When you think of Amazon, you probably associate it with a place to buy items. The site, which launched in 1995 used to sell books, now you can buy almost anything from the world-leading marketplace.
But buying items is not all Amazon is good for. Plenty of entrepreneurs make a considerable amount of money each year through the site. But how do you go about making money on Amazon?
In this article, we’ll discuss some of the top Amazon business opportunities that you can get started with straight away.
How Are People Making Money on Amazon?
There are lots of great ways to make money on Amazon, these include:
- Promoting Amazon products through affiliate marketing
- Self-publish a book using Kindle
- Resell items that you’ve bought on Amazon
- Carry out small tasks through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
- Sell handmade items
- Deliver items through Amazon Flex
- Sell merchandise
- Sell your professional services
- Work for Amazon
So, you want to make money on Amazon? Let’s take a deeper look into how these methods work.
Promoting Amazon Products Through Affiliate Marketing
If you want a slice of the trillion-dollar enterprise that is Amazon, but you don’t want to go through the hassle of sourcing and handling stock, you could sign up as an affiliate.
What an Amazon affiliate does is promote Amazon products through their own blogs and websites.
To earn money as an affiliate, you’ll need to sign up for the Amazon Associates program. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to get special links for any product that Amazon sells. You can then post these links on your site either in blog posts or as banners or buttons.
Whenever a visitor to your site clicks through these links and buys an item, you’ll earn a commission on the sale. The more visitors you can convert into buyers, the more you earn.
Self-Publish a Book Using Kindle
If you fancy yourself as the next literary superstar but you haven’t got a book deal yet, you could always self-publish your first book through Amazon.
You can write whatever you want; fiction, or non-fiction. These can be published as e-books to be read on Kindle. Successful writers of e-books can earn quite a nice income through their creative endeavors.
If you want to make more money as a kindle writer, you’ll probably find popular fiction to be the best place to start, however, it is harder to sell your first fiction book. Many authors start off writing non-fiction.
Assuming you write the book yourself, the costs involved are pretty low. You’ll need to think about cover design and you’ll probably want to hire someone to edit your book too.
Resell Items That You’ve Bought Elsewhere
There are plenty of other marketplaces online where you can grab a bargain, but most customers will head straight to Amazon to find whatever they need.
You can take advantage of this using what is known as online arbitrage. Search through other marketplaces such as AliExpress, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or even Craigslist to find products that you can resell for a profit.
Carry Out Small Tasks Through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
Mechanical Turk is a jobs marketplace owned by Amazon. It lets you complete small data tasks that computers are unable to do. These might include tasks such as data validation, research, or transcribing.
Many of the jobs can be completed in minutes or even seconds. They don’t pay a great deal, but they’re handy if you have some spare time on your hands.
Mechanical Turk tasks can be completed by anyone and don’t require any specific or special skills.
Sell Handmade Items
Are you good at making craft items such as jewelry or ornaments? You could sell your items on Amazon.
Before you start selling your items, find out whether there is a strong demand for the type of product that you’d be making.
While this can be hard work, it is also quite rewarding to see people enjoying products that you’ve made yourself.
Deliver Items Through Amazon Flex
Amazon is disrupting the way that items get delivered. Anyone with a car or van could find work delivering Amazon items from their local warehouse out to customers.
All you need is your own car and a smartphone and you can get started.
Using the Amazon Flex app, drivers can pick up jobs as and when they’re available. Then, the driver will pick up the stock and deliver them. Simple.
Sell Your Professional Services
Whenever someone buys a product that requires assembly or setting up, they may need some help to do this. If you’ve got specialist handyman skills, you could earn money selling your professional services through the site.
If you believe you’ve got what it takes to help people with their products, you might be a good fit.
Sell Anything Through Amazon
If you’re thinking of starting an Amazon business, one route you could go down is to sell your own branded products through the site. Simply source your own products from a manufacturer and have Amazon store and distribute the products.
A company such as the upstart works Amazon agency will be able to help you to maximize your selling potential.
Work for Amazon
Finally, you could also earn money by getting a job directly with Amazon. Although Amazon’s warehouses do lead the charge in technical innovation, they still require people to carry out many of the duties associated with selling on the site.
While the most common jobs are in the warehouse, you could also get a job listing products, in HR, or in legal.
Do you Make Money Through Amazon?
Amazon continues to innovate and find new ways for entrepreneurs to make money through the site.
What are your top tips for making money on Amazon? For more great articles like this, check out the business section of the site.
