How to Make Money from Home with Amazon in 2023

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. 

Data from our Consumer Trends Report shows that 11.5% of consumers are employed full-time and working from home. And, luckily for you, there are many profitable ways you can launch a side hustle or make passive income from the comfort of your home using Amazon.

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

Let’s dive in.

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

There are tons of ways to make money from home, but we’re going to start with the one that we at Jungle Scout love the most: selling on Amazon.

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 platform on which to earn an income.

This is because 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.

READ MORE | 15 Ways to Make Money on Amazon

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.

READ MORE | How Much Do Amazon Sellers Make?

Third, it’s the biggest marketplace with the most customers.

Compared to the next largest online retail platform, eBay, Amazon has over three times the monthly shopper traffic. 

Want to learn more about selling on Amazon? Check out our complete guide.

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 an average of nearly $30,000 in annual profits
• 66% of eBay sellers earn more than $10,000 per year
• Bloggers earn $86,473 per year on average, according to Glassdoor.

Work-from-home employees:

• Accountants: $78,056
• Engineer: $108,623
• Writer: $51,395
• Consultant: $111,968
• Program Manager: $134,347
• Product Manager: $150,810
• Account Manager/Account Executive: $122,799
• Recruiter: $87,611

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. 

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.

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. Some of 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:

Choose a platform. 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.

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.

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.

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, such as Amazon FBA.

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:

Pick a topic you’re passionate or knowledgeable about. The content game is all about providing high-quality content consistently. 

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.

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.

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 Upwork and Fiverr.

Amazon makes it simple to earn money from home

In today’s day and age, it has never been easier to make money online from your home. With the ability to sell on Amazon, the world’s biggest online marketplace, earning some extra money on the side or even replacing your current income is very attainable. With Jungle Scout’s blog and YouTube Channel, you can learn everything you need to know about starting your own ecommerce business on Amazon.

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