13 Best Ways to Make Money on Amazon

It’s no secret that Amazon has taken the e-commerce world by storm. A simple online bookstore quickly became what’s known as the world’s largest online retailer today. Even if you’re not a seller, you can make money on Amazon using some of the ideas in this article.

While it’s possible to generate income using various e-commerce websites, Amazon stands out. The platform has over 300 million customer accounts and receives billions of visitors per year. With this many users, it becomes easier to target a specific audience on Amazon and earn money from it.

Amazon offers various products and services through its brands. Online sellers, affiliate marketers, and other remote workers can work with the company to deliver the needs of its customers. And this is a perfect chance for you to make extra bucks too and even achieve your financial goals.

How to Make Money on Amazon

Let’s get to it. Here are the best ways to earn money through Amazon:

1. Become a seller on Amazon FBA.

Selling on Amazon is a great chance to grow your e-commerce business and reach millions of customers. If you’re just starting out, you can become a seller on the platform with little investment. As for an established business, Amazon is perfect for taking things to the next level.

The steps to start selling on FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) are simple:

Choose a selling plan. There are two selling plans on Amazon. One of them is the Individual plan where you pay $0.99 for every sale. The other one is the Professional plan where you pay $39.99 per month, regardless of your number of sales.
Decide on your selling strategy. You can be a reseller, brand owner, or both. Resellers offer existing products while brand owners create their own products for sale.
Create an Amazon seller account. Fill out an online form with your contact, legal, and payment information.

After that, you’re required to add your products. In a nutshell, the categories of products you can sell are:

New physical products
Digital products
Used items

Keep in mind you cannot list certain products on Amazon. Some of them require a Professional plan or approval by Amazon while others cannot be sold by third parties.

Once you’re approved to sell, you only need to package and ship your desired portion of the stock to Amazon’s warehouses. You can then check your progress for a few hours each day or week.

The fact that Amazon is a good platform for selling makes the competition high. It’s possible to make a killing as an Amazon seller by offering better products, prices, and customer experience.

2. Join the Amazon Associates Program.

The Amazon Associates Program enables affiliate marketers to monetize their web traffic. If you’re wondering how to make money on Amazon without having a product, this is it. As an Amazon affiliate, you earn commissions when someone makes a purchase through your affiliate link.

Here are the steps to become an Amazon affiliate:

Create a website or blog. Amazon requires you to have an active site or Youtube channel to join the program.
Go to Amazon Associates. There, you only need to register through an online form. If you already have an account, you’ll be prompted to log in.
Complete your affiliate profile. Once you’ve accessed your account, it’s time to finish creating your profile. Some of the details you’re required to submit are your website, store ID (site name), contact information, and payment method.
Start generating Amazon affiliate links. Go to the “Product Links” section on your dashboard and either search for a product or add its ASIN/ ISBN code. You can find the codes on the product pages. After that, click on “Get link” and you’ll see the text and image links to add to your site or channel.

The commission rates for various products range from 1-10 percent. There’s a special commission income for Amazon programs such as Amazon Prime Video, Audible membership, and Kindle unlimited membership.

3. Publish on Kindle.

Kindle Direct Publishing enables authors and publishers to self-publish their work. If you can write a book or a how-to guide that solves people’s problems, this is a great chance to make extra money.

With KDP, you can either publish an e-book or paperback without any costs. It takes a few minutes and your work will be visible to readers around the world through Kindle stores.

The first step is to write and edit your text. It’s good to have someone proofread it for you. This can be a family member or friend and maybe a professional if you have the budget for it.

After that, format your work and add some royalty-free images if you like. You’ll need a cover design to make the book appealing to potential readers. Keep in mind that it’s best to research and even model other’s works to come up with something worth reading.

When your book is ready, you only need to enter its details in your KDP account. Upload the book and cover files to finish the process.

You receive a royalty when someone buys your Kindle book. A book priced between $0.99 and $2.98 gets you a 35 percent royalty per sale. Those in the range of $2.99 to $9.99 bring in a 70 percent royalty. If your book is costs above $9.99, you receive a royalty of 35 percent.

