Amazon Vine™
Products mentioned here but not offered via Vine™
Just to be clear, the purifier, the Kindle and the steam cleaners mentioned in this blog post were not offered via Vine™, but are mentioned to illustrate points.
Purpose of this blog post
This blog post was originally written as an Amazon guide to describe the theories about how people might be offered invitations to Vine™, and contained only a brief description of Vine™ itself. After seeing Questions about Amazon's reviewing system (when it was in the form of an Amazon guide, and its title mentioned FAQ rather than questions), an American reviewer requested that I do an equivalent FAQ about Vine™ issues.
As I looked into the idea, it became clear that there were two very different needs. One was for a FAQ that is only for Vine™ members, which I will have no part of, and which seems to be as far away as ever. The other idea was for an outsiders’ guide to Vine™, so I expanded my guide as it then was to include a lot more about Vine™ itself, with further changes being made during the conversion to this blog post and thereafter. The result is not a FAQ guide as such, but inevitably it contains the answers to some FAQ about Vine™. Anybody who is interested in creating a FAQ is welcome to pick ideas from this blog post and to provide their own answers in their own way. That guide, like Questions about Amazon's reviewing system, will contain a lot of short, snappy answers and avoid opinions and theories as far as is possible. Given the shroud of secrecy that Amazon wraps their software in (at least in part in order to limit abuse of the system), it isn’t always possible to stick to facts alone.
Therefore, this blog post is not meant to be a FAQ guide, but is intended to demystify the workings of Amazon Vine™ to those outside. There are plenty of facts, but also a lot of opinions and theories. Some questions that would be asked in an internal Vine™ FAQ guide are not included here because they are only relevant to Vine™ members, for example questions about contact address, terms and conditions, etc., that outsiders do not need to know. However, I have seen the nearest thing to a members' FAQ guide and I have covered the questions that will be of interest to outsiders without breaching terms and conditions. At least I don't think they breach the terms and conditions, but if I am thrown out of Vine™, it won't be the end of the world as long as I can continue with my other Amazon activities.
Introduction
The first part of this blog post describes aspects of the program itself and is based on hard evidence. Where I add an opinion, I make clear that it’s just my opinion. Where I add a theory, I make it clear that it’s just a theory but it isn’t necessarily mine unless I say so.
The second part of the blog post is about how people might get selected for invitation into Vine™. The big question that nobody knows the answer to is how Amazon decide who to invite. The little question that also needs to be considered is whether Amazon’s different websites use different selection criteria, although there is no obvious reason why this should be so, nor is there any observable evidence to suggest it. This part of the blog post begins factually, but most of it is speculation based on observations by myself and others. I am not surprised that a reviewer friend of mine has described some of this speculation as far-fetched, but none of us truly know and I don’t rule anything out at this stage. Many of these sections have titles ending in question marks to emphasize the point that there is no proof. If you have other theories, please let me know.
It is clear to me is that there is more than one way of getting in, because for every theory there are clearly people who don‘t fit. It is also clear that Amazon‘s assertion that people are chosen based on the quality of their reviews is a load of bull, although some people might be chosen that way. Anybody who looks at Vine™ reviews overall notices that there are some good ones and bad ones too. Looking at their profiles, one might wonder how some of them were allowed in. Looking at the profiles of some outsiders who have never been invited (and you can only be sure that they've never been invited if they tell you and you believe them) adds to the mystery, but also raises the question of how some of those outsiders have never been invited. More of that later.
How the program operates
The basic program
The Amazon Vine™ program allows publishers and manufactures to send their products to Amazon for distribution to reviewers. For the suppliers, it is a form of advertizing designed to create interest in new products before (or soon after) they become widely available.
In setting up the program, Amazon decided to distribute the items free to reviewers, but that only selected reviewers are allowed to join the program, those selections being made by Amazon.
