Learning how to make money as a nutritionist can be a challenging process, but it’s an essential skill you’ll need to develop if you want to sustain a career within the industry.
With this in mind, this article will look at several different ways you can increase income as a nutritionist.
Table Of Contents:
- Make The Most Of Your Marketing Efforts
- 3 Ways You Can Make Money As A Nutritionist By Expanding Your Services
- Implement These 3 Sales Techniques to Earn Money As A Nutritionist
- 6 Nutrition Practice Passive Income Ideas
One way to make money as a nutritionist is to offer additional services alongside your regular guidance. Download OriGym’s FREE course prospectus to learn more about becoming a nutritionist today!
Make The Most Of Your Marketing Efforts
If you’re looking to make money as a nutritionist a strong marketing strategy is essential, regardless of whether you’re just setting up your business or are a seasoned professional.
This section will discuss how to make more money through the implementation of marketing strategies for a nutrition business.
#1 – Use A Client Referral Scheme
In simple terms, a referral scheme is when a nutritionist will ask their existing clients to recommend their services to a family member or friend.
When discussing the best ways to make money as a nutritionist, this is a highly effective strategy, if every client made just one referral, you could essentially double your monthly profits.
These schemes will typically be most effective when marketed towards your most loyal or long-standing clients. This is because these individuals are most likely to have positive experiences with you, such as achieving their initial goals.
These clients will therefore be more likely to recommend your services to others, as they’ll associate your nutritional guidance with the positive emotions of hitting their goals.
Incentive Schemes
However, it’s always a good idea to offer some form of incentive scheme. This not only motivates your current clients to make that recommendation, it’ll also ensure you’re rewarding them fairly for doing so.
You’ll undoubtedly have come across one form of customer reward scheme in the past, where a company offers something of value in exchange for a referral. These incentives don’t even need to be expensive and could be something simple, like:
- A free weekly meal plan
- Merchandise or brand-affiliated products
- Money or gift cards
An example of these incentives can be seen in the following example from Youth Sports Nutrition, who offers both a discount for the new client signing up, as well as a £20 reward for the individual who makes the referral.
Customer referral schemes are one of the most efficient ways to make money as a nutritionist, as you will only have to pay out once a successful referral has been made.
For example, Youth Sports Nutrition will only have to pay customers £20 for the successful referral once their friend has already spent a minimum of £40!
Let’s say that one referred client spends a total of £100 across the site’s various products. Youth Sports Nutrition will then pay out £20 to the client who made the recommendation and still reap an £80 profit.
When it comes to marketing tactics, clients are more likely to trust the recommendations of their family and friends above any other form of advertisement they see online.
This should highlight just how important word of mouth is when you’re looking to make more money as a nutritionist. Through this action, you can get new nutrition clients who would have otherwise never interacted with your business.
#2 – Invest in Facebook & Instagram Ads
You can also make money as a nutritionist through social media advertising, especially ads on Facebook and Instagram.
This method of marketing will allow nutritionists to capture the attention of potential clients who are not already following your pages, generating leads and an increased income as a result.
Despite both being owned by Meta, Facebook and Instagram ads don’t operate in the same way, so we’ll break them down individually.
How To Make More Money As A Nutritionist Through Facebook Ads
Over the years, Facebook has collected more data on its users than any other website in existence, meaning that the algorithm knows:
- What content users like
- How users interact with posts
- What users like to purchase
- Where users live
Creating Facebook Ads is one of the best ways to make money as a nutritionist, as you can use this unique algorithm to target the clients you want to work with.
However, because these advertisements are inorganic (i.e. not content that’s normally on a user’s newsfeed), you will have to pay a set fee for Facebook to display them.
To do this, you’ll use Facebook’s Ad Manager. Here, you can input the relevant information to influence who sees your business advertisement. This includes:
- Your Desired Clientele – e.g. People looking to lose weight
- The Location You Wish to Target
- The Age and Gender of Your Chosen Demographic
The process of inputting this information will look something like this:
To make more money as a nutritionist, you should include a call to action (CTA) within these Facebook Ads. This is a prompt that will take users away from Facebook, and towards a page that encourages them to invest in your business.
Example – Anna Chabura
Take a look at this example we found below from Sports Nutritionist Anna Chabura, who encourages Facebook users to ‘Learn More’ about her smart weight loss methods:
Once Facebook users click on this section of the advert, they will be redirected to one of Anna’s website pages, which will encourage the user to invest in her meal plans and online fitness coaching.
How Effective Are Facebook Ads?
But just how effective is this strategy? Well, according to research conducted by Sprout Social, Facebook Ad revenue saw a staggering 56% increase during the year 2021, proving its still an effective form of advertisement for business owners.
It’s something we use to excellent effect at OriGym. Through one of our ad campaigns, we were able to reach 352,090 people and generate 92 results.