4. Make money through Merch by Amazon.

Merch by Amazon is a Print-on-Demand service that makes it easy for users to sell their designs on products. Your artwork can reach millions of customers without you paying for anything upfront.

The steps to sell merch on Amazon are as follows:

Sign up as a merch seller. You need to request an invitation to join at the moment.
Upload your design. It can be about pets, professions, or anything else you think people might like in textual or picture form.
Choose products for your design. Some merch products are T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, long-sleeves, and tank tops.
Set prices. Check out your competitors to have an idea of the best prices.

After Amazon approves your design, your products get listed. When a customer orders a product with your design, Amazon prints and delivers it to them. Amazon deducts the production costs after each sale and you earn a royalty.

This is a perfect opportunity if you’re good at designing stuff. If you don’t have the skills, you only have to hire someone for it through a freelancing site.

Other than that, you can use templates available online. An online design tool like Placeit can help you create original and attractive designs within seconds. Being unique is essential for avoiding copyright issues.

5. Get started with retail arbitrage.

Retail arbitrage on Amazon involves buying items from a retailer at lower prices and reselling them on Amazon at higher prices. For instance, buying a vintage dish from a local store for $15 and selling it for $35 on Amazon.

The steps of getting started with Amazon retail arbitrage are as follows:

Open a selling account. Choose one of the two selling plans on Amazon FBA. These are the Individual and Professional plans.
Download the Amazon Seller App. It can scan the barcode of products using your phone camera to show you their selling price on Amazon.
Go to the stores for product sourcing. Some examples are Walmart, Target, and grocery stores. While starting out, choose whatever is near you to ease the process.
Scan discounted or low-priced products. Open the app and allow your camera to scan the barcodes of your desired products. Click on a listing to analyze the product information.
List your products on Amazon. Once you’ve bought your preferred units of the products, it’s time to start selling.

If you don’t like visiting the stores, go with online arbitrage. In this case, you do your search through the Internet on various retailer sites. It’s even easier if you use some paid tools that scan hundreds or thousands of products at a time.

As you can see, retail arbitrage requires a lot of research. It’s best to give it a good chunk of your time and energy to make it profitable.

6. Sell on Amazon Handmade.

If you’re an artist or crafter and need to make money on Amazon, Handmade is for you. You get a chance to display your crafts to potential buyers online for free. Some examples are artwork, accessories, and pet supplies.

Amazon Handmade is an exclusive platform for artisans. You’re only eligible to sell if you have high-quality handmade goods.

Here’s how to become a seller on Amazon Handmade:

Create a selling account on Amazon.
Apply to become an artisan.
List your handcrafted items after approval.

You need to sign up with a Professional selling plan to get all the tools for building a successful business. The $39.99 monthly fee that regular Amazon sellers pay is currently waived for artisans.

Also, you get a custom URL that makes it easy for customers to find your listings. So, you’re free to promote your shop to get more people buying from you. Amazon Handmade deducts a referral fee of 15 percent per sale.

7. Offer a professional service.

It’s possible to earn from your skills through Amazon Home Services. There is no startup or monthly subscription fees required. Some service providers in demand on Amazon Home Services are assemblers, house cleaners, handymen.

One requirement to sell a service is that you need to have general liability insurance with a $1,000,000 per occurrence limit. Also, professionals such as electricians, plumbers, and HVAC specialists are required to provide a license or certification.

Customers can order your services while shopping on Amazon. You get notified of jobs in your area as soon as someone makes an order.

The job can either be a one-time thing or have recurring appointments. Once the job is done, you receive your earnings.

The fees for pre-packaged services such as mounting electronic equipment are 20 percent of the portion up to $1000 and 15 percent of it if greater than $1000. As for recurring services, the cost to sell them is 15 percent.

8. Start a private label business.

More sellers on Amazon continue to private-label their products to grow their business. It simply means packaging a generic product that sells well as your own and adding your logo.