Personally, I think Vine™ might work better all round if reviewers were expected to pay a nominal amount for whatever they receive. I know that a lot of reviewers who are already part of the program don’t like the idea, but it would curtail some of the worst excesses and allow for a much wider selection of participants. Just having to pay the shipping costs or 5% of the list price (but not both) would give people pause for thought. The race to order as soon as a new list arrives might be less frenetic, if it were to still happen at all. Most Vine™ members would order less stuff, which would allow more Amazon customers to participate. It might even allow everybody to participate who wants to.
Vine™ offerings
Reviewers are sent two lists per month, the first being a list that is meant to be tailored to their specific tastes. For some people it works quite well, but it doesn‘t work for me. It is called the targeted list and is normally a very short list. A maximum of two products can be selected from this list. We’ll come back to targeting later.
The second and much larger list is called the leftover list and is sent to everybody. Again, a maximum of two products can be selected from this list. No carry-forward is allowed from one list to another. Thus, no reviewer ever gets more than four products per month.
There is a much wider range of offerings on USA Vine™ (including food and drink) than on UK Vine™. I think a few CD’s were offered in the early days of both the UK and USA programs, but I haven‘t seen any since I joined UK Vine™ and I‘m told that it‘s a similar story in the USA. Both the UK and USA programs are dominated by offers of books, but small appliances, office supplies and computer supplies including software sometimes appear on the lists. Larger appliances such as TV sets may occasionally be offered, but not very often.
France and Germany also operate Vine™ programs, but I am not in contact with any reviewers who are in those programs so have no information. I haven’t found any Vine™ pages in Canada or Italy (but maybe Italy will start up eventually; it is a young site) and I haven’t looked in China, Japan or Spain, though I'd be surprised if at least some of them don't have Vine™ programs.
The non-disposable rule
Vine™ members are not allowed to sell or give possession to anybody else EVER, though it appears that after six months, Vine™ products can be disposed of for scrap. Amazon reserve the right to recall products at any time, but obviously if I'm right about the six-month rule, they won't recall anything that is too old. As far as I am aware, Amazon have never done recalled anything. Of course, in the case of products with a limited lifespan (food and drink being obvious examples), it would be impossible to enforce anyway. Actually, if they want to recall food or drink because of (say) an e-coli outbreak, it will be very worrying for any Vine™ reviewers who have already consumed those products. While disposal for scrap appears to be allowed eventually, the rules clearly forbid resale. Sometimes people defy the rules and offer Vine™ items on sites such as E-Bay. If you see a Vine™ item being offered for sale, you may report it to Amazon, but please remember to give them all relevant details. Amazon can only reprimand the reviewer, which may or may not mean throwing them out of the Vine™ program, if they have enough information upon which to act.
Targeting
One of the ideas behind Vine™ is to somehow find the right reviewers for the right products. We must always remember this is a system for reviewing, not for filling people’s homes with all the gadgets that they’d like to have. Reviewers sometimes wonder why they are offered (say) a vacuum cleaner or a computer printer not long after they’ve reviewed the one they own. It’s precisely because they are known to review that type of product. What Vine™ hope is that the reviewer will accept the product and compare it with the one they’ve already reviewed.
Customers like comparative reviews of this type, providing they contain all the relevant information. (Alana) Chandler’s reviews of steam cleaners have proved extremely popular (see below). She didn’t get them from Vine™, but borrowed them from friends who between them had a variety of steam cleaners; however, the same principle applies. If a reviewer is offered rival gadgets or appliances through Vine™, it presents a great reviewing opportunity, assuming that the reviewer has room for them all.
Selection policies
With a conspicuous absence of music CD’s among the products on UK Vine™, and with the books mostly not appealing to me, I haven’t found much to interest me. Others get much more out of Vine™ than I do. The bottom line is that as there is no obligation or pressure to accept anything, you may as well accept the invitation if you get one. While you can opt out at any stage, there’s no point. Even I occasionally find something that interests me. Amazon can issue new invitations whenever they feel the need to do so.
