656: $5k/mo Reviewing Products Part-Time: An Amazon Influencer Update

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1:17We're about to find out what's new with the Amazon Influencer program since we first covered it a couple years ago on the show. This is the program that allows you to upload short product review videos and earn a small commission when somebody buys the thing on Amazon after watching your video. At that time, pretty low production quality, relatively low competition. And the best part, you didn't need to drive any of your own traffic. You just kind of sat there on the product pages. And if somebody watched it, you earned a little commission. Very much set it and forget it. Probably as close to passive income on the internet as you can get.

1:51To date, I've earned over$2 ,000 as an Amazon influencer. very very part-time very passive but which is great but that pales in comparison to today's guest who's earned over 130 000 as a product reviewer lately around five thousand dollars a month on the side from his day job which i think is pretty cool from creator side income tyler christensen welcome back to the side hustle show thanks great to be back a lot has changed since we last chatted a couple years ago so it's fun to be back talking about amazon yes so so catch us up. Now, whenever the proverbial fruit is as low hanging as this, it tends to get picked over.

2:32At least that's the trend that we've seen over the last 10, 12 years of the show. But catch us up. What's been going on in the Amazon influencer world for you? Well, so the Amazon influencer program is largely the same as it was two years ago. The idea that you can just film a video on your phone of some product and upload it to Amazon, like you mentioned, very low hanging fruit. You can, at least in theory, do that in two or three minutes, take a one minute video, upload it, tag it, and you're done, which means if you work really hard, you could do hundreds a month. Yeah. Two years ago, hundreds of videos a month would result in thousands of dollars a month in earnings for the influencer.

3:11That is no longer the case. However, I agree with you that it's still the easiest side hustle that's out there. No startup costs, really easy. You don't need to have fancy equipment or anything like that. You can't make quite as much money now, but you can still make really good money. So that part hasn't changed. Is that a factor of more players in the space or commission rates getting cut or visibility of the videos getting diminished? What's going on there? Yeah. So there's some speculation that there are caps or that Amazon might throttle you if you have too many videos. There are a lot of theories out there on that.

3:46What we do know for sure is there are definitely way more players in the space. And so you just have more competition when you put a video up for a product. If there's already 20 videos for that product, it's just less likely that someone will see yours. Whereas two, three, four years ago, you could review almost anything and yours would be the only video up for that product. And that's just no longer the case. Okay. So maybe prioritizing the ones that are newer products, maybe they don't have a ton of videos out there yet just because well even if you get even if everybody cycles through evenly you're still only going to get 120th of the of the views and it may not even be that case where maybe they're going to prioritize ones with better watch times or better conversion rates or whatever it may be yeah the the challenge with that is you want trending products you want products that are popular right now that are best sellers but of course if they're best sellers then a lot of people have them and make videos so there's a sweet spot where they're popular but not too popular or new, but not too new.

4:43And you kind of have to muddle through. There are some software programs that can help with that. There are some extensions. I don't use any of those things. Um, just because I've been in this long enough, I've kind of found my own system for finding products. But the cool thing is even with things that aren't bestseller, I got a sponsored video this week where somebody sent me a power station and it costs$3 ,000 on Amazon. So while they're paying me to make the video, they're paying me$80. If a single person buys one of those power stations, so it doesn't have to be a huge seller. But if I get one cell, that's like another 50 bucks.

5:17And so, and if it does do really well, if that video helps people make decisions and a lot of people buy the power station, then potentially that's a nice source of income moving forward. What's a power station? Like a generator, you know, you just plug stuff into it. But if your power goes out in your house, so you can plug in your refrigerator, stuff like that. Okay, that was one of the themes from the last conversation was focusing on the higher ticket items because you're only going to make 2 % to 4 % of the sales price. And so if you're selling a$10 thing, it's going to take the same amount of time to review it as it is going to take to review the$100 thing or the$200 thing.

5:53And so all else being equal, focus your energy and attention on the higher price products. Although you can still make good money with low-end products, especially if you're making a lot of videos. So if you have tons of videos out there and they only make six cents each time you make a sale, you know, enough of those added up, just like any other investment, it adds up. Yeah, some of my best sellers kind of are on both ends. One is the green bin food compost bags, which is probably a$10. I don't even know. It's like, hey, you know, we've tested a few of these. These are genuinely the best that we found.

6:25This is the one you want, right? It's a no brainer. and then on the other hand it's like we have like an electric car charger thing in my parents garage he was like i might as well quit shoot a quick uh video review because it's like a several hundred several hundred dollar item and so that one is on the higher end where when it does sell it's a much bigger commission rate but so those are a couple examples of high sellers for me now one of the new things that amazon introduced just in the last six months is well actually it's been around for longer than that, but they've started promoting it, is the creator connections.

