Being a multi-billion dollar company, Amazon definitely has a lot of ways by which people can make money from it. Apart from the thousands of customer service jobs it offers, here are some lesser known ways you can make money with Amazon:
Earn with the Amazon Affiliate (Marketing) Program
Selling using affiliate links is different from selling directly on Amazon. By becoming an Amazon Associate, you basically send traffic over to Amazon, and earn a commission based on what your referred traffic ends up buying.
It works better if you have an online audience that you can share the link with. As an associate/affiliate, you provide a link to a product purchasing page. You can insert your link on social media platforms, email lists or your own website/blog.
What makes this program work is that you just need to send the traffic over to Amazon, and even if the referred user ends up buying any other product, you still get a commission from it. So you don’t exactly need to sell him a specific product.
Plus, Amazon knows how to convert a visitor to a customer, so your referred traffic is in good hands. Infact, Amazon Associates is one of the largest affiliate programs in the online marketing industry.
Commissions for Amazon Affiliate Program
Amazon rewards the affiliates on each sale. The company gives various amounts of commission for every purchase through referral links.
The commission percentages vary with the product category. The lowest percentage is 1% and the highest is 10%. Do your own research before you choose your products, as the rates keep changing with time.
What are the best product categories that award the highest affiliate commission (on Amazon)?
Different categories of products have different commission rates. It would help to have an idea about them so you can choose the best products to promote.
- The commission for digital products is enough for a cup of coffee. It is around 2% up to 5%. The fee for television and digital download games are 2%. An affiliator would receive 2% of the product price for each purchase. A bit higher than the television and games, digital music and video downloads award a 5% commission.
- The commission of gaming tools is not as high as digital products. It ranges at 1% up to 3%. However promoting game consoles links in a content can be good. For video games and game consoles the commission is 1%. The fee for toys is 3%.
- The referral commission of electronic devices is not bad. However the products in the category are segmented. It means that they are only used by particular users. The rate starts from 2.5%. The affiliation fee for the Amazon products is 4%. An electronic product with the highest fee is headphone. The referral fee for headphones is 6%. Other products with 6% commission are beauty products, musical instruments, business, and industrial supplies.
- The commission of household equipment has a high rate. It is around 4.5% and 8%. Promoting household equipment could be a good income source. Everyone will buy it, although not everyday. The household equipment rewards the affiliator 4.5% of product price. The category consists of kitchen, healthcare, personal care, sports, car, and baby products. Another category that gives affiliators 4.5% fee is paper books. The highest referral fee for household products are furniture, lawn, and garden, home improvement, pantry and pet products. These categories give the affiliators a 8% commission.
- Products that are from Amazon have the highest fee rate. Amazon products’ lowest fee is 7% of product price. Referring to amazon products could be promising for affiliates. The amazon products with 7% referral fee are Amazon TV, Amazon Echo products and jewelry. Beside the items, other products with the same fee are clothes and accessories. Other products from Amazon with high commissions are fashion items and Amazon Coins. Purchases through links for the Amazon products make affiliators receive a 10% commission.
Sell Books on Amazon
Selling books on Amazon is an interesting idea. A good book and the right choice of marketplace are great combinations. Amazon was known as a popular ecommerce book store in its early days.
But to properly publish and market a book on Amazon might require a lot of research and work, which are beyond the scope of this article. You can check out Amazon’s guide to selling books or our eBook writing guide to know more about how to research and write about a topic, and the free tools you can use for the same.
To get maximum selling results some strategies have to be applied. First of all is researching on popular topics.
Knowing topics liked by many is useful. Many books can be quickly sold if they attract a broad range of readers.
The next strategy is making the book fit major publisher standards. If a book suits the major publishers’ products the marketing is easier. As a consequence a seller earns more income. Other important things are formating, editing and design of the book cover. A good quality book means nothing if not well edited.
Amazon does make publishing your own book much easier, but it does not guarantee the success of your work. Writing and publishing a successful book on Amazon (for free) is the topic of a different book in itself.
ACX (Become a Narrator of Audio Books)
(List of Sites that pay for Narration & Voice-over Jobs)
ACX is part of Audible.com, an Amazon subsidiary that provides premium audio text. Every audio file in ACX is well narrated. The audio text quality has to be good. The assurance of quality aims to attract many users.
It makes ACX a good income source for narrators, authors, studio professionals and publishers. Audio narrations with outstanding quality can satisfy customers and boost sales.
Audio narrations serve as an extraordinary way to understand some text. Instead of reading, the audible file makes a person listen to a text. The different method of text comprehension demands a good audio quality. The file must be free from distractions like noise and inconsistent audio level.
