Imagine this: you’re working independently on Amazon, a platform that has already generated $604 billion by September, 2024 (it was $574B in the whole of 2023).
Oh, and, 60% of total revenue on this platform is generated by third-party users. That’s a staggering $362 billion dollars being generated by regular people just like you!
In this article, you will discover 10 actionable and rather easy ways to make money on Amazon in 2024 and the years to come. You might also be interested in how you can get free stuff from Amazon.
Strategies for Selling Products on Amazon
For your convenience, we divided up these strategies to 3 earning levels: $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 a month. Keep in mind that these earning levels will vary based on your starting capital, experience, and dedication.
Also, for each part we will assume that you already have an Amazon Seller Account. Let’s get straight to it.
Earning Level 1: ~$1,000 a Month
Retail Arbitrage
Retail arbitrage is about finding and buying discounted items from your local retail stores and reselling them for a profit on Amazon.While retail arbitrage could make you feel old, it still surely is a fun one.
Even though you won’t be able to do this all the way from the comfort of your home, it’s always great to get those steps in while making money. Here are some tips for your potential retail arbitrage business:
- Research product opportunities. Use the Amazon Seller App to scan barcodes of certain items in retail stores and check current listings of that product, offers, and overall competition.
- Buy low, sell high. Find discounted items with high resale potential. That could be seasonal products or items with a high demand. Keep in mind that Amazon has fees, so make sure you don’t sell for a loss.
- Start small. If this is your first time engaging in such activity, make sure to start small to minimize risk. Once you get more experience and familiarity with the platform, then you can go bigger and bring home some real bacon.
Online Arbitrage
This one is equivalent to retail arbitrage with only one difference – all the action takes place online.
Instead of doing your daily step challenge at your local store, you check for discounted items online and then sell them on Amazon for a higher price. Here are some tips:
- Find cheap items online. Use platforms like AliExpress, Temu, Alibaba, eBay, or any other mass (or niche) online store to get products at cheap prices.
- Check demand and profitability. Utilize the Amazon Seller App to check competition and prices. Alternatively, you can find some tools online to check sales volume and other metrics.
- Leverage discount codes. Search for stores that offer cashback features, subscribe to newsletter for occasional discount codes, and find stores with loyalty programs.
Sell Used Books
People love reading, and considering the movement toward sustainability, people love used books even more.
We’re sure that you either have a bookshelf filled with books to make the house look more extravagant or that at some point you at least thought about it. Either way, you don’t have to be a book lover to sell them.
Here’s how you can do it:
- Get books. Research local and online second-hand stores that sell books. To be honest, it doesn’t have to only be books. You can expand your venture to old CD’s, DVD’s, vinyl records, and other similar items. People love their sentimental and nostalgic stuff.
- Evaluate condition. Don’t dive head first into buying every $1 book out there. Used or not used, there are still some rules for what conditions are deemed acceptable. Amazon may not accept items that look like they outlived Alexander the Great.
- Describe the book. When you list the book, make sure to include relevant keywords to describe the book’s theme, genre, author, and other things that would allow users to easily find it.
- Research niche genres. Some genres are more profitable than others, so make sure to conduct your research before stacking up your attic with books.
Earning Level 2: ~$5,000 a Month
Wholesale Selling
This one is basically a higher level of retail and online arbitrage. You don’t look for single products with discounts. Instead, you buy in bulk directly from manufacturers and resell them on Amazon.
It doesn’t mean that you must have your own brand to sell these products. However, at this point it might make sense not only to sell on Amazon but also create your own online store.
Here are some tips:
- Identify product categories. Find either what would be most comfortable for you to sell or what has the highest demand and profit margins. Is it construction supplies, sports equipment, vitamins & supplements? It’s all up to you and your expertise.
- Know what you’re selling. Profit margins and demand are not the only factors. At this point, you’re selling a lot of similar items. If you know what you’re selling, it will be easier to market the products and convince your potential customers that you’re the best option.
- Find suppliers. Finding reputable and trustworthy suppliers can be daunting, but it’s essential to your Amazon business. Research online vendors that provide databases of suppliers and find the best fit for you.
- Leverage Amazon FBA. You’re buying items in bulk, which means a lot of storage space. If you don’t have a warehouse to store these items, it could prove worthy to send items to Amazon’s warehouses where they will store, pack, and ship your products for extra fees.
- Monitor listings. Adjust pricing strategy, leverage Amazon ads, and monitor competition regularly for best results.
Create Your Brand
Your own brand could give a serious kick to the products you’re selling, if marketed correctly. This way, people may connect with your brand, its values, aesthetics, and vision.
