Make Passive Income with Amazon
There are several ways to make passive income with Amazon…sell products with Fulfillment by Amazon, write and sell digital books, and selling tshirt designs on Merch by Amazon.
Check out these ideas for more ways to make daily passive income.
Have you wanted to start a business online, but you don’t have much money to invest in the start-up process?
I totally get it! Starting a side hustle from scratch can be tough, especially if you are trying to get out of debt or simply live within a budget.
You maybe thinking there is too much risk to start your side business.
When I heard about this opportunity recently…
I knew I had to share this money-making side hustle for print on demand T-Shirts with Amazon.
So what is Print on Demand?
Print on Demand isn’t a new concept. Basically there are many different companies online who will let you upload an image for a t-shirt or other product to sell.
The best part, there is no overhead other than creating your design, which you can do yourself or hire a designer to do for you.
When someone browses your site and decides to buy your shirt, the company you are with will print the shirt ON DEMAND when the customer orders the shirt.
This is an awesome for you as a business owner because you don’t have to pay for shirts in advance, no stress about selling all your product, and you make a profit if your shirt sales!
What makes Merch by Amazon Special?
Amazon is one of the largest online retailers in the world!
People love and trust Amazon…
everything from Amazon Prime 
Since Amazon is HUGE and has tons of traffic DAILY this makes Merch by Amazon THE place to sell your amazing T-shirt designs!
Merch by Amazon is a print on demand service by Amazon. The service started in 2015 and has grown over the past year and a half!
The process is pretty simple…
Create your design… Upload a design… Amazon prints the shirt when an order is placed.
As a seller on Merch by Amazon you have access to their major traffic! Your t-shirts qualify for Prime shipping and are sold by Amazon (Amazon is the seller of record).
Amazon handles printing, shipping, distribution, sales tax, and returns.
There are no upfront costs to creating awesome t-shirts and selling on one of the biggest retail websites!
There is massive potential to earn extra income with very little time spent on working this side hustle!
How to get started with Merch by Amazon?
Merch by Amazon is currently enrolling on an invitation only basis. You have to *Request an Invitation* by going to the main Merch by Amazon page here.
The platform became popular so fast that Amazon had to limit the number of people selling t-shirts through Merch.
Currently, the wait time has been reported to be anywhere from 1 week to several months.
This is such an amazing opportunity that you should go ahead and sign up for the wait list now.
Suggestions for being Accepted to Merch by Amazon:
(These are just suggestions. You can still apply to Merch by Amazon without these suggestions, but you might be more likely to get in faster.)
*Show Amazon that you are serious about selling T-shirts by having designs on other sites (examples: TeeSpring or Zazzle): You can include your link in the “Request Information Form”
*Share ways that you will drive traffic to Amazon: While a benefit for you as a seller is that Amazon has tons of traffic. It could help you to show Amazon that you already have an audience. Your audience could be through a blog or social media. (Add this information to the “Additional Information” section of the “Request Information Form”
What should I do while I wait to be accepted to Merch by Amazon?
- T-Shirt Niche Research
Take time to learn how to research top selling t-shirts. There are 2 important criteria you should be researching in order to have a top selling t-shirt on Merch: Amazon’s Best Seller Rank and Copyright.
Amazon’s Best Seller Rank (BSR) is a way to determine how well an item is selling on Amazon. If the BSR number is lower the more product is being sold.
BSR of 2,000 = 25 – 50 shirts per day
BSR of 100,000 = 1 shirt per day
BSR of 400,000 = 1 shirt per week
You can research best selling shirts on Merch by using the free option on Merch Research at www.merchresearch.com.
Just type in keywords to find top selling shirts for your specific niche or leave it blank to see what the top sellers are on Merch overall. There are also options to do specific searches on social media, print on demand sites, etc.
Copyright
Copyright laws protect artistic work. Here is a clear definition…
“Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. “ – Copyright.gov
It is against the TOS from Merch by Amazon to sell any t-shirt that infringes on copyright. So no Disney characters or even phrases.
Merch by Amazon will warn you if you create a t-shirt that violates copyright. If you do it enough, then they will close your account.
So it’s important that you choose your designs wisely. Here are two great resources for you to determine if a design has been copyrighted.
This article is also helpful: How to Check if Something has a Copyright on It
- Start Designing Shirts Now
The top selling shirts on Merch by Amazon are well designed shirts. Even shirts that are text only shirts have carefully chosen font and word placement. You can take note of designs that are popular as you do your research in step 1.
Have you never designed a T-shirt before? Popular programs for designing graphics are Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. If you don’t have access to those programs, then you can try Gimp which is a free program.
You may even want to invest in an online course that will teach you how to create profitable t-shirt graphics.
Merch by Amazon – Easy T-shirt Business Partner with Amazon
Merch by Amazon – Print on Demand T-Shirt Service with Skillshare
Youtube is a great place to find tutorials on just about anything!
- Upload to different Print on Demand Sites
You can make money while you wait on your invitation to Merch by selling your designs on other Print on Demand sites.
Print on Demand Sites:
You can also gain experience using keywords, finding out what color combinations work, and learn how to improve your rankings. Getting your feet wet with print on demand t-shirt sells with other companies will help you when you are able to start selling on Merch.
How does Merch by Amazon work?
Amazon is the seller of record on Merch by Amazon. This means that you will be selling t-shirts anonymously. That means you can make shirts that are popular with competing trending topics, for example during the election Hillary Clinton shirts and Trump shirts.
When you begin selling shirts on Merch you are allotted 25 design spots that you can upload. You will be able to earn more design spots as you sell all 25 designs.
Here are the tiers according to Merch by Amazon’s FAQ:
10
25
50
100
500
Pro (by invitation only)
Getting Paid
You are paid royalties from your t-shirt designs as they are sold. If you sell a t-shirt for $20 you will earn $7.68. You can see the Royalties Calculator here.
From the Merch by Amazon FAQ:
“We make monthly payments for Amazon sales. For electronic payments, the currency of your payment is determined by your bank’s location. Provided your balance due exceeds the payment threshold, we will remit payment approximately 30 days after the end of the calendar month in which the product was shipped . For example, we would remit payment for t-shirts that shipped in April at the end of May, which is approximately 30 days after the end of April.
In the U.S., we pay by using electronic funds transfer (EFT), and we make payment when your balance due is more than $0.00”
Final Thoughts
Merch by Amazon is a great opportunity if you are just starting out as an entrepreneur. There’s really no reason to not try the program at this point!
I think just like anything else that is worth your time, there is a bit of a learning curve. I plan on trying to learn as much as I can about how to select popular keywords in order to make the most sales.
Keywords and research seem to be the most important aspect of being profitable with Merch by Amazon.
I just signed up, and I’m excited to see if I can grow a side income selling t-shirts. I plan on designing shirts and selling on other platforms until I’m accepted into the Merch platform. I’ll keep you posted on how this side hustle experiment goes…
I’d love to know what you think!
[…] How to Make Passive Income with Amazon […]
I’d love to try this, but I’m so afraid of copyrighting. It seems like everything that is well liked by kids would have copyright issues. Can you use let’s say your own picture that you draw of characters? I just don’t get it.
Hi Eric! You can’t use copyrighted material. Text only shirts are really popular. Think of a popular topic like essential oils and use a quote that EO people say all the time…”there’s an oil for that.” These shirts are doing really well, and they only have text!