Prime Day!

Okay, set aside for a moment the less-than-stellar flavor Amazon has been getting lately, or the fact that "Prime Day" is more like a pretend holiday that doesn't have any real traditions attached. Or that there's no time off work. Let's talk about value for a minute. I try not to do this often but I, like lots of independent bloggers, am an Amazon Associate where I link to items I have used/read/watched/listened to/etc. that are available on Amazon, and if you are convinced by my pitch or in the market for them and buy it I get a little cut. Using an Associate's link does not increase the price or change anything but the (probably starving) Associate gets a small percentage of that sale. Hence, we are pretty motivated. Like door-to-door salesmen, but less annoying and we can't jam our foot in the door.

So the idea is that Prime is like membership at a wholesale club, at least that's the way it always seemed to me. I have been a Prime member for a decade now and have always gotten value above and beyond the price.

Here's the first link for Prime Day, it's not too late to sign up for a free trial and get some of the deals Amazon is offering only to Prime members. I first signed up in college so I could get the sweet free two day shipping on textbooks and then I started using it on other products that were not available in my area. The service has improved quite a bit since then, I promise that if you do a lot of shopping this alone will pay for the membership.

Next is for Prime Video, when I first signed up it took a while before I realized what this was. At that time I didn't have a smart phone or ability to stream video on my TV so I just watched stuff through my computer monitor, but even that was awesome. I actually had this before Netflix or Hulu, and it works really well on both my phone and through my Roku 1 Streaming Media Player (2710R).

Then there is Prime Music. Oh man, I was never a big fan of Pandora, which is the only parallel I can think of but I know there are other comparable streaming services. This one lets you stream whole albums or make playlists without any ads. And it is included in a Prime Membership but you get a free trial for each one through these separate links. The only concern I've ever had is that you can only use it on one device at a time. So Mrs. Kraken and I sometimes duel over it, and we also use it as bedtime music for the junior sea monsters as well. I found one day that they had given me a 6 month free trial of Unlimited, which is pretty much what it sounds like because I have yet to not find a song/artist that I looked for. I can even stream Jello Biafra's spoken word albums and stuff, which I used to have on CD but have since sacrificed to the moving gods when settling in a new nest. I will be renewing this service. It is beyond convenient to have every song I want to listen to available at a moment's notice and not having to thumb through racks of CDs. But I'm ancient, you may not even remember those days.

The last one is for Audible. Now unfortunately you don't get a completely free trial here but you do save 40% for 6 months. I started using this service in college too and took advantage of a commute to listen to history books, or maybe it was using the audiobooks to ease the commute I forget. But I have to say that it is great value even at full price. You get one credit each month to add a book to your collection and then a big discount on additional books each month. There's a very easy app to access the collection on your phone or sync them to whatever device you use.

I'm not going to link to the Kindle promotion because I don't personally have or use a Kindle. Maybe it's great, maybe not but I have always enjoyed print and turning pages. And not having to plug in my book. I guess I'm old fashioned that way. If you use a Kindle or similar E-book reader let me know how it works, I'd love to hear your story.

Thanks for taking a look at these links, I only want to plug things that I really use and value. It may be cliche but Amazon Prime is a great value and has been great utility for my family.