14 Ways to Make Money on Amazon

From audiobooks to toy zambonis, you can find just about anything on Amazon. So if you’re looking for ways to make money online, it’s no surprise that this huge global marketplace offers a long list of opportunities.

Keep reading for the lowdown on 14 ways to make money on Amazon in Canada, including a few you probably haven’t heard of before.

1. Become an Amazon affiliate

How much you can earn: Commissions range from 1% to 10%, depending on the product category.
How it works: If you want to know how to make money reviewing Amazon products, this is the option for you. The Amazon Associates program is an affiliate marketing program that lets you earn commissions on sales. When people click on an affiliate link on your blog, YouTube channel or website and then buy a product from Amazon, you can earn a commission on the sale.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Huge selection of products
  • Deal with a trusted online retailer
  • Potential for passive income

  Cons

  • Low commission rates
  • It could take a long time to generate a consistent income
  • Competitive market

• Tips to succeed

  • Know how to maximize commissions. Choose products that have a high commission rate to boost your earning power. Remember to consider the cost of these products too, as this will have a big impact on how much you make from each sale.
  • Choose quality products. If you want to establish yourself as a trusted voice of authority in your chosen niche, it’s vital that you only promote and recommend high-quality products.
  • Provide value to your audience. Provide in-depth reviews and real-world product demos to show your audience why they should buy a particular product. Be informative and authentic, and you’ll generate more sales.

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2. Write and sell ebooks

How much you can earn: It depends on how many books you sell. For each book, you can earn 35% to 70% of the list price.
How it works: Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s platform where you can self-publish your own print and digital books. You can sign up, publish your book in over 10 countries and 45+ languages, and make money by selling it on Amazon sites around the world.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Free and easy to use
  • Set your own prices
  • Huge potential audience

  Cons

  • No guarantee of making money
  • Difficult to stand out
  • Amazon takes a decent cut of royalties

• Tips to succeed

  • Quality matters. If you want to know how to publish a book on Amazon and make money, understand the importance of ensuring that your book is as professional as possible. There are a lot of low-quality self-published ebooks out there, so getting yours professionally edited and proofread is a must.
  • Create a great cover. Writing a great book is only half the battle—an eye-catching cover design is essential to help your work stand out from the crowd.
  • Consider KDP Select. Signing up to KDP Select allows you to earn higher royalties and access promotional resources, but it also means giving Amazon exclusive rights to your book.

How Steena Holmes went from a self-published author to a New York Times bestseller

When Calgary author and mother of three Steena Holmes published her 2011 novel Finding Emma, little did she know it would change her life.

The story about a mother’s search for her missing daughter was self-published on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. It struck a chord with readers, and helped along the way by Holmes’ marketing and promotional efforts, it soon took off.

Finding Emma sold over 100,000 copies in a single month, rocketing up the bestseller charts. Amazon soon got in touch, and Holmes eventually signed with Lake Union Publishing, an Amazon imprint.

Today, she’s known as a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, with over 2 million copies sold worldwide.

3. Deliver packages with Amazon Flex

How much you can earn: $22-$27 per hourHow it works: Become an Amazon Flex delivery driver by using your own vehicle to deliver Amazon packages. All you have to do is sign up, select delivery blocks that fit around your schedule, then hit the road and start making money.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Work the hours you want
  • Decent earning potential
  • You’re not chained to a desk

  Cons

  • Gas and vehicle maintenance costs
  • Competition for the best blocks
  • Stress caused by time pressure

• Tips to succeed

  • Keep your receipts. Keep a logbook and retain all vehicle maintenance receipts to make sure you can claim the maximum amount of deductions at tax time.
  • Get a high-quality phone mount. This will make it easier for you to be as efficient and safe as possible on your route.
  • Analyze your performance. Look back at past blocks to check which delivery blocks and neighbourhoods are usually the most lucrative, then use this information to your advantage when choosing future blocks.

4. Become an Amazon Mechanical Turk worker

How much you can earn: US$1–US$6 per hourHow it works: Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an online marketplace that allows businesses to outsource online jobs. If you sign up as an MTurk worker, you can get paid to do things like transcribe audio, enter data, categorize images, write product descriptions and perform a range of other microtasks. So if you want to know how to make money on Amazon without selling, check out this option.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • No special skills or qualifications required
  • Flexible work hours
  • Fast payouts

  Cons

  • Low pay
  • Tasks can be monotonous and repetitive
  • Plenty of competition for jobs

• Tips to succeed

  • Don’t expect to get rich. Of all the ways you can make money on Amazon, this is one of the least lucrative. Don’t expect to be able to rely on mTurk for a full-time income—it’s a side hustle only.
  • Read instructions carefully. Take the time to carefully review instructions before starting a task. This will ensure that you hit the brief and maintain a high approval rate, which will in turn help you qualify for more tasks in the future.
  • Increase your HIT count. The more Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) you complete, the more tasks you’ll qualify for. Completing lots of quick and easy tasks when you first start out will help you access more opportunities.

