How To Turn Amazon Influencer Videos Into a YouTube Side Hustle

[00:00:10] I've got hundreds of videos from the Amazon Influencer program just sitting around. So I decided to put them to work and start a new YouTube channel called Eric's Product Reviews. This channel is just repurposing Amazon Influencer content and I'm going to tell you why I decided to do it, how I plan to monetize and my process for publishing all the videos. Let's get into it.

[00:00:47] What up potty people and welcome back to the show. My name's Eric and you're listening to Clipped and this show brings you the tips, resources and people to help crush your content goals. And today I'm talking about my new side hustle which is my new YouTube channel consisting of Amazon Influencer videos. These are simply repurposed videos and the goal is to make some extra cash by linking my affiliate link in the description of those videos.

[00:01:17] And ideally people click on that after watching and then I earn a little commission from Amazon. For info on the Amazon Influencer program check out episode 122. It was released on October 2nd, 2024. That's where you can get information on what the Amazon Influencer program is. I don't want to get into that on this episode. I just want to update you on my new side hustle. I actually got this idea from the Niche Pursuits podcast. If you haven't checked that out, you're an entrepreneur, business owner,

[00:01:47] online marketer, online marketer, online marketer, online marketer, check it out. They always talk about their side hustles. They have like their main businesses and they have a few side hustles and they update their listeners. And if they come up with a new side hustle, they talk about it. They share insights and tips regarding their side hustles. And that's what I wanted to do with you because this is fun and easy. And it's yet again, another way to repurpose content. I know we always talk about repurposing. And if you're part of the Amazon Influencer program,

[00:02:14] this is something that you can do to generate, to possibly generate more revenue. I haven't made any money yet, but I'm working on it. So that's what I'm talking about. And why I did this is like, they were doing it. Actually, one of the guys, I forget, I think it was Jared, host of the show. He was like, I started repurposing these Amazon Influencer videos because I have hundreds of them. They're just sitting around. So why not put them on YouTube, create a YouTube review channel,

[00:02:42] and then link to those products that you're reviewing. And if people buy those products on Amazon, you get that commission. And I was like, you know what? I have hundreds of these videos too. Why don't I just do this? You know, not spend a lot of time, maybe an hour, two hours a week. I have hundreds, upload them. Let's see what happens. So no need to create stuff that already exists. If you have a bank of content, there's always creative things you can do with it. Before we get into it, guys, want to give a shout out to Riverside. They're sponsoring the podcast.

[00:03:11] This year, and I'm stoked to have them back on board. If you haven't used Riverside, it's my favorite place to record online audio and video. They've also got rad features like magic clips that I use all the time to turn my podcast video into vertical clips for social media. And it's called magic clips because it's done with AI and within a few seconds. And then you can tweak those clips by adding B-roll, by putting your logo in there, creating borders, colors, captions, whatever you want to do. Magic clips is rad.

[00:03:41] Use it all the time. Use it all the time. Use Riverside almost daily for myself and my clients. So if you haven't yet checked it out, head on over to Riverside.fm and enter promo code CLIPPED for 20% off.

[00:03:56] So this is what I do, guys. I take those videos. I created the channel. I upload them to YouTube in bulk. And I don't worry about thumbnails. I literally just upload them and YouTube will create like an AI. I don't know. It's actually not AI. Maybe it's AI. I don't know. Their system scans the video. They generate a thumbnail.

[00:04:16] I'm okay with it for now. Don't want to spend too much time on that while I'm starting this up. So I don't worry about that. I use the one YouTube gives me. I don't edit the videos. They're already actually edited, which is great. Just upload and go. And this is like the fun part where I use AI to kind of like scale this thing. What I do is like, let's say it's a review video of like my kid's stroller.

[00:04:41] So I'll type in that stroller name on Amazon. I'll grab the link to it. Not the affiliate link, just like the general product link. I'll paste that into ChatGPT and I'll tell it to generate like a very short, maybe three sentence product description of that product. I'll copy paste that into the YouTube description. Sometimes I'll tweak it a little bit. If it was like a really good video and I really liked it, I'll add like a little personal touch and I'll tweak the copy that ChatGPT gives me.

