How To Make Money Selling On Amazon Domain_10

Top 10 Ways to Make Money on Amazon in 2020 Once upon a time, Amazon was a simple online bookstore. But in 2020, Amazon is a massive marketplace that offers many different money-making opportunities for both employees and entrepreneurs.

If you're looking to make money as a side hustle or a full-time gig, chances are you can earn that money on Amazon!

Usually when I'm singing the praises of making money on Amazon, I'm talking about reselling items with Amazon's Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program.

But that's not the only way to make money on Amazon. In fact, it's not even the only way that Cliff and I make money on Amazon!

For us, nothing tops FBA. But because different personalities like different types of work, I wanted to let you know about all of the other interesting ways you can make money on Amazon.

I'm going to share the 10 best ways that you can start earning money on Amazon. I'll even throw in a few bonus ideas at the end for those of you who aren't ready to start your own business yet.

1. Get Paid to Shop with Retail Arbitrage

This is how it all began for me back in 2009. We've now sold over $1,000,000 worth of inventory on Amazon using this method.

With Retail Arbitrage, you're looking to "buy low, sell high." And to find your "buy low" inventory, you're simply looking for products at regular retail stores like Walmart and Walgreens.

This is how a lot of folks find items to sell on Ebay, but Amazon has one big advantage. If you use their FBA program, Amazon will handle all of the fulfillment for you.

That means you're in charge of finding inventory to sell, but Amazon will take care of storing your items, shipping them to customers, and even handling customer service.

It's the FBA program that allowed us to quickly grow a Retail Arbitrage reselling business on Amazon.

There's really no limit to how a Retail Arbitrage business can look. Some people just make some extra cash selling used books, thrift store finds, and liquidation items. Others do Retail Arbitrage to earn a full-time income.

It really all depends on how much time and money you have available to invest and how comfortable you are with shopping in different stores in your area. The good news is that it's very affordable to start a Retail Arbitrage business.

Start Making Money on Amazon with Retail Arbitrage

Retail Arbitrage is my specialty, so if you want to learn more, sign up for my free Amazon FBA Starter Course. This course will walk you through the steps of setting up your account and finding your first inventory in stores.

2. Hands-Off Reselling with Online Arbitrage

If you don't have the time or energy to shop in retail stores locally, you might be interested in Online Arbitrage instead.

Online Arbitrage is a lot like Retail Arbitrage. The only difference is that you buy your inventory from the websites of retail stores. There are great tools that can really automate a lot of the workflow.

And if you work with a prep center, this can become a fairly hands-off business model. For a fee, you can have your online shopping orders sent to a prep center. The prep center employees will process your inventory and ship it off to Amazon for you.

This is a great way to make money if you have an eye for deals and stacking savings with things like cashback websites, coupon codes, and credit card rewards.

Learn More About Online Arbitrage

All you need to start is an Amazon Selling account. To learn more about how Online Arbitrage works, check out this blog post: Online Arbitrage 101.

3. Build an Ecommerce Empire with Wholesale

If you want an Amazon reselling business that you can grow to seven-figures, wholesale might be the best FBA option for you.

If you want to start selling wholesale on Amazon, you'll need to partner with brands or distributors. You'll work with them to get their products sold on Amazon.com

Even in 2020, there are still brands who don't know how much money they could be making on Amazon. Or maybe they do know but they don't have time to learn how to sell on FBA.

That's where you come in! You will buy direct from the brand or distributor and then sell for a profit on Amazon. It's a win-win for you and the brand owner.

Learn How to Sell Wholesale on Amazon FBA

To start with wholesale, you do need a little more money saved up. A brand owner will most likely have order minimums.

But if you have some money to invest, you can scale a wholesale business quickly. Need proof? Check out how Dan and Eric run their seven-figure Amazon wholesale business.

4. Create Your Own Private Label Products

Some entrepreneurs aren't content to resell other people's products. If that's you, you can actually create your own products and bring them to market on Amazon.com

This business model is called Private Label. Once you have a great idea for a best-selling product, you'll partner with a manufacturer to create your new inventory. You'll even create your own brand name and packaging to really own your products.

Your supplier can ship directly to you or you can arrange for them to send your products to Amazon warehouses for FBA.

How to Make Money with Private Label

Like wholesale, you do need some money available upfront to get started with Private Label. When you're ordering from overseas suppliers, you'll need to make a bulk order. Plus you'll have to cover international shipping costs.

I published a case study of how one Private Label seller grew his business to $23k in 5 months. This should give you a sense of what it takes to start a successful Private Label product.

5. Make Money Blogging with Amazon Associates

Have you ever dreamed of making money as a blogger? Getting paid to write about your hobbies or expertise?

Amazon Associates is one of the easiest ways to start monetizing your blog. You definitely won't get rich overnight, but you can start to slowly build a passive income stream with Amazon's affiliate program.

If you run a blog, you can start adding Amazon affiliate links to relevant products that are sold on Amazon. Then when someone clicks through and buys, you earn a small commission.

This is about the easiest version of affiliate marketing that exists. You don't really need to "sell" anyone on the idea of buying a product from Amazon. People already trust Amazon and love to shop there. So if you're recommending good products, your readers will be interested in buying!

I've been using Amazon affiliate links on my blog posts for years. It's a great way to earn a little extra money by recommending the products that I already use and love.

Create Your Amazon Associates Account

You'll need to start by applying for an Amazon Associates account. Once you're approved, you can start creating your own affiliate links to Amazon products.

6. Self-Publish Ebooks on Kindle

It's easier than ever before to become a published author thanks to self-publishing. And no one makes it easier to self-publish than Amazon.

