How to Make Money from Home with Amazon

Have you ever wanted to know how to make money from home? Maybe you have friends who have made big money selling on Amazon and you wonder how they made it happen. 

Well, you’re not alone. 

The last U.S. Census reported that 5.2% of U.S. workers work remotely — some 8 million people. And with increased connectedness thanks to advances in technology (as well as big changes happening in the world requiring people to self-isolate at home due to coronavirus), it’s likely many more will soon join the online workforce.

This article covers everything you need to know about working from home and the best ways to make money doing it, including:

• What’s the best way to make money from home?
• How much money can you make working from home?
• Working from home: Pros and cons
• Working from home: Best practices
• Resources: Tips on how to make money from home

Let’s dive in.

 

What’s the best way to make money from home?

Selling on Amazon.

(See more options below, but we’re starting with the best, right?)

Yes, we’re biased as a company that provides technology and resources to help people sell on Amazon, but we got into this business for three good reasons. 

First, selling on Amazon is the most flexible platforms on which to earn an income as it lends itself well to multiple business models such as:

• Private label selling

  Private label is when a retailer rebrands and/or renames a product that is already being manufactured under another brand or label. Brands such as Walmart’s Great Value or Target’s Main Stays are both examples of private label products. 71% of sellers say they use this method to sell on Amazon.

• Dropshipping

  Dropshipping is an e-commerce supply chain operation method that allows a seller to take orders on behalf of a manufacturer, distributor, or supplier. And sellers don’t keep their own product inventory. Instead, when a customer buys the item, the seller then sends the order information to their supplier/manufacturer and they fulfill the sale. 

• Handmade goods

  Handmade sellers are people who create their own products to sell on the Amazon marketplace. Examples include jewelry, accessories, home decor, and more. 

• Retail and online arbitrage

  Arbitrage is a method of finding low-cost or discounted products available on one marketplace to resell on another. With retail arbitrage, those discounted items are found in brick and mortar stores, while online arbitrage means you’re finding those low-cost products on a website or another online store.  

• Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

  If you’re a writer, then KDP may be perfect for you. It allows you to publish your own books on Amazon.

You can also spend as much or as little time you want on your Amazon business. In fact, the majority of Amazon sellers spend fewer than 40 hours each week on their business, and 79% sell on Amazon part-time.

Second, it’s one of the fastest platforms on which sellers can turn a profit. In Jungle Scout’s survey of more than 1,000 Amazon sellers, we learned that 67% of all sellers (new and experienced) earned a profit in less than a year. 

In fact, even 63% of new Amazon sellers reported seeing a profit within their first year.  Furthermore, 16% of those beginner sellers turned a profit in fewer than three months.

Third, it’s the biggest marketplace with the most customers. Compared to the next largest online retail platform, eBay, Amazon has almost three times the monthly shopper traffic (SimilarWeb.com). 

That’s despite the fact that eBay has close to 10x the number of sellers that Amazon has — 25 million to 2.5 million respectively.

Jungle Scout — an all-in-one platform for selling on Amazon — has tools to help you set up, run, and maintain your Amazon business.

Learn more

 

How much money can I make working from home?

Of course, the amount of money you can expect to make working from home depends on the type of work that you do. 

Regardless, here are a few data points we’ve collected regarding how much different types of work-from-home jobs earn. The following statistics are from our own Amazon seller survey (mentioned above), glassdoor.com, and WebRetailer.com.

Work-from-home entrepreneurs:

• New Amazon sellers earn between $26,000-$810,000 per year in profits
• 66% of eBay sellers earn more than $10,000 per year
• According to Glassdoor.com, bloggers earn $32,800 per year
• According to Glassdoor.com, freelancer earn $51,395 per year

Work-from-home employees:

• Accountants $53,748
• Engineer $72,323
• Teacher (Online) $42,579
• Writer $51,395
• Consultant $77,368
• Program Manager $58,804
• Product Manager $108,992
• Account Manager/Account Executive $62,263
• Recruiter $49,315
• Sales Representative $50,000
• Web Developer $68,524
• Medical Coder $33,716
• Territory Sales Manager $60,030
• Nurse $65,870
• Data Analyst $62,453
• Editor $52,107
• Case Manager $36,016
• UX/UI Designer $85,277

 

Working from home: Pros and cons

Pros for working from home:

1. Flexibility

Many work-from-home jobs offer flexibility, allowing workers to create their own hours or take breaks when the need arises. Of course, that’s not to say that certain projects won’t need to be delivered on time!

2. No commute

One huge advantage that working from home has over traditional workplace environments is not having to commute to work each day. Not only do you save on gas, bus fare, and other travel-related expenses, but you also get your commute-time back.

3. Stay-at-home parent friendly

Employees and entrepreneurs who work from home have the benefit of being there for their children and family. This improves the relationship between the parent and their children, and it saves on costly day care expenses. 

According to AmericanProgress.org, the average cost for daycare in the US for some parents is $1,230 per child per month. For a parent working 40 hours per week, cutting out a day care expense is like getting a $7.69 per hour raise.

4. Improved focus

For some, a traditional workplace environment can be an incredible distraction. Working from home offers reprieve from those distractions as a worker can choose the environment in which they work. With less distraction, workers can get more work done in a timely manner. 

According to a study performed by Standard University, work from home employees are 13% more productive than their on-site counterparts. 