[00:05:11] Sometimes I don't because honestly, with this, speed is like the name of the game for me. I want to upload hundreds of videos and just do it. Do it well, do it professionally, but do it quickly. So oftentimes I'll just, it'll spit something out and I'll copy paste it. So then I got my YouTube description and then I'll go and I'll find the affiliate link within my Amazon account for that product. And I'll put the bottom of the description, you know, that you can buy this product now on Amazon and I'll link to it.

[00:05:40] And that's my affiliate link. Then if people watch the video, they click on that affiliate link. If they buy that product or anything else in their Amazon cart, after clicking on that link, I get commissions. Super easy to do if you already have this and you have a little bit extra time. Why not? Here's the thing though. So I did set up a brand new Amazon affiliate account because this isn't really part of like my podcasting business. And so I wanted it to be separate.

[00:06:09] I actually linked that Amazon affiliate account to my personal bank account, not the business account. The only thing with that is when you register like a new Amazon affiliate account, you have to make three sales in the first six months. And then you can get continued access to the program. If you're putting those affiliate links, those new ones from the new account out all over the web, you don't sell anything in the first six months, then they kick you out of the program.

[00:06:37] I have so far sold two things. So I need to get that one, that third sale, one more sale. And then I'm like, good, I'm in the program. And then I can hopefully start making a little bit of dough. That's just their rule. I haven't hit it yet.

[00:06:53] I am stoked that I made those first two sales and I'm confident I'll make the third one soon. I started this, I think it was around the holidays. And as of recording this, it's February 11th. I want to say it was like maybe December when I did this or maybe November, something like that. So a couple months have passed. I got to make sure I get that third sale. Yeah. And so far here's like the results and don't get too happy. They're very minimal.

[00:07:21] So I've uploaded 44 videos so far. And remember, these are already like edited videos and everything. I just upload them because I have them. I've got three subscribers so far, guys. That's nothing. I know. And then I've got like the views per video. I'm kind of like good with, I'm kind of okay with. So the top video is a review on a Tumi duffel bag I have, which Tumi, you know, it's like a higher end brand. It's expensive.

[00:07:51] Dude, the video is not even that good. Just like in my bedroom. That's got 226 reviews. Not reviews, views. 226 views. That's like the highest performing video.

[00:08:02] Most videos hover around like 20-ish views. And then some have like four or five views. So it runs the gamut there. My goal is just to keep consistently uploading and see what happens over time. And I do want to make a little money. And I'm going to keep you guys updated because my plan is to actually buy some ads to kind of push that channel, to try to grow it, to try to get more subs, to try to get more views.

[00:08:29] I think that'll just help for something like this. You know, normally I would just do maybe like an organic thing. But since this is a side hustle, I'm going to throw a couple hundred dollars into ads over the next few months and see what that does for me. And then I'll report back. I'll report back on this side hustle.

[00:08:47] If you're interested in doing it, I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment on Spotify if you listen or DM me on Instagram at thepodcasthaven and would love to talk about the Amazon Influencer Program because there's a lot of rad things you can do with that to make money. Repurposing that stuff is one of those things.

[00:09:07] So I'm going to keep you posted. I think side hustles, even if you have like a successful business, like I'm pretty stoked with where my business is at right now. But my brain's always ticking, always looking for ways to generate more money, to try to experiment. This is also like a YouTube experiment. Learn a little bit more about how YouTube works and what it's like to start a brand new channel.

[00:09:28] So I'll keep you posted, guys. Amazon Influencer videos repurposed into YouTube review videos for a brand new channel. And hey, if you're sitting on old content, find a way to repurpose it. Don't know if this will work, but it's low effort, low risk, and potentially, you know, I don't know. If I could make a hundred bucks a month from it, that would be rad. I'll put a link in the show notes. It's called Eric's Product Reviews.

[00:09:58] Eric's product reviews. And as always, guys, keep listening, keep engaging, keep creating. I'm out.