Want to earn big on Amazon? Here’s how I built a $1.7M Amazon business in 2025 using proven strategies that work.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

This post is for you if you’re searching for a dependable, long-term method to earn thousands of dollars each month without depending on anybody else.

My Personal Success

I have made over $1.7 million using this business strategy, and the best part is that you don’t need to have any special qualifications, be visible online, either work with selling physical things or services, or possess a high credit score.

You may operate this business anywhere in the world as long as you have a computer, an internet connection, and a willingness to learn. While developing my web business, I resided in Bali, Thailand, Hawaii, Europe, and many other places.

My Story: From Retail Job to Full Freedom

I was working at a retail job in 2016 and earning eight dollars an hour plus commission. In order to save money, I shared a small apartment with five other roommates. I can thus relate to how stressful it is to be stuck in the traditional wage paradigm. I kept failing with every company strategy I tried, even though I believed there had to be a better approach.

That was before I came onto this business strategy, which not only enabled me to resign from my position but has also continuously generated several six-figure incomes for me.

The Business Model That Changed Everything

So in this article I’ll guide you exactly on what this business model is how it works and how you can get started too.

What Is This Business Model?

Okay, so let’s get started. What is this business model exactly? Well, this business model is called Amazon KDP.

The most absurd aspect of self-publishing books on Amazon is that you don’t even need to be a writer to do it.

Understanding Amazon KDP

Think of it this way: a large number of books that you buy from Barnes & Noble or Amazon are not personally handwritten by the authors; instead, they are published by big publishing companies such as Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and many more.

These publishing businesses therefore look at market trends and consumer purchasing patterns before identifying authors to produce books that satisfy those needs.

On a smaller scale, that is precisely what we are doing. By determining which books are selling on Amazon and then producing books that satisfy that demand, we are effectively turning into our own little publishing business.

Overcoming Common Concerns

Now I know what you’re thinking, well, Sean. Don’t worry if I’m not a writer or if my English isn’t very excellent; I actually experienced the same difficulties.

English is a second language to me because I’m from Japan. I spent a lot of time attempting to get rid of my thick accent after moving to the US from Japan when I was fourteen years old.

I also have students in my coaching program who do not speak English as their first language, and they are doing very well. For example, this student from France made over $1 million in total lifetime earnings in about 2.5 years, and another student from Italy made $161,000 in his first year with just 10 books.

Getting Started with Publishing

You may also be thinking, “Oh, I don’t know anything about publishing, or I’m not skilled enough to do this.” In fact, none of the other people who started this business at first had any idea how this works or the necessary skills, but that’s okay because nobody is born knowing how to do anything.

One of Amazon KDP’s great features is that its business plan is really simple. Amazon aims to make it as easy as possible for you since they want more publishers on the platform because it increases their revenue. This is great because you can make money as you learn.

Why Focus on Amazon?

You should concentrate on selling on Amazon because millions of people visit the website every day to look for products to buy, and they are actively searching for entertainment or solutions to their problems through books. All we need to do is arrange our books so that they appear in front of them when they search on Amazon, and Amazon takes care of everything else, including printing, shipping, and customer service. In other words, Amazon gives us access to their enormous customer base, and we only need to provide them with the books that they want.

My Experience with KDP

Since I was a broke 21-year-old kid with virtually no publishing experience, I’ve produced books in a variety of categories, including self-help business activity books. You can solve this from scratch if I can.

Why Amazon KDP Is the Greatest Startup Business

Now, let me explain why I think Amazon KDP is the greatest online business for beginners, particularly if you want to live a truly independent life.

The Freedom Trifecta

And when I say freedom, I mean what I refer to as the “Trifecta of freedom,” which is freedom in terms of money, time, and place.

While most companies may provide you one or two of them, very few truly offer you all three types of freedom.

Comparing KDP with Other Business Models

Let’s break this down: if you consider service-based businesses like agencies or freelancing, you can certainly earn a good living doing it, but you’re trading time for money because you’re constantly balancing cold emailing demanding clients, taking sales calls, and managing your schedule. The moment you stop working, you stop getting paid, which means you have no time freedom.

