1.Sell Products With Amazon FBA
FBA stands for “fulfillment by Amazon.” In a nutshell, here’s how it works:
- Become an Amazon seller.
- Buy wholesale products (from Alibaba or a similar platform).
- Ship your inventory to an Amazon fulfillment center.
Once you join Amazon’s FBA network, Amazon will deliver the products to customers for you. You could always ship the products yourself to avoid extra Amazon fees, but FBA is the best way to sell products at scale.
You make money if you can sell products on Amazon for a higher price than you pay for them.
To begin, register to start selling on Amazon here. Then you can sign up for Amazon FBA here.
2.Retail Arbitrage
Sourcing inventory from overseas means you’ll have to pay hefty shipping costs. Lots of sellers avoid this by leveraging retail arbitrage.
Retail arbitrage will require a bit more work. It’s essentially the process of buying inventory from local retailers and then selling them on Amazon for a profit.
Go to your local Walmart, Target, etc., and search for discounted products. Then simply list those items on Amazon with a markup.
You could also consider online arbitrage. Buy directly from these websites and benefit from free shipping. But usually, the best discounts are found in-store. Ebay is another good source for finding cheap products to sell.
While there is definitely money to be made with retail arbitrage, it’s a competitive space and difficult to scale. It can make a great side hustle if you personally enjoy hunting for deals.
3.Publish Your Own Books
Are you a good writer?
You can publish digital books through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). It takes less than five minutes to publish, your book will be available on Kindle stores across the globe in 24-48 hours.
Amazon lets you set your own prices for self-published books. You’ll earn up to 70% of royalties on Kindle sales.
You can also make changes to your content at any time.
In addition to digital format books, you can use CreateSpace to publish physical copies of your book. Consider using ACX to create an audiobook that can be sold on Amazon as well.
4.Sell Wholesale Products
Instead of targeting consumers, you can sell products in bulk via Amazon Business.
This is a B2B marketplace on Amazon. It provides business customers with special prices and the convenience of shopping with Amazon.
As a seller in the Amazon Business marketplace, you’ll have unique business features. For example, you’ll have the ability to accept requests for quotes. Amazon allows you to display different quality and diversity certifications on your page as well.
55 different Fortune 100 companies are Amazon Business customers. More than 50% of the biggest hospitals in the United States and 40%+ of local governments in densely populated cities buy from this B2B marketplace.
If you know a particular B2B vertical really well, you can move some serious product volume this way.
5.Affiliate Marketing via Amazon Associates
Leverage your existing website or blog by joining the Amazon Associates program.
This is a great way to make money on Amazon without selling anything. The program allows you to earn up to 10% in advertising fees from qualified purchases.
Examples of commissions by product category include:
- Luxury, beauty, and Amazon coins — 10%
- Furniture, home, home improvement — 8%
- Lawn & garden, pets products, pantry — 8%
- Outdoors and tools — 6%
- Digital music, groceries, physical music, handmade, digital videos — 5%
You can view the full Associates Program standard fees schedule here.
It’s easy to join and get approved. Amazon also provides you with a wide range of linking tools to embed on your website.
Since Amazon is so ubiquitous these days, you end up getting commissions on all sorts of random products that people buy during the cookie window after clicking your link. If you can build high traffic sites and get lots of clicks to your affiliate links, the earnings add up fast.
6.Sell Professional Services
Most people don’t realize it, but Amazon is more than just a marketplace for tangible products. You can also sell professional services through Amazon Services.
There are no upfront costs or monthly fees to join this program. You’ll only pay a portion of your revenue share for completed jobs based on the service type offered.
Some popular service categories include:
- Apparel and jewelry
- Business
- Consumer electronics
- Education
- Events
- Health and beauty
- Home maintenance
- Pets
- Lawn care and landscaping
- Vehicles
Both freelancers and registered businesses can join Amazon Services. So if you have a skill that falls into one of these categories, apply online to join the network.
7.Sell Products Under Amazon’s Private Brands
The Amazon Accelerator program is an incentive for manufacturers to create their own brands with innovative products. You’ll sell those products exclusively on Amazon as a private brand supplier.
Amazon guides you through the entire onboarding process, providing you with useful tools to create your brand. You’ll also benefit from a suite of marketing support.
If you’re unsure about what types of products will perform well, Amazon can facilitate product testing and customer feedback.
For those of you with direct access to manufacturing, becoming an Amazon Accelerator brand can be a great way to make some cash with substantial margins through this marketplace.
8.Sell Handmade Goods
There is a high demand for handcrafted goods. If you’re crafty and have a passion for making things at home, you can join Amazon Handmade.
Sellers from more than 80 different countries are selling handcrafted products via Amazon.
Amazon has an artisan-only application and audit process. This ensures that the products are genuinely handcrafted.
The pricing for handmade sellers is very straightforward. There are no hidden fees or listing fees at all. You’ll just pay a 15% referral fee to Amazon for each sale made.
9.Work From Home as an Amazon Rep
You can get a job working directly for Amazon from the comfort of your own home. The customer service team supports 16 languages from over 130 locations worldwide.
Many of Amazon’s employees work remotely.
You can become a virtual customer service representative and do the same. If you want to help Amazon customers while sitting in your pajamas, this could be the job for you.
Amazon is constantly updating its Customer Service Associate jobs. Check this page to see if there’s a full-time or part-time job you meet the qualifications for. Then simply apply online.
10.Create Custom Merchandise With Merch by Amazon
Do you have a clever design idea for a t-shirt or a coffee mug? Don’t have the resources to produce hundreds or thousands of these on your own?
Merch by Amazon can turn your idea into a reality.
All you have to do is upload your design. Then simply select a product type and color.
Amazon will create a product page for you. They’ll also take care of all production, shipping, and customer service. You’ll earn a royalty for every product sold that you designed.
There are no upfront costs to join Merch by Amazon. But you will need to fill out an application to be considered for the program. Not everyone will qualify.
11.Deliver With Amazon Flex
You’ve probably realized by now that Amazon runs its own delivery service. I’m sure you’ve seen drivers delivering packages around your neighborhood and even to your own door.
If you’re looking for a part-time job, you can become one of those drivers through Amazon Flex.
The majority of drivers earn between $18-$25 per hour. All of your earnings can be tracked through the Amazon Flex mobile app.
As the name implies, the position is flexible. Create your own schedule with available opportunities seven days per week.
12.Trade In Used Goods
Technically, trading in your used products won’t put cash in your pocket. However, you’ll receive an Amazon gift card which is almost as good.
There are thousands of eligible products that qualify for Amazon’s trade-in program.
Top categories include:
- Amazon products (Kindle, tablets, Echo, etc.)
- Cell phones
- Gaming
- Books
If you have unwanted merchandise lying around the house, see if it’s eligible for a trade-in via Amazon.
13.Join Mechanical Turk
Mechanical Turk (MTurk for short) is Amazon’s crowdsourcing marketplace.
The platform allows businesses and individuals to outsource tasks and processes to a virtual workforce. Things like data validation, content moderation, data entry, research, and surveys fall into this category.
If you have the time, ability, and resources to perform microtasks, then consider joining MTurk. Many tasks will earn between $0.10 and $1. They’re pretty easy to complete too. So the goal is to complete as many as you can.
Some of the tasks are pretty boring and tedious. But you can work part-time on your own schedule and get paid for it.
14.Write Reviews For Amazon Vine
This is another example where you won’t actually receive any cash for participation. Amazon Vine rewards you with free products.
If you’ve already written lots of helpful reviews for products on Amazon, you could be eligible for the Amazon Vine program.
The purpose of Amazon Vine is to encourage honest, unbiased, and helpful feedback. Products are sent for free in exchange for reviews.
You’re not required to leave a favorable review just because you got the product for free. That defeats the purpose of the program. The best way to increase your chances of getting invited to Amazon Vine is by leaving reviews for Amazon products you’ve already purchased.
15.Become an Influencer
Amazon Influencers is another affiliate program. But it’s different than the Amazon Associates program we talked about earlier.
The influencer program is designed to promote products via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It’s a great opportunity to leverage your existing social following.
If you become an approved influencer, Amazon will give you a unique URL to your own Amazon page. The page will showcase products that you want to recommend to your followers. You’ll earn a commission for qualifying purchases.
16. Merch by Amazon
Merch by Amazon is an earning opportunity for designers. Here, you only need to upload the design of a t-shirt, hoodie or sweat and earn commission on every sale. You do not need to keep any stock and handle the fulfillment hassle.
Just come up with a creative design and earn a commission when merch with your design is sold.
How do you join Merch by Amazon, here are some easy steps:
- Sign up to Merch by Amazon and create a design
- Upload the design on any merchandise
- Select the color of your merch and write a product description
From there, Amazon takes complete charge of creating a product page, printing, packaging, fulfillment and customer service.
Maybe you are thinking this opportunity is only for a designer. However, you do not need to be a professional designer; there are multiple free online designing platforms out there such as Canva and Snappa where anyone can make a design to be printed on a t-shirt.
Even better, just go to Pinterest and take any design that you like to print. Make sure the design does not have a watermark present on them.
Check out the product and graphics specifications below.
How does Amazon pay?
