Do you love food? I mean, who doesn’t!? But cooking it and coming up with your own delectable creations takes skill and talent. If you’re a whiz in the kitchen and you’d like to make money selling recipes online, this post is for you!
What Do You Need to Start Selling Recipes Online?
If you’re ready to start sharing your delicious creations by selling your recipes, there’s no better time to get started.
Here’s what you’ll need.
Culinary Knowledge
A basic understanding of culinary terms as well as cooking measurements is a must, so you can write clear, easy-to-follow recipes. It’s also crucial that you’ve tested your recipes and know that they will work. When you’re writing a recipe, your reputation is on the line.
Excellent Communication Skills
Selling recipes with missing ingredients or confusing instructions can result in disappointing results. It’s especially important to be clear when sharing recipes for baked goods, as baking is more of an exact science (with not as much room for error).
High-Quality Images and Videos
The other critical component of selling recipes and food tutorials are high-quality photos. Food photographers specialize in ensuring food looks fresh and delicious, whether online or in print. Surprisingly, there’s a real art to photographing food, so it’s important you have the best photos possible to showcase your recipe.
Remember, recipe buyers want more than detailed instructions outlining the ingredients and process; photos of the final product will seal the deal and help you sell your recipe. Consider taking a food photography class (plan to invest in photography equipment) or partner with a food photographer or stylist to document your recipes.
How Much is a Recipe Worth?
It’s hard to pinpoint an exact dollar amount for a single recipe. There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration, such as development time, food and supply costs, exclusivity and licensing rights, and inclusion of photos and videos.
According to cookbook author Kristin Donnelly, a recipe developer can usually earn $200-$250 per recipe without photos or videos.
If you’re publishing your own recipes on a blog, you may earn more by monetizing your blog with advertisers and affiliate programs.
Publishing a recipe collection could result in even more income. Recipe contest winners can be awarded hundreds of dollars for their work on just one recipe!
How to Make Money Selling Recipes Online
Are you interested in getting paid to write recipes but aren’t sure where to start?
Here are ten ways you can start making money by selling recipes today.
1. Get Gigs Through Facebook Groups
If you’re a cook, chef, or food blogger who’s also social media savvy, Facebook Groups are a great way to connect with people all around the world and sell your original recipes. Different groups on Facebook bring bloggers, virtual assistants, and content creators together in an online space to swap ideas and purchase blog content, specifically recipes.
Here are some private Facebook groups made for those who are interested in selling their exclusive content (recipes, photos, and videos) for professional bloggers to purchase.
If you’re a foodie looking to sell blog content like recipes, then all you need to do is submit a request to join your desired group online. Once you join, be sure to follow the individual group guidelines to sell your recipes. With access to thousands of members, you’re sure to find someone interested in purchasing your recipes for use on their blog or website.
2. Find Gigs on Freelance Writing Platforms
Believe it or not, recipe writing jobs do exist, and they’re in high demand. The different opportunities for freelance recipe writing range from developing and drafting menus for a new restaurant to serving as a long-term writer for various cookbook companies.
Compensation for freelance food writing positions is dependent on the type of job and experience required to fulfill the task at hand. Easier and quicker projects usually pay hourly, whereas upper-level work will likely pay a higher flat rate per post or project.
A while back, I decided I was going to include recipes on The Work at Home Woman. By no means am I a professional photographer, so I paid a woman on Upwork to cook up a couple of recipes for me and to take photos of each one. The results were beautiful (you can see the recipes here and here), but I paid her $150 to recreate the recipes and to take the photos.
3. Post Your Services on Fiverr
Freelance platforms like Fiverr are great for recipe writers to advertise their recipe writing services. You can sell specific types of recipe writing geared toward a niche audience, and you can choose to focus on recipe development, recipe writing, or food photography and videography.
A helpful hint to get your recipes noticed by buyers on platforms like Fiverr is to include high-quality photos with each recipe you write. Photos are a must-have when trying to sell a good food recipe. Humans are visual creatures, which is why higher-quality photos will help your recipe stand out from the rest. Be sure you optimize your profile on Fiverr with a wide variety of keywords that individuals will be searching for.
4. Selling Recipes on Etsy
Sites like Etsy allow foodies the opportunity to build their very own e-commerce shop for almost nothing. Etsy shops in the food and drink category sell a wide range of products, from sweets and dog treats to kitchen printables to condiments, sauces, and recipes!
Popular food-related Etsy shops may start by selling cooking accessories like aprons and tableware and then expand to selling recipes as add-ons. For example, a shop might sell personalized cake decor, but for $10 more you could also purchase the red velvet cupcake kit which includes a paper recipe to be mailed to you or a printable version. Homemade recipes sold individually (as opposed to in an entire recipe book) appeal to customers who are looking for one specific thing to cook or bake at that moment.