5. More personal time

Employees whose full-time jobs demand their presence often lose an entire eight-to-ten hour block of their day to work. After sleeping, eating, and preparing for work, this leaves little personal time for traditional employees. 

Work-from-home employees, however, have more time to spend on the things they care about including family, hobbies, exercise, and side projects.

Cons for working from home:

1. Self-Accountability

Employees who work from home must maintain their own schedule and deliver projects when they’re needed, often without supervision. For some, this can be a daunting task if there is no actual work environment. 

2. Limited socialization

Sometimes, having coworkers around can be nice. As social animals, humans often work best in the presence of others. Employees who work from home may not have access to regular socialization which can sometimes take a toll on their psyche.

3. Poor visibility

Even when work is getting done, sometimes it’s difficult for work-from-home employees to demonstrate to their managers and supervisors that they are working. 

4. Less career momentum

Thanks to poor visibility, many work-from-home employees are passed over for promotions. 

In the same Stanford study mentioned above, researchers discovered that work-from-home employees are 50% less likely to receive promotions than their onsite counterparts.

5. Health and hygiene concerns

Lacking an environment to work in, and co-workers to socialize with, it’s easy for the health and hygiene of work-from-home employees to fall by the wayside. 

And if a work-from-home employee already has scheduling conflicts, it only exacerbates this con.

 

Working from home: Best practices

From having the right set-up, to getting dressed in the morning, these are some of the best practices Jungle Scout’s remote team members use while working from home.

1. Get the right gear

Obviously, you’ll need a laptop or PC and an internet connection. If your computer doesn’t come with a webcam, you will probably need to purchase one for meetings.

2. Find a quiet space

If you’re at home with the kids or there are other distractions in your life, try to place your work space in a quiet space. 

You might place your desk in a bedroom where you can shut the door, or even a spare room or basement space.

3. Download useful software 

Online apps like Google Calendar and Sheets, Trello, Discord, Zoom, and Slack are all incredibly useful for those who work from home.

4. Keep a regular schedule

As a person who works from home, it’s easy to sleep in, get distracted with the internet and watch TV, and lose track of time. It’s also easy to work in your pyjamas. But maintaining a routine (like waking up at the same time everyday and getting dressed as soon a you get out of bed) will help you retain focus. 

5. Find your “one thing” 

Make sure that the first part of your day is spent working on your most important task, or your “one thing”. 

For example, if you’re a sales representative, you might make your “one thing” sending emails. An engineer might spend the first part of their day drafting. And a writer should write. 

While focusing on your one thing, everything else takes a back seat.

6. Take care of yourself

It’s easy to put off hygiene, good eating habits, exercise, and rest when you don’t have to go anywhere every day. So, make sure that you’re taking care of yourself or you’ll find yourself crashing frequently.

7. Get out of the house 

Finally, be sure to get outside. Smell the fresh air. 

Staying inside all day can be tough on your psyche. Sun and basic human contact (even if it isn’t in-person) goes a long way to help you stay connected with the world around you.

 

Resources: Tips on how to make money from home

While many people still find Amazon to be their best option to make money from home, people looking to work from home aren’t always entrepreneurs (or, they don’t live in an Amazon-acceptable country).

Often, people want the stability that comes with working for someone else, but that also allows them to work remotely. According to Flexjobs.com, the most popular work-from-home jobs include:

Side hustles

If you do have a pioneering spirit though, plenty of entrepreneurial pursuits lend themselves well to working from home. 

Here are some of the most popular ones which can be started immediately.

Online retail

Whether you use Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Etsy, or any of the other popular ways to sell products online, online retail is a great way to get started with making money from home.

Here’s a brief primer on getting started:

1. Choose a sales channel or platform to sell your products. We recommend Amazon, since it offers the most advantages to first-time online entrepreneurs. You can learn how to sell on Amazon for free in our step-by-step guide.
2. Pick a product you want to sell. You can sell products you create yourself, you can buy wholesale products from distributors, or you can even manufacture your own products overseas.  There are lots of different business models from which you can choose.
3. List the products you’re selling on your chosen platform. Most e-commerce platforms like Amazon and eBay make it relatively easy to list and promote your products.
4. After making a sale, ship your product. In some cases, you may not even have to ship it yourself as the platform will do it for you.

Blogging

Got something on your mind? Why not blog it! Creating written content for a blog is one of the best ways to make money and the costs to get started are pretty inexpensive.

Here’s a brief primer on getting started:

1. Pick a topic you’re passionate or knowledgeable about. The content game is all about providing high-quality content consistently. 
2. Set-up a blog. These days, you don’t have to be a computer whiz to create a good looking webpage. Sites like WordPress, Weebly, Wix, and Squarespace make it a cinch.
3. Create content. Write write write! Or, if you’re a video blogger (vlogger), film film film! Early on, you should try to create as much new content as you can.
4. Share your content. Once you’ve got your content edited and live, make sure you get as many eyeballs as you can on it. Share on social media, emails, or through network connections

Freelance

If you’ve got marketable skills — particularly skills that many active Amazon sellers are looking to leverage — try freelancing. In many ways, freelancing is like working for a company, except you work for yourself and can have multiple employers/clients at once. 

The easiest way to get started with freelancing is through peer-to-peer freelancing sites like Jungle Scout Market, Upwork, and Fiverr.

 

Interested in working from home? Check out Jungle Scout to see how it can help you earn money remotely by selling on Amazon: