Amazon is the biggest marketplace on earth and no wonder, this company is breaking all limits. And that’s the reason people keep looking for one or the other ways to make money on amazon.

Look at the below numbers for Amazon Marketplace:

amazon by numbers

Source: JungleScout.com

You must have used one of the many services offered by Amazon, from buying a product, to watching a movie or series, uploading your images to the Amazon cloud or other available services offered by the company if you are a Prime member.

By now, you must be wondering, how people make money with Amazon! 

Yes, selling on amazon is the obvious way to earn money. But besides selling, there are several other ways to earn money from this mega platform and that too from the comfort of your home.

In this post, we are going to share with you 9 proven ways to make money on Amazon in 2023. So, lets jump into it.

How to make money with Amazon FBA?

This is the most proven way of making money on Amazon.

So, if you are looking for a more hands-off business model but one that can still be very profitable, then you may want to consider selling other people’s products on Amazon as an Amazon FBA seller.

What is Amazon FBA?

FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. Amazon FBA is a service that allows Amazon sellers to store their products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and Amazon will then pick, pack, and ship the products for them. Amazon will also handle customer service and returns for these products.

So, as an Amazon FBA seller, you would be responsible for finding products to sell, but Amazon would handle everything else. This can be a great business model because it allows you to focus on finding and sourcing products, and you don’t have to worry about the hassle of shipping and customer service.

Sell your own products on Amazon through Amazon FBA

You can sell your own products on Amazon through their Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program. This program allows you to list your products on Amazon and ship them to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Amazon will then pick, pack, and ship your products to your customers. They will also handle customer service and returns for you.

To be eligible for the FBA program, your products must meet certain requirements. They must be in new condition, have a minimum selling price of $15, and be eligible for Prime shipping. In addition, you must be able to provide Amazon with a valid UPC or EAN code for each of your products.

To get started, create an Amazon seller account and list your products for sale. Once your products are listed, you will need to create shipping plans and send your products to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Rest is taken care by Amazon.

Sell your products on other ecommerce platforms.

In addition to Amazon, there are other ecommerce platforms that you can sell your products on. These include eBay, Etsy, and Shopify. Each platform has its own rules and regulations, so be sure to read their terms of service before you list your products for sale.

eBay is a popular online auction site where you can sell just about anything.

You can start selling on ebay by creating a seller account and then listing your products for sale.

Once you list your products, buyers will bid on them. The highest bidder will win the auction and pays to buy the item.

Shopify is a platform that allows you to create your own online store. To get started, sign up for a Shopify account and choose a theme for your store. Then, add your products and start selling. Shopify will provide you with everything you need to run your online store, including a payment gateway, shopping cart, and shipping labels.

Sell other people’s products on Amazon as an Amazon FBA seller

Why selling other people’s products on Amazon can be profitable

One of the great things about selling other people’s products on Amazon is that you can start with very little money and little experience. You don’t need to invest in inventory because you only buy the products after you have sold them.

Find a supplier, list your product on Amazon and then you can start earning profits.

Of course, there are some challenges with selling other people’s products on Amazon. The biggest challenge is that you have to find a supplier who is willing to work with you and who has a good reputation.

If you can find a good supplier, then selling other people’s products on Amazon can be a great way to make money.

Here are some facts related to selling on Amazon which will give you some insight (Source: JungleScout.com):

1. The most commonly sold product categories by third party sellers are Home & Kitchen products, Beauty & Personal Care and toys & Games:

Top Selling Products on Amazon

2. 32% of sellers on Amazon spend less than $1,000 and 69% sellers spend less than $5,000 to start their business on Amazon:

Money spent FBA sellers

3. 64% of sellers are profitable within a year of launching their business on amazon marketplace:

Time to make profit on amazon

4. It takes time to learn the what and how of ecommerce logistics. Though FBA provides lot of support for much of that, but all sellers still need to look after their business’s performance, inventory, advertising, and competitive edge. Most sellers have been able to set up fully functional business on Amazon within just 3 months.

Moreover, most sellers can manage their Amazon business with less than 20 hours/ week.

Time spent by FBA Sellers

Read the entire report here.

Become Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Author to earn money from amazon

Amazon Kindle is Amazon’s self-publishing platform.

With more than 1.8 M visits every month and more than 50% visitors from Tier 1 countries, kdp.amazon.com is a force to recon for content creators!

Look at the following data (Source: Similarweb.com):

KDP statistics
KDP top countries

So, if you love writing and you’re looking for a way to earn some extra income, then publishing your own books on Amazon Kindle might be a good option for you.