5. Narrate audiobooks

How much you can earn: It depends on the production type, your experience level and the deal you negotiate. Rates can range anywhere from approximately $50 to $500 per-finished-hour of audio content (according to ACX, new narrators take five to seven hours to record one hour of an audiobook). Alternatively, you can share royalties with the author or publisher, or negotiate a mix of royalties and payment per-finished-hour.
How it works: Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) is an Audible (owned by Amazon) marketplace where authors can create their own audiobooks. If you’re a narrator or voice actor, you can use the platform to connect with publishers and authors and get work as an audiobook narrator.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Flexible payment options
  • Access a large global audience of readers
  • Make money from home

  Cons

  • Competitive field
  • Risk of not getting paid if you choose to receive a share of royalties for a book that doesn’t sell
  • Recording equipment required

• Tips to succeed

  • Perfect your profile. Create a detailed profile with samples of your work and information about your experience, skills and titles you like to work on. Put your best foot forward to attract interest from publishers and authors.
  • Make the most of educational resources. ACX offers a handy library of educational videos and articles to help you navigate every stage of the audiobook production process. Use them to ensure that you create high-quality content.
  • Know the story. Before you start recording for any project, read the book multiple times so that you know the story, the characters and the key plot points inside out. This will help you inject life and personality into every minute of audio.

6. Become an Amazon Influencer

How much you can earn: Commissions range from 0% to 10%, depending on the product category.
How it works: The Amazon Influencer Program allows content creators to earn a commission by recommending and selling products on Amazon to their followers. If you have a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok account, you can sign up to the program and earn a commission when a follower makes a purchase via your affiliate link.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Create a personalized storefront
  • Monetize your social media profiles
  • Potential to earn passive income

  Cons

  • You’ll need a social media following to qualify
  • Plenty of competition
  • Time and effort required to create content and build a following

• Tips to succeed

  • Find the right niche. From beauty to fitness, you’ll need to find a subject area you’re passionate and knowledgeable about. It will also need to be a niche with the potential to be highly profitable.
  • Check commission rates. Consider product commission rates when creating content and choosing your niche. For example, while physical video games have a 1% commission, luxury beauty products and shoes have a 10% commission.

7. Earn bounties

How much you can earn: $3 - $5 per bounty event.
How it works: If you’re a member of the Amazon Associates or Influencer Program, you can also earn commissions (bounties) by encouraging others to sign up for various Amazon services. You can get paid when someone signs up for an Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited free trial, creates and adds an item to an Amazon Baby Registry or Wedding Registry, and plenty more.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Fixed payout amounts
  • Can provide passive income

  Cons

  • It takes time and effort to build an audience
  • Bounties aren’t huge

• Tips to succeed

  • Quality content is key. The secret to driving subscription sign-ups is to create engaging content that informs, entertains and shows people the benefits of various Amazon services—and that does it without sounding like a blatant sales pitch.
  • Stick to your niche. There are dozens of different Amazon subscriptions and memberships you can promote. To ensure a high success rate, make sure you only promote programs that suit your content and audience.

8. Sell private label or white label products

How much you can earn: Varies depending on what you sell.
How it works: If you want to know how to make money on Amazon FBA, this is the option for you. It involves working with a third-party supplier to produce merchandise and products with your branding—products can be generic (white label) or customized to suit our needs (private label)—then delivering them to Amazon’s fulfillment center so that they can be shipped to customers by Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • No need to store inventory
  • Let Amazon take care of shipping
  • You can ensure consistent branding and high-quality products

  Cons

  • High startup costs
  • Hard to make your products stand out
  • Fulfillment by Amazon fees

• Tips to succeed

  • Choose reliable suppliers. Product quality is paramount, so thoroughly vet any supplier before deciding to partner with them.
  • Focus on customer experience. Prompt responses to customer enquiries, quality products and helpful after-sales support will go a long way towards establishing a reputation as a trusted brand.
  • Create perfect listings. From high-quality product images and detailed descriptions to important product specs and keywords for better search engine visibility, there’s a lot that goes into creating Amazon product listings that sell. There are plenty of great resources from Amazon and third-party companies that offer all the info you need to know to build excellent listings, so make the most of them.