If you want to see how your ads are performing, you should pay attention to the site’s tracking centre.
This will display information such as how many customers are interacting with your ad and being redirected to your chosen landing page. With this information, you will be able to see what aspects of your ads are performing well and what areas need improvement:
When monitoring this page you will be able to note what ads increase your income as a nutritionist and replicate similar examples for later campaigns.
One Of The Best Ways To Make Money As A Nutritionist Is With Instagram Ads
Like Facebook, Instagram is also owned by Meta, meaning that ads displayed on the platform are highly effective in reaching their desired target audience. Before launching these campaigns, you must complete the following steps:
- Set up a professional Instagram profile for your nutritionist business
- Choose specific photos or videos that you wish to use on your Ad
- Decide on your target demographic
- Determine the budget for your marketing campaign
Once you have organised all of this information you will need to decide what kind of ad you wish to run, from the various Instagram options available:
We’d recommend using Instagram story ads when you’re looking to target your chosen demographic.
These campaigns will appear as pop-ups to potential clients who have interacted with similar content while they’re watching Stories, making them feel more natural and “organic”.
For reference, Instagram story ads will look like this:
This kind of campaign can help you to make more money as a nutritionist, as ads that appear more natural are more likely to generate leads.
For example, imagine potential clients are swiping through other stories showing healthy meal plans, and then see your advertisement.
The content will blend well with what they’re already interested in, and offers a softer, more organic approach to showing what you can offer them.
How Effective Are Instagram Ads?
At OriGym, we can vouch for the effectiveness of Instagram story ads, as one of our recent campaigns reached almost 300,000 people:
This highlights how valuable Instagram Story Ads can be – imagine the number of potential clients you could reach by investing in this campaign!
Much like the example used within the Facebook ad section, you should include a CTA to increase the chances of a client interacting with this post.
For example, we used the ‘Swipe Up’ feature to encourage students to ‘Get Offer’, which redirected them to a sales page:
Whilst we have specifically decided to focus on Instagram Stories Ads, a full breakdown of the different kinds of advertisements can be found on Meta’s website.
#3 – Using Google Ads Is One Of The Best Ways To Make Money As A Nutritionist
In today’s competitive market, Google Ads help to increase the visibility of your business. This is achieved by pushing your website or landing page to the top 3 results on the search engine’s first page.
Research conducted by Search Engine Land highlighted that businesses that fall on the first page generate 80% of enquiries for that specific term.
If you’re one of the first results clients see when searching a term, the chances of them becoming a lead and investing money into your business increase.
For example, take a look at what ads appear when searching the term ‘Sports Nutritionist Birmingham’
For those who have never used Google Ads before, here is a basic rundown of how you can use the tool:
- You pay Google to rank on their first page for a specific search term. This will be on a cost per click basis, meaning everytime someone clicks your link you pay Google.
- Google only allows for a limited number of ads per search term (4 at the top of the page and 3 on the bottom), and the amount you bid will influence where your ad appears.
- For example, check out these stats from Google Ads which shows the search term ‘Sports Nutritionists Near Me’. Here you can see how the lowest bid is £0.33 per click, whilst the highest is £1.20.
This means that if you wished to rank above the current first placed ad for that specific term, you would need to offer a higher bid (in this case, over £1.20).
From the example provided above, using Google Ads may seem like a pricey investment, but that doesn’t always have to be the case.
Local search terms will typically be cheaper for you to bid on, as you won’t have to compete against other business owners on a global level. For reference, ‘local searches’ refers to a search term followed by a specific location, such as:
- Sports Nutritionist Manchester
- Manchester Sports Nutritionist
- Sports Nutrition Manchester
There are currently no ads ranking for the local search term ‘Sports Nutritionist Manchester’, proving that you can take advantage of lack of competition within your local area to advertise to potential clients.
This increased traffic your site receives from these ads will be regarded as “targeted” or “high intent”, as the customers using the search terms will already have an idea of what service they wish to invest in.
If you therefore link your sales page to your Google Ad, you can increase the likelihood of a client making a purchase and generating income for your business.
Example – Concepto Diagnostics
To understand this, take a look at Concepto Diagnostics, who currently ranks second for the high intent term ‘Sports Nutritionist London’.
Once potential customers click on their Google Ad, they are immediately redirected to their primary sales page that details the packages they offer:
If you’re looking to learn how to make more money as a nutritionist, you can take Concepto as a prime example of a business that’s capitalised on its targeted traffic.
For an in-depth explanation of how to use this platform check out OriGym’s Guide on How to Use Google Ads. Whilst this information is aimed at personal trainers, you’ll use the same process for your nutritionist business.
#4 – Get Setup A Google Business Profile To Earn Money As A Nutritionist
Learning how to make money as a nutritionist through Google isn’t limited to the creation of Ads, as you will also need to set up a Google Business Profile too!