Top categories & Topics on KDP

(Source: Similarweb.com)

Kindle allows you to self-publish your books and earn a 70% royalty on each sale.

This means that you’ll earn $7 for every $10 book that you sell. Not bad!

Kindle books are less expensive than traditional print books. And if your book takes off, you can earn a lot of money.

Moreover, you will continue to earn even when you’re not promoting it actively.

The first step is to write your book. This can be any type of book, from a cookbook to a self-help guide. Once you have your book written, you’ll need to create a cover.

Next, create an account on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and follow following steps:

  • Log into your account and you can access the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform.
  • Click on the “+ Add new title” button on your dashboard.
  • Enter your book’s information, including title, author name, description, and keywords.
  • Choose a book category and subcategory.
  • Set your book’s price and royalty options. Upload your book file (PDF or ePUB file).
  • Add cover art. Review and confirm your book details.
  • Click “Publish your Kindle eBook.”

Once your book is live on the Kindle Store, consumers can buy it on Amazon and read it! It’s that simple!

Now, you can start promoting your book through Amazon marketing tools.

You can also promote your books by creating a blog or website and including a link to your book on Amazon. Besides, you can promote through social media, such as Twitter and Facebook.

Once you start making sales, you’ll start earning royalties. You have a choice for monthly payments or every time your book sells.

How do I succeed in Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing?

Let’s hear it straight from the horse’s mouth i.e., Amazon!

10 ways to market on KDP

How do you make passive income on Amazon audible?

The audiobook market has exploded in last few years.

  • In 2021, value of global audiobooks size was $ 4,219.0 million
  • 2022-2030 Expectation: the audiobooks market will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.4%

Thanks to smartphones and mobile devices, popularity of audiobooks has grown multi-fold. And this has created avenues to earn great passive income opportunity for creators.

And do you know, Audible is the world’s largest producer of audiobooks, ahead of Google Play and iTunes.

One of the most appealing features of Audible is it’s cross-platform integration. This means that it’s integrated across many devices. Hence, you can switch from a smartphone to your laptop without losing your place. Audible even plays audiobooks on your Amazon’s Echo device.

Audible’s Car Mode allows you to easily play, pause, and bookmark the audiobook and listen uninterrupted while driving.

There are several avenues to earn money from Amazon Audible. Before we look at them, lets understand how audible works.

Amazon has created a specialized platform called ACX  (Audiobook Creation Exchange) which helps in creating, converting and publishing audiobooks.       

To get started on ACX, creators can sign up, claim their book, fill out the details, and then upload the files. More on this in later paras.

Now lets see 3 major ways to earn from Audible platform:

Create and sell your own Audiobooks

You can create audiobooks on fiction topics, non-fiction topics, and everything in between. If you have the time, but no money, you can write and record audiobooks yourself. If you have a budget, you can hire a narrator who will do the work for you.

How to create an Audiobook on Audible?

Find a profitable keyword in your niche (topic of your audiobook). Something which that people want to learn about and has a decent number of searches along with low competition.

Next, you can write the book yourself or outsource it to the ghost-writers (freelancers) on sites like Fiverr, ProBlogger or Upwork etc.

Next create a cover for your audiobook.

Now, if you may narrate your book yourself or hire a narrator to do it for you on Amazon’s ACX.

The final step is to publish your audiobook on Audible. After publishing the book,  you may start promoting it for sales on your blog, podcast, YouTube channel, social media pages, email etc.

How much can you earn by creating Audiobooks? While it varies according to the niche and sales, on an average, you can earn between $15 – $25 per book.

Narrate Audiobooks for books already written and selling

Narrating audiobooks is a lesser-known way to make money in 2023. And the best part is that, you necessarily don’t have to write your own books. 

As few people know that you can earn money by narrating audiobooks, you will generally find less competition. Further, if you combine it with good marketing strategies, you can earn even more money.

And as an icing on the cake, there are books of all kinds that need to be converted to audiobooks. So, basically there is lot of chances that your voice will match a book you can narrate.

For example, for narrating learning books, you need a few narration techniques. Whereas, if you are interested in narrating fiction or storybooks, you need to play multiple characters.

If you are able to capture the attention of your listeners by producing an entertaining and interesting read, you are in for some good money.

How much money can you make by narrating audiobooks?

Though it depends on a no. of factors, but a realistic estimate would be $400-$800 a month narrating audiobooks. 

Further, once ACX program accepts you as a narrator, you can earn up to $225 for every hour spent on the project.

