You’ve undoubtedly heard countless rags-to-riches stories of people on the internet who have managed to crack the code and make huge amounts of money on Amazon. However, did you know there are quite a few ways to make money on the giant Amazon platform? If you’re ready to dive into the jungle that is Amazon, then you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll describe our top 10 best ways to make money on Amazon, including star ratings so you can understand which approach might be best for you.
Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon)
This is a very popular method to make money on Amazon and you can find out more when you sign up to Amazon Seller. Be sure to use their handy Profit Calculator to understand the fees Amazon will charge for their FBA services and if the products are allowed to be sold on the platform.
Earnings Potential: FBA truly is a way to build and scale a profitable online business that could change your lifestyle. You can make money on Amazon
Skills Required: You’ll need to know the basics of running a business, marketing and sourcing inventory from suppliers. Fortunately, Amazon has vast resources to use on their Seller Central hub.
Upfront Effort: Setting up your account, researching the products, having them shipped to Amazon and then marketing your products all takes time. However, compared to starting from scratch, Amazon really has made it much easier to get started. Just make sure you’re confident the products will sell before buying hundreds of stock.
Cost of Starting: Compared to the other methods, it can be fairly expensive to get started if you’re looking to purchase plenty of stock and have it delivered in bulk. However, you can start for free and test your products before investing lots of cash.
Amazon Affiliate Marketing
When someone clicks on your unique affiliate link to make an Amazon product purchase, you’ll earn a small percentage of the sale. This means as long as the product is available to be purchased and you have an audience interested in purchasing it, you have a great chance of making a reoccurring, passive income.
Earnings Potential: Over time, affiliate commissions can add up to become a substantial amount. However, once you scale up your traffic sources, it’s usually best to go direct to the seller to negotiate a sponsored deal to make even more income.
Skills Required: You’ll need content creation and online marketing skills to get your affiliate links in front of the right people and get them to buy.
Upfront Effort: Developing an online audience through content creation and promotion is time-consuming and requires dedication to build up your reputation.
Cost of Starting: It’s never been cheaper to start. It could take one viral Tik-Tok, a handful of great Youtube videos or a well-posted comparison blog hosted for the cost of a couple of coffees a month. The cost of failure is basically nothing, except for your time.
Amazon Handmade
Earnings Potential: If you can master your craft and introduce some form of scalable manufacturing techniques, it can be a great way to build a successful business. Take a chance and post your creations and see if you have an audience. Alternatively, look to see what is selling well currently and if you can replicate the same but better or cheaper.
Skills Required: You might already have the skills required to produce the products, you may need to take some classes to hone in your craft before selling. This might be jewellery making, woodwork or fabric design.
Upfront Effort: Setting up your store is straightforward but it may take time to create your products.
Cost of Starting: This all depends on the products you create, but sometimes handmade items can be made cheaply from raw materials. You should be able to make a few samples for a test launch cheaply before scaling your business up
Amazon Merch
All you need to do is upload your designs on Amazon Merch and set a price for your goods, Amazon will then manufacture and ship the goods to the customer for you and take a percentage of the commission. It’s a great way to get your art and designs out there and potentially make some good money without the hassle of managing customers and fulfilling orders.
Earnings Potential: Earnings will vary depending on how popular your designs are, and Amazon does take a large cut of the profits since they are fulfilling the orders. It is a tried and tested method and can really work if you’re willing to make the design popular.
Skills Required: Some graphic design skills may be useful to create a design people would buy, however, there are great apps which will do most of the hard work. Amazon will fully automate the fulfilment process.
Upfront Effort: Creating the designs and bringing customers to the platform is key. The clothing market has plenty of competition but people will support new brands if they bring in something new or simply provide seasonal designs for events such as Christmas or New Year.
Cost of Starting: There are no upfront costs required to buy inventory and you’ll only ever see profits since Amazon is fronting the costs of fulfilment.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
It’s very easy (almost too easy) to publish on Amazon KDP, but we advise you to make certain that your book is verified, proofread and validated before publishing. You generally have to get your manuscript ready, create a front cover image, create the structuring titles, chapters, and headings, upload it in the required format (EPUB is usually preferred to others to remove formatting errors), and then set your price.
