Youtube is very popular but it is not the only platform to share your videos and make some money.  Amazon has its own video sharing service where users can upload the videos and monetize them. It’s called Amazon Video Direct.  Basically, Amazon Video Direct allows the creators to upload their own videos for “tens of millions” of members of Amazon’s Prime audience to watch. This service is a direct competitor to Google’s YouTube.

Amazon Video Direct is not big as Youtube but it has enough audience for you to share your video and make some money.  So why not share your Youtube video that you upload already and make some more money.

In this post, I am going to show you how to share your Youtube video and upload it to Amazon Video Direct and monetize it.

1. Sign up for Amazon Video Direct for Free

First step is to create account with Amazon Video Direct. It’s free service to sign up.  You can use existing Amazon account or create new one.  You can sign up here: https://videodirect.amazon.com

2. Make sure your video is clean

At this point, I am assuming that you already have a video that you already made for Youtube.  Hopefully, you still have to original copy of the video.  When I say that your video must be clean, it just means that your video don’t have anything relating to Youtube. Basically, Amazon don’t want anything to do with Youtube.  So you might have to go through your video and cut out all the part that is relating to Youtube.  If not, your video will be rejected and you won’t be able to upload to Amazon.

For example, make sure your video has no advertisement, subscribe button, call-of-action screen, or anything relating to Youtube.   If, at the end of the video, you say “please subscribe to my channel”, you have to cut that part out.

Also, make sure your video has no copyrighted materials in the video such as music or videos clips.  If your video already has copyright warning with Youtube, chances it is also going to be rejected by Amazon for copyright violation too.  But if your video has no copyright warning with Youtube, chances are it will be ok.

3. Need close caption (Subtitles)

One of the requirement for uploading your video is to have close caption or subtitles of your video.  Amazon won’t let you upoad your video without it.  So before you upload your video, make sure your video has close caption.  If you don’t, you can create one using Youtube.

Easiest way to create a close caption is to let Youtube generate it for you.   If you go to CREATOR STUDIO and go to your video, you’ll see SUBTITLE option on top menu.  Go there.

When you upload your video, Youtube automatically transcribe your video and create Subtitles.  But it doesn’t do a good job.  So you have go through the subtitle that Youtube has generated and edit to your liking.

In order to edit the subtitles that Youtube have generated, click on PUBLISHED Subtitle.  It should say “Automatic” which tells me that it is generated automatically.

Once you click on PUBLISHED Subtitle, click EDIT on top right corner of the screen and start editng the subtitles on the left column.

When you are done with editing, click on ACTION on top left corner and download the subtitle file in .SRT format.

4. Create video cover image (Key Art)

Amazon requires key arts for all the videos which just means thumbnails for your video.  Amazon requires two types of Key Art- one with 16:9 ratio and one with 3:4 ratio. Amazon is pretty picky about the size of each key art.  Key art is the image used in search results and title detail pages. Here are the requirement.

  • 16:9 key art – 1920×1080, .jpg or .png file
  • 3:4 key art – 1200×1600 .jpg or .png file

You can use the Youtube thumbnail for key art.  But be sure to use your image editor to resize the image to meet the requirement.  For 3:4 key art, you might have to create from scratch.

5. Upload your video

Next step is to upload your video and complete all the informations that Amazon requires.  But first login into Amazon Video Direct website.  https://videodirect.amazon.com

Go to YOUR VIDEOS on top of the page.  Stay on STANDALONE tab and click on ADD TITLE to upload your video.

Start with CATALOG LIST tab, fill in all the required information about your video.  Be sure to choose your category wisely.  If Amazon feel that you have choose wrong category, it will reject your video.

End of the CATALOG LIST tab is the key art.  Be sure to upload your key art you already generated previously.

Next is the CAST & CREW tab.

VIDEO ASSETS tab is where you upload your video file and subtitles file.

When you are all done, click PUBLISH on top right corner of the screen.

Now just wait few days.  Amazon will go through the video thoroughly and let you know if you have meet all the requirements.  When your video gets rejected, they will tell you why, so you can fix it.  If you follow the instruction carefully, shouldn’t have any problem.

Once the video is published, you can verify by searching on Amazon and see if your video shows up.  Also once the video is uploaded successfully, you’ll start making money.  How much money you are going to make is all depends on what kind of video you upload.

Before you get paid, make sure you complete the tax information and set up direct despot information so they can send the money directly to your bank.

Good Luck!

How to Make Money on Amazon using your Youtube Videos

One thought on “How to Make Money on Amazon using your Youtube Videos

  • February 17, 2018 at 8:17 am
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    Thanks for all the info big help…

    Reply

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