When you record an audiobook with ACX, you can earn an hourly rate or split royalties 50/50 with the author. Suppose you charge a flat fee, you will be paid once the audiobook is completed. Based on the previous month’s sales, Royalties are paid monthly.

In the long run, if the audiobook is a big seller, you could make a lot of passive income in sales royalties.

What do you need to earn by narrating audiobooks?

However, your success will depend on your voice and the recording quality. So, do your best to keep out background noise and make your voice as clear as possible.

How to find a Job narrating audiobook?

The Amazon ACX Audiobooks platform connects you with authors who need your services. You have to submit a sample of your reading for each job and also your portfolio of projects to get hired.

This is why it is important to work with smaller projects before making good money with ACX. You can do this by applying for storytelling job postings on sites like freelancer.com, fiverr.com, upwork.com, indeed.com etc.

To find a job at Amazon ACX, follow these steps:

  • Register and create a profile (Amazon Sign-In)
  • Upload samples of your reading skills to your profile
  • Choose how you want to get paid (by hour or by royalty etc.)
  • Find already published books, and record a few minutes of the manuscript for the audition

Once you are chosen by the author/publisher, you will receive a hiring offer.

Affiliate Marketing: Promote other people’s work to your audience  

This is one of the easiest ways to make money on Audible, especially if you already own an audience.

It involves promoting other people’s work to your audience. This can be done via your blog, YouTube channel, social media pages, email, etc. For every sale you bring in, you will be paid a commission. Over time, it may add up to a steady source of passive income.

To get started, sign up as an affiliate on Audible’s website and then you will get an affiliate link that you can promote through your content. 

You basically promote a free 30-day Audible trial. And if after expiry of 30 days, the user decides to the monthly Audible subscription, you get paid a commission, which usually is $15/sale.

Promote Amazon products as an Amazon affiliate

Amazon Associates Program is one of the oldest & largest affiliate marketing programs on the planet. And, probably, it is the easiest way for the content creators, publishers & bloggers to monetize their traffic.

How does it work?

The Amazon affiliate program is a service through which you can earn money by recommending any of the products sold on Amazon. If you get someone to buy it, you will take a percentage commission of the total of what you have sold.      

It is a fantastic way to earn money from home if you already have an established audience such as a blog or a YouTube channel in which you generate content. However, you may also create a new website/ blog/ youtube etc. which is more focused on this means of earning money. Here is an example of a YouTube channel that uses Amazon affiliate marketing by promoting video cameras:

Amazon affiliate marketing on Youtube

You will need to create a variety of content related to your particular niche so that you can successfully refer customers on to Amazon.

Follow following Steps to earn money with Amazon Affiliates:

  • Sign up for Amazon Affiliates: Registration is free, and you can use your Amazon account credentials to access. You will need to fill out a form for Amazon to approve your affiliation, as well as provide your billing information.
  • Choose a monetization method which suits your needs. Choose your market niche as per your content where you will finally promote the links.
  • Choose from different types of links such as text links, product links, banners, widgets etc. which you can install on your sites. Then insert the links and banners toAmazon product pages on your website.
  • Now, every time your visitors click on these links and then buy products on Amazon, you earn a percentage. This percentage varies from 1% to 10% depending on the category of product sold through your affiliate link. The duration for sales to happen in next 24 hours (or 30 days if the user added an item to their cart).
  • Monitor and improve the performance of your account by help of simple and precise tools provided by Amazon itself.

How much can You earn with Amazon affiliate?

It depends on the commission income rates of the product you are promoting and the conversion rate of your traffic.

Below is Amazon’s affiliate commission rates for reference:

Amazon’s affiliate commission rates

Source: Amazon

As you can see, while the commission percentages usually range between 2-5%, – the conversion rates and volume you receive from sharing those affiliate links make up for it.

How does amazon pay the affiliate fee?

Once your earnings are accumulated, there are three payment methods available:

Direct deposit: Amazon Affiliates can transfer your funds directly if you provide your bank information. For this, Minimum balance should be $10.

Check: You can get a check from Amazon by providing your mailing address. For this, Minimum balance should be $100.

Gift card: Amazon can send you gift cards to your email address. For this, Minimum balance should be $10.

Amazon usually pays 60 days after the month of sale.

Amazon Flex: Earn money as Amazon delivery driver

Working as a delivery person is another great way to earn money with Amazon thanks to its Amazon Flex program.

This service allows people to become official distributors of this ecommerce giant if they have their own vehicle, or even a motorcycle.

