I recently received a great question from someone asking:
“Should I start making money online with Kindle publishing or Amazon FBA?”
I get this question often. The answer that I typically give is: do both if you can.
There's advantages and disadvantages to both methods of making money online.
In this video blog, I explain the pro's and con's of Kindle publishing vs. Amazon FBA.
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
Kindle Publishing vs. Amazon FBA Breakdown
I've broken down the advantages and disadvantages of both methods of making money online:
Kindle Publishing Advantages:
- Very easy, simple and newbie friendly (a 16 year old teenager, or an 70 year old Grandma can do it).
- Very fast way of making money (can start making money within a few weeks from now).
- Very low startup costs (can get a book written, including book cover for less than $100).
- Very low on-going expenses (just your time or virtual assistant to continue keeping your books profitable).
- Within 6 months to a year, I've seen many members of K Money Mastery make anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 per month, depending on how seriously they take it and how much they put into it.
- Some rare members of K Money Mastery are making up to $20,000 per month (although it's a bit of a challenge to scale to this level, as it requires a lot of Kindle books and a well-trained team in place).
- Doesn't require much time investment (only a couple hours per week… most people doing it have full-time jobs).
- Can provide a easy, quick and reliable income that can allow most people to live comfortably and even quit their jobs.
- Can automate and outsource 95% of the process, by utilizing software and a team of Virtual Assistants
- Can use your Kindle books to build a back-end and make money with affiliate marketing
- Can diversify your income with CreateSpace and Audible
- Amazon Kindle market is growing rapidly and isn't going away. Amazon is aggressive with their marketing.
Kindle Publishing Disadvantages:
- Due to such a low barrier of entry and low startup costs, it's very easy for anyone to compete with you.
- Many popular niches and markets are fairly competitive and can be a challenge to compete in if you're a “newbie” and don't know what you're doing.
- Very challenging to scale up to over $10,000 per month and beyond (only a handful people I know have gone beyond this level)
- Can be a challenge to manage large quantities of Kindle books, some people neglect books and they drop in sales/rankings over time.
- Might not necessarily be “passionate” about the books you're putting out, especially since you're not writing them yourself.
- Poor support from KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), they have a lot of “Robots” working for them and sometimes aren't that helpful.
- Don't have 100% control of your business, as you're at the mercy of Amazon.
Amazon FBA Advantages:
- Can get your product launched on Amazon within 8 weeks (although for many people it can take a bit longer)
- Many products immediately start getting sales without much promotion once launched.
- It's common for many members of Amazing Selling Machine to be making $10,000, $20,000, or up to $50,000 per month
- I've seen a few ASM members making over $100,000 per month, $250,000 per month, and even a few rare unicorns making up to $1,000,000 per month. Members regularly post their results in the Facebook group for Amazing Selling Machine.
- Many resources and tools available to help you sell your product (Amazon Ads, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Softwares, Coupon Codes, etc…)
- Don't need many products to make a lot of money. Can make a lot just with 1 or 2 products.
- Building a brand, which is a more sustainable business and has much more potential long-term.
- Doesn't require much time investment (only a couple hours per week… most people doing it have full-time jobs).
- Amazon is growing rapidly and isn't going away. They're aggressive in expanding all over the world.
- Once your product is ranked and has a lot of reviews, it is fairly stable and doesn't require much maintenance.
- High barrier of entry. Not everyone can get into selling on Amazon due to startup costs, so much less competition.
- Much easier to differentiate your product and sell it, due to low competition in many markets.
- Building a business that you're passionate about, that you can share with your friends and family.
- If product isn't selling, can easily reduce price and sell your product at cost (to re-coop your investment on inventory). So even if you fail, it's not a big loss.
- Much easier to scale up to ridiculously high levels of income.
- Amazon has really good seller support (they give you a phone # you can call and they'll help you a lot).
Amazon FBA Disadvantages:
- Moderate to high startup costs. Costs at least $1000 to get started with an inventory, product images, etc… depending on the product you're selling.
- Can take a few months before seeing a return on investment.
- More overhead involved (having an inventory in stock).
- More logistics involved and can be more challenging for someone that doesn't have the proper help and guidance of a program such as the Amazing Selling Machine.
- Not everyone can afford a proper training program such as the Amazing Selling Machine or can afford to do this business.
- More work involved to build a brand and you'll have to learn marketing strategies such as Facebook, Google, PPC, Blogging, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, etc… but these can also be a huge advantage if you learn them.
- Don't have 100% control over your business, as you're at the mercy of Amazon.
So… Which One Should You Do?
As you can see above, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything.
I tried to be as realistic as possible and not sugar coat anything.
My advice is, if you can do both, then do it.
Kindle publishing and Amazon FBA work together nicely as a pursuit to making money online.
By utilizing both strategies and building two businesses at once, you obviously have a higher chance of success and are more likely to make a lot more money, a lot faster.
In many cases, I'd advise for people to focus on ONE BUSINESS at a time.
However, in this case I make an exception.
The reason is because the process is so similar… and they compliment each other so perfectly that it's fairly easy to do both at the same time.
With the process of Kindle publishing, there is quite a bit of time “waiting around”. This “waiting around time” is you basically waiting for things to happen.
For example, let's say you're outsourcing 5 Kindle books and you hire a company or writers to do that work for you. In many cases, it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a month to get those books back (some cases you can get much faster).
During that time you're waiting around for your Kindle books, there isn't much to do.
That's why it's a perfect period of time to work on your Amazon physical products business.
At the same time, when you're working on Amazon FBA and you're contacting suppliers, you're “waiting around” for them to send you a sample of the product. During this time, what can you do? You can work on your Kindle publishing business.
Also, in Amazon FBA there is waiting time to get your product manufactured and shipped by your supplier. For my product, it takes ONE MONTH for them to make, bottle and put the label on my product, and then ship it to Amazon fulfillment centres.
So again… more waiting around.
… More time you can easily spend to devote on your Kindle business.
This is exactly what my girlfriend has done – she's working a job at the bank, while doing Kindle publishing and her Amazon product at both the same time. It's worked perfectly for her.
In my case, I am running 4-5 different businesses all at the same time.
So again, it's possible and works fairly well to do both.
Kindle is the shorter term, more immediate income. Amazon FBA is the longer term, much higher potential income.
If you don't want to do both, then I'd say pick 1 and go for it. Pick the one that resonates the most with you, the one that you can afford and are willing to invest in the right training with.
The training is important. You need guidance and help to succeed online. Yes, you can do it on your own, but the right training will save you a lot of aches and pains and failures. Trust me on this.
The two methods of choice:
Kindle Publishing: K Money Mastery.
Amazon FBA: Amazing Selling Machine.
I do both and have achieved great success with both methods.
The real secret is to GET STARTED. To just pick one and DO IT.
The time you're spending on the fence, waiting around, procrastinating, etc… you're just wasting valuable time that you can be used to build your business and be making passive income already.
While you're sitting around waiting for the perfect time or moment, the other guy is DOING IT and getting further ahead than you.
So pick something, do it and stick with it for the long-term and you'll achieve success.