4 Fun Ways to Make Money Online with Amazon + Create Passive Income

Want to make money online with Amazon? It’s a question that’s worth considering. They are, without a doubt, the top e-commerce platform. They’re a household name and the go-to place for almost everything. They’ve done some serious branching out, as well. If you want to make money online with Amazon, there are several options for you to choose from! In this article I’ll cover the 4 biggest.

If you’re not quite convinced about the potential for you to make money from Amazon, check out these key statistics about Amazon’s online presence.

Each month more than 197 million people shop from amazon.com.

Amazon is ranked as the top retail e-commerce company for 2020, with a nearly 40% share of e-commerce sales in the US.

If you’re anything like me, figures like this might convince you to at least explore the ways in which you can make money online with Amazon. I mean, they already have the customers, right?

Although these are high numbers, I want to emphasize that this is only potential. It’s not a given and thousands of instant customers is far from the reality. Yes, there are success stories, but there are far more people struggling to make sales.

The thing I like about Amazon is that some of these ways to make money cost absolutely nothing. It’s a lot of fun to create products and put them up for sale. You might make a little or you might make a lot.

Either way, you’ll learn a HUGE amount about the whole process, and this will be invaluable for your future projects. I speak from experience on this one. So for me, it’s been so worth it!

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL ON AMAZON?

Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links, so I may get a commission if you choose to use these companies. They are all companies I use and love. Thanks for supporting Happier With Tea!

Yes, Amazon draw millions of customers… but you have to work hard and work smart to access them. Understandably, Amazon promotes successful businesses but they also make it nearly impossible for customers to see businesses that aren’t popular.

You won’t even have a chance of success without these three crucial things.

An amazing product. And by this I mean a product that people actually want. It’s not enough to produce run of the mill. It needs to be meeting a need that’s out there. Again, this involves research! A great product is going to make the promotion and marketing stage a hundred times easier, so put the work in at this stage and choose carefully.
A strong business plan. Amazon is no different from any other business. Yes there’s millions of customers already visiting the platform. BUT the competition is fierce!! To become a success on Amazon, you need to research your business area and create a solid plan. Know your figures! Massive success is out there but not without A LOT of planning and work!
Fantastic marketing skills. You MUST be able to market and promote your product. It’s exciting to set up on Amazon, but you’re unlikely even to get one single view on your page without some incredible promotion. This is something you will need to research and be proactive about implementing.

4 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE WITH AMAZON

1. SELF PUBLISH ON KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING

This is known as KDP- Amazon’s e-book publisher. There are other avenues to self-publish your book, but KDP rewards exclusivity. If you solely publish through KDP, you van e a member of KDP Select. This means that eligible customers can access your book for free. You get paid based on how many pages they read.

Kindle Select might not sound that insignificant, but a lot of self-publishers claim that it’s where the majority of their sales come from. To them, it’s financially worth it to stick to publishing through KDP.

What I love about KDP is that it’s opened up the area of publishing. Anyone can publish a book. Publishing is now accessible- it’s a dream for writers!

You can publish the novel you’ve been working on for years, or you can publish a short story, a how-to book, or even just a leaflet.

As you might expect, the ease of self-publishing has made it incredibly popular. In fact, the market is so saturated, that the vast majority of self-published books make less than 100 sales ever. Sadly, many don’t even make one. It’s not that these books aren’t good, it’s that no-one can find them. There is such a huge volume of books that nobody knows that your book is even there. Amazon KDP is amazing, but it’s a little like a desert.

Luckily, there are tools that can help. I use Publisher Rocket and I absolutely swear by it. It’s the best tool available to help you to stand out from the crowd when self-publishing. It does this by letting you see what words people actually type into Amazon when searching for books, and the search volume every month for each word or phrase.

This knowledge is gold- it helps you to select the perfect categories and keywords that will help to get your book seen and also to market your book really well. It’s such a fantastic tool simply because it helps you to rise instantly above the majority of self-publishers.

A fear of formatting is also very common in self-publishers. I use this easy guide to format my eBooks. It’s really not as difficult as it seems.

