Creator Connections: Unlock 5-10x More From the Amazon Influencer Program

What if you could unlock 5-10x more money from Amazon than you’re currently earning?

The Amazon Influencer Program has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years.

What worked before, namely the strategy of uploading a bunch of product review videos and hoping they generate commissions, has started to produce diminishing returns.

But there’s a new strategy that is giving creators a way forward, and it’s called Creator Connections.

Jared Bauman from 201creative.com and host of the Niche Pursuits podcast is back on the show.

He’s earning around $3,000 a month from the Amazon Influencer Program, and most of that income is now coming from this new approach rather than the old method of just making videos and putting them on product pages.

Listen to Episode 723 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

how Creator Connections is changing the Amazon Influencer Program
how to pitch brands and get free products sent to you for review
how to choose high-selling products and create review videos that actually convert

Table of Contents show

Round 1: Creator Connections

Creator Connections is a feature inside your Amazon Associates account where brands offer higher commission rates for product review videos.

You’ll see over 500,000 brand campaigns offering 10% to 40% commission instead of the typical 2% to 3%. Most Amazon influencers, including Jared, now make more from Creator Connections than the old method.

Start by finding Creator Connection campaigns for products you already have videos for.

If you don’t have many videos, build a pipeline by reaching out to brands.

Getting Free Products from Brands

Jared spends 10 to 15 minutes daily reaching out to brands, asking them to send products for free.

Most don’t respond, but some say: “We took a look at your videos. We’d love to work with you. Product’s in the mail.”

In your outreach, include your status level (gold or platinum if you have it), how many videos you have (Jared has over 1,500 videos), and the exact product ASIN.

Tell brands: “I’ll make a video, publish it to my Amazon storefront and YouTube channel within one to two weeks of you sending me the product.” Include your address in the message.

Target products selling at least 100 units a month. Products arrive two to seven days later.

Track everything in a spreadsheet: product requested, shipped, received, filmed, and posted live.

Video Production

Jared films about once every other week, creating two to three minute videos with quick editing. The key is answering specific questions that block people from buying.

Don’t regurgitate product specs already listed. Instead, demonstrate how it works or answer common hesitations.

Amazon’s AI called Rufus summarizes common questions in reviews, so you can see what to address.

Amazon Rufus — https://www.amazon.com/Rufus/

For thumbnails, just making one helps you stand out. Use phrases like “see me demo,” “worth it,” or “would I buy it.” For titles, be direct: “I set up and demo this for you.”

People aren’t browsing for enjoyment on Amazon, they’re trying to get specific questions answered.

How to Identify Products That Actually Make Money

Not all Creator Connections campaigns are worth pursuing.

Jared emphasizes that the key is targeting products that are already selling well. A 40% commission doesn’t matter if the product isn’t moving units.

One simple way to evaluate this (without paid tools) is:

Go to the brand’s Amazon storefront
Click into individual product listings
Look for the line under reviews that says things like “200+ bought in the last month”

That number indicates real sales velocity.

His personal threshold is products selling at least 100 units per month, with flexibility for higher-ticket items.

Using Browser Extensions to Save Time

While you can do this manually, Jared recommended using Chrome extensions like:

These tools help you quickly identify:

Sales velocity
Whether video carousel spots are open
Commission rates

He mentions they dramatically reduce research time and make the ROI math much easier. This shifts the strategy from randomly uploading videos to intentionally targeting revenue-producing products.

What to Do with Products

After filming, Jared doesn’t want most of the products. He’s given a lot away, started selling on Facebook Marketplace for expensive items, and some friends do garage sales.

One person Jared interviewed resells everything they get, figuring they can at least get their hourly rate back.

I met someone doing a triple dip: got products for free, got paid to make videos, earned commissions, then resold items on Whatnot.

Once you film and publish, go back to the brand and ask: “Would you like to work together again on another one of your products?”

Brands often have many products and will send you more.

Getting Accepted into the Program

You have to have a qualifying social media account. That can be Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok.

Generally speaking, TikTok is the easiest. The reason is because their acceptance criteria tends to be more tweaked on engagement than on straight follower or subscriber count.

So comments and likes and these sorts of things rather than straight number of followers or subscribers.

For Side Hustle Show listeners who’ve been running content-based businesses for any length of time, you probably already have some level of baseline social following that you can use to apply if you haven’t already.

You can just kind of layer this on as another income stream.

Round 2: Donation Your Business Idea

Jared’s business idea is selling people’s used stuff for them on Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp. Most people have garages and storage sheds full of stuff but don’t want to deal with the hassle of selling it themselves.

If you could create a great process and do it for them, maybe taking a 30% commission on sales or buying their garage full of stuff for a flat fee, that would be valuable.

You could start locally going:

door to door
creating mailers
or dropping off flyers

Jared imagines you could get people just from a day of door hanging.

Others have done similar consignment businesses. One specialized in collectible dolls, taking 30% commission and doing hundreds of thousands in sales. Others did clothing and furniture as event-based businesses.

Most products on Facebook Marketplace have terrible pictures and unoptimized listings. You could become the person who actually gets stuff sold. You’d stage items, do proper lighting, optimize listings, and hold items until they sell.

One of Jared’s SEO clients is a garage cleaning business that gets inquiries for junk removal. You could partner with organizers where they organize and you sell everything.

Round 3: The Triple Threat

1. Marketing Tactic: Short-form video for local businesses

Most service businesses (plumbers, vets, contractors, etc.) still aren’t using Reels or Shorts, and it’s a huge missed opportunity.

It doesn’t need to be high production — just simple, real-world clips that build trust and visibility fast.

2. Favorite Tool

Granola.ai: It records meetings, combines the transcript with your live notes, and instantly creates a structured summary. It saves a ton of time on follow-ups and client recaps.

3. Favorite Book Recently

The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille.

It dives into how consumers emotionally interpret words and branding. Small shifts in messaging can completely change how people perceive a product.

What’s Next for Jared?

Jared is actually trying to do less. He’s just focusing on 201 Creative.

They’ve launched a whole new line of services and updated all of their offerings to make sure they’re state of the art and ready to go for both SEO and GEO (generative engine optimization), AI, LLMs, all of that.

When it comes to side hustles, it’s just Amazon Influencer and hosting the Niche Pursuits podcast once a week.

Those are his two side hustles this year, and he’s not doing any others. They’ll see if he can stay committed to that, but that’s where he’s at.

Episode Links

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