9. Wholesale selling

How much you can earn: Varies depending on the product, but various online sources recommend aiming for profit margins of anywhere from 10% to 30%.
How it works: Wholesale selling is when you buy products in bulk at a discount, add a markup and then sell them on to customers for a profit. Once you set up a Professional Seller account with Amazon and source inventory to sell, you can rely on Fulfillment by Amazon to take care of the logistics for you.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • You don’t have to worry about the manufacturing side of things
  • Storing and shipping are managed by Amazon
  • Sell products from brands that are already popular and well established

  Cons

  • Hard to partner with brands when you’re first starting out
  • Difficult to compete with other sellers
  • Large upfront investment required

• Tips to succeed

  • Get social. Social media channels like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are extremely useful for attracting new customers and directing them to your store. Put plenty of effort into boosting your social media following to increase your sales.
  • Meet seasonal demand. Research which products in your niche will be in higher demand during summer or winter, and consider the impact of holidays like Halloween and Christmas on customer demand for your products.
  • Offer special deals. From bundle discounts to promo codes, attract new customers and encourage increased spending with special offers.

10. Retail and online arbitrage

How much you can earn: Varies depending on the product, but most sources recommend aiming for a minimum profit margin of at least 15% to 20%.
How it works: Retail arbitrage is when you buy an item from a major retail chain like Walmart at a discounted price, add a markup and sell it online for a profit. Online arbitrage is when you source your products from online retailers.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Low startup costs
  • No special skills required
  • Can be a fun side hustle

  Cons

  • Competitive market
  • Sourcing the right products takes time
  • Fees can cut into your margins

• Tips to succeed

  • Check the guidelines. Check Amazon’s selling guidelines to make sure you comply with all relevant rules. As an example, you may need to provide an invoice for the product you plan to resell.
  • Use the Seller app. Use the barcode scanner in the Amazon Seller app to research products you could potentially sell and their profitability.

11. Sell on Amazon Homemade

How much you can earn: Varies depending on the products you sell and the level of demand.
How it works: If you want to know how to make money selling on Amazon, this option provides a slightly different approach. Amazon Handmade is an online store where you can sell handcrafted items to people around the world.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Avoid the $39.99 monthly fee for the professional selling plan
  • Sell your unique and authentic creations
  • Access a large customer base

  Cons

  • 15% selling fee
  • Plenty of competition
  • You might prefer to sell on a niche platform like Etsy

• Tips to succeed

  • Check the guidelines. Your products will need to satisfy several criteria to qualify for Amazon Handmade, so check the guidelines carefully before you apply.
  • Create the perfect profile. Your maker profile tells people who you are, what you do, where your inspiration comes from, and why you love creating handmade products. Use it to tell your story and connect with customers.

12. Dropshipping

How much you can earn: Sources vary, but most put the average dropshipping profit margin somewhere between 10% and 30%.
How it works: Dropshipping is when you create your own storefront on Amazon to list and sell products, but you don’t actually manufacture, store or ship any of those products. Instead, all of that is done by the manufacturer, who packages and ships items to buyers when they order from you.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Low upfront investment
  • No need to worry about storing and shipping products
  • Scalable business model

  Cons

  • Very competitive space
  • Tight margins
  • Dangers of partnering with an unreliable supplier who could damage your reputation

• Tips to succeed

  • Find the right supplier. Choosing a reliable manufacturer is crucial to your success, so don’t rush into it. Research them thoroughly and test their products before committing.
  • Hit up Reddit. Subreddits like r/dropshipping and r/dropship are extremely useful if you want to find advice and tips from other dropshippers.

13. Sell pre-owned products

How much you can earn: Varies.
How it works: If you want to make money on Amazon by selling pre-owned and refurbished products, check out the Amazon Renewed program. You will need to meet performance and quality standards to be accepted into the program, and you can sell like-new items such as phones, cameras, power tools, TVs, game consoles and kitchen appliances.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Access a huge customer base
  • Strict eligibility requirements mean less competition
  • Target customers looking for a bargain

  Cons

  • Very hard to qualify for
  • Designed for businesses, not a side hustle for individuals
  • Warranty requirements

• Tips to succeed

  • Set prices carefully. You’ll need to find the happy medium between a price that offers an attractive discount on the price of a brand-new product, but that still offers a healthy profit margin once you take into account the time and cost of refurbishing or restoring.
  • Focus on listing details. Many people are hesitant at first to buy a pre-owned product. Clear product images, detailed descriptions of item conditions, and the ability to respond promptly to customer inquiries about products and warranties are all essential to attract buyers.

14. Sell custom products

How much you can earn: Varies widely depending on the products and customization involved.
How it works: If you’re a seller approved for the Amazon Custom program, you can sell products that customers can customize to their own specifications or needs. Buyers can add their own text or images, change things like sizing and colours, and use techniques like engraving and embroidery to order bespoke items. Customizable items can be found just like any other listing on Amazon, or you can find them in the Custom store.

