Friday, October 28, 2011

Amazon Vine™- What's it All About?

The Amazon Vine™ program is an exclusive club of influential Amazon voices.

You must be invited to join the program, as I was via e-mail several months ago.
When I received my e-mail invite, I was very happy to accept. After all, I do love to give my opinion on everything to anyone who will listen (and even some who will not).

When I read it was invite-only, I felt like I was being invited to join an exclusive club. I mean, me? Asked to join a group of elite reviewers for Amazon? How flattering!

Basically here is the jist of it:

Amazon Vine™ invites people they feel are the most trusted reviewers (again, I'm flattered) to post their opinions about new and upcoming items to help customers make better decisions on their purchases.

Amazon invites go out to people based on their "reviewer rank".
"Reviewer Rankings" are how your Amazon reviews are judged by other customers. So when you see the "was this review helpful?" question and you check "yes" or "no", this really means something to Amazon.

Amazon provides Vine members with free products that have been submitted to the program by participating vendors. The products are supplied by publishers, labels, studios, manufacturers or any vendor participating in the program and are 100% free to Vine Voices.


Amazon Vine™ reviews are the opinions of the "Vine Voices" (what members are called). You have no contact with the vendor and Amazon cannot edit your Vine reviews, as long as they comply with posting guidelines.

Amazon Vine™ reviews are always identified with the green stripe that says "Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program", so everyone can tell the review came from a Vine Voice.

You are expected to give your honest opinion on the products you review, even if there are things you dislike. You should treat it as any other review. We don't always like everything we try, but I do try to find as many positive attributes as I can to include.


So how does it work?

The initial Amazon Vine newsletter comes out the third Thursday of every month. Products are limited in this edition and on a first come, first serve basis. You are allowed to pick two items of your choice from this list.

The second newsletter comes out the forth Thursday of the month and features all available inventory from the past two newsletters.

You can pick 2 more products that interest you from this list, but you don't have to> I have at times not picked anything just because I didn't see anything I liked. i don't take things just because they are free (even though it IS tempting).

There is no deadline for reviews, but you are required to write a review for 75% of the items in your account before you can request any other products. I feel it's always good to post your reviews as soon as possible, so when the next newsletter comes around, you know you can pick another two items.

So far I have reviewed everything from Post-It notes, to books, to cookies, to a Sonicare toothbrush! I always seem to miss out on the high-end items, like the treadmill and the refrigerator (I kid you not-it was in this week's newsletter, but was already gone)

I really do enjoy this little "exclusive club" and I wish I had a way of inviting others to join me.
If They every decide to open the program up, I will be sure to let everyone know.

I hope you enjoyed this "tutorial" and be on the lookout for my Amazon Vine reviews, as I do often post them here, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

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