It’s Throwback Thursday! We begin with trivia, and today's is about the "Harlem Shake" viral video trend. What year was this popular? Make your best guess, and at the end, get the answer and see my “Harlem Shake” video from that year.

🌐💡 Do your part to keep these great newsletters free by checking out today’s sponsor, Babbel. Learn a new language at your pace. Babbel makes sure you're not just memorizing but truly mastering your chosen language. — Kim

I bet you’ve seen them on Amazon: Average people demonstrating different products in a small video window. It's the perfect, profitable pairing of real people selling real products.

The "influencer economy" has been gaining steam for about 10 years. If you've even briefly visited TikTok, Instagram or the like, you know what an influencer is and how they make money.

But a new player just entered the influencer arena: Amazon. They’re going to make so much money with this idea, and you might, too.

If you've ever wanted to have an online store, this is for you. Amazon has created a way to let anyone have a shop with products and promote it through social media. You don't have to be young and good-looking with a hot bod to make serious money.

But wait, there’s more

You select the products for sale on Amazon to put in your store. It could be anything you're interested in, or maybe it’s what you know your followers or customers would like. Think jewelry, fishing lures, books, crafts, teaching supplies, makeup — you name it.

The best part? You don’t have to carry any inventory or ship the goods, either. Amazon will do all the heavy lifting for you. Your only job is to sell what’s in your virtual store. You'll earn a commission every time someone purchases something from your storefront.

How much can you make?

Take Brooke JuLyn, who reported she can make between $5,000 and $50,000 per month on the new Amazon influencer platform Inspire.

While that seems like a huge spread, it’s an inspiring income, especially given this new storefront opportunity has only been available to the public since May.

Your earnings depend on what and how much you sell. The commission is a percentage rate, and those vary per category. Luxury beauty? Earn 5% of the sale price. Home products and furniture? Earn 4%. (The percentages are pretty low for tech products, btw.)

How to get started

Maybe you’ve seen the new shopping links on Instagram or another social media site that lead right to Amazon. Become an early adopter and try your hand at building your income stream. To qualify, you need to:

Once approved, you can create a dedicated storefront. From here, add products and promote your storefront on social media or other online marketing techniques.

And that's it! It's that simple. You could do this — really! Speaking of, how can you tell an influencer from a computer nerd? Ask them to pronounce bios.

✅ Want to learn more about how this all works? Read on and get Inspired!

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All you need is 10 minutes a day, and there are podcasts, games, videos and other methods to help you learn faster and make it fun.

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🌪️ Hacker havoc: Hacker group Anonymous Sudan says they’ve snatched over 30 million Microsoft account emails and passwords. Microsoft says no, it’s a bluff. Either way, the group is trying to sell whatever they have on the Dark Web for $50,000. It’s probably a good time to change your Microsoft account password, just in case.

Cover your eyes: Twitter’s been swamped by p*rnbots filling feeds and DMs with X-rated content. Despite Musk’s promise to kick bots off the platform, they’re still there … and multiplying.

Lighting up Vegas: Sphere in Las Vegas, the world's largest spherical building, lit up its exterior for the first time on July 5 with a stunning display of 1.2 million LEDs. See it here. So cool!

🙌🏻 Privacy win: Google is rolling out its Privacy Sandbox project to 3 billion Chrome browsers. The part that matters? You’ll have the option to disable website tracking with third-party cookies. Watch for a pop-up in your browser to turn it on.

Knock knock: A Texas woman is living a nightmare after her Facebook account was hijacked. The hacker put chicken coops, couches and other stuff up for sale on Marketplace under her name, leading to angry visitors at her door wondering why they didn’t get the things they’d purchased. PSA: Be sure your FB password is hard to crack.

(A)I do: Colorado couple Reece Wiench and Deyton Truitt wanted to get married — fast. With no one to officiate, they enlisted ChatGPT and an AI voice app. The AI refused at first, saying, “I can’t do this, I don’t have eyes.” Yep, it’s legal! You don’t have to have a witness in Colorado.

File swap: You can now quickly transfer files between Windows PCs. Samsung's Quick Share app for Windows also works with other PC brands. You can download it here. FYI, the app only runs on devices with Intel's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi drivers right now.

📺 Say that three times fast: Many brands have strange names on Amazon, like BUXKR, XGIZMOO or HNHYGETE. No, no one thinks those are good names. There's actually a reason for these unconventional names. Watch this eye-opening video for the scoop.

Sound like a tech pro, even if you're not one. Try my award-winning, daily podcast. Search for my last name with "K" wherever you get your podcasts and "Go Komando!"

Listen to my podcast, Kim Komando Today, here.

Stumped as to why you can't endlessly browse Twitter? Sorry, but you have to pay up. Twitter now limits how many tweets you can see. Pay for Twitter Blue ($84 a year) and you can read 6,000 daily. Free accounts are limited to 600 tweets, and newbies can read just 300 per day.

OK, let's be honest. If you have time to read 6,000 tweets a day, you need to go outside and get off your device. Mark Zuckerberg and the crew at Meta are hoping that paying for it — and other changes at Twitter — is enough to drive people to their new clone: Threads.

Like Instagram, but all text

If you use Instagram, Threads will certainly feel familiar. It’s all text, though, and no photos. Just picture it like Instagram’s comments section.

Meta planned to launch Threads at the end of July, but they're jumping on the chance to strike while Twitter is (proverbially) down.

Want to try it?

Use your existing Instagram account or make a new one. Of course, Meta will use your IG account — and all associated data — to target you with ads, so get ready for those.

😂 Speaking of threads … A man walks into a doctor's office with a very deep cut. “I need to close up this wound, Doc. I can't afford for you to do it, so can you just give me the needle and thread so I can do it myself?” The doctor says, “Sure, suture self.”

If you ride your bike everywhere, it’s like carrying a “steal me” sign. Almost 2 million bikes get stolen every year. That’s more than cars stolen!

Here’s how to keep your bike safe this summer and beyond:

✅ You asked, we listened: Get more tips like this every day with our Current Life Hacks newsletter, coming soon. Be the first to get it!

I loved listening to my granny’s stories and remember so many to this day!

📺 The answer: 2013. The “Harlem Shake” video begins with a helmeted person dancing unnoticed in a crowd. At the song's bass drop, the view switches to a group doing the eccentric freestyle dance. Despite its name, it was unrelated to the 1980s Harlem Shake dance in New York.

Watch our “Harlem Shake” video from 2013. Ah, the memories!

✅ Help keep this newsletter free by checking out today’s sponsor. Don't wait another moment to dive into language learning with Babbel. With its personalized, practical lessons and state-of-the-art speech recognition technology, mastering a new language is now at your fingertips! I’ll see you tomorrow with another issue of the best tech newsletter in the universe! — Kim