How to Go From Zero to $20k/Month with the Amazon Influencer Program

Nate Jackson from Hustle Buddies

What if the easiest money you ever made online came from filming your own bathroom, your neighbor’s Legos, or a handwashing station at a farmer’s market?

Nate Jackson from Hustle Buddies(opens in new tab) is back on the show to talk about the Amazon Influencer Program, a way to earn commissions by uploading short product review videos that show up on Amazon listings.

Nate spent years focused on Amazon FBA(opens in new tab) before finally trying the Influencer Program. And even though people told him it was too late and too saturated, he decided to test it for himself.

In just 10 months, Nate went from a brand-new account to 3,000 videos, earning up to $20k a month!

Tune in to Episode 759 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

how to get approved for the Amazon Influencer Program even with almost no social following
Nate’s volume-based filming strategy and where to find hundreds of products to review without leaving your neighborhood
how Creator Connections campaigns can boost your commission from around 2% up to 50%

(Want to learn Nate’s system? He teaches it inside the Amazon Influencer Hub(opens in new tab), his Skool community!)

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Get the Amazon Influencer Quick Start Guide

Where should I send your step-by-step guide to get approved, get filming, and start making money?

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Is the Influencer Program Too Saturated to Start Now?

Nate pushed back on the idea that it’s “too late.”

Coming from the Amazon seller space, he was used to hundreds of thousands of competitors. He doesn’t see the Influencer Program the same way.

He estimates there are fewer than 1,000 people working full-time as on-site Amazon influencers.

As he put it, most accounts aren’t “actively in the trenches” competing on new products. With millions of products available on Amazon, there’s plenty of room for new reviewers to find their footing.

How Does the Program Actually Work?

You upload a short video, usually 1 to 3 minutes, reviewing a product you tag on its Amazon listing. You don’t market it anywhere else.

If a shopper watches enough of your video and buys the product, Amazon pays you a small commission, typically in the 1-2% range.

Nate says this is different from the Amazon Affiliate Program(opens in new tab). That one suits people with a real offsite following like major influencers.

For everyday people, the Influencer Program levels the playing field since everyone has roughly the same shot at appearing in Amazon’s video carousel.

amazon influencer video placement

How to Get Approved

The Amazon Influencer Program is by application only(opens in new tab).

But don’t stress if you don’t have a big social media presence. Nate says he’s helped people with as few as 3 followers get approved.

His recommended path:

create a brand-new TikTok
follow and engage with a few accounts in a niche you want to post about
then post daily for about two weeks using questions or mildly controversial “rage bait” designed to generate comments

Heavy comment engagement on TikTok is usually enough to get accepted into the program, and there’s no downside to applying since you can reapply as many times as you want.

Why Nate Chose Volume Over Perfection

Years ago, Nate got stuck in analysis paralysis trying to find the “perfect” product and make polished, in-depth videos. This time, he flipped the approach entirely: film fast, film often, and let the numbers work in your favor.

His logic is simple. If you spend 5 minutes researching whether a product is worth reviewing, you might end up not filming it at all, guaranteeing $0.

If you spend that same 5 minutes just making the video, you have a real chance at earning something. As Nate put it, “You miss 100% of the shots that you never take.”

He doesn’t use an external microphone, doesn’t script most videos, and leaves in verbal slip-ups or the second before he presses record, since editing that out doesn’t add to his earnings.

About 90% of his videos include his face on camera, which he’s found builds more trust than faceless reviews, though it’s not required, especially for simple product demos.

What Makes a Video Perform Well?

Most of Nate’s videos now run about 2 to 3 minutes, up from the 45-90 seconds he used when starting out.

He’s noticed that longer watch times seem to correlate with better placement in Amazon’s video carousels, so he’s intentionally stretched his videos longer.

That said, he’s clear this is based on shared data points among creators, not confirmed Amazon policy, and the algorithm changes frequently.

Video orientation matters too. Vertical videos tend to perform better for mobile-heavy categories like kids’ toys and fashion, while horizontal videos do better for higher-consideration purchases researched on desktop.

Amazon also encourages creators to post multiple video types for the same product, such as an unboxing video plus a one-year update video.

Does Being Honest in a Review Still Pay Off?