• Pros and cons

  Pros

  • Create personalized products
  • Build a unique brand identity
  • Sell to businesses as well as individuals

  Cons

  • You need to be a Professional seller to use Amazon Custom
  • Extra time and effort required
  • Not suitable for all products or sellers

• Tips to succeed

  • Choose in-demand products. From signs to jewellery, t-shirts to mugs, sell items that can be easily customized to suit a wide range of themes and tastes.
  • Think seasonal. Make the most of increased demand at different times of year, such as buyers wanting tailored costumes for Halloween or personalized gifts for Christmas.

What are the best ways to make money on Amazon Canada?

There’s no single option that offers the best way for everyone to make money on Amazon Canada. It all depends on how you want to make money, whether you have any special skills and how much you want to earn—in other words, how you define “best.”

For example, if you’re looking for a simple side hustle and you have a van or truck, driving for Amazon Flex offers a flexible way to boost your income. If you’re a passionate content creator, affiliate marketing or even joining the Amazon Influencer Program could be a good fit.

And if you want to start or expand an e-commerce business, there are plenty of possibilities to explore on this giant global marketplace. It just comes down to what you’re willing or able to put into your money-making venture, plus what you’re hoping to get out of it.

What are the quickest ways to make money on Amazon?

One of the quickest ways to make money on Amazon is retail or online arbitrage. This allows you to tap into the customer base and reputation of an existing brand to potentially start turning a profit straight away, without having to take the time building up your own brand.

Selling niche, in-demand products is another quick way to make money on Amazon. With competitive prices, detailed listings, high-quality product images and helpful customer service, you can start making sales quicker than you think.

But there are also fast ways to make money on Amazon without selling stuff. Mechanical Turk, for example, provides a simple (but not overly lucrative) way to earn extra cash online, while it’s also quick and easy to start earning as a delivery driver with Amazon Flex.

What are the scams to watch out for?

There are a few common scams every Amazon seller should be aware of:

• Phishing emails. These often take the form of unexpected emails claiming to be from Amazon or Fulfillment by Amazon. Scammers may try to get you to hand over sensitive account or payment information, or to pay a fake invoice from Amazon or one of your suppliers. Be wary of any unsolicited contact or emails that just don’t seem quite right.
• Sketchy Amazon FBA “gurus.” Commonly seen on social media, these so-called gurus promise that they can teach you how to make thousands of dollars selling on Amazon. But to find out how, you’ll need to pay a sizable upfront fee to sign up for an online course. There are some legit courses out there, but there are a lot of scammy ones as well, so don’t be fooled.
• Fake Amazon job ads. Some scammers post ads or videos on social media for fake Amazon work-from-home jobs. These “jobs” sound great—big bucks and minimal effort while working from the comfort of your own home—but they’re not legit. If you want to get a job at Amazon, stick to the job offers featured on Amazon’s official Careers page.

Bottom line

There are lots of ways to make money on Amazon Canada, and they don’t all involve selling stuff. From ebooks to microtasks, delivery driving to affiliate marketing, dropshipping to retail arbitrage, there are plenty of options if you want to make an extra buck. Some are side hustles, some provide an extra source of income, and some could even be a whole new career. Compare all your options now before deciding on the best way to make money on Amazon.

Frequently asked questions

• Can you make money reviewing Amazon products?

  If you want to know how to make money doing Amazon reviews, you can do so by signing up for the Amazon Associates Program. This affiliate marketing program allows you to review and recommend Amazon products, then earn a commission when people click an affiliate link and make a purchase. If you have a large social media following, you can also make money reviewing Amazon products as part of the Amazon Influencer Program.

• Do I need to spend a lot of money upfront to make money on Amazon?

  Not necessarily. There are several ways you can make money on Amazon with minimal upfront investment, such as by writing an ebook, dropshipping or retail arbitrage. You can also earn extra income by completing tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk, with no major investment required.

• Is dropshipping allowed on Amazon?

  Yes, dropshipping is permitted on Amazon, provided you follow the platform's dropshipping guidelines. This means that you must make it completely clear to your customers that you are the "seller of record." Check Amazon's dropshipping policy for more information on the rules you need to follow to start dropshipping on the platform.

• Can I make passive income on Amazon?

  Yes, Amazon offers the potential to set up several passive income streams. For example, you could write and publish an ebook and generate income from sales royalties, or earn commissions by sharing affiliate links as an Amazon Associate. You can also set up your own online store and rely on Fulfillment by Amazon to handle the logistical side of your business, allowing you to take more of a hands-off approach to selling.

To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Leanne Escobal as part of our fact-checking process.

Written by

Tim Falk

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Tim Falk is a freelance writer for Finder. Over the course of his 20-year writing career, he has reported on a wide range of personal finance topics. Whether you're investing in stocks and ETFs, comparing savings accounts or choosing a credit card, Tim wants to make it easier for you to understand. When he’s not staring at his computer, you can usually find him exploring the great outdoors. See full bio

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