Some side hustles are more lucrative than others. Michael Strahl, a 41-year-old senior construction technician, says he earns $10,000 a month through the Amazon Influencer program, reviewing Amazon products and posting his videos to Amazon and other social media websites.
“If you’re looking for a side hustle you can do while the kids are napping or in your spare time, this is easy to fit in,” he told Business Insider (1).
Strahl works full time. He’s a husband and father of two. Despite his busy lifestyle, he has time to earn a hefty extra sum each month — spending no more than 20 hours on his side hustle.
An Amazon Influencer is a content creator who inspires their audience with product recommendations, according to the official website (2). In plain speak, the program pays creators like Strahl to funnel buyers to products through informative videos and affiliate links.
For example: The buyer watches a video, clicks a link and buys the product. The creator earns a cut. There are other ways to monetize, such as by directing buyers to your Amazon store — but Strahl says his strength is in creating high-quality videos. He focuses on products including tools, camping gear, automotive and household items.
“I made about $5,800 in revenue in my fourth month after joining the program,” Strahl said, “and it kept growing from there.” He recommends shooting and posting 100 videos to learn the ropes. That is, assuming Amazon lets you participate.
To join, you must apply to the program with a YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok account. Amazon reviews how many followers you have, among other items (3). But if you can swing it, the program might open the doors to a lucrative side hustle.
On a 2025 Reddit thread, Amazon influencer McKay Christensen (4) also recommends the program, with some caveats. Christensen runs the GoTechGeek Amazon storefront, where he sells shoppable products. Like Strahl, he focuses on posting high-quality videos to earn revenue. He calls his exposure to the program “life changing,” despite recent changes (5) that have made earning big money more difficult.
Christensen says he got started with the program in June 2022, “when it was pretty easy money.” Now, he posted, “those days are gone.”
Despite challenges, which include a surge of creators posting videos to Amazon, he thinks there are “still great opportunities” to make money doing product reviews.
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Let’s say you get into the program. What’s the best way to get started?
Strahl credits his quick success with the program to “in-depth, highly descriptive, long-form videos.” His videos aren’t cinema quality, but they’re highly detailed and include product B-roll, a technique that shows the product being described during a voiceover.
Likewise, Christensen suggests creators focus on high-quality videos. He also says it matters when posting content to third-party platforms like YouTube.
In fact, most of Christensen’s earnings no longer come through the Amazon Influencer program. He urges new creators who consider joining the program to regularly post videos to TikTok, YouTube or Facebook. He says he would probably be earning one-third to one-fourth of what he does without his YouTube channel.
Strahl opened his own YouTube channel in 2024, a year after joining the Amazon Influencer program. There, he reposts his best Amazon shoppable videos, which drive traffic to his Amazon. He says it took him 11 months to monetize.
Side hustles in the US bring in $1,275 a month in median earnings, according to The Penny Hoarder 2026 Survey (6). The publication cites a gap between what the typical American earns and the cost of household expenses. Certainly, $10,000 a month could go a long way toward bridging that gap.
It’s unclear what the average Amazon Influencer makes through the program. A popular 2024 thread on r/Amazon_Influencer suggests the average creator who posts makes somewhere around $300 a month. Many commenters say income is inconsistent. One says they earn between $165 and $1,200 in any given month (7).
Big earners like Strahl are probably major outliers. That said, it is possible to have some success with the program.
Christensen cautions against thinking of it as a get-rich-quick side hustle, as it’s sometimes advertised. He cites dedication, learning and persistence as keys to his success.
Unlike some entry-level roles, you don’t need experience to dive in. “I started by reviewing products with no prior knowledge of video editing, and learned everything from scratch,” Strahl said. He believes it’s still a good time to get started.
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Business Insider (1); Amazon (2),(3); LinkedIn (4); Reddit (5),(7); The Penny Hoarder (6)
This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: A blue-collar worker says he makes $10,000 per month from Amazon in just 20 hours of work — how you can do it, too
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