6:56Are you familiar with that? No, this is definitely one area that I wanted to talk to you about. School us about creator connections. Okay. Creator connections is really interesting because I think what Amazon is trying to do is they don't want to pay more money to influencers. And so they're getting the brands to pay that. And the way that they're facilitating that is they've made this new area where if you're in the influencer program, you can go through a directory of products that brands have signed up for and they have a budget. And what happens is if you have that product or if you purchase that product, or in some cases, the company will send you that product for free or even pay you to review that product, instead of getting the typical commissions from Amazon, which are very low, half a percent to 4%, the brands will pay you up anywhere to 20 % for commissions on sales of their products.

7:46And so one of the things that has helped me lately as there's been more competition for products is finding things on those creator connections. And most of those things were things I reviewed anyways. So it's simply a matter of checking the box to say, I want to be part of this campaign. And that's all you literally, all you have to do is just say, accept on things you've already reviewed. And then you can link the video that you've posted, whether it's on social medias or on the Amazon platform. And then anytime there's a sale on that, you get a higher commission. So that has helped with creators quite a bit.

8:20But then for me, I had one product that I found that we bought it over the summer thinking that it would be a good Christmas present for our kids. And it was a higher ticket item and paid a 10 % commission instead of a 1 % commission. And so every time it would sell, we would make 30 or $40. And that one review has resulted in about$5 ,000 in the last six months. So you can really strike it rich if you find the right product. From one review, you think about the hourly rate of that. So where do I go to find these creator connection invites or possible products and brands? Yeah. So if you're in your associates, whatever that's called, where it shows you all your information, your reports and stuff.

9:07I'm in like a creator hub right now. Yeah. There is a tab that you can pull down, you have to be on the off-site portion of the tab. So you can log into either your on-site profile or your off-site profile. If you get onto your off-site and just scroll down the tags, then there's a little button for creator connections. Now, I do believe that they did send out invitations, but anyone that's in the influencer program can join just by finding that tab and signing up. Okay, well, I'll dig around and be on the lookout for that. I think that's a really interesting angle. Now, has Amazon, since we last connected, provided any additional guidance as to the influencer program application requirements, like, you know, size of the following?

9:53Because they want you to plug in your Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, like they want to have some level of social following, but they never, at least at that time, said, well, the minimum threshold is 2 ,000 followers or something like that. They haven't said anything. They're as mysterious as they've always been. However, just through Reddit groups, Facebook groups, and others, there is a general sense of what's required and its engagement. So rather than having a real big following, 10 ,000 followers or whatever, you can get in with as few as like 50 followers, as long as there's legitimate engagement, that they're commenting on your videos, that it's not just friends and family, but that you're putting something out there and having people engage with it on social media.

10:34So that seems to be what's working best. The other good news now is it used to be really, really hard to get first accepted into the program as an influencer, but then you have to upload three videos and they have to be approved. And a lot of people were getting their videos rejected during a time of growth for Amazon. But over the last six months, it seems like they've lessened the threshold for that. And so a lot more people are getting in now just with the same requirements that we've always had, that you just have some kind of social following. A lot of people are doing it through TikTok right now, but you can do it on any platform.

11:10And the videos aren't being rejected as often. That threshold to actually put something for onsite commissions, you have to have your three videos approved. And people are having more success now with that. Okay. And when you say onsite versus offsite, onsite is what I think I'm most familiar with. The video is shown on the product page. Somebody watches it. They ultimately purchase. You get a commission. What's the off-site piece of that? Yeah, so on-site is the thing. When we talk about the Amazon Influencer Program, that's all on-site. Off-site is what we've had for years and years with the Amazon Affiliate Program, where you simply create an account with Amazon.

11:50Anyone can do it. There is no requirements. You just have to go through the process, Google Amazon Affiliate. And when you sign up for that, they'll make it so you can get a link for any product that you have. and like if you have a YouTube video, you put that link on your YouTube video, it directs people to Amazon. So that's why it's coming from offsite. And you make a commission. And actually the commissions for offsite are better than onsite commissions. You get a higher percentage plus they have better incentives. My little brother's crushing on offsite. So while his onsite has gone down, he's actually making more than ever through Amazon because his YouTube channel's done better.

