How To Make Money From Amazon (Part 2)

3. Publish an eBook

By registering for free with Kindle Direct Publishing, you can have your ebook published on the Kindle platform within five minutes and appear in Kindle stores worldwide within 48 hours. Gone are the days of cut-throat book publishing where rejection letters are the norm. You can now publish your novel or amazingly helpful "how-to" guide online and earn up to a 70% royalty on your sales. Plus, you get to keep complete control of your publishing rights and have the ability to set your own pricing. Amazon will even help you format your ebook to optimize it for Kindle users. Also, you can opt into the Kindle Owners' Lending Library so Prime members can borrow your ebook, and in turn, help you gain even more exposure.

4. Become a Third Party Seller

If you shop at Amazon regularly, you've probably noticed that while the majority of items are fulfilled directly by Amazon, some items are actually sold by third party sellers. If you have a niche product for sale, or perhaps are an artist and have artwork you're trying to move, becoming a third party Amazon seller provides an excellent opportunity to reach the masses.

You have the option of signing up for the individual plan, which is great if you plan on selling 40 or less items per month, or the professional plan if you plan on selling more. With the individual plan, you pay a flat $0.99 selling fee per item sold, plus a referral fee in the 8%–15% range of the product's selling price. With the professional plan, you pay a flat $39.99/month with no per item selling fee, but still have to pay the referral fee.

While the 8%–15% referral fee may seem steep compared to other online selling programs, the large customer reach you'll have by listing your items on Amazon can easily make up for the higher fees. If you really want to step up your game, you can have Amazon fulfill all of your ordersby having them store, pick, pack, and ship on your behalf. This is a fantastic way to let potential customers utilize Amazon's customer service department as well as have your items become eligible for Prime two-day shipping.

5. Sell Your Original Content

Another smart way to get paid by Amazon is to sell your original content like DVDs, books, MP3s, CDs, and video downloads directly on their site. This is done via CreateSpace, an Amazon-owned company, and it works by paying royalties whenever your product is sold on the Amazon platform.

For example, if you've produced your own music and designed your own artwork to go with it, CreateSpace will turn it into a "retail-ready" CD with full-color inserts, jewel case, and printed disc face. They'll even assign a free universal product code (UPC) to your CD and sell it directly on Amazon.com, which means it'll be eligible for Prime two-day delivery and incredible consumer exposure. Royalties vary by product category, and range between 40%–60% of the retail price.