If you want to write a book, there's no reason to wait for a book deal. Just type it up and then publish it with Amazon's KDP platform. Your book will be published and available for purchase on Kindle devices.

You get paid a small royalty each time someone buys your book. Even if that's just a few dollars per sale, it does add up. You'll get paid over and over again for the one-time task of writing a book.

Get Started with Kindle

Head on over to the Kindle Direct Publishing website to get started. Once you have an account, this is where you can upload your first book.

7. Create Print Books with KDP

Selling ebooks is great. But there's nothing like the feel of a paperback in your hands to prove that you're areal author.

With Amazon KDP, you now have the option to create print-on-demand books. This means that the paperback version of your book doesn't physically exist until a customer orders it. Then Amazon quickly prints a copy and ships it to the buyer.

If you've already written a book to sell on Kindle, there's no reason not to make it available as a physical book, too. Like with Kindle, you'll earn a royalty off of every print-on-demand sale.

Learn More About KDP Print Books

Amazon has put together a great Getting Started guide for their KDP platform. You can even access their free KDP University training to learn all of the details.

8. Create Low-Content or No-Content Books

Let's face it. The hardest part about self-publishing is coming up with a book topic and finding the time to write it.

Well, here's some good news. You can self-publish your own books even if you're super busy and have terrible grammar.

Publishing low- or no-content books is a big trend on Amazon right now. And some of these books make a lot of money!

Not sure what a low-content book is? Think meal planners, gratitude journals, homework logs, sketchbooks, and doodle books.

You might not have to write much more than a few prompts that repeat on each page. You really just need a nice design and you can get your no-content book done fast!

You get paid the same as with traditional KDP books – a royalty that's set based on the selling price.

Make Money Selling Blank Books on Amazon

I love this business model and have created a couple of these books myself. I talk about how it works in much more detail in this blog post: Blank Pages, Big Profits – How to Sell No Content Books on Amazon.

9. Design Shirts and Accessories with Merch by Amazon

Merch is another great print-on-demand offering from Amazon. But instead of designing and selling print books, you're creating things like t-shirts, sweatshirts, and PopSockets. They seem to keep adding to the list of products you can offer with Merch.

If you have an eye for design, you'll love doing Merch. You upload the design and then Amazon takes care of printing and shipping. That means you can sell t-shirts all day long without ever touching any inventory!

But even if you're not a good artist or designer, you can still make money selling Merch. It's pretty easy to outsource the design part of it to a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork. Then you're just in charge of coming up with more money-making design ideas!

There's no cost to get started with Merch unless you're hiring designers. Amazon covers the cost of the shirts and shipping and you get paid a small royalty from every sale.

Request Your Merch by Amazon Invitation

Merch is currently on an invitation-only basis. But you can simply go to this site to request your invitation. Response times for creating new accounts can vary, but it doesn't hurt to go ahead and apply if this interests you. My Merch account was approved in less than a month.

10. Sell Handmade Products on Amazon

It seems like Amazon must have been impressed by Etsy's success because now they have their own marketplace for handmade goods.

If you make your own handcrafted items, you're eligible to sell on Amazon Handmade. They take a higher commission than Etsy, but Amazon just can't be beat when it comes to traffic.

And, unlike Etsy, Amazon allows their Handmade sellers to use the FBA program for fulfillment. So this creates some exciting opportunities for growth.

Apply for Amazon Handmade

Because Amazon limits this marketplace to Artisans only, you do have to apply for acceptance into the program. You can read about the requirements and apply to sell by clicking here.

Bonus: 4 More Ways to Make Money on Amazon

After getting laid off from my job in 2008, I knew I could never again be an employee for someone else. That's why my top 10 ways to make money on Amazon are all for entrepreneurs.

But I totally get that some people feel safer working as an employee or contractor. If that's you, you can still make money on Amazon without having to start your own business.

Deliver Packages as a Flex Driver

Do you live in a city with free same-day Amazon Prime shipping?

If so, I'm sure you've checked it out. Who can resist ordering an item from your computer at 10am and having it arrive before dinner?

You've probably noticed that these same-day orders aren't being delivered by UPS or the post office. They're coming from plain clothes drivers who are part of the Amazon Flex program.

According to the Flex website, many drivers make between $18 – $25 an hour. To get started, follow the steps on this page.

Work Remotely for Amazon

Like most large tech companies, Amazon offers many work from home opportunities. You can view all of their "virtual locations" on this page.

There are jobs across different departments like customer service, HR, marketing, and more. Most of the positions I saw were for full-time roles.

Work in an Amazon Fulfillment Center

You've already heard me talk about how powerful Amazon's FBA program is. Well, that program only works because of hardworking Amazon employees who work at Amazon Fulfillment Centers all over the US.

Amazon warehouse associates are in charge of picking, packing, and shipping orders for Amazon and their third-party sellers. You can view all of Amazon's fulfillment jobs here. There are also seasonal work opportunities around the holidays to handle increased sales.

Complete Tasks on Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk, or MTurk, is Amazon's marketplace for outsourcing virtual tasks. According to Amazon, "this could include anything from conducting simple data validation and research to more subjective tasks like survey participation, content moderation, and more."

As a Worker, you'd be completing relatively low skill tasks for low pay. Because of the low pay, this is probably my last pick for ways to make money on Amazon. You can learn more about the program and apply to be a Worker on the MTurk website.

There are actually even more ways to make money on Amazon, but I thought these were the best picks for most people. But let me know in the comments if I missed your favorite!

Have you tried any of these yourself? Or maybe you're like me and you're already doing several of them. Be sure to share what worked (and what didn't) in the comments below.