As delivery person you have to deliver packages which are ordered by customers on amazon.com, PrimeNow, and amazon Fres Orders and all you need is a car of your own.

Getting started with Amazon Flex:

You have to download the Amazon Flex app and enter your current location to know if it’s already available in the country where you live right now.

How much money can you make on amazon Flex as driver?

Approximately, you can make $100+ per day.

Your income as a delivery person will be subject to the number of hours you dedicate to deliveries.

As per official data from Amazon Flex, partners who are working with AmazonFlex can earn between $18 to $25 an hour, And the work shifts are generally five hours. With online shopping exploding on a global scale after the pandemic, Amazon Flex has gained a lot of fans this year.

Sell your handmade products on Amazon

Amazon has a whole section dedicated to handmade and artisan products. It is known as Amazon Handmade.

This new store on the Amazon.com marketplace offers a curated selection of handmade products from artisans around the world. Here, you can sell the products you make to sell at home such as jewelry, accessories, home decor, and more. thus, these products must be handmade, hand-assembled, or hand-finished by the seller.

According to JungleScout.com, Handmade require the least to start-up amongst all business models of Amazon. On an average, 53% of Amazon handmade sellers spent less than $2,500 to start selling on Amazon.

How much can I make selling on Amazon Handmade?

As per JungleScout.com, 63% of the artisans who work with Amazon Handmade, generate more than a 1000 $ each month. This shows the earning potential of this market. Also, about 33% of sellers at amazon Handmade, have seen profit margins above 20%.

To sell handmade on Amazon, handmade sellers have to create listings for their products. After the item is sold, they must create and/or fulfill the handmade product.

Amazon Handmade helps the sellers to reach millions of potential customers around the world. Handmade stores are available in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan.

Generate income with Amazon Merch

Amazon Merch

Source: merch.amazon.com

If you’re good at designing, or like working with design programs and have a knack for illustrating, Amazon has a great offer for you to earn money.

How does Amazon Merch work?

If you can design and want avoid keeping inventories like shirts, caps, glasses, paintings or suitcases, Amazon Merch is a very profitable alternative.

It is a Print on Demand service similar to Redbubble.com where you can upload your design into amazon’s Merch platform. Then these designs appear on articles like T-shirts, Hoodies, Shirts, Coffe Mugs, tote Bags, Hats etc.

For every sale that is made with your uploaded design, Amazon pays you a commission. So, in this business model, you earn royalties from the sale of your design which ranges anywhere from 13% to 37%, depending on the product’s price. 

Here is an indicative list of royalties that Amazon Merch pays in USA &UK for the sale of products with your designs:

Royalties paid by Amazon Merch

Sell professional services on Amazon

Amazon Professional Services

Source: amazon.com

Selling products is not the only option by which you can make money with Amazon. 

There are thousands of people earning money with Professional Services platform on amazon by offering their professional services.

This option consists of offering additional services to the purchase of products that occur on the platform. Among the professional service options available on Amazon, you can offer:

  • assembly service
  • Appliance Installation Services
  • Home theater services.

This alternative only works for the United States. So, if you live there, you can offer your services on the platform and start receiving work orders.

Here you can find more information about the options to earn money with Amazon by offering your services as a freelancer.

Earn money with Amazon Web Services

Amazon is not just an online store. In fact, you will be surprised to know that one of its most profitable business models is AWS i.e.  Amazon Web Services.

From cloud storage, application development, automated voice services, to Email Marketing services, AWS is one of the largest and most robust digital providers in the world.

How to make money with Amazon Web Services?

If you can program and you are an expert in implementing projects or programming applications, you can offer your knowledge services through virtual consultancies or specific actions.

For example, you can offer your specialized services related to AWS on freelance platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour etc.

In general, these jobs are well paying as not everyone has the knowledge to develop on this platform.

Best part is that you can offer your knowledge and experience to several different sectors such as:

  • Advertising and marketing
  • Financial services
  • video game technology
  • Multimedia content and entertainment.

So, if you have knowledge in AWS, start offering your services on the freelance platforms and earn good income.

In this article, we have shared 9 strategies to understand how to earn money with Amazon which is well proven.

Some of these can be executed remotely, while other options will require you to move from one place to another such as with Amazon Flex.

But one way or another you will be generating money that you can use to start other businesses, pay off debts or generate extra income.

If you want to know about some interesting and practical Side Hustles or Passive Income sources, read the following blog posts:

19 Side Hustle Ideas for Earning Fast Money in 2023

Best Passive Income Ideas that works- A Definite Guide 2022