It’s not always necessary to reinvent the wheel and start your own side hustle or small business from scratch. Instead, you can leverage existing platforms and their audience to win big. Did you know there are at least 11 ways to make money with Amazon? Take your pick from big wins to creative pursuits to launch your new side hustle.
1. Amazon Flex
Join Amazon Flex and earn $18 to $25 an hour with flexible scheduling opportunities. Your income can vary depending on your location. For example, drivers in bigger cities are likely to earn more and are allowed to keep their tips through Prime Now, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Restaurant deliveries. Drivers deliver packages ranging from electronics, housewares, food, and more. This job does require a vehicle, smartphone, and background check to qualify.
Pro tip: Drivers do report frustrations in not being able to pick-up the amount of hours they want, making it necessary to combine this strategy with delivering food for Uber Eats, Door Dash, or other gig economy and ridesharing gigs.
2. Work from Home for Amazon
You don’t need to live in Seattle, or even leave your home, to work for Amazon. Instead, you can work from home for Amazon in a virtual or remote position. Jobs include Digital Devices and Alexa Support Associate, Program Managers, Area Managers, Sales Reps and more.
Pro tip: You can also work from home for Amazon during the holidays or seasonally. Check back periodically for work from home jobs as a customer service rep and other gigs.
3. Sell Your Designs With Merch by Amazon
Love designing but can’t stand fulfilling orders and marketing? Request an invitation to Merch by Amazon and sell your designs through the platform. You upload your designs and Amazon sells and prints the order on demand. Small, independent designers just like you are on Merch by Amazon. But so is Disney, Marvel, Cartoon Network, Universal, and more.
Pro tip: It can take some time for Amazon to get back to you with your requested invitation. Be patient, and in the meantime look to sites like Zazzle to design, sell, and print your products on demand. And when you use this link, you can also score a deep discount on your first order.
4. Amazon Virtual Assistant
There are ways you can make money with Amazon without actually working for Amazon. Instead, you can work with bloggers, e-commerce shop owners, and entrepreneurs who need help with:
- Amazon product listings
- Customer service for anyone who bought their product through Amazon
- Market research
- Vendor management
- Bookkeeping
- and much more
Companies who sell through Amazon are desperate for support help and virtual assistants to keep their business running smoothly. You can reach out to bloggers who write about selling on Amazon, or look to sites like Upwork to get started.
Pro tip: Not sure how what’s involved or how to really launch your virtual assistant gig? Get started with everything you need to know about making money as a virtual assistant here.
5. Amazon Mechanical Turk
Amazon Mechanical Turk connects individuals to businesses looking for small tasks to check off their list. The crowdsourcing platform isn’t that intuitive, but once you navigate through the system, it comes together. Choose from tasks like taking surveys or taking a poll and earn small hits, or payouts.
Pro tip: Amazon Mechanical Turk won’t make you rich, but is a relatively easy, quick win side hustle that you can do from home. Read how Mike Naab scaled his Mechanical Turk side hustle into a $150 to $300 a week side income.
6. Amazon Kindle Publishing Platform
The rise in self-publishing means you can take your old articles, fiction stories, blog posts, or best tips and turn it into an ebook and sell it on Amazon Kindle Direct Publisher. Some people even create blank notebooks or simple planners with a fantastic cover to earn money with Amazon. Taking entire books from the public domain and adding study sheets, illustrations, or insights are also money-makers on Amazon.
Pro tip: Pick a topic and look for the most popular selling kindle book on Amazon. Grab a copy and study it to figure out what makes it so popular and how you can improve it.
7. Amazon Handmade
Amazon Handmade is Amazon’s Artisan-only communicated selling handcrafted goods. Sellers create their own shop on Amazon and can opt Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to deal with fulfilling and shipping orders. You can even sell customized products by allowing customers to personalize their gifts before the purchase.
Pro tip: Amazon Handmade requires a brief application and a Seller Central account to get started.
8. Amazon FBA
Did you know that many of the products you purchase on Amazon come from independent, private sellers? You can use Amazon as a selling platform where you send in your used items, new finds, or hot deals at your local store that you can flip for a profit online. You can fulfill the order yourself, or rely on Amazon to fulfill it for you.
Their Amazon FBA program will pick, pack, and ship your orders. All you need to do is send in your inventory and get set-up through their selling platform.
Pro tip: There are ways to scale Amazon FBA into a big win side hustle that earns thousands a month. It does come with a learning curve to identify profitable products that people want right now. Before you invest money in inventory to launch this lucrative side hustle, check out How to Start an Amazon FBA Store on a Tight Budget.
9. Amazon Home Services
Do you already have a service business like furniture assembly, home theater set-up and installation, or house cleaning? Apply to be a top-rated pro on Amazon Home Services to connect with local customers looking for everything from plumbers to someone to landscaping. Amazon helps your business get discovered, sends you jobs, and pays you upon completion.
Pro tip: All Amazon Home Services providers are required to carry General Liability insurance with a limit of $1,000,000 US dollars per occurrence. You will be required to provide your insurance information upon registration. Specialty trade providers like general contractors are also required to submit licensing information.
10. Amazon Trade-In
Amazon Trade-In won’t put cash in your pocket, but will take your old electronics, phones, and other items and trade them for Amazon gift cards and discounts. It’s also an easy way to recycle your Kindles, tablets, home security devices and other items you can’t just toss in the garbage. Amazon trade-in items are typically processed within 10-days or less.
Pro tip: Amazon Trade-In does have some specifications on how old your electronics should be, and their condition. You can find out more about their Product Eligibility Criteria here.
11. Amazon Vine
Do you love reviewing products on Amazon? You may be a good candidate for Amazon Vine that invites trusted reviewers to post opinions about pre-release items. You don’t get paid, but you do end up with free products for an honest review. You might even be able to turn around and sell those products on Facebook Marketplace or Nextdoor to make free money with minimal effort.
Pro tip: You really need to be on your game to become an Amazon Vine reviewer. Take some time to curate honest, thorough reviews of products you already use and love to increase your chances of being accepted. The more other users mark your review as helpful, the more likely Amazon will reach out with an invitation to their Vine program.
Remember you can combine ways to make money with Amazon to scale your side income. Pick and chose a mix of easy tasks and big wins to keep your weekend side hustle growing.