As someone with experience in similar business models, I can tell you that it’s a nightmare. On the other hand, if you look at physical product-based businesses like Amazon FBA, you have to deal with manufacturing issues, shipping headaches, and inventory. You’re also limited to one location because someone has to handle the logistics.

What Makes KDP Different

However, Amazon KDP is very different. To begin, you may publish books under pen names like myself and remain fully anonymous if you so like. I don’t use my real name when I publish books, and that’s perfectly acceptable. It’s a common practice, like J.K. Rowling from the Harry Potter series, who also uses a pen name. With a pen name, you don’t have to reveal your identity, post on social media, or engage in any networking; your book sells itself while you remain completely anonymous.

Passive Income Potential

Additionally, the potential for passive revenue is quite incredible. Because once your book is on Amazon, it stays there for life while Amazon handles all the work, I continue to profit from books I released years ago, and many of my students do the same with books they published years ago.

Marketing your book is still important, of course, but Amazon’s algorithm also finds clients for you, allowing you to earn money while you sleep. This student of ours made $4,800 in a month with hardly any work because he had some health concerns and subsequently had to take holidays. I wake up every morning to new purchases from clients who bought my books while I was sleeping.

Why This Business is Truly Sustainable

And here’s what makes this truly sustainable. When someone orders your book, Amazon prints it, ships it, and takes care of any customer service issues that may arise. All of this occurs automatically without you having to do anything, and the payment process is also very easy. This eliminates the need for a warehouse, shipping concerns, and even the need to think about printing books. Amazon pays you at roughly the same time each month; the process is fairly easy.

Market Growth & Future Potential

Even more bizarre is the fact that the market is expanding annually; more people are reading than ever before. You may have noticed this trend of people returning to reading, whether for educational or entertainment purposes. There are many different books that can be written, but on top of that, global book sales are increasing by 16% annually, and the audiobook market alone is expected to triple in size by 2030. This means that people will always want to read books, whether for entertainment or education.

What Makes People Succeed in KDP

And I can tell you this: those who succeed aren’t necessarily the best writers or the most creative people; rather, they are the ones who treat this like a real business and follow a system because, at the end of the day, that is what this is—a business system that anyone can learn and implement. I have also assisted hundreds of students in making money online with Amazon KDP and creating a successful publishing business.

Comparing KDP to Real Estate

To help you comprehend how insane this business model is, I’ll describe it by comparing it to real estate investing. This business strategy is similar to real estate investing, except it doesn’t involve the high upfront expenses and hassles of managing physical assets.

When someone purchases a rental property, they invest a lot of time and money in making repairs and preparing it for a tenant. However, once a tenant moves in, the property becomes relatively inactive and they receive rent checks each month. That is precisely how KDP operates. Building a portfolio of books is similar to building a portfolio of rental properties in that you do the work once to create each book, and it pays you royalties every month, often for years. Publishing a book is like owning a piece of digital real estate.

Selling Your KDP Business

Furthermore, the finest aspect that most people are unaware of is that you can sell your Amazon KDP business in the same way that you can sell a portfolio of rental properties.

Consider the fact that I actually made $820,000 when I sold my first KDP account. I created this digital asset portfolio from the ground up, benefited from the passive income for years, and eventually sold it for a fortune. The best part is that you can come back and do it again after you sell it.

That’s exactly what I did with my new KDP account, which I’m building. You know, I quickly brought it back up to six figures a year. Most businesses can’t do that. For instance, if I try to sell my YouTube channel, it’s nearly impossible because my face is the brand. Some of the businesses you founded just cannot be sold, but with KDP, you are creating a genuine asset that can be sold. For example, you can’t sell this; if I go, no one can come in and, you know, start making money from this channel.

How Many Books Do You Need?

The best part is that you don’t need a large collection of books to make a good living; a modest collection of excellent books in the correct niche can bring in a respectable monthly income. One student made $93,000 in a single month with just 27 volumes.

