6 Ways To Make Money Online on Amazon

Over the past decade, Amazon’s market valuation has risen by a jaw-dropping 1,588% – accompanying the company’s steady rise to the pinnacle of global business.

However, it wasn’t just shareholders who have made fortunes along with Amazon. Over the years, the e-commerce giant has facilitated and opened up avenues for thousands of people interested in successful side-income opportunities, or even full-blown e-businesses.

All it takes is some effort and entrepreneurial zeal to become part of Amazon’s profitable ecosystem. But first, let’s dig a little deeper.

Why Is Making Money on Amazon A Good Idea?

Like any money-making venture, putting effort into Amazon’s platform is a serious time commitment. Regardless of which business plan you choose to follow, you’ll have to commit a significant amount of research, legwork, and patience to see results.

So why is Amazon a good choice to make money? Here are our primary reasons:

It’s A Universal Platform

While local e-commerce websites occasionally grab a larger share of the pie for certain regions, there’s really no contest when it comes to the sheer magnitude of Amazon’s sales and shipping network.

Amazon is the 4th most popular website in the United States and the 11th most popular across the world.

Amazon Holds The Lion’s Share

Since it launched back in 1994, Amazon’s Marketplace has made over $344 billion – far outpacing any other company in the world.

Not only is this sales magnitude much higher than its competitors, but Amazon also offers massive variety both in products sold and other revenue opportunities.

It’s Got Consumer Trust On Its Side

When looking for a revenue platform, it’s very important to understand that a platform that end-users can’t trust isn’t a trustworthy choice for potential business and advertising/marketing partners either.

Amazon’s a great example of a customer-centric business that values its trustworthy status. According to research, 89% of consumers are likely to choose Amazon over any other e-commerce provider.

It Offers Remote-Work Flexibility

Whether you’re a seller, a marketing affiliate, or anything in between, Amazon works hard to make your partnership as seamless as possible, and a big part of that is offering remote-work capabilities.

You can easily access the platforms and earn money through partnering with Amazon regardless of where you are, allowing you more freedom and control over your personal schedule.

Now that we’ve established a few great reasons to make money on Amazon, let’s dive into some of the best ways to get that income stream started:

Top 6 Ways To Make Money On Amazon

1. Sell Products Through Amazon’s FBA

If you plan to sell products online, there’s always going to be the issue of actually delivering your products to your customers. Managing a warehousing and shipping enterprise can be incredibly time-consuming and expensive, and is simply not feasible for most individuals.

This is where Fulfillment By Amazon (or FBA) comes in. For around $40 per month plus some additional fees, they take on the responsibility of having your products shipped, stored, and delivered. This means that if you plan to ship products at scale, you’re going to save a lot of time and money by relying on Amazon’s services.

You even receive a few perks, such as free shipping for your customers, storage and transport offers for first-time users, and 24/7 customer service for your buyers.

Once you’ve selected a product to sell, your sales strategy will likely go one of two ways:

Private Label

If you purchase an inventory of products from a manufacturer and then put on your own branding before hitting the market, you’ve got a private label on your hands.

Private labels can lead to higher profit margins, more customizability with your products, and set you apart from other brands.

On the downside, founding a private label also means having to build up brand recognition from scratch. This involves a great deal of marketing work both on and off social media, as well as making the effort to build up material such as ads, websites, and content.

You will also run the risk of working with unreliable manufacturers who may send you defective or low-quality products.

Reselling/Branded Products

This concept is pretty straightforward. You purchase a supply of products from an existing brand and simply sell them at a markup online. You can do this by scoring discount deals at retail outlets, or buying directly from manufacturers in large quantities.

This can be a pretty easy way to dip your toes into the game of e-retailing on Amazon. Not only do you not have to worry about manufacturing specifications, but you’ll also be selling a product that already has brand recognition.

That being said, even big brands are not 100% risk-free. A publicized scandal involving your products’ companies can lead to a sharp drop in sales, and without product exclusivity, you’ll constantly be competing with other resellers, reducing your overall profit margins.

