Everyone says you’re a good cook. In fact, everyone says you’re a great cook.

You’d like to make some extra money with your food expertise, but you don’t have the time or money to make and sell actual food products, not to mention meeting health department requirements, licensing, and so forth. So, what do you do?  Sell your recipes.

The idea really is as simple as it sounds. Simply take a recipe you have created yourself and advertise it in the classified section of a newspaper or magazine. There are also numerous online free classifieds where you can post your recipes.

You might ask, “Why aren’t more people doing this?”, the reason is this: it takes effort.

You must compile your recipes, post them in classified advertisements, and handle orders.

It isn’t a lot of effort, but many people don’t want to expend the energy, and they are missing a great source of extra income by passing this opportunity by.

Your own recipe collection is a great place to start. Then, when you have exhausted your own original collection, ask your friends, comb through old books and magazines for ideas.

Some people collect ethic recipes, do not overlook the Indian, Asian, and even Polish foods. Vegetarian fare is another popular topic.

Holidays are great themes for recipes. Create a wonderful cookie recipe; be it for Christmas or Kwanzaa, people are always on the lookout for new and unusual recipes to use over the holidays.  Try to time your advertisement to four to six weeks before the holiday.

Just make sure the recipes are of your own creation. Take a recipe with meat and challenge yourself to substitute the meat and meat products with vegetarian alternatives. Better yet, take a tried and true recipe and see how you can make it healthier without compromising taste.

You can ask that people pay you for your recipes in one of three ways:

(1) Send a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to your address with their payment;

(2) Have people order via regular mail and include their email address for delivery;

(3) You can accept Paypal payments for your recipes and deliver them via email.

Make certain to note that since your recipe is delivered via email, it is considered digital content and is not eligible for a refund. Whichever way you deliver your recipes, make sure to include a listing of additional recipes you have for sale and be sure to tell people exactly how to buy them.

Before you pay to have a classified ad published, try one of the many free sites online that allow you to post your ad for free. I found a number of places with quite a lot of traffic:

http://www.inetgiant.com
http://www.usfreeads.com
http://www.livedeal.com
http://classifieds.yahoo.com
http://www.zipeee.com

http://www.newslink.org is a great “all in one place” link for finding newspapers. Don’t overlook great sources like the National Enquirer or The Star, both magazines have rather high rates for placing ads, but they also have very high circulation numbers. Your visibility factor may just pay for the ad.

With a little effort, you should be able to make some extra money sharing your love of cooking with like-minded folks. Now, go out there, find and create those recipes and sell!