How to Get Almost Anything for Free on Amazon

Are you wondering how to get free stuff from Amazon? There are actually several ways to get free things from Amazon. But, one of the best and easiest ways to get almost anything you want is from one program in particular.

You’ve probably heard of people getting paid for product reviews, or getting free items for their honest reviews. Amazon has an invitation-only program that allows you to request certain products by leaving unbiased and honest reviews after testing out the product.

This program is called Amazon Vine, and it is how to get almost anything for free on Amazon.

How to Get Free Stuff from Amazon

As a member of the Amazon Vine program for over 6 months now, I have been able to save money on daily items, gifts, decor, and much more. In fact, I’ve saved well over $4,500. And, I have even gotten many items I needed for my upcoming wedding for free.

So, whether you are a stay-at-home parent, you work a 9-5, or you run your own business, Vine will have products for anyone and everyone. Plus, there is even an opportunity to make money later on from the products you receive.

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How do I Join the Amazon Vine Program?

To join the program, you will need to have left multiple reviews with honest feedback on products you’ve purchased before from Amazon. Other customers will need to mark some of your reviews as “helpful” before Amazon can decide whether or not you provide trustworthy reviews. 

The best strategy for receiving this “helpful” mark is to provide thorough feedback about the product. This should include any pros and cons of the product, not just the positives. 

Transparency is always best when writing reviews. It also helps Amazon customers make the best decision on which product is the best fit for them.

If you can provide any images or even better, videos of the product in use, more people are likely to mark this as helpful. Therefore, increasing your chances of getting accepted into the program sooner. 

Once you are accepted into the program, you will also be known or called a Vine Voice, or just voice. This is helpful to know when reading their terms and conditions. Otherwise, it gets a little confusing.

Do I Need to be an Amazon Prime Member to be a Vine Reviewer?

No. You do not have to be a prime member to be a Vine voice. Nor does Prime Membership necessarily help you get your Amazon freebies any sooner. And, you will also never have to pay for shipping the products to you as this is required by the store owners who created the products.

However, many Vine reviewers have reported that their items have been shipped to them within just a few days, even if they weren’t an Amazon prime subscriber. 

So, as long as you have a decent amount of helpful reviews, you are a strong candidate to become a Vine voice and product tester. 

But, as a Prime Member, you have access to many shows, movies, and even Ebooks and Magazines. This can definitely be worth it if you tend to shop regularly on Amazon anyway as the extra benefits are well worth the price if you take full advantage.

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What Happens After I Become a Vine Voice?

As a new Vine Voice, you will be automatically placed into the “Silver Member” category. As a Silver status member, you will have access to all products that are under $100. This even includes items that are priced right at $99.

All Silver status members can request up to 3 items per day. Since I joined the Vine program in November 2023, some of the requirements have changed. And they will continue to change over time.

Currently, though, you don’t have to have nearly as many reviews completed before your review date, and you are required to request fewer products than when I first started.

When I first started, (if I remember correctly) you were required to review 90% of at least 100 products (90 reviews). It has since changed to 90% of at least 80 products (72 reviews). 

These review requirements must be met by the end of your evaluation period, which is around 6 months. So if you are close to your evaluation period, make sure to catch up on reviews, or order some more items that you can review to meet the requirements.

You are also required to review the products you request within a reasonable time frame.

What is a reasonable time frame? 

Depends on the product. For healthcare and beauty products this may take several weeks to over a month for a proper evaluation of the product. Clothing can be reviewed as soon as you try it on. Just so long as you don’t wait forever to write a review. 

Otherwise, it really isn’t fair to the stores that provide you with free products as this slows down their chances of making sales

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When Do I Upgrade to Gold Member Status on Vine?

Once you have successfully completed the requirements for the Silver member status, and only after your evaluation period. 

I have read about some confusion on this as people are unsure if they are upgraded once they complete the requirements, and only after their evaluation period. 

I was confused about this as well because I had completed more than the necessary requirements before my evaluation period was up, but I only got upgraded after my evaluation time. 

The requirements are also a little different than the Silver Status. You need to review at least 90% of 80 items, every 6 months.