Some people say that Vine™ isn't for stuff you want, but that it is an opportunity to try stuff you'd never think of buying with your own money, and I suspect that most people regard it that way. However, I have a simple rule that if I wouldn't consider buying it EVEN at a knockdown price (such as when I browse my local discount bookshop) then I'm not interested. Of course, if something comes up that I'd pay a normal price for, that's even better, but that hasn't happened yet. I have plenty of books and music to review and I'm not going to waste time with stuff that doesn't interest me.
Pre-publication books
Books are sometimes supplied to Vine™ in an unfinished state. So far, my Vine™ books have all been the finished article, but they’ve all been books that have been out for a while. People who accept pre-publication copies (also known as advance review copies) can find pictures missing, typos and various other deficiencies that are supposed to be rectified before publication. Reviewers are meant to make allowances accordingly. Of course, some of these books are closer to the published version than others.
Food and drink samples
As noted above, food and drink manufacturers have not yet supplied anything to the UK Vine™ program, but they have supplied the USA program. Some American reviewers have been very disappointed to discover that while the standard product may be offered as a pack of 6, 12, 20 or whatever, the samples supplied to Vine™ reviewers sometimes (but not always) contain much smaller numbers. In these cases, the number may be just one can, one bottle, one chocolate bar or whatever. It may even be that one bottle may be enough to base a review on, but one chocolate bar? If I were to review a chocolate bar that I’d never tasted before, I’d want to eat a few in order to make an accurate judgement. Anybody with children might want to see what they think too. Of course, some reviewers might be able to review chocolate effectively based on just one bar, but I don't think many would. In any event, the meanness of some (but not all) food and drink suppliers in providing only limited samples discourages some reviewers from accepting them at all. Those reviewers who like to order the maximum number of products often feel they can do better by selecting other stuff.
Nevertheless, if food manufactures join the UK Vine™ program, they are likely to adopt similar policies. These industries are dominated by multi-nationals such as Nestlé and Kraft who operate in America, Europe and elsewhere, irrespective of their home bases. I’ll be watching with interest to see what happens, as it inevitably will at some point.
Please note that while I’ve highlighted food and drink here, the same basic idea may apply to some other household products that would normally be sold in packs.
The 75% rule
Reviewers are only required to review 75% of everything they receive. Although it is not obvious from the way people discuss the rules (but is clear from the wording of the actual rules themselves), the 75% rule is not enforced until a reviewer has ordered four products. Having done so, a reviewer has to review three of the four products before being able to order any more. The whole point of the rule is to allow you NOT to review some products that you don't want to for whatever reason. If the very first product that a reviewer ordered from Vine™ happened to be such a product, it would stop the reviewer before he or she got started if Amazon enforced the 75% rule on the first order.
One thing that has become clear is that the rule errs on the side of generosity. Even beyond the first four products, it is sometimes possible for a reviewer to have reviewed less than 75% of products received and still order more. My theory is that Amazon works in blocks of four, so for every four products received, a reviewer must review three. If true, once having reviewed three of the first four products, a reviewer could receive a further four before having to review any, bringing their total to three reviews from eight received. The reviewer would then have to review any three of the five un-reviewed products before receiving any more.
I have now done this. Having ordered an eighth product but only posted UK Vine™ reviews for three of the previous seven, I called up another product page and was told I needed to review three more. No problem, as I already had two reviews ready, and had posted them in America where they don't count towards my quota. I promptly posted them in the UK, leaving one more review before I was allowed to order anything else. I reviewed the newest book within a couple of days of receiving it and can now order again when something appeals. If my theory holds good, I should be able to order four more before having to post further UK Vine™ reviews, bringing my total to six books reviewed out of twelve ordered. In the meantime, should I write reviews for any of them, or for the other two yet un-reviewed, I'll post them in America if they are listed there. You will notice that the way I operate the system, the 75% is becoming a maximum rather than a minimum.