This is one of the most important marketing strategies for a nutritionist to implement, as it provides a wide range of features in a single convenient spot for your clients, as well as ranking you highly in Google’s search results.
The process of creating a Google Business Profile is straightforward. Simply make a profile and fill out the relevant information as it pertains to your business. This will include:
- Your business name
- The location of your business – e.g what city are you primarily located in
- Your business hours
- Whether you provide deliveries or home visits
Following this, you will officially register with Google Business, and your services will begin to appear in local searches within the area. Examples of this include ‘Sports Nutritionist in Liverpool’ or ‘Liverpool Sports Nutritionist’.
An example of what your profile may look like can be seen below, where you can see how Fit-Pharm Sports Nutrition lists their business’ relevant information:
Essentially, you’re providing the customer with every bit of relevant information they need to make an informed purchase.
You can then link your website to your account, which will further encourage a customer to make a purchase. For example, a client may be looking for a nutritionist that they can have in-person consultations with once a week.
If your Google Business Profile states that you have an office within their local area, the client will know you’re what they’re looking for and make an informed purchase.
When creating a Google Business Profile you should strive to ensure that your business ranks within ‘the local 3 pack’ – a term which refers to the top 3 results on any given search term.
This will appear as so on the search engine’s results page.
Landing in one of these coveted spots will help you to make more money as a nutritionist, as potential clients are more likely to interact with these pages and generate a lead.
This is supported by research conducted by Uberall, who state that in 2024 businesses that rank within Google Business’ local top 3 see an average increase of:
- 132% of Google Map Impressions
- 51% in Transactions
- 41% in Conversion Rates
- 40% in Revenue
Essentially, much like Google Ads, by ranking favourably for targeted terms with Google Business, you can increase the chances of clients investing in your business.
If you’d like further insight on how to optimise your profile, check out OriGym’s breakdown of how to use Google Business in the health and fitness industry.
#5 – Prioritise Client Retention Rates To Boost Your Income As A Nutritionist
While gaining new clients does play a large role in generating an increased income, you should always prioritise tactics that retain your existing customers.
Retaining customers is cheaper than attracting new ones and provides you with a financial safety net of dependable income that you can rely on.
For this reason, you should always be looking to build rapport with your existing customers. This will increase their loyalty to your business and ensure they remain paying for your services.
Customer Validations
Rapport can be built through simple actions, such as acknowledging and validating a client’s hard work.
For example, take a look at this progress photo shared across Create My Weight’s social media pages. Here you can see how this nutritionist builds rapport with her clients through acknowledging their success and dedication:
The existing client in the post will feel validated from this acknowledgement and wish to remain within your service, it gives potential new clients a reason to sign up, in that they can achieve those results too.
Example – Loyalty Schemes
Sharing success stories isn’t the only way you can make more money as a nutritionist with client retention schemes, as you could also implement a loyalty programme.
An example of this can be seen below from the nutrition-based company Fit and Tasty, who provide a range of pre-made meal plans to their customers.
Here you can see how the company’s loyalty programme operates on a points-based system, with customers accumulating more points as they spend.
The screenshot above clearly shows that clients will receive a discount should they continue to purchase from the same business. This will act as an incentive for them to remain loyal to the brand, as they won’t get these rates elsewhere.
If you implement a loyalty scheme as part of your nutritionist business plan, you’ll notice that clients will continue using your service in the hopes of accumulating more points, meaning a more stable source of income for your business.
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If you’re researching the topic of how to make money as a nutritionist, the following articles may also be of interest:
- How To Become A Sports Nutritionist
- How to Get Clients as a Nutritionist: 11 Top Tips
- Make Money As A Nutritionist
2 Ways You Can Make Money As A Nutritionist By Expanding Your Services
Expanding the services you offer can help you to increase your income as a nutritionist, and open your business up to a wider audience.
By diversifying what you offer, you can essentially cast a wide net and attract a larger number of clients, each of whom will be attracted to a different aspect of your business.
With this in mind, this section will provide 3 examples of different services you can offer to make more money as a nutritionist.
#1 – Earn A Personal Training Qualification
If you’re looking to incorporate additional services into your business, one way to go about this is to earn additional qualifications that certify you as a personal trainer.
For example, by gaining a Personal Training Diploma, you will be able to train clients on a one-to-one basis, creating bespoke workout programmes that work alongside your nutritional guidance.
The Level 3 PT diploma covers specialist knowledge that will help to support you throughout your expanded role.
You’ll develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between food and exercise, and how a client’s diet can be planned following fitness goals, and vice versa.
This can help you to earn more money as you’re essentially increasing the value of your services, offering additional features that can further benefit the client.
How Much More Could I Earn?
