Nina thought she’d earn money in her sleep. She was half right.
Shoppable buttons, passive income myths, and the truth about licensing your recipes
There’s something deeply personal about the moment you decide to share your food with the world.
Sometimes it starts with a blog post.
Sometimes it starts with a memory.
And sometimes it starts with thinking, “Maybe I can actually make money doing this.”
That’s where today’s story begins.
Meet Nina
Nina didn’t set out to be a content strategist.
She just wanted to share her late aunt’s oxtail recipe, and maybe earn a little extra grocery money while doing it.
So she installed one of those “Shop This Recipe” buttons.
This is one of the most tempting phrases on the internet:
Passive income.
That’s what Nina was after.
She wasn’t trying to get rich overnight. She just wanted to stop saying yes to every brand that asked for a 4-recipe package for $500. Her site traffic was steady. She’d been blogging for years. And a “monetize your content with one click!” plugin sounded like the break she deserved.
Enter the shoppable button.
You know the ones.
… tools that scan your ingredients and link to local grocery stores. A few clicks, a sprinkle of tracking, and boom, your readers can buy what they need.
Nina was sold on the dream:
Passive income! Monetized blog! Grocery commissions rolling in!
Except… her first payout was $4.98.
What Nina expected
That every recipe would turn into a tiny revenue stream
That affiliate commissions would start stacking
That she'd finally build income that didn’t rely on Instagram or inbound brand deals
What she got
A plugin that misread her ingredients because her recipe wasn’t structured
Payouts that looked like this: $0.07, $0.12, $0.03
A slower site with popups she couldn’t control
A support email that ghosted her
Oh, and a tiny clause in the contract that allowed the tool to use her recipe data on other partner sites.
Oof.
Shoppable buttons are ads. Not strategy.
These tools aren’t new. Many companies offer affiliate-style models where your ingredients link to a grocery cart or are impression-based.
It can work if your content is clean and structured. If you’re earning stable passive income from these sources, then yay!
But here’s the truth:
Shoppable buttons are a band-aid, not a business model.
They’re part of the broader ad tech ecosystem. That means your payout depends on:
How much traffic you have
Whether your content is structured correctly
Whether readers actually complete checkout (not just click)
And it means you're renting out your real estate for a few cents. There’s a limit on eggs, so you have to be strategic about how many of them you put in one basket.
A smarter way: License the content, not the clicks
Nina didn’t need a button. She needed a plan.
One where she could:
Retain ownership
Protect her voice
License or syndicate her content on her own terms
That starts with structure. Not just schema on your site, but clean backups in JSON or spreadsheet form that you can send to anyone building:
Food & recipe apps
Smart kitchen tech
Grocery platforms
Personalized nutrition tools
AI cooking copilots
Sound complicated? It’s not. It just requires thinking like a content owner, not just a content creator.
What this looks like
Once Nina structured and organized her content (hello, schema markup and JSON!), she started pitching platforms directly.
Today, her recipes live inside a meal planning app. She gets:
Flat fees per recipe
Attribution
Renewals that bring in recurring revenue
No more waiting for clicks. She’s getting paid up front.
More on how your content can work for you
I talked about this shift on the Smart Influencer Podcast:
The Content Revolution Is Here—Are You Ready or Already Behind?
And for something a little more personal...
Everyone has a food story
My brand-new podcast, Your Friend in Food, is live.
In the first episode, I share mine.
It’s about family, griot, growing up around food, and why I believe every creator’s voice matters more than ever.
Listen to episode 1: “Everyone Has a Food Story” now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
It’s short. Cozy. And only about food.
If you’ve ever cooked something that reminded you of someone, you’ll feel right at home.
Want tools, templates, and strategy guides?
No pressure, but just thought you should know…
Paid subscribers to this newsletter get FREE ACCESS to things like:
A plug-and-play JSON recipe template
A downloadable food tech glossary
Access to the Recipe Backup Strategy Toolkit
Bonus posts on licensing, partnerships, and workflow tips
Access to me in exclusive one-on-ones, with answers to your questions
All for $5/month or $80/year. And if you know 4 people who’d like to upgrade, you get…
Either way, I want you to keep enjoying all the free stuff! Reply with any questions you have, and I’d love to chat about all things food and tech.
Thanks for being here.
Your friend in food,
Sandie