Being the maverick that I am and given the rarity with which I find anything appealing, I am more interested in testing the formula than in whether I have spare ordering capacity. So, I am satisfied that I have confirmed my theory thus far, but the cynics will say that I haven't got enough data to satisfy them. While I think it highly likely that my theory is correct, I'll continue with my policy of not posting UK Vine™ reviews until I have to, so that I can confirm the limits, but I'll prepare the reviews whenever it suits me and post them in America at the earliest opportunity thereafter. Even after I have enough data for the cynics (if that situation ever arises), they will no doubt respond that I have only proved the case for the UK. While the UK and USA software have differed in various ways historically, I think it most unlikely that they would use different algorithms. The differences have normally been caused by some software being installed at one site and not the other. The two Vine™ systems are both operated from Seattle, so I'm told, making it even less likely that thy would use different software. I can only prove the USA algorithm if Amazon remove the restriction about Vine™ membership being limited to those with a postal address in the relevant country, and if I am subsequently invited into USA Vine™, which would not be a certainty by any means. The best chance of proving the USA algorithm is for an American to take up the challenge.
An alternative theory is that Amazon may be more lenient in applying the 75% rule to the leftover list than to the targeted list. Most of what I order is from the leftover list anyway.
In practice, most reviewers in the program make sure they stay ahead of the 75% mark because they want to avoid the possibility of being unable to order something they want from a future list. Given the speed at which stocks of some products are claimed, that is a chance that most reviewers don’t want to take. By the time they’ve posted another review, it may be too late to get what they want. I'm happy to risk that.
The green banner
Any review of a product that a customer receives from the Vine™ program is branded with a prominent green banner in the country where the review is posted via the Vine™ program. In America, the banner reads as follows.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
In the UK, the banner reflects the different spelling of the last word as follows.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme
In France and Germany, the wording is different again to reflect their own language.
If a reviewer posts the review in a foreign country, the banner does not show. Because I am a member of UK Vine™, the green banner doesn’t show up in the USA. I have copied and pasted the banner into my American reviews where applicable, though of course it just appears in standard black type, and I deliberately didn‘t edit the spelling. Meanwhile, here are the links to the UK reviews that illustrate the green banners. I also list the star ratings I've given each product here, showing at a glance why I'm not wildly keen on Vine™. (Note that this list is not always up to date.)
The Vine™ Voice badge
Any reviewer that is part of the program has the option to display this badge on their profile and all their reviews. However, a lot of customers who are not in the Vine™ program find this badge confusing, thinking that it also means that the customer received the product free via the program. Look up Surround Air XJ-3800 Intelli-Pro Air Purifier. Look for the review by J Lee, which on the last occasion that I checked, was in the top spotlight position. Now look at the comments attached to that review. Many of the comments are about the product and the contents of the review, but there are some comments about the Vine™ program. I’ll reproduce a couple here.
Since this is a "Vine Voice" review, you got this machine given to you. What's all this nonsense about research and budget?
I understand that through the Amazon Vine program you get these items free. Why did you pay for it?
J Lee replied to both comments explaining the situation, but as a result of that experience, removed the Vine™ Voice badge from their profile. The green banner will still show on any review that J Lee posts as a result of receiving a free Vine™ product from the program, but there will no longer be any confusion regarding J Lee’s other reviews. Seeing those comments, I have removed the Vine™ Voice badge from my UK profile. There are enough problems with Vine™ reviews anyway, and that’s one that we are allowed to opt out of.
Reviewer objectivity - or lack thereof
Some customers, upon realizing what those green banners mean, choose to disregard all Vine™ reviews. That is their choice, but are Vine™ reviews any more or less objective than other reviews? Reviewers sometimes get thrown out of the Vine™ program, but not for giving one-star reviews. Nevertheless, some people may fear this and give more generous ratings than they otherwise would. However, because some reviewers take more risks with Vine™ selections precisely because they are free, they are more likely to be disappointed with what they get via Vine™ than what they buy, and this disappointment may be reflected in their reviews. Other reviewers have a policy of never reviewing stuff they don’t like, but feel obliged to do so in the case of Vine™ products. These are just examples, but there are a variety of other reasons for a Vine™ review being sometimes more favourable and sometimes more critical than a standard review. Looking at all the arguments, we can see that the overall evidence is inconclusive.