To see just how much difference becoming a personal trainer can make to your earning potential, compare the following prices. First, take a look at Whole Health, who offers 4 weeks of bespoke sports nutrition guidance for £125.
Now compare this to Ben Malton, who charges £180 per month for bespoke meal plans that are paired with personal training programmes.
The examples used above should highlight how financially valuable including additional services can be for your business. But it’s not just the price that increases, as through offering personal training you can also attract a new demographic of clients too.
If you’re curious how many clients the average personal trainer has, OriGym’s independent research found that PTs typically have anywhere between 15-25 clients at any given time.
Hypothetically speaking, let’s say you follow a similar business model as Ben Malton, and offer your clients bespoke training programmes alongside their meal plans.
If you had an average of 20 clients and charged £180 every month, you could generate an impressive monthly salary of £3,600.
Whilst the scenario depicted above is purely hypothetical, it helps to highlight just how valuable adding additional services can be for your business.
#2 – How Much Can A Nutrition Coach Make When Working for a Sports Team?
You can also put your Level 4 Advanced Sports Nutrition qualification to good use and work alongside a sports team. In this role, you’ll provide nutritional advice and guidance to professional and amateur athletes.
Becoming a nutritionist for a sports team is a highly beneficial service to offer, and will see you complete roles and responsibilities such as:
- Providing holistic nutrition advice to athletes
- Providing sports-specific nutrition advice – e.g. what food groups should be consumed before and after training
- Creating detailed meal plans
- Testing metabolic rate, weight, and body fat percentage
Most of these responsibilities can be seen in the following advertisement for a position working as a sports nutritionist with a cricket club:
If you’re wondering how much a nutrition coach makes in these positions, check out the following salary depicted below for clearer insight:
Taking these statistics into consideration, you’ll be able to see just how financially beneficial it can be to offer your services to a sports team.
Through applying for these roles you will be able to generate a lucrative salary for yourself, be it through part or full-time positions.
Implement These 3 Sales Techniques To Earn Money As A Nutritionist
If you’re looking to learn how to make money as a nutritionist, you will need to perfect your sales techniques.
The importance of developing these skills cannot be understated, as they have the potential to affect every aspect of your business.
With the right sales techniques in place, you can begin to make more money as a nutritionist than ever before.
#1 – Offer Recurring Packages To Increase Your Income As A Nutritionist
If you want to make more money as a nutritionist you need to take a look at your pricing structure. Typically, nutritionists will adhere to one of the following models:
- Monthly Subscription Packages
- One-off Payments
- Block Payments
Whilst each of these pricing structures may be popular in their own right, it doesn’t mean that they’re equally as beneficial.
Overall, we’d argue that monthly subscription packages are the superior method of payment. Let’s look at why.
Why Monthly Subscription Packages Are The Best Ways to Make Money as a Nutritionist
When signing up for this pricing structure, clients are essentially buying into a subscription-based scheme, where they’ll pay recurring fees in exchange for your services.
These are typically done through direct debits, with clients paying every month. An example of how this is done can be seen below from PH Nutrition, whose clients pay a total of £175 per month in exchange for bespoke programmes:
Subscription-based payments are regarded as the superior mode of pricing your services, as clients are less likely to cancel direct debits.
This means that they will continue to pay you regularly, allowing you to build a more consistent income.
Other benefits of using recurring subscription services include:
- It allows you to forecast monthly finances: Having a dependable source of income allows you to forecast your monthly finances – e.g. you will be able to create a budget for your personal and professional life.
- Packages make clients feel at ease: There is no end date with these recurring fees, meaning that clients will feel they have unlimited time to complete their goals. This can create a sense of ease, ridding the client of any apprehensions they may have about signing up for nutrition advice.
- Packages create a sense of consistency: Clients will view these payments as regular payments akin to the likes of their phone bills. This means they are more likely to budget for the expense, ensuring they can pay it every month.
Now that you know why this is the ideal method of payment, let’s take a look at the downside of using other payment structures.
Block Payments Are Not An Effective Way Of Making Money As A Nutritionist
Block payments are incredibly popular in every sector of the health and fitness industry, but you shouldn’t mistake popularity for effectiveness.
One of the biggest drawbacks of using this pricing structure is that it comes with a predetermined end date. This can be seen in the following screenshot from SB Fitness, whose packages last for 12 Weeks:
Block payments immediately set a timer off in the client’s head. Once signed up, these clients are aware that they have 12 weeks to achieve their goals, a fact which could cause nerves and insecurity.
Following this period, you’ll then have to resell the package to the client, who may not be willing to sign up straight away.
For this reason, if you’re looking to learn how to make money as a nutritionist, we’d advise avoiding this pricing structure.
When Looking For Ways To Make Money As A Nutritionist, Avoid One-Off Payments
When creating a pricing structure, many online nutritionists choose to offer their clients consultations in exchange for one-off payments.
