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Many people know about how big Amazon is – the marketplace, video and music streaming app, kindle devices, it’s like they have got into almost every industry.
But what many of you may not know is how Amazon provides a vast number of ways to make money.
It can be part-time passive income or a full-time, six-figure payout. It all depends on what you want and how much time you can give.
Let’s jump into how to make money with Amazon.
Statistics of Amazon
But why exactly is Amazon one of the best platforms to earn money? Here are some of the stats that prove why –
Owing to its big revenue from the big user base and user trust, Amazon provides a good platform to earn income.
How to Earn Money from Amazon?
Many people wonder how to make money selling on Amazon. But they forget that selling is only a part of the equation.
There are various other ways as well.
In this list, we will see various ways to make money, some involving selling, while some that don’t.
Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is Amazon’s flagship program for affiliate marketing and marketers.
But what exactly is affiliate marketing?
In affiliate marketing, you promote other’s products (in this case, from Amazon) via sending their links to others. When people click through your links and purchase the product, marketers get a part of that commission.
Roughly about 4% to 10% of the product’s price is allotted as commission.
Even though people use different products and services to promote via affiliate marketing, promoting Amazon’s products brings you two significant advantages:
Getting started with the Amazon affiliate program is super simple. Users need to sign up and choose the products they want to promote.
They will then be provided with links that they can embed in their blogs, YouTube videos, emails, etc., and wait for them to buy any of the products.
An added advantage for affiliate marketers is that even if the end-user does not buy that specific product via the affiliate link and ends up buying any other product, the marketers will still get paid.
Sell your private-label products on Amazon
Private labelling is a very innovative way to make money selling on Amazon.
People buy products from other manufacturers, put your brand name, and market the same under that brand name.
In fact, even Amazon does this with their Amazon Basics product range. They source it from other manufacturers and market it in their brand’s name. This helps significantly cut costs and increase profits.
Here are some reasons why one should explore selling private-label products:
But there are associated risks with it as well, like:
So, how does one get started? By choosing between two types of seller accounts:
Buy on eBay to sell on Amazon (online arbitrage)
What if you didn’t want to get into dealing with manufacturers and running around other retailers?
Well, there’s an alternative – buying products online and selling them online.
It is known as online arbitrage, and you can do almost everything from your house.
People usually look for products on eBay, as you can easily find cheaper-priced products. They bid on the product, buy it and sell it on Amazon for a good markup price.
This way, sellers can start even with a low initial investment.
Publish your books on Kindle Direct Publishing
If you are wondering how to make money on Amazon without selling, this is one of the best ways, especially if you like to write.
People often tend to forget that Amazon started as an online bookstore.
Although they have moved on to selling various products, books have always been an integral part of their business – from selling hard copies to launching their own set of book readers, Kindle.
Amazon now encourages writers to publish their books directly on their Kindle books platform.
Gone are the days when writers had to pitch it to publication houses and their editors, trying to woo them and be at their mercy.
Now, anyone can self-publish it easily with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and make money on Amazon.
Here are some reasons why writers should explore it:
Join the Mechanical Turk program
Amazon is famous for the wide variety of products it has to offer.
But what many people don’t know is that Amazon also provides a lot of services as well.
It has its own crowdsource marketplace – MTurk (Mechanical Turk). Roughly, MTurk can be said as an alternative to Fiverr-like websites.
Businesses can outsource their operations to a distributed workforce located all around the world. Especially operations such as data validation and research to survey participation, a lot of operations are outsourced here daily.
What’s good about this platform is that users don’t have to invest anything apart from their time to get started. This can be especially useful for college students who might not have the capital to start selling private-label products.
There are different payouts for different tasks, normally ranging between $0.1 to $1. Most of them are simple, and people can earn up to $15 and more.
Trade unwanted items with Amazon's Trade-In program
A lot of folks are surprised when they come to know that Amazon has a trade-in program that can instantly get you paid.
Look for unused items that are in good condition, and you might be able to trade in to earn some quick cash.
The only catch here is – Amazon will pay through their gift cards.
But considering that Amazon has many offerings to buy from, it is almost the same as cash. Up to 25% of the product’s retail price is awarded as credits.
Amazon prefers having niche products – high-demand products with few suppliers. So a lot of people explore garage sales and eBay bids to buy products at cheap and trade in with Amazon.
