When we think of Amazon, we imagine a picture of it as a go-to place to buy almost anything. It is a huge marketplace where millions of sellers make a full-time income. If you are also wondering how to make money on Amazon without selling, there are plenty of options to make money without selling any physical products.
Amazon is not just a marketplace where you have to sell and ship products to your customers. Amazon’s vast ecosystem offers several opportunities for those who want to earn money without managing inventory and fulfilling orders daily.
In this article, you will find seven ways to address the question i.e. how to make money on Amazon without selling any physical products.
Table of Contents
1. Become an Amazon Affiliate
If you don’t want to invest and start an e-commerce store but are still looking to earn through Amazon, this is the best option for you. You can easily earn through affiliate marketing by creating an account on Amazon Associates.
By joining this program, a person can easily earn commissions by promoting products. There is no need to buy, own, manage, and sell any products yourself. You are only required to refer the products to your following through your unique referral links. When anyone buys the product using your link, you will earn a percentage of that sale as a commission making it a source of passive income for you.
Step-by-step guide on how to create an account on Amazon Associates
- Sign Up on the Amazon Associates website.
- Enter the necessary details about your website, blog, or social media handles where you plan to promote products.
- From the given options, choose a payment method.
- Once your account is approved, you can start generating affiliate links and promoting different products.
If you have a blog, write a detailed product review or a how-to guide about your specific recommendation and naturally include the affiliate link in your article. For example, “10 Must Have Kitchen Gadgets from Amazon”.
If you have a social media account where you interact and engage with your audience, share your recommended products in your Instagram or Facebook stories and include your unique referral link.
For YouTube, you can create a detailed review or tutorial that has all the Amazon products related to a particular niche at a time, for example, you could include the necessary items needed from Amazon to set up your kitchen in your YouTube video.
According to ZipRecruiter, an Amazon affiliate makes $77,893 a year on average and this number can soar even higher depending on your following and influence.
2. Publish Your Book Through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
When you search for how to make money on Amazon without selling any physical product, you are likely to get a recommendation to start publishing ebooks through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
You can easily publish your eBooks or print books on Amazon without having to hire a traditional publisher. Because of its vast user base, you will be easily able to reach a wider audience and each time your book sells, you will be able to earn a royalty making it an excellent source of passive income.
Here is an excellent guide on how to publish a book on Amazon.
Now to make sure that your book appeals to a wide range of audience, choose a niche that will attract customers. Look for what’s in demand and see the best sellers on Amazon in your selected category. Then write your book and focus on getting some positive reviews which can further boost your sales and make it a good source of income.
3. Merch by Amazon
If you are a creative person, then starting a merch is an amazing way to make money on Amazon without selling any physical product. You can create custom designs for t-shirts, mugs, hoodies, and other merchandise and upload them on Amazon.
Once your designs are live, you will earn a royalty for every sale made through the platform. Amazon will handle everything from production to shipping.
How to Sign Up for Merch by Amazon:
To submit your application, follow the following process:
- Create a Merch by Amazon account and submit a request for an invitation to join this platform.
- Once your application is approved, you can upload the custom designs, choose the product types, set up your desired prices, and Amazon will then list your products on the marketplace for people to place their orders.
To ensure that you are successful in this, research the market and look for what is in trend. Apply the bets-sellers in different categories to see what people like and create your designs based on that.
The royalties are calculated after deducting the production costs from the price that you initially set. So setting a higher price will make more money. This is one of the easiest ways how to make money on Amazon without selling.
4. Sell Handmade Products
If you love making handmade products, then Amazon Handmade is for you. It does involve active selling but it is an amazing way to make money on Amazon without selling in the traditional sense of running a full-scale business.
Handmade items include stuff like jewelry, home decor, art, clothing, and other accessories, etc.
You can sign up on Amazon Handmade to register yourself and then create a shop once you are accepted.
To make this a passive income stream you can start by making a small inventory of items that are easy to produce and guaranteed to sell. To only focus on creating products without having to deal with the hassle of shipping and packaging, you can choose Amazon’s fulfillment services. This will work as a passive way to make money as you will be doing what you love without having to deal with the boring parts of running a business.
If you are looking to earn passively, then here is a list of 14 profitable passive income ideas that actually work.
5. Join Amazon Mechanical Turk
Many of you might not know about Amazon Turk. This is a place that allows you to do small tasks called Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) in return for swift payments.
Now this is not a fully passive income stream, but it is still a flexible way to make money on Amazon without selling. You can start by creating an account on Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Businesses and individuals mostly outsource jobs like completing surveys, data entry work, transcription services, and image tagging.
These tasks usually don’t require you to be an expert so the payment you receive will depend on the difficulty of the task and the amount of time you will spend completing it. If you’re looking for how to make money on Amazon without selling, this can be a quick way to start earning instantly.
6. Join the Amazon Influencer Program
Now, this is only for influencers. It is similar to affiliate marketing where anyone can join and recommend products by joining through the Amazon Associates program. But here, the social media influencer gets the storefront feature.
The associate’s program allows anyone to generate and share links to earn a commission whereas in the Amazon Influencer Program, the company gives you a dedicated space to show and promote your products in a more personalized way. This can enhance the customer’s shopping experience as they can see all the products in one place.
If you are an influencer with a significant following, you can join the program through the Amazon Influencer Program page and start promoting your products.
This setup lets the influencers create content while still earning money, making it an amazing option for influencers who are searching for how to make money on Amazon without selling products directly.
7. Amazon Audible
If you love audiobooks, Amazon Audible offers another route on how to make money on Amazon without selling anything yourself. This program allows you to earn a commission every time a user signs up for the membership using your referral link.
Sign up for the Amazon Associates program where you can choose the audible affiliate program. Once you are accepted, you can easily generate your unique links and promote them anywhere. If you are thinking about how to start making money on Amazon without selling physical products, this is a great way to begin.
There are several other ways to earn passively besides Amazon. By using Canva or Artificial Intelligence, you can easily start making passive income on the side.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to make money with Amazon’s Audible?
Join the Audible Affiliate Program and start promoting audible membership or audiobooks through your blog, social media, or podcast using your unique affiliate link. For every signup or sale, you will earn a commission.
Can you make money on Amazon?
Yes, there are various ways to make money. You can sell products, join the Amazon Associates affiliate program, publish eBooks through KDP, or even earn through programs like Merch by Amazon and Audible’s affiliate program.
How to make money on Amazon FBA?
First of all, you will need to source or manufacture the products of your choice and send them to Amazon’s warehouse. Amazon will then handle the storage, shipping, packing, and customer service for you. This is a semi-passive way to make money through Amazon FBA.
How to publish a book on Amazon and make money?
Write and format your book and then use KDP to publish the book. When your book will be available on Amazon, you can earn royalties from each sale.
Can I sell on Amazon if I don’t have a product?
Yes, you can easily sell on Amazon if you don’t have a product by using options like retail arbitrage or online arbitrage. Here, you can buy discounted items from other retailers and sell them for a profit on Amazon. You can also sell custom products through Merch by Amazon where you only need to provide unique designs and Amazon handles the rest.
Conclusion
Amazon has so many opportunities that go beyond traditional e-commerce, giving everyone the liberty to choose whatever they like if they are not interested in directly selling different products. It does not matter if you are a content creator, a writer, an influencer, or just someone looking to start earning passively, Amazon has something to offer to everyone.
The only thing is that you will need to be consistent in your efforts. If you’re still wondering how to make money on Amazon without selling, the opportunities are endless. You only have to choose the method that aligns best with your interests and audience, and then put in the effort to set it up. With time and consistent efforts, you will be able to make a decent living through this.