The following is a guest post.

"Make Money Online!" "It’s Easy!" "It’s Fun!" "Quit Your Day Job!" Okay – now let’s get real.

For starters, making money online isn’t easy. It is hard work and takes a lot of consistent effort. Just like a regular full time job. Sure making money is fun and gets easier the more you learn how, but there are a lot of ups and downs along the way. I found this out the hard way and am still finding my way even now.

Here is some food for thought (pun not intended) when contemplating running a recipe site for income.

The Topic of Choice

One and a half years ago I started into the Affiliate Marketing world. One of the first choices I had to make was a topic for my website. I picked an Italian recipe site because I figured I would always have something to write about. This part is mostly true and makes sense for those who love to blog about food for the sake of blogging about food.

The problem? Where is the money? Online recipes are not something consumers purchase. They are free and cost your reader no money and you make no money.

Who is your Traffic?

It took me a number of months to realize that the majority of my traffic was coming from people who wanted to learn how to make chicken cutlets, vegetarian meatballs or stuffed pasta shells – not people who wanted to buy anything. They were looking for immediate online information only.

Let’s talk about newsletters as an example. I currently have approximately 600 subscribers to my cooking newsletter. That’s great right? Well, sure it is, if that was my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal however is to make money and if newsletters help me accomplish that goal then it is worth my time to devote a portion of each week to this newsletter.

Again – the problem? Where is the money? These are people who signed up because they want weekly or monthly recipes. They are not inquiring on the latest kitchen gadget or cooking equipment – they just want recipes – for free.

Recipes do not make money. Newsletters that focus on giving away recipes do not generate money. They might make you popular on YouTube, but they don’t bring in money.

Under the Culinary Microscope

It sounds so easy to write up recipes, until you sit down to write one out and type up the measurements. Hmmm… how much salt do I use when I make meatloaf? What if most people don’t keep romano cheese on hand?

Suddenly you are responsible for making sure the recipes which are tied to your name and reputation are worth reading and trying in a stranger’s kitchen. It might be your recipe that feeds a family of four! In addition, think about who initially signs up for your newsletter… your family! When you know your Uncle Vinni and Aunt Rosa are reading each of your recipes, your newsletter is no longer a venue of freedom and expression, but one of pure scrutiny. The pressure begins to hit hard.

Recipe Newsletters Take Time to Write

Writing a newsletter which showcases recipes is more than a newsletter of care free thoughts and happenings of the week. It involves quite a bit of time. Time to think of a recipe, time to perfect the recipe, time to put the recipe online, time to find photographs or take photographs, time to write the newsletter content and time to test the newsletter along with all the links you’ve embedded in it.

It took me close to 3 or 4 hours just to do all this – that’s just under half my work day. All that time to give people information that 99.9% of the time are not looking to buy anything. So after a year of weekly newsletters, I decided to cut back and go to twice a month or even once a month.

Taking the stress off of myself to deliver top notch easy recipes – whether creative vegetarian ones or recipes loaded with meat filled ingredients – made my work day easier and more enjoyable. After all that’s more time I now have to put towards my true money making efforts.

Photographs

When I first started, I thought I could pull out my point and shoot camera and snap a few pictures at the dinner table and I’d be able to capture the essence of my wonderful recipe. Wrong. Never use a point and shoot camera – especially with the flash on. Use a camera that has a lens which can focus on the dish and blur what is in the background. This is called depth of field. Point and shoots do not have this.

In addition, you have to take the photo in an area with no shadows. This either involves creating your own mini-studio on a table that never gets moved around, or taking the picture outside in perfect slightly overcast weather conditions. If it is too sunny there are too many harsh shadows. If it is too cloudy there is not enough contrast.

I still do not have a nice camera. Instead I use my mother’s camera every once in awhile, but 95% of the time I go online to places like istockphotos.com and purchase images that look as close to identical as my own dish. I never misrepresent so naturally it can take quite awhile to find what I need. If I can’t find an image I can’t post the recipe – more time lost. Now we are spending time and money for something that generates no profit.

If you love food don’t let it become a topic that will cause you stress. Having a recipe site is fun – but not if you plan on living off of the income it generates. If you are toying with the idea to make money using a recipe site – don’t do it!

About the writer:
Early in marriage, Liz realized she needed to come up with easy recipes she and her Italian husband would enjoy. When entering the Affiliate Marketing world, she decided to run a recipe site to help motivate her culinary interests. Although the recipe portion of her site does not generate much income, she still enjoys adding recipes from time to time keeping her subscribers happy and the website full of fresh content. Changing her tactics she has since been able to generate greater income through writing about Italian cooking equipment such as home meat grinders used for making homemade Italian sausage, and gelato makers to make homemade Italian ice cream.