How Much Can You Earn Through FBA Sales?

According to recent surveys, just under 50% of all sellers on Amazon make between $1,000 to $25,000 per month, with one in five making $25,000 to $250,000 per month.

Even if you start small, the potential gains make this an avenue well-worth considering. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Amazon’s seller experience, you can find here a great resource to get your marketplace journey started.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Let’s say that you don’t actually want to invest any capital into making money through Amazon. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to make good money without an initial investment, and one of the best ways to get started is through affiliate marketing.

Through Amazon’s Affiliate Program, you can leverage a blog, website, or social media account to earn passive income, especially if you’ve got a substantial online audience already. The idea is simple – you can feature products with special affiliate links in your content that have something to do with the core interests of your audience.

Whenever a consumer clicks on this link and makes a purchase, you receive a cut of the profits.

How Much Can You Earn Through Affiliate Marketing?

While Amazon has not released any official average figures for affiliate marketing earnings, they are transparent about the commission earned – about 3-5% of the sale goes to you.

While this may not seem like much, it can certainly scale well if you create quality content for a large audience. Let’s say that your blog draws 30,000 visitors a month, and 5% of them make an affiliate purchase on a $60 product. At a 4% affiliate rate, you could make an easy $3,600 per month!

3. Kindle Direct Publishing

Are you a good writer, and interested in getting your work published with minimal fuss? Amazon helps take out the middleman with Kindle Direct Publishing.

While you won’t have the agent-publisher backing of the traditional publishing route, you can earn excellent royalties on your work. The key to success here is to market your books well and be as prolific as possible.

How Much Can You Earn Through Kindle Direct?

Kindle’s standard royalties sit at 70% – much higher than the industry standard of 10-40%. Currently, the average writer earns $1000 annually through royalties, although hitting the bestseller list comes with massive bonuses of around $25,000.

4. Become An Amazon Representative

If you’re looking for a straightforward option that doesn’t require a lot of risk or stress, you could join Amazon’s ever-growing workforce, right from the comfort of your home. While the company is headquartered in Seattle, it does need a large network of remote-work employees to handle several digital tasks.

How Much Can You Earn As An Amazon Rep?

The options for remote work here are quite varied, although the vast majority of remote jobs offered are in the data entry and customer service areas. At a minimum wage of $15 per hour, you can expect to make around $30,000 per year or $2,500 per month, full time.

5. Join the Mechanical Turk Program

While this isn’t a very good option for generating large volumes of money, MTurk can be a great way to squeeze out some extra earnings with little-to-no effort.

Working as a hub for outsourced tasks, MTurk works as a bridge between AI and crowd-sourced work, generally for research or testing purposes. It involves doing a few simple tasks that are easy for humans to accomplish yet hard for AI to understand.

How Much Can You Earn Through MTurk?

MTurk offers pretty modest returns at around $6-$10 per hour, although the tasks themselves can easily fit into a regular workday and require a bare minimum of effort. Some report earning over $1,500 per month, although this would require a fair bit of efficiency and dedicated time.

6. Become a Driver with Amazon Flex

It’s clear that a big part of Amazon’s delivery platform is the Flex driver network that transports packages. If you’ve got the time and driving experience, you can easily snag up a good gig working for Amazon Flex.

Flex is, as the name suggests, very flexible with drive scheduling, allowing you to easily plan work hours ahead of time and work on your own terms.

How Much Can You Earn Through Amazon Flex?

Amazon pays its drivers between $18-$25 per hour, with a standard shift length of around 5 hours. That adds up to about $100 a day – not a bad way to fill up your empty hours if you’re licensed to drive.

Conclusion

As Amazon continues to expand, further opportunities are developing to grow and earn profit within its e-commerce ecosystem.

While becoming a seller offers the greatest returns over time, there’s also a host of good options that can serve as low-maintenance additions to your monthly savings or a whole side-career that can offer promising returns and help you surpass your financial goals.

We hope that this list has helped you get that extra bit closer to financial success!