On each merch sale, Amazon pays a royalty as a commission for the design. The royalty is based on the product’s purchase price that is set by Amazon after all the cost is taken into consideration including material, printing and customer support. Check out the royalties here.
If you need some guidance, Amazon also offers its best practices page where it provides all the necessary direction about design such as artwork resolution, color selection, sizing, and placement.
17. Amazon Dropshipping
If you like to sell stuff with zero investment then Amazon dropshipping is the best option you have out there. Many people confuse Amazon dropshipping with Amazon FBA – that’s not the same.
With Amazon FBA, you need to deliver the products to Amazon fulfillment centers in bulk quantity whereas in dropshipping you do not buy anything in bulk.
What is dropshipping?
The seller displays the supplier’s products on their store and when a customer orders from the store, the supplier delivers the product and you get the difference as profit.
To do Amazon dropshipping, you need to select the option of fulfillment by the merchant, which means you (the seller) are responsible for fulfillment.
Here’s how you can perform dropshipping on Amazon without any investment.
First, select a trending product to sell on Amazon.
Then, create an Amazon individual seller account; you will be charged only when you sell something.
Select a US-based dropshipping supplier. The reason for selecting a US-based supplier is to make the delivery faster.
Note: Make sure to tell your supplier to mention your seller information on the product, not suppliers.
According to the Amazon dropshipping policy, the seller’s information should be present on the product, not the suppliers.
Then it is simple, you just display the product on your Amazon store and when you receive an order ask your supplier to deliver the product to your customer’s address. You receive the money from the customer, pay the supplier and keep the difference as profit. Another great way to earn money from Amazon.
18. Amazon Handmade
Amazon handmade is another great platform for creative people to earn money from the world’s biggest eCommerce platform.
This platform is similar to Etsy where people can sell handmade products such as jewelry, accessories, and clothes.
If you are fond of making these types of DIY products then Amazon handmade is the ideal platform for you.
You also have the option to deliver the product on your own or you can ship the product to an Amazon fulfillment center where Amazon will deliver the product under the FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) program.
This is an amazing platform to earn but this opportunity is only for genuine artists who are really into DIY stuff because Amazon has a very lengthy process to assure the credibility of the seller on this platform.
Amazon charges 15% referral fees for its services. Apart from this referral fee there is no setup or monthly charges. Check out this page for more details.
19. Mechanical Turk
Mechanical Turk is a great earning opportunity for part-timers. Amazon outsources a lot of its work and submits these jobs on Amazon Turk.
In this program, you are required to work virtually from home. The requester places the job on the Mechanical Turk marketplace where a worker who is interested in the particular work can offer its services.
The nature of work could be anything including filling out a survey form, data validation, etc.
It’s a great opportunity for you to earn some extra income in your free time.
The purpose of Mechanical Turk is to complete projects faster by cutting down the work into micro-tasks.
It is very simple to join, just create a worker’s account and fill out the required information.
Workers can choose any task they want to work on. However, it is a better option for US citizens as they receive payments instantly.
21. Work from Home/Virtual Location
Work from home is a kind of freelancing opportunity that Amazon offers. On its virtual location page, Amazon posts a lot of job openings such as customer support representative, technical support staff, business development officer, etc.
The positions are for seasonal, part-time and full-time work. If you think you have some talent and can work from home then do check out their virtual location page for the latest openings.
22. Amazon Flex
If you have a car and license you can earn from Amazon with zero investment.
Amazon Flex is a program for drivers, it was launched as a solution for the Amazon same-day delivery option for its Prime users. The driver can select the working hours for themselves, make deliveries for Amazon in their free time, and earn up to $18 – $25 per hour.
To become a part of Amazon Flex, here is what you need:
- Minimum age of 21 years
- A legal car
- A smart phone
If you have these things, then you just need to download the Amazon flex app and select the working hours at your convenience.
To learn about Amazon Flex, click here.
23. CamperForce
This is a great earning opportunity for someone who owns an RV. Amazon CamperForce is a program to earn some quick seasonal money.
The duty of a CamperForce associate is to select a seasonal task in a location. When the season arrives, Amazon will assign an area then you will have to store, pack and receive Amazon packages within the designated area in your RV.
For your services, you can earn up to $550 per campsite. Check out this page for more CamperForce detail.
24.Wrapping up
Amazon is getting bigger in size as well as in status every year. That forces the company to come up with different and unique ways to keep the workflow continuing 24/7. A majority of these earning methods are the result of making the workflow smooth for Amazon.
As you have seen already, you have plenty of ways to make money on Amazon without investing any money. All you need is the will of earning and you will surely find a way to make money from the world’s biggest eCommerce platform.