Here is how to start your private label business on Amazon:

Pick a product. This is a crucial step that requires some research to find out what’s in demand. Amazon itself is perfect for doing your search. On the best sellers page, you can find out what people are buying on Amazon from different sellers.
Find a supplier. Once you discover a product, you need to choose a supplier within your location or an international one. Bear in mind factors such as prices, minimum order quantity, and delivery time.
Design the product. Hire a design studio or freelance designer to brand your items.
Create product listings. Add product descriptions, images, and videos to make everything appealing.
Protect your business. Make yourself stand out by adding your brand name and logo in the listings and on the package. Enroll in Amazon Brand Registry to keep your private label safe from infringements.

While the concept of starting a private label is easy to understand, the actual work requires a lot of time and effort. You must come up with high-quality products while avoiding copyright issues.

9. Earn with Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a platform where individuals and businesses can outsource tasks to remote workers. Most of the tasks are ones that humans can do much better than computers. They include conducting research, taking surveys, and moderating content.

As an Amazon Mechanical Turk worker, you get paid to complete such Human Intelligent Tasks (HITs). It’s easy to find work that suits your skills because there are thousands of them on MTurk.

All you have to do is create a worker account, browse through various HITs, and choose one that you can do. Once the Requester approves your work, you get your earnings.

Keep in mind that MTurk won’t really replace your 9-5 grind. But you get a chance to generate extra income to cover your daily expenses. If you want to maximize your earnings, you need to set aside some time for doing more tasks.

Also, MTurk grants a status known as the Masters Qualification to high-performance workers. The qualification gives you access to more high-paying work.

10. Become an Amazon Flex driver.

Another way to earn money with Amazon is by doing delivery jobs. Amazon attracts lots of customers in need of fast delivery and hence the need for more delivery partners. If you have a sizeable vehicle and a smartphone, you’re good to go.

Amazon Flex works as follows:

Download the Amazon Flex app. Use it to create your Flex driver account.
Search for delivery blocks available within your location. They are something between 2 and 6 hours.
Deliver the package. Your work is to pick up packages from Amazon delivery stations, local stores, and deliver them to customers.

At present, Flex operates in cities with a significant number of driving opportunities. If your city isn’t included, you can still set up an account through the app and get alerted of a gig that presents itself.

As a Flex driver, you earn $18-$25 per hour. The payment varies depending on location, the time it takes to deliver a package, and other factors. Freeing up some hours each day to take instant offers increases your earnings.

11. Apply for Amazon warehouse jobs.

Amazon warehouse jobs are suitable for you if you’re interested in physical work. They involve picking, packing, and sorting customers’ orders for shipping.

If you want to generate extra cash during your free hours, there are part-time positions available. Other than that, you can make a living off the full-time position in Amazon fulfillment centers, sort centers, or delivery stations.

Workers have a chance to enjoy flexible schedules and shifts. The shift options include overnight, weekdays, and also a weekend day.

You may find it a bit confusing to differentiate between various open positions on Amazon. Be sure to check reviews to know what something is all about. The minimum pay for working in Amazon warehouses is $15 an hour.

12. Sign up with the Amazon Influencer Program.

Here is one for anyone with a significant social media following. The Amazon Influencer program enables you to earn money recommending products to your followers. It’s a bit different from the Associates Program.

You’re eligible if you have a fan base on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Youtube. Amazon will analyze your follower count and engagement rates to approve your application.

This program gives you a custom URL that your fans can follow, see your recommendations, and make purchases. You earn money every time someone buys from Amazon through your storefront.

Amazon influencer earnings vary depending on what you’re promoting. The commission rates start from 1 percent and go up to 10 percent.

13. Work from home as an Amazon customer service rep.

Amazon offers customer service jobs where you get a chance to work in the comfort of your home. The jobs revolve around making customers have a better experience using Amazon. There are around 16 languages and over 130 locations to choose from.

At the moment, you’re required to be residing in one of the select areas to become a remote agent of Amazon. . If you have a phone line and high-speed Internet connection, you’re free to apply.

Just like the other Amazon jobs, payment is around $15 per hour. Depending on the role, your pay might exceed this amount.

It’s Time to Start Earning

Hope you enjoyed the article. Now that you know how to make money on Amazon, don’t wait any longer.

Try out some ideas on the list and find out what works for you. Most of them require you to put in some work.

If you’re determined enough, there’s a chance you may hit your financial goals in no time.

13 Best Ways to Make Money on Amazon