us a total of five dollars and some change. First, since I am a writer, I had some royalties banked up from sales of my ebooks. That total was about sixty dollars, so that was a big chunk of it. In upcoming posts, I will talk about Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for those writers out there.

Since we had that money already banked at Amazon, we made sure that any gift cards we received came from Amazon. It is a lot easier to spend a large sum in one place than it is to spend a bunch of little sums all over. Add in shipping charges and you can get pretty costly with all that shopping, as well. That was another twenty-five dollars.

The last bit came in from Amazon themselves. Being enrolled in the Amazon Affiliates program, we receive a small commission off their sales. This was just under twenty dollars, which left a whopping five and change out of pocket for Bradi's brand new Kindle 3 touchscreen.

Like I said, there was too much kindness from strangers involved for this story to be workable for everybody. Kindle number two is completely doable for most people reading this blog. There are many different programs like the Amazon Affiliate programs and self publishing tools that you can take advantage of. It is always nice to save a couple bucks, but isn't also nice to know how to make a couple bucks, too? We will be showing you guys more ways to make money, and learn even more new ways ourselves as we continue this journey into savings together.Follow @JoshAndBradi