Merch by Amazon
Do you like to create artwork? You can monetize your skills with Amazon.
Merch by Amazon is a print-on-demand service that allows people to upload their designs and artwork. These designs can be put on different products such as totes, cups, and shirts. For every sale of those products, you get paid in royalty.
The best part about this process is that – you only need to focus on creating designs. Just focus on the merchandise, customize it, put a price tag, and you are good to go. It is, quite possibly, one of the best ways to start making money on Amazon!
Amazon will handle printing, delivering, customer care, and related processes.
There are no charges or fees to join Amazon’s program. You have to fill an application. Although, not everyone will be inducted into the program.
A major drawback is that they can take up to 3 months for approvals.
Amazon Dropshipping
What if buying products beforehand, like arbitrage, is not feasible for you? Luckily, with Dropshipping, you can avoid that.
Let’s see how to sell on Amazon and make money without buying anything.
In private labelling, you buy products, put the listing, and deliver it to the customers. But when dropshipping, you don’t buy the products.
Instead, you put the listing and let the customer order it first. After you place an order, you buy it from another supplier, but you put the customer’s address instead of your address.
You are effectively working as a middle-man in this process.
Moreover, since you are not keeping any inventory, additional costs to store inventory are also removed.
Amazon provides a great platform where you can do dropshipping as it boasts millions of users, which you can tap into.
Make sure you select fulfilment by the merchant in Amazon; if you choose to dropship on Amazon,
Amazon Handmade
To counter Etsy and provide manufacturers with another platform, Amazon has developed its own Amazon Handmade platform.
The handmade section consists of items made by local artisans. Some of these items include mugs, toys, jewellery, art, etc.
Users can sell any handmade product under this category as long as it is made “entirely by hand, hand-altered or hand-assembled (not from a kit) and handmade by you or by one of your employees.”
Amazon Handmade has quickly grown as a platform, having onboarded various sellers from 80 different countries.
To make sure that only good products are available, they have a very strict artisan-only screening process.
Handmade product sellers don’t have to pay any selling fee, but they have to pay 15% as a commission for every sale.
Amazon Flex
Amazon is renowned for its quick delivery services.
What you may not know is that some of these drivers are working part-time for its Flex program!
It is similar to Uber, except you deliver goods instead of people from one place to another.
One good thing about working for the flex program is that you decide the working hours. Moreover, drivers get up to $18-$25 per hour.
However, there are two drawbacks to it as well:
Getting started with the program is easy. Download the app, sign up for the program, reserve a block of orders, pick them up from the warehouse and deliver it to specific locations.
You will work as an independent contractor for Amazon, so you will have to pay for external costs like gas, parking charges, etc.
Amazon Camperforce
The Camperforce program is specially designed for people who consider themselves new-age nomads.
People who believe in minimalism sold all their properties and embraced the RV/Van lifestyle.
With the Camperforce program, they can either work part-time or full-time at Amazon’s fulfilment centres. Work related to picking, packaging, and shipping is allocated to these workers.
Amazon also provides additional advantages such as overtime pay, 401 (k), and medical and prescription coverage.
Become an Influencer
Almost everyone is aware of social media influencers and how popular they can be.
Recognizing their potential, Amazon started its influencer program. It can be said that the influencer program is a kind of affiliate program.
Influencers get their page on Amazon, where they can recommend certain products. For each product sale that happens, they get a commission on that.
It goes without saying that you will need a good number of subscribers on any social media platform to qualify as an influencer.
Amazon carefully checks how many subscribers you have and other important metrics to determine whether you qualify for their influencer program or not.
YouTube Videos
People prefer videos over images and text. Videos are easier to comprehend, and it give a dynamic aspect that is not provided by either images or text.
The same goes for promoting products as well.
Promoting products on videos can be much more dynamic; you can show the product and talk about it in depth. This is something that is not offered by other forms of affiliate marketing involving text and images.
A lot of YouTubers promote products by providing affiliate links in their descriptions. Some of these include food vloggers and tech reviewers who put affiliate links related to the types of equipment they use.
Conclusion
These are some of the ways to make money on Amazon.
Some of these require a good amount of time, money, and effort, such as selling private label products. In contrast, some of them, like dropshipping, is far easier to do.
Before getting started with any of them, figure out how much time, money, and resources you can put into the process. It will help you increase your return on investment and get the bang for the buck!
