Amazon Vine

Amazon Wine is an internal service of Amazon.com. It is a program that allows manufacturers and publishers to create "buzz" via reviews that are published on the Amazon.com site and elsewhere. Companies that use this service pay for access. The precise cost for companies to participate is unknown. Examples of companies participating and offering their products include Logitech, Microsoft, Altec Lansing, HP, Canon, and Corel.

The first wave of Vine participants were selected by Amazon in 2007. At that time, most of the reviewers were "ranked" amongst Amazon's Top 2000 reviewers. Since that time, Amazon has broadened the program to include reviewers at all levels of experience—some with only 1 review at the time they were invited.

Currently, Amazon sends the Vine members (called "Vine Voices") a list of items twice a month. Products include books, movies, electronics, food items, and other products. Members make selections from the list and Amazon sends the items to the users at no cost.

Membership Criteria

Amazon has not revealed the criteria they use for selecting users. Membership is through invitation only. Potential members of Vine are invited into the program through email or by a special link on the Amazon.com home page.

It is generally thought by Vine members that Amazon's top reviewers were selected to participate in the Vine program, but this is not always the case. Reviewers with only 1 review and no votes have been chosen.

Products

Books make up the bulk of available items, and are offered to almost every member. However, there is also a large variety of other products available, ranging from $1 stationery products, $5,000 treadmills, and even $20,000 moats for a home. Examples of popular electronics offered to Vine members include GPS navigators, PC gaming products, cameras, camcorders, speakers, and hard drives. Because there is a very limited quantity of much sought-after electronics and an abundance of books, most Vine members are offered only the latter and almost never the former.

Items are given to Vine members free of charge. In return, members are required to post reviews for 75% of the received items before ordering new ones.

Ownership

All items sent to the members of Amazon Vine remain the property of Amazon.com. As a practical matter, however, Amazon has never been known to request the return of any item nor has the legality of their continued rights in Vine items ever been challenged or upheld. In addition, many Vine products are perishable, such as food items, which further clouds any claim to perpetual ownership rights Amazon may assert.

Vine Forum

Amazon hosts a forum for Vine Voices members only. The forum members discuss a wide range of topics including the Vine Voices newsletter which is sent to Vine Voices members the third Thursday of each month. The fourth Thursday is when the "leftovers" newsletter is sent to Vine Voice members. Many other topics are discussed including the best way to write an Amazon Vine review to who got what on the Vine newsletter Thursday.

Vine Voices Newsletter

The Vine Voices newsletter is sent to Vine Voice members the third Thursday of each month (holidays excepted). The newsletter is targeted by Amazon, using some unknown means, to Vine Voice members. Members quickly select their targeted merchandise and the merchandise is promptly shipped by Amazon for Vine Voices to review. The fourth Thursday of each month is the "leftovers" newsletter. Vine Voice members may select from a list of all available "leftover" merchandise. Each month, 2 items may be selected from the targeted newsletter. An additional 2 selections are available from the "leftovers" newsletter. However, on occasion they members are offered an additional two items

Controversy

There have been several controversial issues that have emerged on Amazon Vine. In 2008, it was alleged that two members were selling unopened merchandise on Ebay while posting fictitious reviews on Amazon.com. One member voluntarily resigned from the program. The other remains a "Voice" and continues to promote her Florida Disney World travel books.

Outside of Vine, many professional reviewers feel that 'regular people' are unqualified to write reviews because they do not have the depth of understanding of literature necessary to form a valid opinion. Fuse#8, a writer at the School Library Journal, (aka E.R. Ramseelbird), writes: "You see, on the children's literature side of things, the people submitting reviews are often getting products for kids that require a subtle hand." The same arguments have been made about bloggers. However, "amateur" reviews are widespread on Amazon (whether through Vine or not) and elsewhere on the net, and likely to remain widespread. [1]

Amazon Vine National Anthem

As part of the Vine members rituals, Amazon request that each individual pray four times a day (twenty minutes each session) and consume copious amounts of Powerade isotonic sports juice. The lyric that is spoken for the prayers is a form of ancient Hebrew-Gaelic-Dutch-Chinese dialect that has yet to be translated fully. Of those that have been manageable, they are as follows in a repetitive cycle: Bless my hands, bless my eyes Amazon Vine is so, so kind Give me the power, give me the luck To hit F5 button a crap book

"Targeting"

Selection criteria for targeted items. Vine members are confounded on what parameters allows them to be targeted for certain items but not for others. At times, the targeting practice seems counter-intuitive such as offering diapers to single men.

Official Targeting method (from Amazon): Amazon states that targeted newsletters are based on review/purchase history. But some Vine Voices feel that this is not the case based on some of the off base items in their targeted newsletters. This fact has led to many discussions on how Amazon actually "targets" Vine members and there are several theories as to how Amazon actually "targets" members; a few are as follows.

Anniversary: Under this theory, members are offered items based on their "Anniversary" date. (The day they joined Vine). Throughout the year, members are targeted for "big ticket" items for the first few months after their anniversary date. After this period members are offered generic newsletters and/or newsletters that are not targeted to their interests or purchase/review history.

Random: Under this theory members are simply offered random items without any regards to their review/purchase history.

Luck of the Draw: This theory is a combination or Amazon's official method and the Random theory. Under this theory, members are indeed targeted based on their purchase/review history, but perhaps due to a limit of items, only a random select few will find their targeted newsletters to be accurate. The other members will instead be offered generic newsletters.

Reviews

Vine Voice members are required to write reviews for the products received. The Vine Voice program requires that 75% of the merchandise received by a Vine Voice member be reviewed before the member can select another item from the Vine Voice newsletter. Vine Voice members are not paid for their reviews. Also, Amazon has promised that all submitted Vine reviews will be published, whether the review was good or bad, allowing Vine Voice members to freely review Vine items received. Vine Voice members do not receive any of the press releases, prewritten "reviews," or other loose marketing copy supplied by publishers and manufacturers, therefore (unlike many print publications) are not permitted to rewrite such copy.

External links

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.com, What is Amazon Vine
• LibraryThing.com. Amazon Vine and Early Reviewers Posted by Time on August 03, 2007.
• Amazon.com, Amazon's Top Customer Reviewers. retrieved on Oct 7, 2009.

References

• Amazon Askville