If you love experimenting in the kitchen and creating fresh recipes that impress your family and friends, it’s time to learn how to make money from them. So here are 8 easy ways to sell recipes online.
If you’ve spent a great deal of time on social media, especially TikTok, you’re likely to have come across recipes that have gone viral.
Emily Mariko, a food and lifestyle influencer from the Bay Area, soared to fame when she posted her healthy lunch called the Salmon Rice Bowl. Emily enjoys making simple, healthy, relatable recipes like these, and such content has helped her gain massive popularity and a cult following.
This leads us to another thought: How can we sell recipes online? Considering that we’re not up to Emily Mariko’s fame (where fortune follows), can ordinary people who like to spend time in the kitchen and create culinary masterpieces make money from their recipes?
The answer is a resounding YES! You don’t need to be a famous social media star to make money from your culinary skills. In this modern digital world, there are a bunch of ways to sell your recipes online and start earning money, and I’ll share them with you below.
8 Ways to Sell Recipes Online
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You don’t need to be a seasoned chef to sell recipes online. You just need to have unique recipes and be able to provide concise, easy-to-follow instructions for making them. When it comes to selling recipes online, here are the top platforms to make money on:
1. Your food blog/website
Let’s start with a platform you can call your own: your food blog or website. As a recipe maker or developer or even as an avid home cook, having your own blog to make money from your recipes is essential. You can showcase your recipes to your audience, and you have the freedom to work anytime you want.
Your food blog or website is an essential investment that gives you amazing ROI. Apart from making money selling recipes online on your blog or website, you can also earn money through ads, sponsored content, selling your own cookbooks and merch, affiliate income, and so much more.
Food bloggers make a nice income. If you look at Pinch Of Yum’s income reports, you’ll find that its owners have made lucrative money from this website. This means there is so much money-making potential in the food industry, and selling recipes online is just one of them.
As a blogger myself, this is not an overnight success. But it is doable for anyone passionate about developing unique and tasty recipes. If you want to start making money selling your recipes online, build your own food blog or website first. While some people submit recipes to food blogs and websites and earn royalties or pay-per-clicks, running your own food blog gives you greater control over the content and income.
If you are interested in blogging about your recipes and you don’t know how to get started, then check out my comprehensive blogging guide that will show you how to set up your blog, and market your blog to make money.
2. Food magazines
One of the best routes to making money from your recipes and getting some exposure for yourself as a chef, cook, or recipe developer is through food magazines.
Gone are the days when food magazines were only available in print, and ordinary people couldn’t pitch recipes and other food-related ideas. Nowadays, almost any food magazine has an online version, making it the perfect place to sell recipes online.
Learn to pitch your ideas and start making money selling recipes to these online food magazines:
- Allrecipes.com – This online food magazine considers home cooks its backbone. It offers an incredible opportunity for recipe developers to gain some exposure and monetary compensation for the recipes they have worked on so hard. It accepts pitches for new recipes, cooking techniques, and other food-related content. Rates may range, but their editorial director says it starts at $250.
- Bon Appetit – Do you have fresh new recipes or brilliant cooking techniques to share? Bon Appetit will pay at least $250 each for them! Send them an email to pitch your story.
- Taste Cooking – If you can add a fresh twist to an ordinary recipe or have personal or cultural food stories to tell, pitch them to Taste, and they’ll pay you for them.
- Cuisine At Home is an amazing online food magazine with awesome resources for home cooks. If you have a brilliant solution to a cooking problem, submit your tips and get paid $25 for each one that gets published.
3. Publish your own cookbook on Kindle
One of the best ways to sell your recipes online is to compile them into a cookbook and sell them on Kindle. And trust me, being a self-published author is easier now than ever.
Publishing your cookbook on Kindle is easier, quicker, and more cost-effective than publishing a physical one. You can even do it yourself without worrying about traditional printing costs. Plus, you can piggyback on Amazon’s ready-made massive audience, so you won’t have to market your e-book from scratch.
To start, you must compile your best recipes into a digital format. It helps to publish cookbooks according to categories, so doing some research can help you. You can publish all-keto recipes, vegan recipes, child-friendly recipes, gluten-free recipes, and so much more. Use Google, Pinterest, and Amazon to research bestselling cookbooks.
It’s also important to accompany cookbooks with high-quality images. Write easy-to-follow and concise instructions, a list of ingredients, tips, and notes for substitutions, storage, etc. Format the e-book to be Kindle-ready (EPUB is a great option), design your book cover, develop a compelling title and description, and publish. You can promote your cookbook on your blog, social media, and e-book promotion sites.