An example of this can be found below from Lee Paines, who charges one-off fees of £30-60 in exchange for nutrition consultations:
Due to the limited time frame associated with these payments, clients will likely only view them as a one-time purchase, rather than a service that they have to commit to.
As a result, you won’t be able to depend on this as a reliable source of income and may fall into financial instability due to a lack of consistently paying clients.
#2 – Perform Market Research To See If You Can Make More Money As A Nutritionist
When looking for ways to increase income as a nutritionist, it’s easy to solely focus on your own business.
But to ensure that your prices are competitive, you must conduct market research into what other nutritionists are charging.
Through this research, you’ll be able to determine whether it’s possible to raise the prices of your nutrition packages, or if you should keep them as they are.
You may be able to justify these increased prices in the following instances:
- Local competitors are charging significantly more than you
- You offer more additional services than local competitors – e.g. personal training packages to accompany nutritional advice
- You have more qualifications than other local nutritionist – e.g. you have both a Level 4 Advanced Sports Nutrition qualification and a Personal Training Diploma
Example – The Sports Nutrition Coach
For example, if you ran a sports nutrition business in Manchester, one of your biggest competitors would be ‘The Sports Nutrition Coach’ who charges £460 for 6 months worth of guidance and support:
If you regarded your business to be just as popular as The Sports Nutrition Coach, you could charge a similar price of £420 for 6 months. This will allow you to earn a similar profit as the competitor, whilst still presenting yourself as the cheaper alternative.
Alternatively, if you believe that your business offers more additional services (such as providing personal training sessions), you could justify a higher price.
Market research is all about comparing your business model to others, to inform your own pricing structure.
One important thing to remember however is to always compare yourself to businesses of similar size. This means that if you’re a new start-up, you should not try to match the prices of industry-established professionals who have years worth of experience to draw from.
#3 – Get Better at Converting Leads into Clients to Make More Money as a Nutritionist
The overarching topic of learning how to make money as a nutritionist can boil down to converting enquiries into actual sales.
Remember, you will generate these enquiries through the marketing tactics that your business employs.
Following this, the easiest way to convert these interested parties into paying customers is to communicate directly with them through face-to-face meetings, or phone calls.
This section will offer an example of how you can convert a lead into a sale:
Summarise The Benefits of Your Nutrition Business
When an initial lead has been generated, it’s highly likely that the customer in question only has surface-level knowledge about your business.
A phone call or in-person conversation will allow you to delve deeper into the benefits of your business to lock down the sale. For example, you could discuss:
- The various services you offer
- Previous clients success stories
- What kind of qualifications you have
- A discount for new clients
You should strive to be as detailed as possible during this conversation, as this knowledge will increase the likelihood of a client investing in your business.
Use Closing Techniques To Lock Down the Sale
Mastering a closing technique is a vital part of learning how to make more money as a nutritionist. Once you know how to do this successfully, you can use it on any potential lead to convert them to a paying client.
When directly communicating with a potential client, the assumptive closing technique would be the ideal method to use. This refers to the process in which you act as if the lead has already decided to buy into your service.
Here’s an example of how you can use this tactic:
Nutritionist: So we have 2 subscription packages on offer. The first will see you pay £30 a month through Direct Debit, in return for weekly meal plans and consultations to support your final weight loss goal. The other comes in at £65 a month, and will provide you everything I’ve just mentioned, as well as a weekly personal training session that can help you reach your goals.
Which option is best for you?
Through asking this final question, you are assuming the lead has already decided to invest in your business, removing any choice they may have. This is because there is no direct ‘yes or no’ answer that can be provided, making the client more inclined to choose from one of two options.
Once the assumptive closing technique has been used, you will then move on to the silent assassin technique. To do this you simply remain silent, until the potential client answers your question.
The final part of the closing process may look something like this:
Client: Well, I have always wanted a personal trainer – I’ll take the second option please.
Nutritionist: Great, now we set your direct debit payments up. Once the first instalment has been made I’ll send you a welcome email. Following this, we can get started on creating your bespoke meal plans and workout programmes.
Don’t be deterred if your sales pitch doesn’t go exactly as the example displayed above. Every client is different, meaning that you will likely have to take several different approaches to close a sale.
6 Nutrition Practice Passive Income Ideas
As passive income is an income stream that continues even when the work is complete, this is certainly something to consider if you’re wondering how to make money as a nutritionist.
We’ll break down our list of nutrition practice passive income ideas from selling resources to starting your own YouTube channel.
#1 – Sell Resources & Products For Passive Income
The first passive income for nutritionists you should consider is deciding whether anything you currently offer for free could be used to generate revenue. Many fitness enthusiasts and those who have recently become personal trainers will likely be interested in these subjects.