Is Gold Status Better Than Silver Status on Amazon Vine?

Yes. You will have access to any price of products, and you can request up to 8 items per day. The chances of you actually requesting all 8 items every single day is unlikely. But, you do have that option. 

With access to higher-priced items, it is a good idea to provide more thorough reviews though as these items tend to involve more work, or may require longer time periods to test the product. 

Can I Sell or Give Away Products That I No Longer Want?

Yes. However, Amazon requires that you don’t sell or give away any products you’ve purchased for 6 months.

I find this to be a bit of a silly rule for a few reasons. 

1. Some products are meant to be gifts and given away, and you can’t always plan 6 months ahead of time.
2. If a product doesn’t work, why bother keeping it?
3. How is Amazon going to actually track what you do with those product?

What I would recommend doing is to not necessarily request any products you know you will give away before the 6 months. Or, just don’t announce where you got it from, or keep the brand name discreet, I suppose.

Again, I have no idea how Amazon is going to actually track this, or how they would be able to enforce it very easily (other than remove you from the program). 

But, use your best judgment. Ultimately, the choice is yours on what you do with the products. 

Can I Make Money By Selling Products From Amazon Vine?

Yes, you can sell products you received from Amazon Vine. However, per the rules, you are not allowed to sell any products you receive until after a 6 month period of when you actually get the product.

Again though, as I mentioned, it may be difficult for Amazon to track some of these products.

But, if you wanted to make a profit from some of the products you get from Vine, I would suggest waiting 6 months and then you can decide however you want to sell them.

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Do I Have to Pay Taxes on The Products I Receive?

Yes. But only if you request a total of over $600 in taxable value each year. After this point, Amazon is required to report it to the IRA in a 1099 form.

However, there is an exception to this rule. For any “health” related products, many of these items are not considered taxable or have a $0 estimated tax value.

Since it is required by law to report all taxable income over the $600 you will need to fill in some additional tax information for this purpose.

How much do you pay in taxes though?

​This is a great question that I have never found an exact answer to. However, even though I’m not a tax expert by any means, my guess is that this amount is based on your state income tax requirements as this is considered “self-employment” income. So, if you go over $600, expect to get a 1099 form from Amazon.

But, you may even be able to claim some of this amount as “business-related expenses” if you plan to sell some of your products later on down the road or if you consider this part of a side business. Check with your tax advisor to be on the safe side though.

You can access your Amazon Vine tax documents in the Amazon Tax Center.

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How Many Helpful Reviews Do I Need to Write?

I can’t give you a magic number of the required amount of ‘helpful’ reviews needed before you are invited to join Amazon’s Vine program. 

Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact amount I had before I was accepted. But, having at least 20 or more solid reviews is a great start. Closer to 50 or even 100 is ideal if you don’t already have access to an invitation to join. 

However, it’s not so much about the quantity of reviews you have written but more about the quality of your reviews. A two-word review is not considered helpful. But, a several-sentence review may help someone decide whether or not to buy and is therefore considered helpful.

Negative reviews are just as helpful as positive reviews as it can also help a company improve its products.

Have you ever tried to find a product, taken a look at the reviews, and come across many that were vague and had no insightful information? 

It’s pretty irritating, right? Well, the better a product’s reviews are, the more thorough, trustworthy, and honest, the more likely that product is to sell. And this is what Amazon wants to see. 

Good reviews mean higher chances of a customer buying, and hence Amazon makes more money too. 

The better the Amazon sellers do, the better Amazon does as well. You can look at Amazon’s Community Guidelines for more clarity on this.

If you are interested in becoming a Vine reviewer, make sure to go back into your previous Amazon purchases and write reviews of those products. I would suggest starting with your most recent purchases first and working your way back. 

This is to avoid writing reviews about products that are no longer in circulation. 

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Can I Get Free Kindle Books and Free Audiobooks from Vine?

I have been reviewing Vine products since November 2023, and I have seen very few books. I have not seen any audiobooks or Kindle books though. However, this doesn’t mean that they won’t be available to you at some point. 

Just the other day I saw a few books pop up on my recommended list, and I had never seen any books on Vine before. They weren’t ones that I was interested in, but, they did show up.