Using AI to Make Better Books

Furthermore, as AI advances, it is becoming quicker and easier to produce high-quality books. I would like to clarify that we are not distributing low-quality AI books; rather, we are utilizing AI to produce better books more quickly.

Books That Can Be Published on Amazon KDP

There are essentially three primary book categories that you may publish on Amazon KDP, so allow me to explain how this company operates and why some strategies are more effective than others.

Low-Content Books

First, there are books with little content, such as planners, journals, and notebooks. Many people start here because they are simple to build; you can actually generate these books for free using Canva in 30 minutes, which is precisely why I do not suggest them.

The problem with business is that when something is simple, everyone else is doing it, and when everyone else does it, you’re competing with 99% of other people. For example, if you can create a book using Canva in 30 minutes, what’s stopping others from doing the same thing? These books can be very profitable, like the ones on the screen that are making good money, but they’re typically the most competitive because of this.

Medium Content Books

Books with a medium level of content, like coloring books, puzzle books, and activity books, come next. These require a little more work because they need real designs and content. Because of the higher entry barrier, fewer people are entering these markets, which reduces competition and usually results in higher earnings.

High-Content Books

However, I believe that high-content books—more especially, full-length non-fiction books that are between 150 and 200 pages long—are the greatest books to write. Yes, they require more resources and time to produce, but the reason I believe they are the greatest is because a single book can provide several revenue streams.

Creating Multiple Streams from One Book

So allow me to demonstrate how that operates. As an example, if you want to publish a book on productivity, you can sell it as an ebook first, as you can see from the Amazon page. However, you can also sell it as a paperback book, and you can also make a hardcover and even an audiobook version. This means that you can make four different revenue streams from a single book.

Translating for More Income

Additionally, the book may be translated into a number of languages, including Spanish, German, French, and many more. For example, translating this book into Spanish alone brings in an extra $49 every day; therefore, this is a Spanish version of the book. The Spanish version, simply by translating it, is suddenly making an additional $49 per day, while the English version is making $100 per day.

Bundling for New Books

Additionally, you can combine it with your other related publications to create a brand-new book that you can sell. This is how you can take one book and make seven or more various sources of income. I constantly encourage people to read high-content books, even though they are a little more difficult to produce, since you can’t do this with journals or low-content books. For instance, a blank journal cannot be converted into an ebook or audiobook.

Quality Over Quantity

The most important thing, though, is that quality is crucial regardless of the kind of book you publish. Too many people try to spam low-quality books, believing that quantity is the key to success. However, you must consider this from Amazon’s point of view, as their entire objective is to make money while also satisfying their customers. If your book receives negative reviews because it is of poor quality, Amazon will simply stop promoting it; however, if it receives positive reviews consistently, Amazon will know that it is a good product and will continue to push it more and more, which is how you generate passive income.

Step-by-Step: How to Get Started

Step 1 – Market Research

Allow me to walk you through the process of launching this company. The most crucial first step isn’t writing a book; it’s conducting thorough market research. 99 percent of folks make a mistake here. Most people write a book first, then look for readers. This is completely backwards; you want to make sure that people are already purchasing books on the subject before writing a book on it.

Using Amazon’s Bestseller Categories

As an example, I typed in a topic that interests me, in this case decluttering, and I’m just going to see if the books on this topic are selling. Books with fewer than 880,000 in this number are what you should search for. This is as easy as going to Amazon’s bestseller categories and seeing what people are buying.

Tools for Research

BookBeam is a paid tool that provides me with the bestseller’s ranking and the amount of royalties a book makes each day. To get this information for free, simply open the product and scroll down to the product details section. It shows that 13,890 books are the bestseller. I then look for a very specific criterion: you want to find at least three books under 880,000 VSR, which indicates that the topic is profitable.

This fast validation method can literally save you months of writing a book just to have it not sell, since if it’s around $80,000, that means the book is producing an average of $500 every month.

Step 2 – Creating Your Book

When it comes to actually writing your book, you have two options: either do it yourself to save money or outsource it to save time. However, you must realize that you are always paying with time or money because that is just how business works. For example, when I first started, I had no money but a lot of time, so I did more of the things myself. Now that I have more money but little time, I essentially outsource everything.

