Amazon is one of the most popular online shopping websites where you can find pretty much any kind of item or product you could possibly want. You may already be one of millions of people who have shopped using Amazon.com. How cool would it be to get items from Amazon sent to you, completely free of charge? Sounds great, right? If you become an Amazon reviewer, this could be a reality for you!
If you’d like to get involved with the Amazon reviewing program, Amazon Vine, and become a reviewer of Amazon products, we’re here to help you get started. We’ll tell you how you can become an Amazon reviewer, and give you helpful tips for your reviews. First, let’s explain what exactly the Amazon Vine program is.
What is the Amazon Vine program?
The Amazon Vine program is a program which asks the best Amazon reviewers to test out products and review them. Amazon customers who have written product reviews that have been rated well by other customers can be invited to the program. Members of the program receive free items for review purposes.
Amazon selects people to join the Amazon Vine program, and you can only become an Amazon Vine reviewer if you are invited by Amazon to join. If other Amazon customers frequently rate your reviews as helpful, you are more likely to be invited.
Now that we’ve explained what the Amazon Vine program is and how it works, let’s talk about what you need to do to be selected as a product reviewer on Amazon.
How to get free stuff on Amazon as a product reviewer
1. Fill out the details on your Amazon profile.
To get started, go to Amazon.com and sign in to your account. If you don’t already have an Amazon customer account set up, check out our tutorial to learn how to create one.
At the top of the screen, click Your Account.
Under the “Ordering and Shopping Preferences” heading, click Profile.
Now that you’re on your profile page, you’ll see your reviewer ranking, as well as all of the reviews you’ve ever written on Amazon. To add details about yourself to your profile, click Edit Your Profile.
On the next page, you’re given the option to add some information about yourself to your profile. You can share things like your job, your social media profiles, and the city you live in. You can also write a brief paragraph about yourself in the “Bio” section. When you’re done adding information, click Save at the bottom.
Of course, this is all optional and you can share as much or as little as you’d like. Be careful not to share any personal information that could leave you at risk for identity theft (financial information, important personal details, etc.).
Click the camera icon to add a profile picture if you’d like.
You may be more likely to get picked as an Amazon reviewer if you show that you care what your Amazon profile looks like, and have taken the time to fill out details of your profile.
2. Write detailed in-depth reviews on products you’ve purchased yourself.
Every time you purchase something on Amazon, be sure to write a review on it. If you purchased things in the past and forgot to write reviews about them, you can go back through your past orders and write reviews on items you purchased previously.
When you’re writing a review on Amazon, try to be as detailed as possible and give any information about the product that you think other customers would want to know about. Did it do what it was supposed to? Do you think it’s worth the price you paid? Try to provide as much information and your opinion on the product to make your review as useful as possible for other Amazon customers. If you can, we’d also recommend attaching photos or videos to your review to show people what the product actually looks like.
3. Wait for people to rate your reviews on their helpfulness.
Once you’ve written a review on a product, give some time for your review to be processed and published by Amazon, and for other customers to have a chance to see it. When other Amazon customers read your review, they’ll have the option to rate it as being helpful or not. The more people who rate your reviews as helpful, the better.
Here’s an example of a review that had a high number of helpful ratings:
4. Purchase new items and add new reviews as frequently as you can.
In order to review items on Amazon, you’ll need to make some purchases yourself. You can’t become an Amazon reviewer without spending some money shopping through Amazon. The more reviews you write, the better chances you’ll have of getting more people rating your reviews as helpful.
Profiles that are consistently updated with new, helpful reviews will be more likely to be invited to be part of the Amazon Vine program than those who don’t often make purchases or write reviews.
5. Aim to become a Hall of Fame Reviewer on Amazon.
The best reviewers on Amazon make it into what’s known as the Amazon “Hall of Fame.” This is a list of the customers who have written the most helpful and informative reviews on Amazon over the years. Those who have been top reviewers for multiple years in a row appear higher up on the list. Joanna D. for example, has achieved Hall of Fame Reviewer status in 15 different years!
To become a Hall of Fame Reviewer, you’ll need to write as many excellent quality reviews as possible, and make it on to the “Top Reviewers” list. This is a list of the current top 10,000 customer reviewers on Amazon. If you write lots of reviews and people rate them well, you may eventually become a Top Reviewer!
Now that we’ve told you what you need to do in order to become part of the Amazon Vine program, we have 3 helpful tips for you to keep in mind to help you get selected.
4 tips for getting selected as an Amazon Vine reviewer
1. Use Amazon to purchase most of the things you buy to be invited.
To be selected as an Amazon Vine reviewer, you’ll need to have written at least 100 reviews on Amazon. In order to write these reviews, you’ll have to make purchases on Amazon so you can review the items you’ve purchased. Also, if Amazon is considering your profile to become a reviewer, they will take into account what kinds of items you have purchased to determine the categories of products you would be sent to review.
2. Always post reviews on items you’ve purchased yourself.
Whenever you purchase something from Amazon, be sure to write a review about it once you’ve received the item and tested it out for yourself. To maximize the number of reviews on your profile, you should write reviews on every single product you purchase from Amazon, and try to do this as frequently as you can.
3. Try to write thorough reviews, and add as much detail as you possibly can.
You’re more likely to be selected as an Amazon Vine reviewer if other users mark your reviews as being helpful. In order to get more people rating your reviews well, you should try to include as much information as possible about the product, how it worked for you, and any details you think another customer might want to know before they decide whether or not to purchase it. Always be honest with your opinions on a product you’re reviewing – people can recognize and appreciate a genuine, honest review.
4. Put yourself in the shoes of the average consumer – what do they absolutely need to know?
Think of your review as a FAQ page (frequently asked questions) for the average person buying this product. Just because you don’t love beauty products or use them all the time, it doesn’t mean you can’t review them. However, when writing a review on something you don’t know that much about, you have to put yourself in the place of a person who would.
What kinds of questions would they ask? What do they care about the most? What would make this product better? How is it better than other similar products on the market? Answering these kinds of questions can help put your reviews miles ahead of the other reviews on Amazon that examine the same product(s).
Now you’re ready to get out there and start writing the best Amazon reviews to help you get an invitation to become an Amazon reviewer. Find out more about Amazon in general with our free Amazon course. If you’re looking for help on how to make your review helpful and sound legitimate to others, check out our article about legitimate online reviews.
If Amazon doesn’t seem like the right site for you, head over to our tutorial on deleting your account and our list of recommended Amazon alternatives.