Some recordings contain mouth sound, mouse click, and other jarring sounds. The distracting noises lower file quality. They may result in unclear audio. Noisy and wavy file volume bring inconvenience to the audience. They can result in bad reviews. All those things mean low selling frequency. This is why only high quality recordings are accepted on ACX.
Sound Formatting and Recording Clear Audio
Sound formatting can polish the audio file. A well formatted sound is heard softly. Beside that sound formatting is useful to make sure the file is ready to be published. During file formatting 3 formats must fit the standard.
- The first component is 5-seconds of silence in the beginning and the end of the audio file. The empty recording in the first 5 seconds and final 5 seconds is useful for the audio’s starting or ending signal. Not only for the cue but the blank space can also make sure that the file has been encoded for customers.
- An ideal file is encoded with some setting. The measure of audio level has to be between -23 dB and -18 dB RMS. Such a setting can make the audio in the right volume level and the sound of the file is not too loud and too soft at the same time.
A listener is not bothered to adjust volume while enjoying a file. The volume peak of an audio must not be more than -3 dB. It can keep the quality of a file. The setting prevents the file from distortion. The setting of the audio’s noise floor has to be -60 dB RMS. If it is more than -60 dB RMS the audio must be full of background sounds and distractions. The outcome can make listeners difficult to focus on the material. - The format of the audio file must be mp3 192 kbps with 44.1 kHz. The audio file will be encoded into several formats. It is for customer’s options. The file can be produced in 256 or 320 kbps but with a constant bit rate. Beside the format of audio file the audio channel must be overly mono. ACX will produce the audio in various formats. If some part is stereo the audio encoding for retail will be error. The outcome results in a delay in production.
On the contrary mono will be smooth and consistent audio. The length of audio must not be more than 120 minutes. Audio files that are more than the duration have to be split into two parts. To separate the audio file there are some important things to notice. The last formatting rule is taking human voice in the narration because text-to-speech recordings are not allowed.
Creating a Sample/Introductory recording
An audio sample is needed for introduction. The sample can give the file information at a glance. It must not contain opening music. A sample is powerful because a purchase decision starts from the sample. To avoid any inconvenience, the sample must not contain any explicit words.
The minimum sample is one minute and the maximum is five minutes. Every file must begin with at least the information of file title, the writer, and the narrator. For the audio ending the minimum requirement is the words “the end”. The beginning, the end and the main content must be separated. It aims for the listener’s well navigation on the file parts.
How much can I earn with ACX as a narrator?
The income of narrators depends upon various factors. Money earned depends on how much the file is sold. The fee ranges from 20% to 90% of the file price.
You also earn for getting new members to sign up. So extra US $25 is given to a narrator everytime his file is the first purchase of a new member.
Some narrators are paid highly and others are not. The revenue of each ACX narrator depends on their pay rate. As a beginner, Narrators earn US $10 to US $100 per finished hour. Unlike that of a novice, the earnings of experienced narrators range between US $100 to US $350 per finished hour.
Tools & Equipment for Good Audio Production in ACX
Recording Equipment helps narrators in production of quality audio. Beside making good quality audio, the tools are also needed for a professional and quick production. Equipment include electronic and non electronic devices and software.
- Electrical equipment in audio production is the principle for a fast production. They are microphone, audio interface and XLR cable. Microphone captures the narrator’s raw voice while the audio interface makes it recognizable to computer and software. XLR cable connects the microphone and interface. Beside the three pieces of equipment, the other things are computer and external hard drive. They are useful for audio processing and storage.
- Non electrical tools for ACX narration include a comfy and non creaky chair, mic stand and script stand. The tools are useful for a steady recording session. Equipment like a pop filter and mic shock mount are mandatory. They free the audio from any noise. To edit and adjust the audio, an editing software is also needed (there are lots of free ones available, like Audacity)
Skills Needed by Narrators
- Narrators of ACX are obliged to have reading as a hobby. Being happy to read is a must because it is the narrator’s main task. This means being accustomed to the different perspectives of many texts. The narrator who understands the content will easily narrate using simple ways that fit the characters in the text.
- Fluent reading is essential for a good narration quality. Narrators with great reading fluency can avoid unwanted problems. They will do their task without any pronunciation mistakes.
- Knowing specific vocabulary builds a solid content of narration. The skill lets the narrator produce an outstanding work. He will present a deep discussion on a topic. A natural breathing also increases the quality of narration. A narration that is done with a good breathing method is not noisy.
Become a Twitch Streamer/Creator
Twitch is one of the rising social media platforms. It is the most popular game streaming platform, beating Youtube and Facebook Gaming.
