Why Amazon Wish Lists Are Awesome!

How many times have you been wandering the aisles of your local big box store staring at shelf after shelf wondering what to get your friend for her birthday?  How many times have you thought you'd picked the perfect gift only to see a look of confusion on the face of the person that unwraps it?  How many times have you been the one on the receiving end with that WTF were you thinking look on your face?  There's a simple solution.... Amazon Wish Lists.

Seriously... Amazon Wish Lists.  They're easy to set up, easy to add items to (even items from other websites), and take a ton of guesswork out of gift giving.  Why not give your friends something you know they want, rather than taking a chance that they're a fan of the Transcendental Yogurt Yastry Hats on sale at Targ-Mart right now?

Here's what you need to get started:

1. An Amazon Account - Click Here to get started.

2. A Wish List - Click Wish List and create one.

3. Share it with your friends. You can do it via various Social Media options or just e-mail it out.

Here's some tips to make the most of Amazon Wish Lists and to keep your friends happy and willing to use them.

Create Lists Based On Item Cost
Let's face it, not everyone is as rich as Bill Gates and even though you'd dearly love to have a diamond studded iPad case, your Aunt Zelda who's been living on Social Security for the past 12 years just can't afford it.  Create multiple lists of items you'd dearly love to have based on their cost. I'd suggest four lists:

• $5 or less
• $5 - $10
• $10 - $25
• Over $25

This gives your friends and family multiple options that fit into their individual gift-giving budgets and you still get stuff you want.

Create Lists Based On Interest 
Your Aunt Zelda probably isn't interested in buying you a set of nun-chuks but wouldn't bat an overly mascaraed eye at ordering you a book or a set of soup spoons.  Still following the principle of cost based lists, create lists of like items. For example:

• Kitchen Stuff Under $10
• Books $5 or less
• Books $5 - $15
• Stuff for my Dojo over $50 

Be Mindful Of Shipping Costs
Shipping costs can be outrageous on certain items.  Make sure you check out how much the items you add are going to cost to ship and choose sellers that are going to be kind to your friends and family's wallet.  Better yet, make sure that every item you add to your lists is Prime Eligible.  When you're searching for things to add to your Wish Lists, you can choose to have only Prime Eligible items displayed.

Type the item you're looking for into the Search Box and hit enter.  You'll get a list of items, but on the left side of the page you'll see options for narrowing your search. Make sure you check Prime Eligible.

Now all of your search results will be from sellers that offer Amazon Prime shipping.

Finally, Wish Lists aren't rocket surgery or brain science.  Just be mindful of your friends and family's wallet, take the time to set up multiple lists based on cost first and like items second, and you can look forward to finally receiving gifts you actually want.