Many of you may have just graduated, and now you’re looking to make a little extra cash throughout the summer.
Or maybe you’ll be heading back to school in the fall, and you want to build up your savings account a little bit.
However, you probably also have summer plans, booked trips, and family events that make it difficult to get and keep a traditional job all summer. Plus, if you’re like me, you’d rather make money in your pajamas, sipping a drink by the pool.
I’ve made a list of a few ways you can make money online, and I’ve tried (or still use) each of these platforms myself! Let’s get into it –
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I may receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own. Please note that Amazon prices may change at any time.
1
ZAZZLE
Zazzle is a print-on-demand platform, and they have almost every product you can think of to add a design to. Shirts, mugs, stickers, kitchenware, bags, jewelry, patches, even pet products! It is super easy to use, and has options for creating a design within the platform or uploading your own design. You can easily design for free in Canva, and then upload that design onto a shirt, mug, shot glass, or a number of other products.
When you are finishing your product, you can add a description, tag words, and edit the percentage you will make off each sale. The percentage automatically defaults to 5%, but you can raise it to 15%, 20%, or even higher! Just keep in mind that the higher you raise your percentage, the higher the product will be priced once it’s published.
Then publish your design and tell everyone about it! There are a number of people who shop directly on Zazzle, but it’s always best to get the word out about your products using TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or by telling friends and family.
While the royalties are relatively small (you may only get $0.50 for one sticker sold), they quickly add up when multiple people purchase a product. You may want to upload several designs, or maybe a few designs a day so people have more to choose from and are more likely to purchase from your store.
Check out my Zazzle store for examples, ideas, and cool products!
2
REDBUBBLE
Redbubble is similar to Zazzle in that it is a print-on-demand platform, and it is also relatively simple to use. There are fewer product options than Zazzle, but you can upload a design and add it to all product options at once (make sure you edit each product to ensure the design is centered or not cut off). You can adjust your royalty percentage here as well, and Redbubble has organic traffic. People often go straight to Redbubble to shop, and Redbubble products often appear in Google searches.
3
AMAZON ASSOCIATES
Amazon has two programs: Amazon Associates and Amazon Influencer. With Amazon Associates, you sign up (for free!) and get a unique tracking link for any Amazon product. You simply go to the product you want to promote, copy your tracking link, and post it wherever you are going to drive sales from. Instagram posts and stories, Facebook, Twitter, and blog posts are great places to add tracking links.
Amazon Influencer is also free, but takes the Associates program a step further, allowing you to set up a storefront with collections of all your products you are promoting. You do not need to take this extra step, but if you would like all your links to be in one place, it may be the option for you.
Check out my Amazon storefront for examples, ideas, and my favorite products!
A few things to note –
There is a rule that you cannot share a tracking link in an email; if you share a blog post in an email that contains tracking links, just make sure the entire post is not in the email.
You must post an affiliate disclaimer. This could be as simple as, “I am an Amazon Associate, and I may receive a commission if you purchase a product using my link.” For social media, you can post this on the first story or photo and then simply post links on the rest of the stories. As long as your followers are informed that you might receive commission, you are good in the eyes of Amazon.
You should avoid posting prices. Because Amazon prices change so rapidly or they have sales on things at various times, you are not supposed to post specific prices. If you put a link on an Amazon story telling everyone the item is $9.99, they might click the link to find the item is $15.99 and not on sale anymore. Instead you could say “buy on Amazon” or “check price on Amazon” so people can see for themselves what the price is.
4
AMAZON KDP
Amazon KDP is a great way to make some extra cash for people who love to write! KDP is Amazon’s print-on-demand self-publishing platform, and it is super easy to create and publish your own book in just a few minutes.
Once you have a manuscript (you could write about literally anything!), login into KDP and begin creating. You can choose from paperback, hardcover, or Kindle e-book, but you can also do all three for the same book. Fill out the basic author and title information, upload your manuscript, and then upload a cover. KDP has it’s own cover creator that you can use to design a cover that specifically fits the dimensions of your book, but you can also create one on your own and upload it as a pdf.
Once you are happy with your content and cover, you can select a price. The form will automatically tell you the royalty you will receive for the price you put in, so you can raise or lower your price as much as you want. Then click publish! It may take a few days for Amazon to publish your book, and you will receive an email with a link to your product when it is live.
You can share the link on social media or send it to your friends and family, and the Reports tab in your dashboard will show you your earnings!
5
KINDLE VELLA
Amazon’s Kindle Vella is a platform for people to read books one chapter or episode at a time. This is primarily used by teenagers and young adults, so people who like to write to these audiences may enjoy selling on Kindle Vella.
Through your Amazon KDP account, you can begin a Kindle Vella book. Uploading one chapter at a time allows you to work on the manuscript as you go. You can post a poll at the end of each chapter for readers to answer a question such as “what should happen next” or “what do you think she did” to get ideas for your upcoming chapters.
For readers, the first three chapters of a story are free, and beginning with the fourth chapter, they can use “tokens” to unlock each chapter. Readers buy tokens for their token bank, and then when they use tokens on your chapter, that’s when you get paid 50% of the cost! The royalties may be small, but the more readers you have, the quicker those royalties will multiply.
Check out my current Kindle Vella story!
6
PANGO BOOKS
This one’s for the bookworms! PangoBooks is an app that makes it so easy to sell books. If you have any books lying around that you don’t want anymore, are duplicates of other books you own, or you just don’t need that many books – post them on Pango and get some cash for them!
Once you get a free account, take a photo of your book, scan the barcode, fill out the basic information about the book, and set a price. As you input a price, Pango automatically tells you how much you will earn once they take their small cut. When someone purchases a book, you will get a link to the shipping label; simply print it out, package the book and attach the label, and drop it in the mail. That’s it!
Free account, free to ship – what more could you want?!
If you try any of these ideas, let me know how it worked for you!
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