Is Amazon Prime Membership a scam or is it worth it? Read this review to learn if Amazon Prime is a good deal for you or a waste of money.
Amazon Prime Membership Review
PRODUCT NAME: Amazon Prime
Price: Free 30-day trial, then $99 per year
Website: www.amazon.com/prime
Overall Ranking: 96/100
Verdict: Legit
**If you are a student currently enrolled in a US or Puerto Rican college, I recommend you check out Amazon Prime Student first.
I have been enjoying Amazon Prime benefits for a while now and I must say that this is one decision I have never come to regret. One question I get a lot when I tell my friends I’m a Prime member is “are the benefits really worth 99 bucks a year?”.
To me, it’s a solid YES! This answer is based on my preferences and habits and could understandably vary from person to person. As you read this review, you will be able to decide if Amazon Prime is really worth it’s price to you. One sure thing is: Amazon Prime is NOT a scam.
Prime Delivery
This gets you free 2-day shipping for a lot of items. For me, this alone is worth $99 a year. Having Prime provides an extraordinary bargain for me, considering the number of items I regularly order from Amazon. Let’s put this into context:
If I order 20 items a year and the average shipping cost for each item is $5, then I would be spending $100 a year on shipping. This is a very modest example because I think I made nearly 100 orders on Amazon within the past year. Some of the orders were high-priced items, some were cheap items.
Remember that not all items offer 2-day shipping, but most items do offer Prime benefits. You also need to know that you do not have to be a Prime member to get free shipping on Amazon. The catch is you will have to spend at least $35 to qualify for free standard shipping (not 2-day) while as a Prime member, you can get free 2-day shipping for a 1-cent item.
If you purchase a lot or you don’t like waiting for your orders to arrive or both, I think you will appreciate Amazon Prime for their prime delivery.
Prime Instant Video
One of the features you get as a Prime member is the Prime Instant Video. To put into perspective how valuable this is, you may want to know how this compares to another streaming service you might already be paying for, Netflix.
The comparison of both comes down to your own personal preference of movies and TV shows. They both have about the same amount of content and are both accessible on TVs, game consoles, tablets and so on.
I was quite amazed by the amount and quality of movies and shows available on Prime Instant Video, to be honest, and if you decided to save the $96 you would spend a year on Netflix, you would not feel shortchanged….unless you cannot do without House of Cards, Marco Polo or Orange is the New Black.
House of Cards and Marco Polo are among my favourite shows, so I own both. 🙂 You can take a peek at what is available on Prime Instant Video without even starting a free-trial.
Prime Music
When you think of music streaming, you think of Apple music, Spotify or Google Play Music. Not Amazon Prime Music. Anyway, you get curated playlists and albums from some of your favourite artists.
To be honest, this is the least appealing feature in the Prime membership bundle. Apple music currently boasts around 40 million songs, Spotify has over 20 million songs and Google Play Music has about 35 million songs. It’s hard to get excited about the 2 million songs Prime music offers.
To be fair, the $99 per year is for the Prime membership bundle which includes Prime music rather than paying for the music streaming itself. If you are the kind of person that listens to the radio often or you listen to some music but you are not a deep music person, this might be a nice little addition for you.
Spotify premium comes with my phone plan and I also have Google Play music, so Prime music is very far down the pecking order for me.
Prime Reading
Prime Reading is another embedded feature you might find cool. As a prime member, you can read thousands of books, magazines, comics and more for free. Another cool thing is you don’t need to own a Kindle device to access this feature. You can download the free Kindle app on iOS, Android or your computer.
As a Prime member, you gain access to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. This is like a hub where you can borrow digital books from other members and you swap the books when you’re done.
Lastly, you get to choose one featured early release book every month for free with Kindle First. You borrow one Kindle book each month for free on any Kindle device with no due dates.
I have only attempted to read a digital book once, and I did not fancy the experience. I’m a traditional guy that prefers to buy hard copies. Having said that, this is a very cool feature of the prime membership.
Prime Photos
This is another underwhelming addition to the Prime bundle. Prime Photos is an unlimited cloud-based storage service where you can only store photos. This is another case of it being a unit of the bundle rather than being a stand-out service in itself.
I would definitely not pay for Prime photos, considering Google Photos does the exact same thing and better and for free as well.
Other Features
Amazon Prime membership includes features like Audible Channels which gives you unlimited listening to audio series and playlists handcrafted for various interests. Prime Early Access gives Prime members early access to Lightning deals on Amazon 30 minutes before non-prime members.
There is also Twitch Prime which gives Prime members free game content every month and discounts on newly released video games. You also get access to Prime Pantry which lets you get groceries and household products shipped straight to your home.
What I Don’t Like About Amazon Prime
I love Amazon Prime so much but like most things, it’s not 100% perfect and some things could be better. For one, you cannot access Prime Instant Video on an Apple TV without downloading another app first. Another thing they could improve is the variety and size of the Prime Music library.
These issues do not affect the value of Amazon Prime to me but it could increase its value to other people.
Is it Worth It?
Like I said before, this is completely relative to the individual involved. For me, I would gladly pay $99 per year for the free 2-day shipping alone. Prime Instant Video is a welcome addition but Prime Music, Reading, Photos and the rest offer no real additional value to me. They are simply bonuses I get with my Prime membership.
If you spend $96 a year on Netflix and maybe more on shipping costs from Amazon orders, Amazon Prime could be a killer deal for you. That’s $99 per year to substitute Netflix and your shipping costs.
Free 30-Day Trial
If you are still sitting on the fence as to whether Amazon Prime is worth it, that is totally okay. You can sign up for a FREE 30-day trial and see for yourself if you like the features or not.
You Can MAKE Money From Amazon
Up until this point, I tried to show you how you might SAVE money by joining Amazon Prime. In this section of this review, I will be trying to show you how you could actually MAKE money from Amazon in general.
The way I make money online is through a system called Affiliate Marketing. Basically, you recommend (or not) recommend a product and if someone makes a purchase through your link, you get a commission. Now, what website has the highest number of products available anywhere on the internet? Well….Amazon! What website has one of the longest standing affiliate programs? Still Amazon!
I have been able to generate a generous amount of passive income from Amazon over the last few months. I covered some of the process with these products: Coffee, Clothes and Binoculars. If you are interested in learning how to make money from Amazon, check out my top recommendation. It is FREE to sign up.
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