How to Become an Amazon Product Tester and Get Freebies and Discounts

Trying out new stuff on Amazon and sharing your thoughts can be a rewarding use of your time, especially if you love freebies and discounts

In this article, we’ll talk about what Amazon Product Testers do, how you become one, and the benefits you can get out of reviewing products sold on Amazon.

Related Reading: How to Get Amazon Reviews in 2023

What Is an Amazon Product Tester?

Amazon Product Testers, as the name suggests, are people who test products sold on Amazon. Testers usually do this for a fee, discounts, or for the most part, free products. 

While there’s a quick buck in it for the product testers, third-party Amazon sellers can also greatly benefit if the product testers come back with positive feedback on their products. 

Can I Be an Amazon Basics Tester?

A lot of people confuse being an Amazon Vine product tester with an Amazon Basics product tester. There is no specific program for testing only Amazon Basics products. To test Amazon Basics products you follow the same method to test any products as outlined here.

Does Amazon Allow Product Testers?

Although there is no hard-and-fast Amazon policy on product testers, there is no Amazon-regulated program for testing products outside of Vine, which means that sellers personally sending their products out and having them tested and reviewed is against Amazon ToS. In the past, Amazon has meted out account suspensions (or heavier penalties) on sellers who use incentivized reviews to artificially inflate their sales and rankings.

That being said, nothing stops you from using review sites or your own content site to share unbiased reviews of products sold on Amazon.

How Do I Become an Amazon Product Tester?

Amazon’s policy around soliciting product reviews can be a bit of a gray area, but in general, there are three ways to become an Amazon product tester: Amazon Vine, Amazon Review Sites, and testing products as an influencer.

Also Read: The Unofficial Guide to Amazon Terms of Service
1

Amazon Vine

Amazon Vine is an invite-only program where sellers can offer their products to Amazon’s community of product reviewers in exchange for reviews. Most of the products reviewed through Amazon Vine are very new or even pre-releases. 

Amazon recruits reviewers from a pool of Vine Voices based on something called a reviewer rank, which reflects the quantity and quality of reviews that they have put out on the marketplace for various items. 

As a Vine Voice, Amazon itself will assign and ship you products from participating sellers and ask you to give an unbiased assessment—sellers DO NOT send you their products directly, as this is explicitly against TOS.

Take note of the word unbiased. This means that you are not compelled to give a positive review for products if not warranted, and that it’s not an assurance for sellers to generate positive feedback about their products. As such, Amazon Vine remains by invitation only as a way to make sure that the reviews are genuine and helpful to customers. 

Also take note that Amazon Vine is a whole other program from Amazon Associates, which is Amazon’s affiliate program for content creators. 

The best starting point to becoming an official product tester for Amazon is to just review your Amazon purchases. The Vine program invites system looks at the amount and helpfulness of your reviews, so making a habit of reviewing your Amazon purchases is an easy way to put yourself on Amazon’s radar for a potential invite. 

Be sure to write up-to-date and helpful reviews. To do this, you should purchase products frequently on Amazon to have better chances of getting invited into Amazon Vine. 

For a full discussion about boosting your chances of becoming a Vine Voice, check out our dedicated article on the ins and outs of Amazon Vine. 
2

Amazon Reviewer Sites

The second method to become an Amazon product tester is by signing up to Amazon Review Trader Sites like Vipon and Snagshout. These are basically websites where members receive freebies or discounted items in exchange for written reviews. These platforms are popular because it’s more accessible to sellers who are looking for feedback on their products before the official release.

Unlike Amazon Vine, these independent websites are not regulated by Amazon and are more prone to fraud. Also note that there are a lot of these sites out there, so be sure to thoroughly review each one’s policy so you can find a site that works best for you.
3

Become an Influencer

Whether you build your profile as an Amazon Influencer or an independent authority within a particular niche, being an influencer is an easy way to get to test products on Amazon.

As an influencer, established Amazon brands will want to build a strong relationship with you because your vote of confidence boosts their brand awareness and lets them reach potential customers from your followers. 

Amazon also has its own Amazon Influencer Program, which, unlike ordinary influencers, have access to more marketing tools on Amazon and may be featured on Amazon search results. Amazon Influencers also get personal storefronts, shoppable photos, live streaming, and even vanity URLs.

In relation to this method, you can also follow certain brands or join communities on social media and be on the lookout for product testing campaigns. 

Fake Reviews are a Huge Problem for Amazon Sellers

Third-party sellers and Amazon itself have been plagued by fake reviews for years. Artificially boosting listing performance and sales through fake reviews is a big problem on the Amazon marketplace, and Amazon has filed multiple lawsuits against fake review firms and thousands of Facebook communities to crack down on fake reviews. By extension, its policies on product testers have equally become more stringent over the past couple of years.

How Much Do Amazon Product Testers Make?

The quick answer is it depends. 

You don’t need to pay anything to participate as an Amazon Vine Voice, but you also won’t be compensated for your time writing reviews either. Instead, compensation comes in the form of freebies or heavy discounts on the products sent to you for review. 

On the flip side, some third-party sites which do not necessarily operate within Amazon’s policies (there’s no official Amazon program for product testing outside of Vine) say that product testers make somewhere around a few bucks to hundreds of dollars per product, depending on the kind of product and the length and quality of the review. 

What’s important to keep in mind is that becoming an Amazon product tester is by no means a sustainable source of income, but if you love trying out new stuff and dumping your thoughts on Amazon in order to help customers make more informed purchases, the freebies and discounts make it worth your time.  

Final Thoughts

Becoming an Amazon Product Tester is a nice way of getting freebies and discounts on products that you like. It’s also a nice way of helping out other Amazon shoppers, as your unbiased reviews help them make better informed decisions when buying products on Amazon. 

Have you tried reviewing products on Amazon before? Let us know how it went in the comments below.