This could be for resources such as:
- Videos
- E-Books
- Documents
- Recipes
Although all clients of your nutrition practice will want some help, this will vary between individuals. While some may want a lot of support through your 1-on-1 services, others may be looking for more of an independent study approach they can complete in their own time.
Offering digital resources such as the ones above means you can appeal more to those who may want a less ‘hands on’ approach. This allows them to still use your knowledge and services but in their own time which may better suit them.
What Resources Can You Offer?
You may take a DIY approach by providing a series of resources such as:
- Prepackaged diet plans
- Meal plans
- Calorie intake records
- Recipe collections
- Video overviews
People could pay to use your services and be included as part of a subscription model. Although you’d have to provide new content, this would only need to be done once a month or a few could be completed in one batch. After the new content is created, it still becomes passive income.
You can decide to tailor towards certain groups such as providing simple meal plans and recipes for ‘Men Over 50’ or ‘21 Days To Improve Your Concentration’.
Example – Home Testing Kits
However, you may take a different approach and also sell home test kits such as Sarah Flower:
These home test kits will often include a finger prick test for a blood sample. Food intolerance and allergy test kits are great ways to help people gain insight into issues they may be experiencing regarding their diet and lifestyle.
You could have them follow up with a live video call to discuss their results and help them move forward. As you can see in the example of Sarah Flower, her home test kits are highly-priced. This means even just by selling one, it can provide substantial passive income for nutrition practice.
You’ll also need to consider where you’ll sell these digital products. If you have a website, you could do it this way and promote your additional programmes and online resources through your social media.
#2 – Nutrition Practice Passive Income Ideas Include Affiliate Marketing
To increase your nutrition practice passive income, you should consider adding affiliate marketing into your business plan. This is usually done through an affiliate programme with a particular brand or product, allowing an individual or business to earn money.
This works the same way as personal trainer affiliate marketing. You’ll recommend products or services to people who visit your social media accounts or website. This can be through codes or links and you will earn a commission if people purchase products or services by using your link.
Example – Naked Nutrition
For example, Naked Nutrition has an affiliate programme which allows users to get a commission if purchases of their products are made using your link:
Members of the affiliate programme gain 10% of sales commission and there is a cookie duration of 30 days. This means you still get a commission on any purchase made within these 30 days from the same customers, even if they end up going directly to the Naked Nutrition website.
How To Succeed At Affiliate Marketing
The more popular your social media or website is, the more likely you are to gain an impressive nutrition practice passive income. Based on the success of your affiliate scheme, this could open up further opportunities for you.
You can promote these products on your social media or website. If you have a lot of followers, you should promote it on your accounts as it’s more likely to generate immediate interest than just having it on your website.
These affiliate links can be promoted on social media by including:
- Written descriptions of what’s being offered
- Photos of the products you’re promoting
- The actual discount
- A link or code to purchase discounted items
You could also do a combination of both, such as in the example below regarding MyProtein:
In the post, Abbie has posted herself with the product, along with a description of her own experiences of using the products and the discount code. Framing your post similarly is likely to make more people follow the link and help you earn passive income as a nutritionist.
You can do this on a YouTube channel too (which we’ll go onto discuss below), like what Autumn Bates has done with the sponsor of her video:
However, when deciding on a nutrition affiliate programme, you should always research the company and products you’re going to be promoting. If there is controversy over a particular product or company, this will reflect badly on you and your brand.
The bottom line is, when signing up to become an affiliate of a certain company, be sure to advertise and promote across your social media as this will increase sales and result in more passive income for you.
For more advice on this topic, check out our in-depth article exploring the top 9 marketing strategies for nutrition businesses.
#3 – Start A YouTube Channel To Earn Passive Income As A Nutritionist
The popularity of video-sharing platforms such as YouTube means many people have turned to online members of the fitness community to learn about how to reach their goals or improve their health.
This makes it a great form of passive income. However, it takes a lot of time and effort to do this successfully. You will need to already have a following and a regular audience for your channel to be eligible for monetisation.
How To Monetise Your YouTube Channel
Monetisation is the process that allows people to earn money from YouTube. Many people have the wrong idea about how creators make money from the platform- users aren’t paid based on their number of subscribers, or even if they have millions of views. You won’t be paid unless your channel is monetised.
This means YouTubers are paid through sponsorships and adverts. However, not everyone is eligible for this.
Before you can generate revenue from YouTube, you need to have at least 1000 subscribers. You also need to have 4,000 hours of your content watched in the past 12 months for you to join the YouTube partner program and monetise your channel:
The partner programme allows adverts to be included in videos which is how you create additional revenue. This system works by having companies pay YouTube to have their adverts shown before, during, and after videos.
