I was chatting with a friend the other day and she pretty much had no idea what Amazon Prime is. She was aware that she could save some money on shipping if she ordered something through Amazon but she didn’t understand how prime videos work. “How can you can I buy a video? Do I have to download it?” She just didn’t get it. And, to be honest, I was late to the whole Amazon Prime Video thing myself because I had and still have Netflix why do I need another source? It didn’t take long to realize that’s stupid. My argument was like saying, “But I already have a shirt, why do I need another one?” After explaining it to her it made me think that maybe there others that just don’t get how it all works or why is it worth the money.
First, I should be upfront that I promote Amazon.com and of course, “Prime”. Yes, I want you to click the link or links below and sign up for it or for the 30 Day Free Trial. But, the motivation for writing this truly is just to offer some information about the service of Amazon Prime, Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Prime Instant Video. It’s an all in one kind of thing but I think that can confuse some people as I have discovered. So let’s start there.
When you sign up for Amazon Prime you get access to all the rest. You don’t have to sign up for a bunch of different things. Just a few clicks and it’s done. You can start binge all kinds of things.
Now let’s start with basics of Amazon Prime and shipping. Here’s the basics of what you get when you sing up.
Shipping Speed Amazon | Prime Member Price:
Two-Day Shipping Free
One-Day Shipping Price varies by item size and weight – as low as $2.99 per item
Saturday Shipping Price varies by item size and weight – as low as $7.99 per item
Same-Day Delivery* (in qualifying cities) $5.99 per shipment
No-Rush Shipping Free
Standard Shipping (4-5 business days) Free
Release-Date Delivery(on qualifying items) Free
Addresses in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico
Shipping Speed Amazon Prime Member Price
Standard Shipping (3-7 business days) Free
Expedited Shipping (2-5 business days) Price varies by item size and weight – as low as $5.99 per item
Priority Shipping (1-4 business days) Price varies by item size and weight – as low as $11.99 per item
*Note that after you sing up, you will see the various options available the next time you check out.
Now let’s get into the all the Movies and TV options available. With Amazon Prime Instant Video you have access to tens of thousands of movies and TV shows. As a horror fan I did a quick search to see how many horror titles they had available, over 7,000 titles. You don’t get anywhere near that with Netflix. 
Since I just brought up Netflix something to consider. Netflix Streaming service runs $8.99 a month and that comes to $107.88 a year and only Netflix knows how many titles they offer. They won’t say but after constantly browsing their titles and running searches half of what I want to see isn’t available for streaming. Amazon Prime cost 99 bucks a year and with it you have access to more than 40,000 titles in Film and TV. It’s 99 dollar price tag breaks down to $8.25 a month.
Another thing that I like about Amazon Prime is the ability to stream music. There’s over a millions songs available and hundreds of programmed playlists for almost endless listening to your favorite music genres.
It all sounds too good to be true. There are some downsides to all of it that I wish I had known upfront. Actually, there’s only two downsides I have found is that some titles aren’t free even with Prime. You still have to pay to rent them and I will be honest, I don’t like that at all. In fact, when I first signed up with Amazon Prime, I was so angry when I found out that I called up and cancelled my membership. I had been a been a member for just over a year at the time so my credit card had just recently been billed. I had never used their streaming service at that first year. The first time I go to use it and the title I want isn’t free? I was so upset, I called them up and cancelled it. They were nice enough to refund the full amount. I signed back up a year or so later when Netflix axed a series that I like. Signed back up to Prime and now I can stream that anytime I want. The second that is kind of a drag for some is that here doesn’t appear to be a way to pay for it on a monthly basis. You pay up front.
The great thing about Prime though is that it’s getting better and better. One of my favorite mystery writers is Michael Connelly and they’ve got an original series called Bosch based on one of his series book series. But, the most important reason of all to sign up for Amazon Prime is that I am broke webmaster. I’m broke because I don’t link my blog to every other blog out there. I don’t spam my blog, I just post stuff that I want to rant about or find interesting so feel free to sign up below. It will make you feel better for helping the needy. It’s win/win really.