Royalty Pay Scale:
Book cost: $0.99 – $2.98 = You receive a 35% payout
Book cost: $2.99 – $9.99 = You receive a 70% payout
Book cost: $10 and up = You receive a 35% payout.
When starting out, don’t be afraid to sell at $0.99 to start making some sales and gaining valuable reviews. You can increase your price to the $2.99 option when the time is right.
Earnings Potential: With the correct research and topic, self-publishing authors have made $100,000’s of passive income this way.
Skills Required: You need good writing skills, but with time, dedication, and some online writing apps, I believe anyone can write a solid performing book.
Upfront Effort: You’ve got to be prepared to put the time and effort in, but then it’s just marketing from there.
Cost of Starting: It’s free to publish eBooks on Amazon KDP, you just have the share the royalties on any sold copies.
Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)
Earnings Potential: Earnings are usually low but that doesn’t mean your efforts can’t add up over time to help pay for bills.
Skills Required: The tasks are generally basic ones which the majority of people should be able to do.
Upfront Effort: You can start right away after signing up and the tasks don’t require much training.
Cost of Starting: It’s free to get started if you have a suitable device with internet access.
Amazon Flex
Earnings Potential: Earnings will vary based on demand and location. If you’re in a city and live close to an Amazon warehouse then you’ll have a better chance of getting a more profitable amount of work.
Skills Required: A valid driver’s license and good navigation skills from your smartphone.
Upfront Effort: Getting through the application is fairly straightforward, you may have to be put on a waitlist. It can also be quite physically demanding work.
Cost of Starting: If you have a vehicle, insurance and a modern phone, then you won’t need much more!
Amazon Services
Earnings Potential: Depending on your skills, you can increase your current earnings or supplement them with extra income built through extra work in your spare time. For example, to hang a TV in my area will pay between £120 to £290 (around $150 to $360) depending on if you hide the cables in the wall. You could easily do this job in 2-3 hours if competent.
Skills Required: You may have these skills already or you could train to become a service provider – most do not need qualifications.
Upfront Effort: You’ll need to be there physically which incurs effort, but setting up your professional profile and completing the background checks are straightforward.
Cost of Starting: You may need to purchase special equipment but you could simply hire them to start. Often you just need a can-do attitude for things like cleaning or dog walking.
Amazon Vine
It’s not going to pay out any money, but it’s a great way to receive free products which can save you from spending money (same as making money if you were going to buy it anyway!). You could always sell the free products on eBay or local marketplaces too.
Earnings Potential: It’s not a direct earner, but you could make a bit of extra cash if you sell the products afterwards.
Skills Required: You’ll need to be able to write reviews really well.
Upfront Effort: You’ll need to consistently write quality reviews on your products to gain an invite to the Vine Programme.
Cost of Starting: No costs, but you may need to buy things on Amazon to leave the initial reviews to gain the invite to join.
Amazon Influencer Programme
Earnings Potential: If you get followers and the right products, you can build upon a great amount of potential income.
Skills Required: You’ll need to build a reputation and following using social media marketing and content creation.
Upfront Effort: It takes time and effort to build your following. You’ll need to provide consistent and engaging content.
Cost of Starting: It’s very cheap as all you’ll need to do is produce the content and Amazon will host you.
That’s our top 10 ways to make money on Amazon! You’re hopefully primed and ready to start to make money on Amazon and get stuck into some of your favourite approaches. Don’t forget that all these methods will take time, dedication and a lot of hard work to be successful. But there’s never been a more risk-free time to try adding extra income streams and become more financially free. So don’t delay, start today!
For more ways to make money, check out our guide here: How to Make Money Online (Or Offline): Top 23 in 2023
For ways to save more money check here: Save Money in 2023: 18 Best Ways To Save Now
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