If done successfully, you can earn passive income by selling recipes on Kindle. You earn income each time your digital cookbook is downloaded, no matter where you are or what you are doing.
4. Food companies and businesses
Another awesome way to make money selling recipes online is to market your recipes to food companies and businesses. Many food companies don’t advertise that they’ll pay for your recipes, but it doesn’t hurt to send them a message to pitch your recipe.
To increase your chances of getting noticed, use their products in your recipes and ensure that your recipes are unique.
You can also sell your recipes to food businesses like restaurants. If you’ve got an amazing recipe for a Mexican dish, then try selling that recipe to the local Mexican restaurant in your area. Some restaurants get stuck with their old menu and need something to spice it up. So reach out to the owner, pitch your recipe, and who knows, they might like it and pay you for it!
5. Sell recipes on social media (Facebook, Instagram & TikTok)
Social media is a goldmine for unique recipes, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to sell your recipes there.
Consider joining relevant Facebook groups where you can meet like-minded individuals. For example, food bloggers may purchase your recipes, so join this type of group, and post a preview of your recipes, along with high-quality photos and videos.
Instagram and TikTok are also amazing places to sell your recipes online. As these platforms are highly visual, aim to provide great photos and videos to entice foodies to try out your recipes. You may create a dedicated account for your recipes and ask your audience to purchase directly from you or your online store.
You need to nurture your social media accounts to increase your following and reach your target audience. So apart from posting consistently, make sure to engage with your communities too.
6. Sell recipes on your online store
So, you’ve set up your website, you have your social media channels, and you have a fairly established audience – now’s the time to consider selling your recipes on your online store as well.
For example, you can build your own Shopify or Sellfy store and sell your recipes online. These platforms allow anyone to sell recipes quickly and easily. You can choose from tons of templates and use their built-in features to write recipe descriptions as well as upload photos and videos of your recipes.
You may also integrate your online store into your social media accounts, allowing customers to purchase and download your recipes right away without leaving their accounts. Also, these platforms allow you to set your own prices for your recipes and provide more control over your listings.
7. Sell recipes on online marketplaces (Fiverr, Etsy & eBay)
Online marketplaces also offer wonderful opportunities for recipe developers and freelance recipe writers. For example, you can sell your services as a freelance recipe writer on Fiverr. The minimum that you can charge is $5, but you can create packages to increase your rates.
However, since Fiverr is already saturated with sellers, you want to stand out by offering more specific recipes to your audience. Consider narrowing down your recipes to cater to a specific group of people (vegan, low-carb, gluten-free, BBQ enthusiasts, etc.).
Recipe developers may also explore Etsy and eBay for selling recipes online. What’s great about these two platforms is that they already have a massive global audience. For Etsy, set up your online store, upload photos of your recipes, and sell your recipes as digital downloads. Pretty much like selling cookbooks on Amazon, digital downloads on Etsy also provide an amazing source of passive income.
You can also utilize eBay to sell the recipes and cookbooks that you are already selling on Amazon or another online store. You just need to copy-paste your listing on eBay and wait for sales to come in. Selling on eBay may not seem as effective as selling your cookbooks on Amazon or your recipes on your own blog, but it still helps to cast a wider net and reach more of your target audience.
8. Run your own YouTube channel
Many people are visual learners, so they benefit more from following recipes on videos than reading them from cookbooks. In this case, it helps to run a cooking channel on YouTube and sell your recipes online.
How does this work?
First, set up your YouTube channel and fill it up with some of your recipes. This “free” content helps establish your expertise. You also make money from YouTube ads and have the opportunity to create sponsored videos.
As you build a solid fan base, you can start offering recipes as “premium content” and send potential customers to your blog, website, or online store where they can purchase and download your recipes. Therefore, you use your YouTube channel as a funnel for selling your recipes on your online store or website.
Apart from that, establishing your reputation as a cook, chef, or recipe developer on YouTube can open more opportunities. Brands may want to partner with you, or you could sell your own branded merchandise (think of aprons and mitts) or you could make money from affiliate links. There are so many ways to make money selling recipes on YouTube, so strongly consider this alongside other money-making platforms.
Key Takeaways
Coming up with interesting and innovative recipes takes time, effort, and hard work. Many people are looking for different recipes all the time, so it pays to get your brilliant recipes out there and make money from them.
Considering all the platforms for selling recipes online, you’ll find that many of them take time and effort to build. Whether you’re starting a food blog, a YouTube channel, or selling recipes on social media, you have to remember that success does not happen overnight. You need to work on it consistently to see desirable results.
So go ahead and showcase your culinary talents to the world and start selling your recipes online!