So far, I’ve reviewed three Vine™ products, giving one two stars and the others three stars. Whenever I post them in America, I mark them as noted earlier. In one case, I had to put the review on a Kindle version because the hardback isn’t listed in the USA, but I added a sentence to the front of the review saying so. Reviews of books are normally linked to all versions, so if I'd been able to review the hardback, it would probably have appeared on the Kindle version anyway.
How reviewers are selected - maybe
Amazon's official statement
How are Vine Voices selected?
We want the Voice program to reflect the best of our growing body of customer reviewers. We invite reviewers to participate in the Vine program based on feedback from other customers. A reviewer's rank is determined by the overall helpfulness of all their reviews, factoring in the number of reviews they have written. More weight is given to recent reviews. For more information on how reviewer rankings are determined, please visit How ranking works . Ultimately, Vine Voices become eligible based on the value and trust other Amazon.com customers place in the Voices' ability to provide helpful and insightful reviews. In addition to the reviewer rank, we also weigh customers' demonstrated interest in products similar to those enrolled in the Vine program. This facilitates product reviews by people who are familiar with the category they belong to. For example if a Vine Voice mostly purchases and/or reviews home and garden products, it is more likely they will be offered similar products.
Anybody who has looked at those reviewers who are in Vine™ knows that is not really how it works, while Amazon's explanation of How ranking works, which their statement also mentions, is just as misleading. For my explanation of how rankings work, see Amazon's three reviewer ranking systems explained. Obviously, Amazon's statement contains some elements of the truth, but there's far more to it than they admit. So how might Amazon really be selecting reviewers?
Selection by geography
The only certain requirement for Vine™ membership is that you must have a postal address in the same country as the Amazon website, though that might be the address of a friend or relative. Unless the rules change, you definitely won't ever find Amazon issuing invitations to reviewers whose only postal address is in Australia, unless Amazon eventually open a website there and set up a Vine™ program. If an existing Viner moves to Australia, he or she will not be able to receive any further products through the program unless they retain an address in their former country. Even then, it may not be worth their while, as Vine™ will ship everything to that other address.
I get the impression that Amazon would like to offer Vine™ membership irrespective of location, based on a comment I saw in their terms and conditions, I think suppliers don't like the idea. For them, the whole exercise is part of their marketing and in some cases, it may not help them if their product is reviewed by (say) an Australian. As the vast majority of Vine™ offerings are books, and the vast majority of those books could be reviewed by people of all nationalities, I think the rule needs looking at. I'd join USA Vine™ if given the chance, because there might be some books that might interest me. Nevertheless, I don't take many Vine™ products from the UK and I doubt that I would take many from the USA either. If the problem isn't with the suppliers but with the shipping costs, all I can say is that if I were invited to join USA Vine™, I'd be happy to pay shipping costs on any books that interest me. But really, the main beneficiaries would be those Amazon customers who live in countries that do not have Amazon websites, or which have such websites but don't operate Vine™.
The inaugural USA launch
Amazon USA launched the program in 2007. The very first batch of reviewers were restricted to high-ranking reviewers in order to provide Amazon with feedback on the program. Amazon got the feedback they wanted and made whatever adjustments they felt necessary, if indeed there were any.
Subsequent invitations
The inaugural USA launch was a one-off. Subsequent invitations have been based on a different set of criteria that may or may not include elements of the original launch criteria. Amazon later launched the Vine™ program in the UK, France and Germany. Those websites didn’t bother with feedback and probably used the revised USA criteria from the beginning, though they may have adjusted them in some way.
I was invited to join the program when Amazon UK launched Vine™ in 2008. I declined but my invitation must have remained open because I later decided that I wanted to read the Vine™ forum to see what people were saying about me and found that I could, but it‘s not the most exciting forum out there by a long way. As I suspected, I found that the products on offer weren’t really that interesting to me, but it does no harm to be a part of Vine™. Amazon don’t enforce any minimum requirement for orders placed, so I’ll stay in.
Selection by lucky dip?