12:31Okay. So in your case, this would be the reviews of cool stuff, YouTube channel. That's like the primary offsite driver. Yeah. And you can do it on any social platform. So if you're a big Instagram or a TikToker, you can put those links anywhere and drive traffic to Amazon. Got it. Got it. You just have to go in and kind of pull that specific tracking link versus it kind of automatic in the onsite version. Right. Okay. How many videos are you up to now? I have about 2 ,300 total videos. So I did about 800 last year, which was down from the year before where I did about 1 ,200. So I was doing 100 a month.

13:05I've kind of, now I'm only doing about 50, 75 a month. Okay. Yeah. For the sake of comparison, I did eight all last year, but still made 700 bucks. Like it was really, really passive. Yeah. So it's almost this volume game and you can, you know, play with these different metrics of like, well, are there are already you know other videos out there is it a high price probably to try and prioritize your your work there but it it does seem to be i mean there's an 80 20 to it but a bit of a volume game where the more videos that you have the wider a net you can cast the more likely you are to pick up some views and some sales yeah well and the one thing i will say is i i've always treated this kind of as a real job that i have to consistently show up and and put videos but where in 2023 I was spending maybe 20 plus hours a week with it.

13:52Now I'm still doing those 50 to 75 videos a month, but I'm doing it in two or three hours a week. So I've really reduced my time in creating videos because I've gotten better at it, but also just because I'm not doing quite the volume I was doing before. More with Tyler in just a moment, including his take on production quality, video thumbnails, getting paid by brands to do sponsored videos, monetizing on YouTube, and lots more right after this. There are less than 100 days left in 2025, which means less than 100 days left to hit those goals that you said or to refocus your energy on what really matters.

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16:58So if you're doing mostly technology products, you're competing against people who are professional reviewers, you know, tech reviewers. And so you do need to up the quality for that. If you're reviewing a granola bar, you need to just eat the granola bar and talk about it. You really, there's no need to scale up those videos. However, that being said, I do feel like if you want to protect yourself as a product reviewer where it is getting harder and harder to make money on site with Amazon, YouTube does value higher quality videos. And so if you're only going to film it once and edit it once, I am starting to put more time and energy into certain kinds of videos, hoping that they'll do well on YouTube and drive traffic to Amazon.

17:44And those same videos seem to be doing a little bit better on Amazon. It's not a huge difference, but it does make a little difference. Okay, so across posting the same content on both channels, right? film at once, improve the production quality a little bit, targeting that YouTube traffic, that off-site commissions with the understanding that, hey, it's a higher quality video. So maybe Amazon's going to prioritize it on the on-site side as well. To go along with that, one of the things that's really changed the game a little bit in the last year is the popularity of the TikTok shop, which are vertical videos.

18:19And Amazon has wanted to compete with that as YouTube Shorts has wanted to with vertical videos. However, what we found on Amazon is while those get a lot more clicks, they don't get more sales. The vertical videos don't do really well. However, a lot of people who do product reviews are finding that they're doing really well on TikTok shop. And I'm included in that that I've recorded more vertical videos that are punchy, that are quick edits. They're shorter videos, but they take a lot longer to make just because of the editing process. and they'll do well on TikTok shop. They don't do great on Amazon, but they get a lot of clicks.

18:55So it messes up all your data. Is that also through the Amazon influencer program or is this would be separate through a TikTok shop product? Separate. On TikTok shop, you have to have, I think right now they've changed it over the last year. It used to be no followers. Then it was 10 ,000 followers. Now it's like 1 ,000 followers. So you have to meet this minimum threshold of followers to get accepted into the TikTok shop. And so their requirements are different from Amazon, but it doesn't take a ton of time to build up a following on TikTok shop. So a lot of product reviewers are doing that just to supplement their income.

19:34And some are doing really well. I know someone that made close to a million dollars last year with just TikTok shop. Wow. Because he found the right products, understood how to make the right kinds of videos. And so you can make a lot of money there as well but i know more people on tiktok shop that are making no dollars because it's it seems to be harder to do harder to learn than amazon yeah it's trying to hit that you know hit something viral that is at the right price point and is you know the right place right time and yeah you make a little commission on something that hits yeah dang yeah that's kind of crazy okay well maybe maybe send me an intro and we could do a video about that that's something i never even really heard of.

20:11But in the TikTok shop case, these are mostly products that you already own. This is stuff that brands are sending to you. Give me a sense of what you're reviewing. I think it is mostly stuff that brands send to you. TikTok shop is very different from Amazon and the Amazon has all kinds of products. Anything that you would buy, you can pretty much find out on Amazon. TikTok really focuses on viral trending products. They're usually really cheap products, things that you can just, you know, spend 10 or$20 on. And so the people who are having success are riding the trends. They're figuring out what's going to be popular or what's currently popular.