The result? Well, you will likely become rich and no longer search for the best ways to make money on Amazon. Here are some tips for you:
- Product research. Use online tools and research the market thoroughly before deciding on your niche. In a perfect world, you would find products with high demand and low competition that also tell your brand’s story and communicate its values. In reality, you will most likely need to compromise and find a balance between the metrics.
- Find suppliers. Get access to online databases of suppliers and select one, or several, that work best for you. Decide on terms and make sure they can get your branding right.
- Create your brand. Differentiation is key in today’s economy. Make sure your package design stands out and aligns with your products and your audience’s expectations.
- Don’t go all in immediately. Even if it looks like your ecommerce business will sail off in a favorable wind, you never really know what’s going to happen. Make sure to test out the product first in small quantities to ensure that the market is receptive to it.
Amazon Merch on Demand
This is probably the best option for creative souls who love designing new things. It’s not only a chance for you to make money, you can potentially become famous with a great and relevant design.
Here are some tips to get you started:
- See what’s trending. Nowadays people love their memes and phrases and crying hamsters with a ribbon. It could be your chance to capitalize on it and create some designs that include trending topics.
- AI images. You probably remember Pope Francis in Balenciaga drip, right? With AI tools, not even the sky’s the limit. Switch your imagination to nuclear mode and just let it explode. Maybe you’ll unlock the next viral image and put it on a shirt.
- Promote your designs. Leverage social media platforms for this. Sometimes it only takes one moment for something to get viral.
- Follow seasonality. Innovative ugly Christmas sweaters, Halloween attire, school season, the list goes on. See what holiday designs are closest to your heart and skillset.
Earning Level 3: ~$10,000 a Month
Selling Digital Products
What if you could make something once, refine it, and then sell it for years to come?
This dream comes true with digital products such as eBooks, online courses, digital art, and so on. These products basically have no extra costs, they require no physical storage space, and can be provided instantly to the buyer with no shipping costs or issues.
Here’s what you should keep in mind:
- Figure out your niche. Do you have loads of experience in some field? Make an online course. Do you love writing? Consider short stories, novels, or any other type of literature.
- Select the best tools for your trade. Since it’s a one-time production, you must make it quite perfect, unless you want to make a hobby of fixing and editing it every other week.
- Hire freelancers for the project. If you’re a great writer, but lack expertise in design, it’s probably a good idea to hire a freelancer to do the job. A proofreader would likely be smart as well. It will save you a lot of time and the job will be done by professionals.
If you’re writing an eBook or a journal, you can also consider working with Kindle Direct Publishing to earn royalties for each sale.
Become an Amazon Affiliate or Influencer
If you’re a social media influencer, a blog owner, a YouTube channel owner, streamer, or any other sort of star, this could boost up your earnings significantly.
If you have a large following, you might even be able to buy a house without the mortgage after this venture. Sounds interesting? Here are some guidelines:
- Sign up for Amazon Associates Program. Apply for Amazon’s affiliate marketing program and receive personalized links that you can share for commissions.
- Promote, but don’t overpromote. Sticking to products that make sense for your niche is probably healthier for your fanbase. Your followers could get disheartened by seeing you, a skincare influencer, promoting that aerodynamic BMW F40 matt black spoiler.
How to Earn Money on Amazon Without Selling
While the most popular way to sell on Amazon is by offering products, there is a whole other market for you, who are interested in selling services.
In this section, we will cover a couple methods of how to make money on Amazon without having a product to sell.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
On MTurk, you can make some money by performing small tasks such as answering surveys and doing data validation.This method won’t make you rich, but with consistency you can expect to make from $50 to $200 a week.
To begin, all you need to do is sign up on the Amazon Mechanical Turk website, check what available tasks are there, and start completing them.
Focus on tasks with positive reviews and acceptable payments.
Audible Narration
If you feel like this is something you’d like doing, you can try narrating books on Audible – Amazon’s audiobook platform.
You can either earn royalties or get a fixed amount for every narration.
The not-so-cool part is that you will have to have relevant experience in the field. You will need to upload samples of your narrations and audition for narration projects.
If you’re feeling confident in your ability, you need to sign up to ACX and start auditioning.
Conclusion
To sum up, if you ever found yourself questioning “Is Amazon passive income real?” and “Can I sell on Amazon with no product?”, the answer is yes.
From retail arbitrage to Amazon associates program, there are a handful of opportunities to make money on Amazon, and the ecommerce sales train is not stopping anytime soon.
On the contrary, Amazon’s revenue is growing every year. So, brace yourself, find your niche, and jump in your new Amazon business.