For example, OriGym’s YouTube channel is monetised, meaning an advert from Wix shows before a video plays:
This system works on a ‘pay per click’ basis as companies only pay YouTube when someone clicks on the ad shown during the video.
According to Marketing Heaven, YouTube pays £1.15 per 1000 views on average. This means it’s unlikely many creators will be making thousands. However, if you have a relatively popular channel, you can still make a modest amount of income to support your nutrition practice.
Building Your Audience On YouTube
By putting in the effort of building your audience, you’ll be able to increase the amount of passive income you receive. There is no ‘secret’ to doing this, you just need to be willing to invest the time and effort into creating appealing content and building an audience.
The most effective way to do this is by deciding on a niche and the intended audience for your videos. This makes it more likely you will find a loyal audience rather than making the content of your videos too broad and generic for your channel to become popular.
For example, you may choose to do something similar to New Ways Nutrition. Renea creates content specifically about nutrition for babies, which means her main audience will be parents:
This makes it easier for Renea to gain more of a nutrition practice passive income as while she doesn’t have thousands of subscribers and views, she’s still carved out a niche for herself.
To be successful with making passive nutritionist income from YouTube, some tips include:
- Identify your target audience: By doing this, you’ll find it easier to create relevant content as you build your subscribers and develop your videos around them.
- Find your niche: You’ll be up against a lot of competition if you stick to making broad, generic content. As mentioned above, this means you should find an area of nutrition you’re passionate about and that may be less common.
Examples of particular niches for a nutrition YouTube channel can be:
- Nutrition for pregnancy
- Nutrition for the elderly
- Nutrition for severe allergies
- Vegan lifestyle
Choosing a niche means you will have less competition which will result in more views for your content. The right audience is also more likely to return rather than just watch a video once as they’ll be more interested in your content.
Other tips to ensure passive income for nutritionists include:
- Create high-quality content: If you want a successful YouTube channel, it’s certainly worth investing money into a decent microphone and video camera. Trying to give people advice with audio that’s too quiet, too loud, or generally low quality is unlikely to make people subscribe. Good equipment and lighting will go a long way in increasing the professionalism of your videos.
- Optimise videos for SEO: Ensure you optimise content by using keywords in your video titles and descriptions. Although you should be spending time on your content, ensure you post regularly to keep your audience engaged with your channel.
- Market your channel on other platforms: You should use other social media to promote and market your YouTube account. This can be on Facebook, Instagram, or through your website if you have one.
- Vary video content: To keep your audience interested, you should occasionally vary your videos. This keeps content engaging and allows subscribers to see your life behind the camera and your personality.
Find out more about effectively marketing your nutrition business.
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To continue thinking about nutrition practice passive income ideas, check out these articles for further inspiration:
- How To Write A Nutritionist Business Plan
- Nutritionist Interview Questions
- How To Make Money As A Nutritionist
#4 – Passive Income For Nutritionists Can Involve Earning Money From A Blog
Similar to making money as a fitness blogger, you can earn passive income as a nutritionist by monetising your blog. If you’re already providing users with content, you should certainly maximise earning potential by generating profits from your blog.
You need to ensure you’re creating great, professional content if you’re looking to monetise your blog. Follow this simple criteria to keep your blog and writing of the highest quality:
- Have a clear topic for each blog post – Setting out exactly what you want to write about is important for keeping your writing clear and concise. It’s much more likely to keep readers engaged if you stay on topic and inform them of something they’re interested in. Narrow the scope to avoid rambling or mentioning irrelevant information.
- Structure your writing – Your post should follow a simple structure, beginning with an introduction, followed by the main body, and finally a conclusion.
- Break up text with headings and paragraphs – The last thing anyone wants to do is read a long block of text, especially on a subject they don’t know much about. Ensure there’s plenty of blank space on the page by breaking up text to make it easier to read.
- Include keywords – Use SEO keywords to improve your rankings on Google and have more people land on your page.
- Provide links to published content – Linking to previous blog posts you’ve written adds credibility to your work and highlights authority on the subject. It also improves your ratings on Google which will attract more readers.
- Always proofread – As with any writing, you should always proofread your work to avoid any spelling and grammar mistakes. Not doing this will show a lack of care and will make your work look unprofessional, decreasing your credibility.
When you have content you want to monetise on your blog, you can generate passive income by incorporating adverts into your website. Google AdSense can help you earn money from your blog as it optimises mobiles and desktops to feature adverts.
Using the Google AdSense calculator, users can see how much they could potentially earn from this tool. For example, if the location is set to Europe and the website content category is ‘Health’, it will generate potential earnings based on 50,000 monthly page views:
If your website was to be viewed 50,000 times in a month, creators could earn around $3,204, which works out to around £2,656.
As you can see from Rachel Hartley’s nutrition blog below, she has adverts around her pages, allowing her to earn passive income:
If the ads are structured on your page in a certain way, you could use them to break up text and content. This looks less overwhelming than having dozens of adverts popping up on screen which is likely to turn readers away from your posts.
