Amazon is the uncrowned king of eCommerce marketplaces. Each month more than 310 million people visit Amazon. That is the highest compared to any other eCommerce marketplace.
And here’s the good news: Amazon not only generates its own revenue, but also offers numerous ways for people like you to make money. Even better, it’s possible to make money from Amazon without investing a cent.
To know how check out these 8 ways to earn money from Amazon with zero investment.
1. Amazon Associates Program
With the Amazon Associates Program or the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program, an influencer promotes products on Amazon through content and social media to direct purchases to their own customized storefront.
Influencers showcase must-have products across categories to audiences who trust their recommendations.
Amazon handpicks influencers based on audience reach, content excellence, and niche expertise. In return for sales commissions and brand deals, Influencers showcase items their followers will genuinely appreciate.
It reflects the power of influence – Amazon gains trusted voices to boost sales, Influencers gain income from their impact. To know more about eligibility and how to sign up, read our guide on the Amazon Affiliate Program.
2. Merch by Amazon
Merch by Amazon is an earning opportunity for designers. Here, you only need to upload the design of a t-shirt, hoodie or sweat and earn commission on every sale. You do not need to keep any stock and handle the fulfillment hassle.
Just come up with a creative design and earn a commission when merch with your design is sold.
How do you join Merch by Amazon, here are some easy steps:
- Sign up to Merch by Amazon and create a design
- Upload the design on any merchandise
- Select the color of your merch and write a product description
From there, Amazon takes complete charge of creating a product page, printing, packaging, fulfillment and customer service.
Maybe you are thinking this opportunity is only for a designer. However, you do not need to be a professional designer; there are multiple free online designing platforms out there such as Canva and Snappa where anyone can make a design to be printed on a t-shirt.
Even better, just go to Pinterest and take any design that you like to print. Make sure the design does not have a watermark present on them.
Check out the product and graphics specifications below.
How does Amazon pay?
On each merch sale, Amazon pays a royalty as a commission for the design. The royalty is based on the product’s purchase price that is set by Amazon after all the cost is taken into consideration including material, printing and customer support. Check out the royalties here.
If you need some guidance, Amazon also offers its best practices page where it provides all the necessary direction about design such as artwork resolution, color selection, sizing, and placement.
3. Amazon dropshipping
If you like to sell stuff with zero investment then Amazon dropshipping is the best option you have out there. Many people confuse Amazon dropshipping with Amazon FBA – that’s not the same.
With Amazon FBA, you need to deliver the products to Amazon fulfillment centers in bulk quantity whereas in dropshipping you do not buy anything in bulk.
What is dropshipping?
The seller displays the supplier’s products on their store and when a customer orders from the store, the supplier delivers the product and you get the difference as profit.
To do Amazon dropshipping, you need to select the option of fulfillment by the merchant, which means you (the seller) are responsible for fulfillment.
Here’s how you can perform dropshipping on Amazon without any investment.
First, select a trending product to sell on Amazon.
Then, create an Amazon individual seller account; you will be charged only when you sell something.
Select a US-based dropshipping supplier. The reason for selecting a US-based supplier is to make the delivery faster.
Note: Make sure to tell your supplier to mention your seller information on the product, not suppliers.
According to the Amazon dropshipping policy, the seller’s information should be present on the product, not the suppliers.
Then it is simple, you just display the product on your Amazon store and when you receive an order ask your supplier to deliver the product to your customer’s address. You receive the money from the customer, pay the supplier and keep the difference as profit. Another great way to earn money from Amazon.
4. Amazon Handmade
Amazon handmade is another great platform for creative people to earn money from the world’s biggest eCommerce platform.
This platform is similar to Etsy where people can sell handmade products such as jewelry, accessories, and clothes.
If you are fond of making these types of DIY products then Amazon handmade is the ideal platform for you.
You also have the option to deliver the product on your own or you can ship the product to an Amazon fulfillment center where Amazon will deliver the product under the FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) program.
This is an amazing platform to earn but this opportunity is only for genuine artists who are really into DIY stuff because Amazon has a very lengthy process to assure the credibility of the seller on this platform.
Amazon charges 15% referral fees for its services. Apart from this referral fee there is no setup or monthly charges. Check out this page for more details.
5. Mechanical Turk
Mechanical Turk is a great earning opportunity for part-timers. Amazon outsources a lot of its work and submits these jobs on Amazon Turk.
In this program, you are required to work virtually from home. The requester places the job on the Mechanical Turk marketplace where a worker who is interested in the particular work can offer its services.
The nature of work could be anything including filling out a survey form, data validation, etc.
It’s a great opportunity for you to earn some extra income in your free time.
The purpose of Mechanical Turk is to complete projects faster by cutting down the work into micro-tasks.
It is very simple to join, just create a worker’s account and fill out the required information.
Workers can choose any task they want to work on. However, it is a better option for US citizens as they receive payments instantly.
6. Work from home/virtual location
Work from home is a kind of freelancing opportunity that Amazon offers. On its virtual location page, Amazon posts a lot of job openings such as customer support representative, technical support staff, business development officer, etc.
The positions are for seasonal, part-time and full-time work. If you think you have some talent and can work from home then do check out their virtual location page for the latest openings.
7. Amazon Flex
If you have a car and license you can earn from Amazon with zero investment.
Amazon Flex is a program for drivers, it was launched as a solution for the Amazon same-day delivery option for its Prime users. The driver can select the working hours for themselves, make deliveries for Amazon in their free time, and earn up to $18 – $25 per hour.
To become a part of Amazon Flex, here is what you need:
- Minimum age of 21 years
- A legal car
- A smart phone
If you have these things, then you just need to download the Amazon flex app and select the working hours at your convenience.
To learn about Amazon Flex, click here.
8. CamperForce
This is a great earning opportunity for someone who owns an RV. Amazon CamperForce is a program to earn some quick seasonal money.
The duty of a CamperForce associate is to select a seasonal task in a location. When the season arrives, Amazon will assign an area then you will have to store, pack and receive Amazon packages within the designated area in your RV.
For your services, you can earn up to $550 per campsite. Check out this page for more CamperForce detail.
Wrapping up
Amazon is getting bigger in size as well as in status every year. That forces the company to come up with different and unique ways to keep the workflow continuing 24/7. A majority of these earning methods are the result of making the workflow smooth for Amazon.
As you have seen already, you have plenty of ways to make money on Amazon without investing any money. All you need is the will to earn and you will surely find a way to make money from the world’s biggest eCommerce platform.
Guest author: Bilal Uddin is a lead writer @withintheflow. He likes to write about eCommerce, digital marketing, advertising, and social media marketing. He also loves to binge-watch and read murder mysteries. You can connect with him via Linkedin.