Using AI as a Tool

The wonderful thing about this company is that AI has greatly streamlined and expedited the process of writing these publications. What used to take weeks may now be completed in a matter of hours, if not minutes. However, you should avoid copying and pasting everything from AI and uploading it, since this is a surefire way to earn bad reviews and destroy your company. AI should support you, not take the place of you.

Cost of Creating Books

Technically, you can start with zero dollars if you’re willing to do everything yourself, but in practice, if you want to write high-quality books that earn you a good living, you should have at least $500 to $800 per book. This includes expert formatting, marketing, and cover design; therefore, the more you have, the better. Technically, though, the initial cost can be nearly nil if you opt to handle more tasks yourself in order to save money.

Step 3 – Timeline to Profit

First Sales

If you have a good book in a good niche, you may see your first sale within a few days of publishing. However, I advise all of my students to consider the first 30 days as their ranking period. You should concentrate on obtaining as many reviews and sales as possible during this time, even if it means setting your book’s price a tiny bit lower. That’s when Amazon provides your book priority treatment, exposing it to a wider audience and possibly increasing sales.

Realistic Growth Timeline

This schedule is practical and based on my own findings as well as the results of hundreds of students. In the first two to three months, assuming all goes according to plan, you can earn your first $1,000 per month. Though it’s a little over average, I personally reached $10,000 each month in ten months. Because this is a legitimate business and not a get-rich-quick gimmick, a more realistic objective would be between $50,000 and $100,000 each month during your first year. It’s worthwhile to invest the time necessary to build assets that will generate income for you for many years to come.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1 – Chasing Quantity Over Quality

Chasing quantity over quality is the biggest mistake I see people make. When they see someone making a lot of money, they think, “Oh, I just need to publish more books.” I made the same mistake early in my business, and my income stagnated for almost a year and a half because I was concentrating on quantity rather than quality. However, as soon as I switched my focus to quality, my income skyrocketed.

Mistake 2 – Skipping Market Research

The easiest method to avoid wasting a lot of time writing a book that no one wants is to conduct market research. Don’t simply wing it; look at the data, the BSR figures, and what is already selling. Then, attempt to create something better.

Mistake 3 – Poor Book Covers

Third, you must have a fantastic book cover; this isn’t the place to cut corners, is it? I see a lot of people trying to save five, ten, or thirty dollars. Instead, they try to save that money by making a book cover on Canva, even though they are not designers and lack the necessary design skills. The result is a terrible book cover, and the book doesn’t sell. Again, you could have paid someone thirty dollars and had a decent book cover to start with.

Mistake 4 – No System for Reviews

Finally, you need a system for getting reviews. No matter how good your book is, it won’t sell if you don’t have any. You must figure out how to get genuine, authentic evaluations for your book in order to accomplish this. If you’re interested, I share a ton of strategies for getting real reviews in my Amazon KDP program. These strategies work, as demonstrated by this student of mine who received 100 reviews in his first month.

Moving Forward

Taking Amazon KDP Seriously

Okay, so hopefully this article demonstrated the potential of this business model, how Amazon can essentially handle the majority of tasks that a business owner must perform, how amazing the current market opportunities are, and how to get started. You have a few alternatives for where to go from here if you want to take this business seriously.

The paid course is the first option, which requires payment. To enroll in a paid course, simply get in touch with us:

Free Content

It’s also acceptable if you’re not prepared to commit to a paid coaching program, isn’t it? You’re always paying with time or money, as I’ve stated many times. If you’re reading my free stuff, you’ll need to piece together various knowledge, which will likely take you a lot longer to achieve. But it’s a good place to start because I have some really good articles, and this choice is also quite acceptable. If you don’t want to join something, I’m not here to try to make you. You can start there because Elearnest offers a ton of free content.

Final Words

Commitment to Success

Finally, I want to say that if you read this article through to the end, you are clearly committed. I want you to let me know that you did so by leaving a comment below. I will do my best to address any questions you may have, but in the meantime, I hope you found this article interesting. Go over other articles as well.