I also use Canva Pro to format my covers. They have a range of templates that you can choose from. With a small amount of up-skilling, you can quite easily create a professional looking book cover. I use Canva Pro for all of my design work for my blog, my Merch products, my Etsy store and my Ebooks so for me this has been my top business investment. Try it for free for 30 days with this link!

Then you simply upload your manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing. They also have templates to help you upload a paperback version of your book.

2. MERCH BY AMAZON

Merch by Amazon is a platform that allows you to upload designs onto t-shirts and hoodies and sell them through Amazon. You do need to request an invitation but you don’t need design experience to be accepted. I was accepted on my first try and then figured it out as I went along.

In a nutshell, this is how I sell on Merch by Amazon:

Request an invitation
Design your artwork- I use Canva Pro for this. Click create a design then use ‘custom dimension’ of 4167 x 5000. I use Pixabay or Unsplash to find images for my designs totally for free. Download the largest size of the image and tick ‘transparent background.’ This is only available on the pro version. This stops your image showing up on a white square on the t-shirt. I’d recommend watching some YouTube tutorials on designing t-shirts with Canva. There some amazing tips and tricks that you can learn about.
Resize your image– it needs to be 4500 x 5400 to be able to be uploaded onto Merch. You must also make sure you have ticked ‘keep aspect ratio.’
Upload your artwork to Merch- choose the options you want. It will let you know your royalty based on the price. Then write a great description with keywords.
Market your shirts

3. START AN FBA BUSINESS

FBA stands for Fulfilled by Amazon– the idea is that you would choose a product (either from clearance or a stockist), set a price higher than what you paid for it. You can then ship it off to Amazon and set up your product on Amazon Seller’s Central. Amazon will handle postage and packaging. Amazing!

Out of the four ways to make money online with Amazon, this is the one that requires start-up costs that can be unpredictable. There’s a lot of costs to factor in. You not only have to purchase your stock, you also have to take into account shipping to the Amazon warehouses, as well as commission and fees. And after all that, there is no guarantee that your product will sell. So, while I’ve looked into it, I decided that I wasn’t ready to take the risk.

But, while it wasn’t for me, Amazon are undeniably global giants in online retail, and it really isn’t that difficult to get in on the action. There are amazing success stories of people who have set up an online store with Amazon and made an incredible amount of money.

However, it’s not always as plain sailing as it seems. Success stories are heavily promoted. It seems easy so a lot of people want to try. This makes Amazon truly like a jungle. It’s difficult to get your product in front of customers.

If you want to give FBA a try, make sure you do your research! You will need to pick the right product, balance your prices to ensure you are happy with your profit margins, and have a solid plan to market your product. Remember- just because Amazon has millions of customers does not mean that a single person will ever see your product if you don’t have a great plan to make it happen.

If you want to find out more about FBA, it could be worth signing up for this Free Amazon FBA Starter Course.

4. HANDMADE AT AMAZON

Handmade at Amazon is the marketplace for crafters to sell one of a kind, handcrafted items.

Why is it different from Etsy?

Your listing at Handmade at Amazon don’t expire. Etsy listings expire after 4 months.
Handmade at Amazon don’t charge listing fees- Etsy does. They will take a commission on each product you sell, at a minimum of $1.
BUT your store on Etsy is free to start up. Handmade at Amazon requires a professional seller account which is $39.99 a month. This is the main reason I stuck with Etsy.

SHOULD YOU START AN ONLINE BUSINESS AND MAKE MONEY WITH AMAZON?

OK, so it is possible to make money online with Amazon. There are success stories, but success isn’t guaranteed; it’s a tougher road than it looks.

IS AN ONLINE BUSINESS RIGHT FOR YOU?

In my opinion- absolutely!! If you love writing, crafting, selling products, or designing AND you want to hustle and create passive income, then Amazon is the way to go!

Amazon have made it super easy for the ordinary person to make money online fast and for free.

Yes, success isn’t guaranteed, but I believe that you will be successful if you are:

motivated to create passive income
willing to learn
willing to persist (this one is critical- a lot of people give up when they don’t get instant success).
Able to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

If this sounds like you, then go for it and GOOD LUCK!! Remember to enjoy the journey, appreciate what you learn, and to look back and see how far you have come!

Freya x

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4 Fun Ways to Make Money Online With Amazon and Create Passive Income