Are you interested in getting free or deeply discounted Amazon products?

It’s entirely possible by becoming an Amazon product tester. Things have changed since Amazon, in an effort to control review quality and accuracy, updated its terms of service to discourage companies from offering promotions for products in exchange for reviews.

However, it is still possible to find opportunities to test products and get some good deals. 

There are lots of opportunities in Amazon review trader sites, Facebook groups, and by reaching out to sellers directly. Some sellers may have a formal product review program that you can apply to.

What Does an Amazon Product Tester Do? 

If you are new to product testing, you may be wondering what an Amazon product tester does or why they are important. In short, an Amazon product tester receives discounted or free products from a seller in exchange for writing honest (mostly positive) Amazon reviews for the products they test.

Buyers, especially those who shop online, typically use online reviews to inform their purchasing decisions, so sellers on Amazon benefit from having many positive and recent reviews for their products. To get these reviews, some sellers offer discounted products to people interested in trying them out and writing detailed reviews.

One of the places sellers and potential testers can find each other are on websites designed for this purpose.

Understanding Amazon Review Trader Sites 

What are Amazon review trader sites? These are online marketplaces where companies looking to generate reviews for products can find product testers willing to demo products and provide feedback based on their experience testing them. 

In some cases, a product tester simply signs up on the site and gets alerted to eligible products they can apply to test and review. Other sites provide a browsable inventory of products that testers can sign up for and gain access to. Testers can then select and apply to review whatever products they are interested in.

Once approved, the seller will either ship the product to the product tester directly or provide a promotional code that the tester uses to buy the product at a significant discount.

Amazon Review Trader Sites 

A Google search for Amazon review sites will turn up a vast number of places to explore, but many are no longer relevant after Amazon’s terms of service change in 2016 forced them to update their business models. A couple of sites that are still relevant are listed below for you to check out. 

• Amazon Vine

This is a program operated by Amazon and allows trusted reviewers, or Vine Voices, to give their opinions of new and pre-release products. You can only get in via an invitation. Testers are selected based on their reviewer rank – a reflection of the quality and helpfulness of their reviews as judged by other Amazon customers. 

• Snagshout

Snagshout is one of the oldest review trader sites in existence and is still quite popular. Interested testers must register for the website and first leave a review to purchase more than one product. Snagshout caps the number of purchases to three products, and sellers are not required to approve product purchases. 

• VIP Power Club

VIP Power Club is one of the most popular review trader sites and offers discount coupons ranging from 20% to 99% sent straight to your inbox. They send emails on the latest discounted products, usually once a week.

• Vipon

Formerly called AMZ Review Trader, Vipon used to be one of the best sites for getting free Amazon products. Now it offers discounts that are up to 50% off.

Amazon Product Testing Groups 

Another viable avenue to become an Amazon product tester is to join product testing Facebook groups. Sellers looking to boost their rankings will usually post products that group members can obtain for free or for a substantial discount.

It’s also a way for new product testers to develop a relationship with Amazon sellers who may reach out directly with promotions and product testing opportunities that are not available to the entire group.

Various websites provide a wealth of information on both review sites and popular Facebook groups to join. 

How to Succeed as an Amazon Product Tester  

Now that you know where to look for opportunities, how do you ensure that you will get them and continue to do so? The answer is simple – build a reputation by writing good reviews.

• Amazon Vine Voice

This doesn’t mean always writing favorable reviews for products, although writing bad reviews may cause sellers to shy away from your services. Reading Amazon’s guide to ranking reviewers can help you understand what highly ranked reviewers do and the metrics against which the system evaluates them.

This should also help if you are interested in being invited to become an Amazon Vine Voice. Either way, Amazon owns the online marketplace, and following their best practices would be beneficial if reviewing on other platforms. 

As a product tester, your review is the final service you offer in exchange for being provided a discounted product, so it’s paramount that you learn to write detailed, informative reviews.

• Deep and Comprehensive review

This entails going into great depth about the product. You should cover everything, from packaging to the way it looks out of the box. It is also essential to express your expectations, and whether the product met or exceeded them for every metric you use to form your evaluation.

Did the product arrive in a giant ball of taped bubble wrap or a nice box? Was the box flimsy or too large for the product it contained, driving up shipping charges? Was there anything missing that you needed to test the product, such as a power cord?

Then go into detail about how easy or difficult it was to use the product. Did it require extensively reading manuals to figure out how to operate it, or was it more intuitive? Are there specific product features that you found confusing?

• Compare to other similar products you have used

How does the product compare to other similar products you have used? Does it seem cheaply manufactured? Unreliable? Do you feel like it may break with frequent use, or are there parts that seem to be particularly durable? 

Try not to use simple, empty phrases that categorize components as good or bad, but use descriptive phrases that explain why a particular feature was good or bad. Perhaps you found the bright red color distracting, or the text on the buttons was too small to read comfortably.

The more informative your review is, the more valuable the information is to the seller. They can use this information to make future product decisions. In fact, getting feedback during product testing is so important to companies that some have entire in-house product testing teams dedicated to this effort.

As an Amazon product tester, your review will likely be read by the product seller in addition to prospective buyers, so it is best to adopt a tone and include details that both parties would benefit from reading.

Once you master the art of writing interesting and useful reviews, you’ll be on your way to building credibility as a product tester, which will hopefully lead to additional product testing opportunities. 

Use Your Influence and Become an Amazon Product Tester 

If you have a hefty social media following and a knack for writing compelling product reviews, consider leveraging your social network influence to work with Amazon sellers directly.

Sellers are always looking for new ways to market their products, and they might be willing to give you free or discounted products to review and share with your followers. It helps if you have a product niche that you specialize in – electronics, fashion, wellness products, or something else.

If you are an enthusiastic consumer of any product, whether it be mobile phones or makeup, you probably have a favorite brand that you have the most familiarity with.

Consider searching Amazon for sellers who actively sell your favorite (or similar) products and getting in touch with them directly to offer your marketing services. You may even get paid if you have an active blog and a reputation as being an authoritative source of information in your niche. It never hurts to try! 

Final Thoughts 

Becoming an Amazon product tester is not as straightforward as it once used to be, especially since their terms of service changed. However, there are still plenty of options available if you are willing to do some research. Amazon review trading sites and Facebook groups are just some of the various avenues available for you to find products to test.

Writing reliable reviews is the most critical component of a successful product testing career. When mastered, it should lead to opportunities, a steady stream of discounted products, and even freebies from the Amazon sellers who need high-quality reviews.