How to Join Amazon's Vine Review Program: 11 Tips That Work

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Learn how to become an Amazon Vine member and receive free gifts in return for trusted reviews

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How to Get Invited

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How Amazon Vine Works

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Alternatives to Amazon Vine

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Video

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Tips

Want to get free stuff from Amazon in exchange for reviews? Amazon Vine is an exclusive invitation-only program that allows members to order free products in exchange for honest reviews. Read on to learn how to get invited to Amazon Vine, how the program works, and some alternatives that can keep you occupied until you receive your invitation.

Things You Should Know

To get invited to Amazon Vine, write detailed, honest reviews for each product you purchase.
The more helpful your reviews are, the more likely you are to receive helpfulness votes (hearts). A high helpfulness score will improve your chances.
Include photos or videos in your reviews to increase your visibility and get noticed by Amazon.

Section 1 of 3:

How to Get Invited

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Write reviews that earn helpful votes (hearts). When an Amazon customer ranks your review as helpful, it improves your reviewer rank. The higher your reviewer rank, the better your chances are of getting noticed by Amazon's Vine program recruiters. To get more hearts on your reviews, include the sort of product information that you would have liked to know before buying the product. Tell others how you use the product, what you like and don't like about it, and whether you feel the purchase was worth it overall.
- Even if your reviews have a lot of helpfulness votes, there's no guarantee you'll receive an invite. Some Vine reviewers were invited with only a few helpfulness votes.^{[1]XResearch source}
- While you can no longer view your reviewer rank, you can see how many helpfulness votes your reviews have earned at the top of your Amazon profile (e.g., "500 hearts"). You'll also find all of your past reviews here.
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Review products regularly, but choose quality over quantity. Many Amazon Vine reviewers who've received the elusive invitation claim they didn't have tons of reviews before joining—just a few well-written ones with honest and unbiased opinions. Don't run through your past orders and leave single-sentence reviews in hopes of receiving an Amazon Vine invitation—just make sure the reviews you feel inspired to write are meaningful.^{[2]XResearch source}
- Because the Vine program emphasizes the timeliness of reviews, you may increase your likelihood of receiving an invitation by reviewing your purchases within a week or two of receiving them.
- Always make sure you have plenty of recent reviews so Amazon knows you're still reviewing.
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Many Vine reviewers noted that their reviews contained pictures of the products they purchased or videos of products in action. While Amazon hasn't confirmed or denied the value of multimedia reviews, photo and video reviews get a lot of views—another metric that is assumed to boost your review ranking.
Another trick that hasn't been verified by Amazon is that users who write helpful reviews of ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books they've purchased tend to be invited to Vine. Some Vine reviewers were surprised to be invited to the exclusive program after writing only a few helpful book reviews and nothing more!
Once you're invited to the Vine program, many of the products you'll be reviewing are brand new to the store and haven't been reviewed yet. If you show Amazon that you're willing to take a chance on products without reviews, they may take notice. Also, being a product's first or second reviewer can increase your chance of getting helpfulness votes.
Do you often buy certain types of products and have some background knowledge to share? Maybe you're a skincare guru or know everything there is to know about soldering supplies. Leave plenty of reviews on products from the same category to establish yourself as an expert in that area. Many Vine reviewers on Reddit's /r/AmazonVine claim most of their reviews were for similar products when they finally received their invitations.
Current Amazon Vine reviewers find that their reviews of medical products like supplements and vitamins are rejected by Amazon when they make medical promises or claims. To avoid disqualifying yourself before you're invited, keep your vitamin and supplement reviews focused on the facts. Instead of saying, "These pills will cure your chronic headaches," say, "These pills were easy to swallow, and my headaches no longer last as long."
While Amazon doesn't offer advice on this either way, uploading a picture to your Amazon profile, using a real name, and writing a brief bio may be helpful. If your profile is anonymous, Amazon customers may not find your reviews trustworthy, and Amazon may avoid sending you an invitation to Vine.
Some Amazon Vine members attribute their invitations to the fact that they live in rural or semi-rural locations where there aren't many other Amazon shoppers writing reviews.^{[3]XResearch source}
If you read an Amazon review that helped you decide whether to buy a product, click the heart to rate the review as helpful. While there's no solid evidence that this can help you get invited to Amazon Vine, some Vine members believe it helped them.^{[4]XResearch source}
When writing reviews, focus on the products, not the shopping experience, packaging, or other details. Your reviews should cover the products only, and save the packaging and shipping issues for your seller feedback.

Section 2 of 3:

How Amazon Vine Works

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When a seller enrolls in Amazon Vine, they offer a limited number of free products to Amazon customers in exchange for honest reviews.^{[5]XResearch source}
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Reviewers order free products. Active Amazon Vine members have a special list of products they can order from at no cost. The products available to Vine members vary by ranking—meaning that more prolific reviewers ultimately rise to the Silver and Gold tiers, awarding them access to higher-value products.
- To maintain Gold status, reviewers must review 100 items and at least 90% of their orders every 6-9 months. Silver members must review up to 50% of their free products.^{[6]XResearch source}
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Vine members review the products. Once a Vine member has tried out their free product, they leave an honest review. Reviews are first sent to Amazon for approval, which can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Once Amazon approves a review, it goes live.
- Reviews written by Amazon Vine members are labeled "Vine Voice" for transparency.

Section 3 of 3:

Alternatives to Amazon Vine

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If you don't want to wait to be invited to Amazon Vine but still want to review products, Amazon's Influencers Program is a great alternative. If you're a social media creator, you can earn commission on the Amazon products your followers buy after viewing your product recommendations.^{[7]XResearch source}
Sign up for an account at Influencer to receive boxes of free products to review, from skincare and makeup to electronics.^{[8]XResearch source}
Get free products in exchange for your honest reviews on your existing social media platforms. BzzAgent offers more free products to influencers with solid followings, but you can still get free stuff to review even if you're more of a micro-influencer.^{[9]XResearch source}

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Tips

While Vine products are free, members in the United States will need to pay taxes on the worth of the products they've received.
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You don't need to be an Amazon Prime member to join Amazon Vine.
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