And a few months later I have started noticing more books show up, but for the most part, this is pretty limited.

How to Get Access to Amazon Prime and Audible for Free

If you are interested in getting free audiobooks or ebooks, check back regularly into your Vine account because there are new products that show up all the time.

Or, better yet, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Prime, where you can get access to up to 10 ebooks every month. However, if you are a current Prime member, you should already have access to a variety of titles which you can check out each month with your Amazon account. 

With a Prime membership, you also have access to Prime Video where you can watch a variety of movies and shows. Some of which my family really enjoys, like the new Fallout show that came out in 2024.

If you prefer to have easier and better access to a larger variety of audiobooks, you will want to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Audible Prime. You will get unlimited access to over 11,000 titles or over 68,000 hours of listening time. 

While it isn’t very common to find books on vine, after reading a thread from a Reddit forum, there were a few comments that mentioned some publishers have reached out to Vine members to review their books. 

However, if there is a specific book coming out that you are specifically interested in, you may be able to reach out to the author and offer to review their book for a free copy. You can show them proof of your previous Vine reviews.

You can also just try a free trial of Amazon Prime, or Amazon Audible for 30 days to get access to free ebooks and audiobooks.  

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Alternatives to Get Free Ebooks and Audiobooks

Another great way to get access to free Kindle ebooks and audiobooks is to use free library membership apps like Hoopla or Libby. 

If you don’t already have a library card, you can go into your local library with proof of address, and sign up for a card. 

The staff can help you open a Hoopla or Libby account. Whichever account they happen to have. 

​Can You Get an Amazon Gift Card for Reviews?

Not officially, no. However, I believe this sometimes happened in the past where a seller would give free Amazon products for quality reviews plus free gift cards to the reviewer. 

As I am aware, this is not very common anymore, but, there are some other great ways to get a free Amazon gift card and other gift cards. Survey programs like Swagbucks and User Interviews are one of the best ways of getting paid in hundreds of gift card choices. 

These survey programs are both free to sign up for. They are also a great way to earn a few extra bucks in your free time. 

How to Find Products You Want

Once you become a product reviewer in the Amazon Vine Program, and get almost anything you want or need in place of helpful reviews of the products you request.

If you are a prolific reviewer, you are more likely to see recommended products that are a good fit for you. However, you can also search for thousands of other products that you may want.

To find all this great free swag, you will go into your Vine account, and from here, search for whatever product you want. This part can be a little tricky because of keywords.

If you are not finding what you want, modify your search. Rather than using specific keywords like “Call of Duty”, you might instead use a broad term and search for “video Games”. 

You can also just look within the different categories like “Household Products”. If you are still struggling to find the product you want, try a more generalized term. If you still can’t find what you want, it may not be available. At this time. 

But, the great thing about the Amazon Vine program is that new products are being added into the program all the time. I have literally looked for a product I wanted in the morning, and a few hours later I found what I wanted.

Another interesting thing I have noticed (now I don’t know how true this is), is that, in the past, I had searched or purchased a certain product from Amazon that wasn’t on Vine. Now, a few days later, that same product appeared on the Vine list, if not directly in my recommended list.

I believe this is because of the use of cookies when online shopping. I have not seen or heard of any proof of this yet, but I am guessing that any recent searches you’ve made on your Amazon account are tracked and may sometimes appear on Vine if there are products available. 

Does Vine Show Other Customers Your Purchases From Amazon?

No. This would be a breach of privacy.

However, any products you have reviewed, the name associated with your Vine account will be visible when other customers are looking at those products. If you have a public Amazon registry, this may be noticeable to others as well. 

Final Thoughts on How to Get Free Stuff from Amazon

While there is some limit to what kind and how many products you get for free with the Amazon Vine program, overall it is a great way to save money.

There are often tons of products for any age group and for just about any need (within reason).

So for those with a limited budget, Amazon Vine can be not only a great way to save money, but to potentially make money too. As long as you follow the guidelines and maintain good standing as a member of the program.

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How to Get Free Stuff from Amazon

Do you have any questions about the Amazon Vine Program?