Some people suggest that Amazon selects reviewers at random, because they see no pattern among reviewers invited. I have never subscribed to the view that it is completely random, but that there are many different ways of getting in and if so, that would cause the apparent randomness. Just as a recruiting employer has different needs and offers jobs to people for different reasons, it appears that Amazon offer Vine™ membership to people for different reasons.
There is bound to be some element of luck, as it may be that if Amazon decide they need a particular type of reviewer, there are likely to be more reviewers to choose from than they need. Somebody suggested that Amazon could set up software to identify potential candidates and then simply select at random. It’s possible, but even though it is likely that Amazon use software to identify candidates, I hope that they would at least look at those candidates to pick the most deserving, although I fear that they may just rely on software alone. It appears that Amazon have some software and it incorporates a weird algorithm that is so characteristic of Amazon. Nevertheless, they might invite individuals directly if they so choose.
If Amazon don’t choose people by lucky dip, how might they choose people?
A review that grabs lots of votes?
One popular theory is that where review history is a factor, having one or more reviews that accumulate plenty of votes may be a factor. Of course, it would depend what threshold is set. If the threshold is (say) one review with at least 20 votes, thousands of reviewers qualify, but thousands more don’t. I’ve seen reviewers get invited early in their reviewing career who have yet to have any review reach 20 votes, but who clearly write good reviews. While I’m sure that having review(s) with plenty of votes might help, I think it would normally apply in conjunction with other factors. A high threshold might allow reviewers in irrespective of other factors.
Susan appears to be an example of a reviewer who Amazon invited purely on the basis of a popular review. Her review of Kindle: Amazon's Original Wireless Reading Device (1st generation) has acquired many thousands of votes, but a look at her profile shows that she only posted two other reviews before she was offered a Vine™ invitation. Of course, she may have deleted some reviews but if so, it’s unlikely that they would have made any difference to whether Amazon offered Susan an invitation or not. The reviewer with the top spotlight on that product does not display a Vine™ Voice badge, nor has he posted any Vine™ reviews. He may have joined but not yet found anything of interest or he may have declined the invitation to join.
We must always remember that just because somebody shows no evidence of being in Vine™, it does not mean that they have been overlooked. It is not possible to say something like "This person isn't in Vine™ despite fulfilling all these criteria, therefore those criteria aren't a factor in Vine™ membership".
Susan’s example is an extreme case, where it is possible that the votes on a single review are so plentiful that other criteria become irrelevant. Looking at many other Vine™ members’ profiles, they often have at least one quite popular review that pre-dates their Vine™ reviews, but not always. While I suspect that a popular review is the most likely reason for a reviewer being invited, there have to be other reasons. In the UK, I’ve found people who got in with a relatively small number of reviews (around 20 or fewer) and without any of them having reached ten votes, helpful or otherwise. So how might those people have been chosen?
Amazon need to shift Vine™ stock?
Amazon do not force people to review anything. They send out lists and reviewers choose whatever they want subject to availability. Some products are very popular and quickly become unavailable. At the other end of the spectrum, it may be that there is insufficient interest in some products. Amazon can either return these products to their source or they can invite other reviewers into Vine™ who might be interested. Suppose that Amazon have a stack of children's books that existing Vine™ members don't want, they may invite people who might want them. It would then be a question of hoping that those surplus stocks are disposed of to interested reviewers.
Reviewer ranking?
While this was a major factor in the inaugural USA launch, I very much doubt that it has had much impact subsequently. It may be a deciding factor (and to that extent would be better than a pure lucky dip) but those American reviewers who didn’t get in initially despite their high rank have mostly not got in since. Of course, a new ranking system has come in since then, but some of those high-ranking reviewers who didn’t get in initially also rank high on the new system and still haven‘t got in. If rank (either system) plays any role in selection now, it is likely to be a minor one. High-ranking reviewers may still be invited, but probably for other reasons. In any case, it certainly doesn’t apply to those reviewers who have twenty or fewer reviews with no popular reviews among them.
Posts on forums?
