How to Make Money on Amazon: 7 Proven Methods for 2024

How to make money on Amazon is one of the most searched income questions online — and for good reason. Amazon is the world's largest marketplace, processing over $500 billion in sales annually. Yet most people only scratch the surface of how to actually earn from it. They think of Amazon as a place to shop, not a platform to build income on.

The challenge with traditional Amazon income models is that most hit a ceiling quickly. Gig-style work — surveys, odd jobs, micro-tasks — is real money but rarely scales. Physical product businesses like FBA require capital, inventory management, and relentless competition. The opportunity most people miss is the scalable digital side: creating or selling digital products that generate income 24/7 with zero inventory and near-zero overhead.

This guide breaks down all 7 legitimate ways to make money on Amazon — with honest assessments of effort, startup cost, and income ceiling — plus a smarter alternative that lets you keep 90% of every dollar you earn. If you're exploring your options, our guide on how to start a side hustle covers the broader landscape of beginner-friendly income models.

Amazon FBA lets you sell physical products while Amazon handles warehousing, packing, and shipping. You source products — typically from overseas manufacturers or wholesale suppliers — send inventory to Amazon's fulfillment centers, and Amazon ships to customers when orders come in.

Income potential: $1,000–$20,000+/month for well-optimized sellers. But the margins are thinner than they appear: Amazon's fees typically consume 30–40% of revenue, plus you carry inventory risk, storage fees, and the cost of constant advertising to stay visible. FBA is a real business — but it's a high-effort, capital-intensive one.

Best for: People willing to invest $2,000–$10,000 upfront, learn product sourcing, and manage a supply chain. Not a beginner side hustle.

Merch by Amazon is a print-on-demand platform where you upload T-shirt and apparel designs, and Amazon handles production, shipping, and customer service. When a customer buys your design, you earn a royalty — typically $2–$8 per sale depending on the product and price point.

Income potential: $100–$3,000+/month for designers with a large catalog of optimized designs. It's passive once designs are uploaded, but it's a volume game. You need dozens to hundreds of designs to earn meaningfully. Good designers with strong niche research earn more; generic designs get buried.

Best for: Graphic designers or anyone who can create simple, trend-aware designs. Requires consistent output — a handful of designs won't move the needle.

KDP is Amazon's self-publishing platform, and it's arguably the most scalable way to earn money on Amazon. You upload an ebook (or print book), set your price, and Amazon distributes it globally. Royalties are 35% or 70% of the sale price, depending on pricing tier and whether the book is exclusive to Kindle.

Selling ebooks and digital products is the most scalable model on Amazon — zero inventory, instant delivery, and 70%+ margins on every sale. A single ebook published once can generate passive royalties for years with no ongoing cost. Authors who build a backlist of 10–30 titles in a focused niche earn $2,000–$15,000/month entirely passively. For a deeper dive, see our guide on how to make money selling digital products.

Best for: Writers, subject-matter experts, or anyone willing to package knowledge into a digital product. The lowest-cost, highest-margin path on the platform.

Amazon's affiliate program lets you earn commissions by linking to any Amazon product. When someone clicks your link and buys, you earn 1–10% of the sale, depending on the product category. Most categories pay 3–4%.

Income potential: Nearly unlimited — but only if you have an audience. Affiliate marketing is not a standalone Amazon side hustle; it's a monetization layer on top of existing traffic. Bloggers, YouTubers, and social media creators with 10,000+ engaged followers can earn $500–$10,000+/month. For a solo beginner, expect months of audience-building before meaningful income. The best passive income ideas all pair well with affiliate monetization once you have traffic.

Best for: Content creators who already have or are actively building an audience. Not a fast-start income model.

MTurk is Amazon's crowdsourced micro-task platform. Companies post small tasks — image labeling, survey completion, data verification, transcription — and workers complete them for small payments. Typical earnings are $2–$6/hour. Mention it here for completeness, but it's not a meaningful income opportunity. The time-to-pay ratio is too low for anyone with other options. MTurk is best treated as a curiosity or a way to earn pocket change while watching TV — not an Amazon side hustle worth building around.

Amazon Handmade is the platform's answer to Etsy — a marketplace for artisans selling genuinely handcrafted goods like jewelry, home décor, candles, and woodwork. Unlike FBA, you produce the items yourself and ship directly to buyers. Amazon takes a 15% referral fee.

Income potential: $500–$5,000+/month for artisans with a polished product line and strong photography. The advantage over Etsy is Amazon's massive buyer traffic. The disadvantage is the same as all physical products: time-to-make limits your scale. You can't sell 1,000 handmade candles per month alone.

Best for: Skilled craftspeople who already produce handmade goods and want broader distribution than Etsy alone provides.

Beyond KDP books, Amazon's ecosystem supports digital downloads through various channels — software, templates, instructional guides, and specialty digital files sold through the marketplace. This category has grown rapidly as buyers increasingly prefer instant-access digital solutions over physical products.

Digital files and info products carry the same core advantages as KDP ebooks: zero inventory costs, instant automated delivery, and 80%+ profit margins. Once created and listed, they sell passively. Every sale costs you nothing to fulfill. Explore the best digital products to sell online for a full breakdown of what's selling right now.

Not all Amazon income models are created equal. Here's a simple 2×2 framework to cut through the noise:

The verdict is clear: KDP and digital products win on both effort and scale. You can start with $0, publish a product this week, and build a passive income catalog that compounds over time. FBA is a real business — but it's not a side hustle. It requires inventory capital, ongoing management, and constant Amazon advertising spend just to stay visible.

If your goal is to build scalable online income without a large upfront investment, digital products are the clear winner across every dimension that matters.

Here's the question most Amazon income guides never ask: why sell through Amazon at all?

When you sell an ebook on KDP, Amazon takes 30–65% of the revenue. When you sell physical products via FBA, fees eat 30–40% before advertising. Amazon controls your customer relationships, your pricing, your discoverability, and your margins — and they can change the rules at any time.

Contrast that with selling digital products directly: you keep 90%+ of every sale. You own the customer relationship. You set the price. You control your brand. And because your products are digital — ebooks, guides, templates, prompt packs — delivery is instant and costs you nothing.

That's exactly the model behind Ebook Seller. Our store offers a curated catalog of premium, pre-made digital products in the side hustle, business, wealth, and productivity space — all available for immediate download. You don't need to write a single word or design a single page. Browse proven bestsellers, download instantly, and start building income from resources that are already optimized to sell.

Why give Amazon 60–70% of your revenue when you can sell direct and keep 90%? The platform does the heavy lifting; you keep the profit.

You don't need months of preparation to start earning from digital products. Here's the fastest path:

1. Download the free quick-start guide. It covers 5 beginner-friendly digital income ideas with honest earnings breakdowns and exactly how to start each one. No fluff, no upsells hidden inside.
2. Take the free 60-second quiz. Answer a few quick questions and get a personalized income recommendation matched to your skills, schedule, and goals. Most people are surprised by the result — it's more specific than generic advice.
3. Browse the Ebook Seller catalog. Pick a product that aligns with the niche you want to enter. Everything is instant download — you can be up and running today, not months from now.
4. Build your first income stream. Whether you resell, promote, or use our resources to launch your own digital product line, the system is already in place. You just need to start.

The window for easy wins in the digital product space is still open — but not forever. Every month you wait, more sellers enter the market and more niches get saturated. The people earning $5,000–$20,000/month from digital products today started 6–18 months ago.