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Writer's pictureWan Na Chun

How to Make Money Online Cooking

Updated: May 8

Now, more than ever, there are various methods to monetize cooking online if you love to cook and want to earn some additional money.


In this article, we'll look at a variety of ways to earn money cooking from the comfort of your own home.


This post will show you how to make money cooking and transform your passion into profit, whether you're a professional chef or just enjoy to cook.

Ways to Make Money Cooking

Culinary dietitian filming cooking video in kitchen

Creating a Cooking Blog

If you like to write, starting a food blog can be very lucrative. You can monetize your blog with advertising, sponsored posts, and affiliate marketing.


Blogging is definitely a long-term game and takes time to build and learn so it might not be the income stream if you’re looking for some quick cash.


But, it can be very lucrative once your blog starts getting attention and page views.



Writing a Cookbook

A cookbook is a great way to attract a larger audience who can access your recipes.


You can make money from book sales in the form of royalties and is a great way to position yourself as an authority in your chosen culinary field.



Teaching Cooking Classes

If you love to educate, cooking classes are a great way to monetize cooking. You can either focus on teaching fundamental cooking skills or a particular cuisine, like French or Italian.


You can hold cooking classes in your home kitchen, a community center, or online.


Selling Baked Goods or Meal Prep Services

Depending on your state’s cottage food laws, selling your baked products at nearby farmers markets, online, or in your own storefront is a great way to monetize cooking.


You can also consider meal preparation services to busy people and families, who are willing to pay for time and convenience.


Making Money as a Foodie Influencer or Content Creator Online

A gratifying and enjoyable way to earn money while sharing your passion for food with others is to become a foodie content creator on various social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.


Content creators make money online through affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and ad revenue.


A lot of people think that you need fancy equipment and camera to get started but that is definitely not the case. You can get started with as little as a smartphone that can record video and some natural lighting.




Tips to Growing on YouTube

Dietitian Chef plates a steak and garnish for video.

YouTube is a great platform if you are looking to monetize as a foodie content creator. As a YouTuber, it’s important to identify a niche and an ideal audience in order to create videos that your community would benefit from.


Before uploading each video, it's important to think about the purpose of the video and how your audience would benefit from the content.


A lot of people make the mistake of creating content that they would enjoy, but don't think about how their audience would benefit from the content.


There are also resources such as keyword research tools including TubeBuddy or VidIQ that can help you with creating titles, thumbnails, and descriptions that optimize for search analysis and growth.



How to Monetize Your Foodie Channel

Dietitian filming a baking video and stirring ingredients

Once you’ve developed a community and audience, there are a number of options for monetizing your material.



The YouTube Partner Program (YPP)

The first step to monetizing your YouTube channel is to join the YouTube Partner Program, which is YouTube's advertising revenue platform.


To be eligible, your channel must have at least 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million YouTube Shorts views in the last 90 days.



Affiliate Marketing

You can earn a commission by promoting products and services related to food and cooking through affiliate marketing.


This involves including special links in your videos' descriptions that direct viewers to the products or services you recommend. When viewers make a purchase through your link, you earn a percentage of the sale.


The most popular affiliate marketing site to start off with is Amazon Associates, but the commissions are typically lower at 1%, compared to other affiliate networks that you may qualify for.



Sell Merchandise

Another way to monetize your channel is by selling merchandise. You could create your own branded merchandise such as aprons, mugs, or t-shirts featuring your channel logo, or you could collaborate with companies to create merchandise related to food and cooking.



Sponsored Content

Brands are often willing to pay influencers to promote their products or services. You could create sponsored content for food and cooking-related products or services.


When you create sponsored content, it's important to be transparent with your audience and clearly disclose that the content is sponsored.



Offer Paid Memberships

You could offer paid memberships, such as a Patreon membership, to your viewers, providing them with exclusive content or perks such as early access to videos, behind-the-scenes footage, or personalized cooking tips.


This can create a stronger community around your channel and provide a more stable source of income.



Create Digital Products

An easy and low start-up cost way to make money is through digital products such as e-books, meal plans, or recipe collections that your viewers can purchase.


These products could be created using your existing content or could be entirely new content created specifically for this purpose.




Tips for Growing Your Foodie Channel

Dietitian sitting at their desk working on laptop updating their cooking channel.

Invest in tools that will help grow your channel

From different editing software, cameras, and microphones, there are many factors that play a huge role in the viewer's experience.


If you want to grow your channel, it's important to invest in equipment that will produce high quality videos and create a better experience for viewers.



Collaborate

YouTube is a platform that is based on community and engagement.


By finding similar content creators in your niche, you can collaborate on new video ideas which can help expand your reach and community.



Analyze

Use your analytics page to figure out what videos are doing well and which videos are not working as well.


My favorite analytics feature is the average view duration, which tells me how long people are staying on my video.


If I see that my audience is clicking out of the video early, I know that I should look at making changes to my introduction.



Repost and reuse

Work smarter, not harder! Put links to your YouTube videos on your blog posts or in other social media posts.


If you have several recipe videos with chicken, you can compile those videos into a “round-up” video, where you can reuse the footage and compile them into a single video.



Stay consistent

It takes time, work, and patience to make money online. Setting reasonable goals and expectations for your company is important.


I like to set goals of how many videos (short and long form) that I would like to produce and develop a workflow that best suits my schedule in order to stay on top of posting.


You should also be aware that success through YouTube and blogging won't come quickly, so consider other sources of immediate income as you grow on YouTube.



Consume other content

It's important as a content creator to keep up with the most recent trends within the online space in order to stay competitive and relevant.


One of the ways to do this is to watch the creators in your space and take note of the new trends or video ideas that are doing well for them.


Dietitian videographer filming


So, can you make money cooking online?

There are many options to earn money cooking from the comfort of your own home. Content creation on the internet through blogging, YouTube, and Instagram has endless opportunities for you to grow, monetize, and succeed in the online space.


If you're looking for more YouTube growth tips, check out this post, "How to Grow Your YouTube Channel."



 

About the author

Wan Na Chun, Registered Dietitian

Wan Na is a registered dietitian and personal trainer. As a home-cook, she shares how to create nutrient-forward recipes that are flavorful and delicious on her YouTube channel (@onepotwellness) and blog (www.onepotwellness.com). She loves one-pot wonders, tropical fruits, and the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans.



 


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