This is an element that appears to have more enduring appeal to Amazon’s Vine™ selectors than reviewer rankings. While it is true that reviewer rankings are often meaningless, they tend to provide some sort of guide to a reviewer’s merit, especially if one takes both new and old into consideration. However, there is absolutely no basis for relating review quality to forum activity. It nevertheless appears that posting on the top reviewer forum in the UK or USA increases the likelihood of being allowed into Vine™ in the relevant country. So why might Amazon reward forum posters with Vine™ membership?
I suspect that the Vine™ selectors appreciate the interest that forum posters show. If they are positive, perhaps the selectors feel they deserve to get in anyway. If they are critical within reason, inviting them may defuse any tension they feel. People outside Vine™ sometimes resent those inside. Maybe Amazon feel that it is better to have such people on the inside spitting out than on the outside spitting in. However, Amazon have also shown an intolerance of bullies. Criticism is accepted up to a point (and where that point might be is unclear) but anybody wanting to get into Vine™ would be wise not to go overboard with their criticism. Suggestions that Vine™ is a corrupt system are unlikely to help anybody’s cause.
If Amazon do invite forum posters, I doubt that the invitations are generated by software. It would almost certainly require human intervention. The software automatically generates an e-mail when it issues an invitation, or at least it is supposed to. The interesting thing about forum posters is that a lot of those who have got in are adamant that they never saw an e-mail, but they got in via the link to the relevant Vine™ home page when somebody posted it on a forum.
Owners of blogs and websites?
This would seem to be a strange one at first glance, but maybe Amazon feel that these people have something to offer. It appears that one particular batch of American invitees came from this group of people. It would be easy for Amazon to identify people who set up links within their Amazon profile. It would also be easy for Amazon to vary the invitation selection criteria from one run to another.
Purchasing history?
This idea springs from the observation that some Viners have little or no track record as reviewers prior to joining Vine™. Some Vine™ members say they hardly spent anything at Amazon prior to joining Vine™, so they didn’t get in because of their purchasing history. Fair enough, but I think there are several different ways of getting in, and those people obviously got in for other reasons. However, looking at some of the people who have become Vine™ members, it is difficult to see how they could have got in by any other way unless they have an alternative reviewing account, which is allowed under Vine™ rules, or unless they've been posting on forums that aren't related to reviewing. Even so, we can’t eliminate the idea that Amazon might be tempted to reward big-spending customers with Vine™ invitations, irrespective of their reviewing history.
Of course, we have no access to anybody else's purchasing history, and nor should we. Nevertheless, it may sometimes be possible to get a sense of somebody's spending power from clues they provide. Amazon Verified Purchase badges provide one clue, if the customer is a regular reviewer, but such reviewers may qualify anyway on other criteria. Those badges are only currently shown in America as far as I know; they certainly aren‘t shown in the European sites. Reviewers with little or no reviewing history may (for example) say on their profile what their job is. We might recognize that it is a well-paid job. They may be lying or they may spend their money elsewhere, but it's the nearest we can get to sensing whether Amazon might be impressed by their purchasing history.
Anything else?
Every section above that has a title ending in a question mark is guesswork, albeit that guesswork is based on observations by myself and others. Nobody outside Amazon really knows what the criteria are for new invitations, though they many in any case vary from one selection run to another. Only the original USA launch criteria are known. There may be other criteria that Vine™ selectors consider that aren’t featured here, though nobody has suggested anything else so far. Like all my blog posts on Amazon related topics, I’ll update this one whenever I feel the need.
Improve your chances of an invitation
Amazon clearly don’t have a fixed size membership; they recruit more members whenever they choose to. How they do it, as this blog post makes clear, is a mystery. Nevertheless, it seems that you can improve your chances of getting an invitation by continuing to write good reviews and by becoming a regular poster on the top reviewer forum, providing you live in a country that has an Amazon website. If you live in (say) Australia or the Republic of Ireland, you either need to emigrate or hope that Amazon set up a website in your country, or hope that Amazon relax the Vine™ membership rules. Amazon’s European headquarters is in the Republic of Ireland, probably for tax reasons, but they haven’t set up an Irish website for customers.
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