The platform was acquired by Amazon in 2014, for around a billion dollars. A lot of people might not know this.
Twitch is primarily a platform for game streaming. It makes gamers and audiences stay in touch. Twitch is used by gamers and audiences to have real time interaction. They can talk to each other while enjoying the game. Using twitch allows gamers to share many things.
Streaming equipment is important for twitch creators. The tools must be provided to broadcast gaming contents. Hardware needed for streaming are PC or laptop (with powerful specs), ethernet cable, microphone, and camera. The softwares for streamers is CyberPower’s Pro Streamer for two PCs in a single body. The next is Open Broadcaster Software. It is also optimized for newer Nvidia cards.
The minimum requirements for a PC are Intel Core i5-4670 processor (or its AMD equivalent), 8gb RAM, and Windows 7. A streamer must use ethernet to get a stable and fast connection. When doing live streaming a gamer also needs a microphone to interact with the audience. To record streamer’s expression and the view of the studio a camera has to be provided too. Streamers who prefer broadcasting using game consoles can use Xbox One, Series S, Xbox Series S, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5. For Xbox consoles a streamer needs the free Twitch App and Playstation users have to go live through the system’s share menu.
How do I make money on Twitch?
Twitch streamers make money using several ways. Gamers’ earning comes from audience loyalty. Beside that the audience amounts sum up the income.
The more audiences watch a channel the more streamers earn. The income resources for gamers are advertisement, subscription fee, merchandise and animation bits purchasing.
Subscription is an income resource of streamers. The revenue is earned every time a member subscribes to a channel. An interested audience can hit the subscription box and get some benefits.
They can join the chatroom with streamer. In some cases audience can enjoy ad-free content. The payment of Twitch channel subscriptions varies based on some packages. It starts from US $4.99 up to US $24.99. Based on Twitch rules 50 percent of subscription fee are for streamers. However the percentage can be vary in some conditions. Some popular streamers can get up to 100 percent subscription fee.
Advertisement on twitch is displaying products while streaming. A gamer puts products in good spots. There are some ideal positions for product placement. The product name may be shown in the stream title. The placement can also be in the streaming studio. A gamer may put the product on a tile and behind the streamer in the webcam.
How much can I (approximately) earn as a Twitch Streamer?
Income of Twitch streamers varies a lot. They can earn a lot of money depending on viewers, subscribers and donations count. Small streamers’ revenue range between US $50 up to $1,500. It is earned if the channel has 75 viewers on average. However the count can be less or more because viewerships, subscribers, and the follower’s generosity affect income.
But your earnings increase with your viewer count. Streamer’s income can reach US $2,500 with 1000 average viewers. The sum of money does not cover bits, donations and advertisement revenue.
More income can be earned if the mainstream income sources are added. Twitch also provides other sources of earning money, such as sponsored streams, merchandise selling and affiliation.
The income of top streamers like Ninja is US $1,378,791. The result is gained from 2019 until 2021. So the streamer gets US $57,000 per month. Other streamers like xQc and Criticalrole have good income too. XQc has US $9.6 million of total income while Criticalrole is $8.4 million.
Skills Required for Game Streamers
There are at least five skills important for streamers. Two skills are for the channel’s existence and the other three are for the channel’s engagement.
- Consistent content upload is an important thing for streamers. The skill to constantly upload content can influence the channel’s existence. It keeps your audience engaged and keeps them coming back for more. Uploading contents regularly can inform the audience when to watch new videos on the channel. It will satisfy the audience. As a consequence they will loyally support the channel.
- The maintenance and upgrading of streaming equipment. Good streaming tools allow creators to film quality works. All equipment must be up to date and working properly.
- Social skills are a must in the streaming world. It is the basic requirement of streaming since it is related to people. For example a streamer with low social skill cannot bring or engage a lot of people on his channel. This also prevents him from collaborating with other streamers. Hence, it makes it difficult for him/her to grow their audience.
- To be creative is always required in entertainment including Twitch. Creativity can bring ideas for streamers. It is so useful for streamers who do it for a living. As a result the streamer can get additional income. Some examples of applicable ideas are producing brand merchandise and sponsored contents. The product can give extra income for streamers.
- Research ability brings benefits for both streamers and audience. For streamers researching mean gaining. Streamers can know about upcoming games, specific equipment to play it and its durations. Not only the new information but exploring also makes streamers master particular games. As a consequence they can give tutorials for the audience. The audience also can get the benefit of streamers’ research. They can learn how to play a game from their favorite creators.
That’s it, folks. So there are a lot of ways you can cash in with Amazon, one of the world’s richest companies.