#5 – Develop An Education Series For Passive Income
If you’re looking to earn more passive income without sacrificing more hours, you may consider developing an online education series for clients. This is a great way to provide continued nutritional education, attracting both new clients and educating current ones further.
While you will have to invest time in developing the education programme at first, people can then continue purchasing the series without you having to continue putting in extra work as this can be done through pre-recorded videos.
You should focus on topics that cater to certain groups but are common enough to ensure people will be interested in purchasing your education series. This could be educating people on topics such as:
- Nutrition advice to regulate blood sugar
- Anti-inflammatory diets
- Diet advice for those with coeliac
By having pre-recorded videos or programmes ready for clients to use, means you can continue earning money from them long after the initial work has been completed.
The only time you may have to put in is a couple of times a month if you want to have live check-ins to answer any questions people may have.
Example – Producing A Webinar
For example, Nutrihub has live online webinars on a range of nutrition-related topics priced at £20 each:
They also sell recorded webinars which can be purchased for the same price, highlighting how those who didn’t attend the live seminar can still benefit from these recorded resources:
You can host the live webinar on a simple platform such as Zoom. Those who purchase the webinar can be sent a link which grants them access to the meeting. You can then choose to record the webinar on Zoom:
However, if you’d like to take out any unforeseen issues or client involvement for the pre-recorded webinars, you may decide to record it alone. While this may take time as you’ll have to essentially present the webinar twice, clients may feel it’s better value for money if they see you’ve put in extra time to record it for them.
You could sell these online education webinars individually for a higher price such as £20 or you may decide to sell them in packages. This could be a package of 3 webinars for £40, all based on videos about the same topic, such as living a gluten-free lifestyle.
If you choose to charge clients for individual webinars or online lectures, you should also include resources similar to Nutrihub. As you can see below, those who purchase their webinars are provided with the scientifically referenced slides and full webinar recording:
People are more likely to invest their money in your education series if they can keep further resources they can use in the future such as PowerPoint presentations and digital copies of the live webinar.
#6 – Providing Digital Products Can Provide Passive Income For Nutrition Practice
Another great way to earn passive income as a nutritionist is to sell digital products. This is why it’s a good idea to start a nutrition blog as it’s an easy way to develop content you can compile into something large in a short amount of time.
You may choose to compile a series of recipes together which can be sold as an eBook and these can be centred around healthy recipes for those who have to live particular lifestyles.
Example – Selling eBooks
An example of this comes from NutriDiet, which sells eBooks about vegan and plant-based eating. These resources are reasonably priced with each one being between £10 and £20:
Even if just a few people purchase these resources, this can provide a modest passive income for nutritionists. Once again, when these eBooks have been created, you don’t have to continually put in further work. After these have been bought, a client can continue to use them as much as they want.
If we take the example above, you may decide to attract buyers with certain deals. This could be purchasing all three eBooks together for a discounted price. For instance, purchasing all three separately comes to £43. However, you may choose to sell a bundle of three eBooks for £35 instead.
To keep your online resources fresh and appealing, you may decide to produce seasonal or topical eBooks or give them appealing names. This could include titles such as ‘Recipes For A Healthy Holiday Season’ or ‘Eating Towards A Happy Heart’.
For instance, Road To Belle has a Christmas eBook covering a range of different recipes for those with diabetes, low blood pressure, and high cholesterol:
As you can see, this is very reasonably priced and should reflect the product. For limited or seasonal eBooks, it’s likely you’ll spend less time creating these meaning this should be highlighted by the lower price.
If you decide to choose the route of recipes books, these could be focused on:
- Recipes for heart health
- Recipes for diabetics
- Recipes for pregnancy
Example – Recipe Plans
You may also decide to sell meal plans to accompany your recipes. For example, The London Nutritionist sells meal plan packages with various prices:
Although the meal plan packages of the London Nutritionist are on the more expensive side, you may choose to offer these plans for less depending on how much work you put in. If these are meal plans tailored for individuals, this will take more time. However, you may choose to save time by offering more general plans for topics as mentioned above.
To further increase your passive income, you can continue to include affiliate links in your digital resources and update them occasionally if you gain more sponsors.
Before You Go!
You will now have a clear understanding of how to make money as a nutritionist, but be aware that every business is different, meaning you have to find the methods that work for you.
This will require you to try a variety of the examples we presented above, to find money-making methods that increase your income as a nutritionist.
Remember, earning a Personal Training Diploma is a great way of earning additional income as a nutritionist. Through the completion of this course, you will be able to offer your clients bespoke workout programmes that work in correlation with their nutritional goals.
Alternatively, check out our FREE course prospectus to learn more about every OriGym certification.