20:48And rather than like on Amazon, you might make one or two videos for a particular product on TikTok shop. If you find something that's trending and your video is doing well, then you make 50 videos on that same product. You just make a new video every week and kind of build on that momentum. So it's a very different strategy, different filming techniques. It's a little work and I haven't gone full in on that just because it is hard. Well, one type of strategy, going back to the Amazon side of things, was trying to create, instead of just like XYZ product review, it's kind of like this product versus this product, like kind of a comparison, like trying to help people make the decision for which one is right for them.

21:27Have you experimented with anything like that? Yes, absolutely. And comparison videos do seem to do really well. And again, talking about crossover here, those kinds of videos do really well on YouTube and drive traffic to Amazon. So if you have like seven of the same kind of product and you can do a big comparison on YouTube, that's going to bring traffic to Amazon. On Amazon, just having two products, having a single comparison, this or that, Amazon has ran some incentives because they want more videos like that. And so maybe they're even promoting those kinds of videos a little more, but I found with the videos, I wasn't part of that incentive program, but I made those kinds of videos anyways, and they've done quite well.

22:08So if you have, my problem is I don't like to stock hold products, right? So if I have a lot of the same things, I get rid of them, but like I did a bunch of space heaters last year. And if I had all of them, I'd make a bunch more comparison videos. I just don't have those. And so just changes your strategy. Yeah. Are you still giving away stuff to your students? Yeah. Yeah. That's most of what I review for Amazon. Because if you're doing 800 products in a year, I probably only have and have kept maybe 100 of those things. The rest I get rid of. And a lot of them I get for free. Last year, I did 400 sponsored videos, products that companies sent to me.

22:47And I got paid to make those videos. I get paid on the back end, but I don't necessarily need the product. So I just give them away. Yeah. And the comparison videos are a little more challenging because it's like, well, I just bought the one thing. Right. And I don't have the other. I don't have, you know, the tier two thing or the alternative because that's not what I decided to buy. But yeah, if you end up getting both or if you can have better yet to have the brands send them to you and even better yet have the brands pay you to do the review. was that a factor of you building up this volume of work this body of work on the plan and then they start to hey this guy's reviewing a lot of stuff we want to make sure that we get our thing in his hands yeah it works a couple of different ways it when you create an amazon influencer account you'll have a storefront and on your storefront you can link to your social media accounts you can't link directly to an email account so if people want to find you they have to leave Amazon and go to your YouTube channel or your TikTok or your Instagram.

23:44But if you have your contact information there, then they'll find you. And what I'm finding is because I'm putting all my videos on multiple platforms, I'm having just as many people find me on YouTube as are finding me on Amazon through my storefront. And so I'll get inquiries from companies. I get about five a day that say, hey, they always say the same thing. They're mostly foreign sellers and they always say, I've been following for you a long time. I've been following you. I'm your biggest fan. I love your work. When you know they saw one video and it's similar to the product that they're selling, but they always come with that pitch that I love all your stuff.

24:22Can we send you a product and you'll review it? And usually the expectation or the hope there for the Amazon seller, this foreign seller that's kind of working as a broker is that we'll send you a product, you'll review it, you'll put it on Amazon, maybe you'll also put it on YouTube, and that's a win-win. However, if as an influencer I decide to return their inquiry and say, I'd love to work with you, I love doing product reviews, I charge X amount to do a review, and I put it up on YouTube and Amazon, then a small percentage of those initial inquiries will come back and say, well, that doesn't meet our budget, but we can pay you this amount, or they'll say, yeah, that sounds great.

25:02And so I almost only do paid reviews now. And I'm, all my reviews are kind of in the 30 to$80 range, but I have enough videos up that people find me both through Amazon and through YouTube. If it's through Amazon, they still have to go to YouTube just to find my email address. But that's how they're finding me. And that's an extra thousand dollars a month, just having spent sponsored videos. Okay. I'm starting to see how all of these different revenue streams kind of work together and complement each other. We've got these sponsored videos. We've got the on-site Amazon commissions. We've got the creator connections where we can increase the commissions by working with certain products and certain brands.

25:41We've got the off-site commissions driven from TikTok shop, from YouTube, and it all kind of feeds together. If you enjoy doing this type of product review content in starting with what you already have. I mean, you can go and look at your own Amazon order history. You can, we've had friends, you know, I've asked, well, what happens when you run out of stuff in your house? Like, well, then I go to my friend's house that I go to my neighbor's, you know, it just kind of snowball from there. And as you start to build it up now, the brands start reaching out to you. Hey, can we send you this thing?