Nate shared a story about reviewing a betta fish tank he didn’t actually recommend, since the compartments were too small for the fish. He filmed it honestly, showing the product’s dimensions and explaining his concerns, then showed how he repurposed it for houseplants instead.

That video became the top-performing video on the listing for about a year.

Until recently, honest reviews like this could also earn “related sales” credit if viewers bought a different product after watching.

Amazon dropped that credit, though Nate still believes honest reviews perform well because shoppers often want to see the downsides before deciding a product still works for them.

Where to Find Products to Film

Look Around Your Own House First

Nate’s biggest pushback to “I ran out of things to film” is that people give up too soon.

He estimates every house in America has 500 to 1,000 potential videos sitting in it, from toilet hardware to grout to closet door hinges, items people stop noticing once they’re already installed or used up.

Get Creative With Access

To scale past his own belongings, Nate got resourceful. He posted in his neighborhood Facebook group offering $20 Starbucks gift cards in exchange for filming people’s Lego collections, exercise equipment, or other big collections.

Also, he house-sat for neighbors just to film everything in their home, filmed at model homes in new developments, walked through farmer’s markets looking for products that exist on Amazon, and even filmed conference swag on the spot.

Then he visits Amazon discount bin stores. This is where pallets are sold at steep markdowns, letting him film products for a couple dollars instead of full retail price and even resell items afterward.

One important rule: Amazon wants products shown in their natural environment, not inside retail stores like Target or Walmart. They can remove you from the program.

How Creator Connections Can Multiply Your Commission

Hustle Buddies Image

Beyond Amazon’s standard 1-2% commission, brands can offer Creator Connections campaigns paying 10% to 50% commission on top of that.

Nate now uses automated tools to message brands in bulk requesting free samples in exchange for videos, seeing roughly a 10% response rate.

He’s candid about the downsides: everyone using the same automation tools ends up chasing the same “good” products, production slows down because of unboxing and disposal logistics, and it’s not the scalable core of a real business on its own. Still, it’s a way to add extra income and content variety.

Tools/Tech

ChatGPT(opens in new tab) – generating talking points and thumbnail ideas for videos
ChaChing(opens in new tab) – automatically cross-posts Amazon influencer videos to YouTube with titles, descriptions, and affiliate links
Multi-Influencer Pro(opens in new tab) – scans products for creator connection campaigns and influencer competition levels
ViralVue(opens in new tab), Oink(opens in new tab), Fluencer Fruit(opens in new tab) – other popular research and creator connections tools Nate has tried

Does Posting to YouTube Help?

Nate uses ChaChing to automatically cross-post 10 to 20 videos per day to YouTube.

For his run-and-gun style, this adds about a 5 to 10% income boost per month, including YouTube ad revenue and any brand deals that come from it.

He notes that people doing longer, more polished YouTube-style videos will likely see a bigger boost than his quick-hit approach.

Mistakes to Avoid

Nate warns against overthinking video titles and thumbnails.

Amazon’s auto-generated titles work fine most of the time, and spending too long crafting the “perfect” title usually means you’ve already overthought it.

He also avoids overused thumbnail gimmicks like arrows saying “watch before you buy,” since they blend in rather than stand out.

Another mistake: scanning a product to see if it already has a match on Amazon before filming it, rather than filming first and trying to figure out the product afterward.

And chasing only Creator Connections products for free samples can backfire, since everyone using the same research tools tends to request the same high-opportunity products at once, making the free-sample well dry up fast.

What’s Next for Nate?

Nate is trying to scale further, aiming for $40,000 to $50,000 a month heading into Q4. He knows others doing $50,000 to $70,000 a month with this same approach.

He’s also building safety nets. He’s growing his YouTube channel for affiliate income and coaching others through his communities(opens in new tab). That’s his hedge in case anything changes with the Amazon program.

Nate’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

2026: “Stop overthinking it. Stop listening to all the noise… just do the Nike version. Just do it.”

2020: “Take 100% responsibility.”

Get the Amazon Influencer Quick Start Guide

Where should I send your step-by-step guide to get approved, get filming, and start making money?

You’ll also receive my best side hustle tips and weekly-ish newsletter. Opt-out anytime.

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