Another way to sell recipes on Etsy is to create meal plans or recipe books full of recipes available for digital download. A customer who’s looking to get in shape but doesn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars may be more inclined to purchase your Healthy Meal Plan ebook on Etsy with 28 different recipes included for $9.99. Individual shops and small plans offer customers a unique alternative to visiting a more expensive commercial health and nutrition store.
5. Start a Social Media Food Business
If you enjoy documenting your recipe creation, then become a content creator or social media influencer in the food industry. With social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, it’s never been easier to monetize your food content. Of course, it takes some time to build up your audience, but with consistent, high-quality, and unique content, you can start making money quickly with creator funds, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, advertising, and selling your own subscriptions, recipes, meal plans, and cookbooks.
This is an easy way to launch a food business from home without any money and easily share your new recipes with the world. Really all you need is a smartphone, laptop, internet connection, and some creativity.
Poppy O’Toole, a professional chef, was laid off in 2020 and started creating TikTok videos to fill her time. Within seven months, she amassed 100,000 followers and millions of views which led to paid advertising deals, hosting corporate cook-a-longs, and other opportunities. In 2021, she released her first cookbook, and currently, she has over 4.3 million followers on TikTok!
6. Revenue Sharing
Sharing revenue is a great method to make money selling recipes. Companies like HubPages allow freelance recipe writers to contribute their recipes to the site. The more people that view your content, the more money you’ll make from HubPages (freelancers earn 60% of ad revenue). Higher payouts tend to be earned by those posts that feature stellar photos.
Here are some more places you may be able to earn money from revenue sharing:
7. Recipe Contests
You already love testing new dishes and writing recipes—so why not try your luck and enter a recipe contest? While it difficult to generate a stable income from recipe contests, they are a good way to diversify your income. Recipe contents are hosted throughout the year, offering opportunities to win large sums of money in one fell swoop.
Categories vary from beverages to salsas, and the prizes are often monetary and lucrative. Some recipe winners may have their creations published on the website or compiled in a cookbook! Winning a recipe contest also helps boost your credibility as a food and recipe writer.
Check out these sites below to stay up to date on current and upcoming recipe contests. Winners can win anywhere from free products all the way up to $1,000 (sometimes even more)!
8. Start a Food Blog
If you enjoy recipes and writing, then why not put your passions together and start your own recipe blog? Creating a personal blog allows you to take full credit for all the interesting blog posts you write and the unique recipes you create. As your site and social platforms grow, the opportunities to earn more money through full-time food blogging are endless.
Working with brands, direct advertising, and affiliate marketing are great ways to earn money with a blog. With direct advertising, certain brands and advertisers pay good money to reserve space on your blog. On the other hand, affiliate marketing is also a great option when you have no direct advertisers yet. Affiliate marketing involves promoting certain products or services on your blog. Every sale that comes from your blog will earn you a commission—it’s a win-win situation for both parties involved.
9. Write and Publish a Cookbook
Do you have a bunch of original recipes that you’d like to combine together in a cookbook? You can do it with or without a publisher.
With self-publishing, you get complete creative freedom, all of the profits (minus seller fees), and you can choose where you want to sell your books. The cons with this arrangement are you’re left doing all the work (writing, editing, taking photos, and promoting), and you’re on the hook for all the upfront costs. However, if you choose to sell ebooks and not traditional hard copy formats, your costs will be minimal. Check out this post for more information on writing and selling ebooks online.
When working with a traditional publisher, you’ll need to pitch your idea to companies, you’ll have less creative freedom, you won’t own the right to your book, and you may earn significantly less. The pros of this arrangement are you have a support team walking you through the process of writing, editing, and marketing. And if you want your cookbook in hardcopy format, with this method, you don’t assume the upfront costs; the publishing company does. If you’re interested in finding a publisher to publish your cookbook, check out this list of publishers from Writing Tips Oasis.
10. Remote Food Writer Jobs
If you have the right skills, experience, and know-how, you can apply for full-time and freelance work from home recipe development, food editor, and food writer jobs. Depending on the company that hires you, the qualifications needed will vary. Some may require a college degree in nutrition or food science, a culinary degree, or experience in the culinary field. Others may require experience with food styling, which generally requires additional training. To find these positions, you can check your favorite cooking sites, food blogs, magazines, and restaurants for openings.
Here are some other places where I’ve seen remote food writer, developer, and editor jobs:
Sell Recipes Online and Make Money
There are many ways to make money selling recipes online and working as a freelance recipe writer. If you have a passion for food, writing, and taking photos, selling your recipes can be a great flexible work option that you can do from home.
To make the most of these ideas, diversify your income streams by working on a few of these options simultaneously. You can also build your reputation as an excellent recipe writer by submitting your original recipes and tips to online cooking sites and magazines like Cuisine at Home and Tasty.
Looking for more food-based business ideas that you can do from home? Check out this list of business ideas for foodies!
Originally published August 13, 2018. Content updated October 2023.
