Tired of only making money when you’re in a client session? Selling digital products like meal plans, recipe books, or planning guides is one of the easiest ways for dietitians and nutritionists to add a steady, low-effort revenue stream to their business. You create it once, and it keeps working for you in the background.
And no—you don’t need a giant audience, a tech degree, or a flashy funnel. You do need a solid idea, a way to sell it from your website, and a plan to get it in front of your people.
As a web designer who’s worked with tons of nutrition pros, I’m walking you through the five simple steps to start selling digital products right from your own site—and how I can help make it even easier.
Let’s get into it.
Step 1: Figure Out What Meal Plans You’re Going to Sell
First things first, what kind of digital gold are you going to offer? PDF e-books are a super straightforward way to give valuable resources to anyone who visits your website, including your current clients and potential new ones. Think about what problems your ideal clients are struggling with and how you can solve them.
Here are some popular options to get your creative juices flowing:
- Recipe Books: These can be themed around very specific dietary needs or preferences. Imagine “Healthy, Gluten-Free Desserts,” “High-Fiber Paleo,” “Low FODMAP Vegan,” or “PCOS-Friendly” collections.
- Meal Plans: These are often 7 to 21 days in length and should be designed to solve a specific problem for your niche. A great meal plan usually includes the meal plan itself, a grocery list, and all the recipes. For instance, if you work with recreational athletes, you could offer a “21-Day Meal Prep Plan for Athletes Working 9 to 5” that includes easily prepped recipes for weekends.
- Meal Planning Guides: This isn’t just a set of recipes, but a collection tailored to a theme, plus a blank meal planning template and instructions on how customers can create their own personalized meal plans. If your niche is women struggling with PMS, you could create “What to Eat to Get Your PMS Under Control,” complete with recipes for each cycle phase and a blank template.
Expert Tip: Still pondering what to sell? Start with market research and actually talking to your ideal clients. Ask them what kind of meal plan or recipe book would truly help them achieve their desired outcomes. This direct feedback is invaluable!
Step 2: Bring Your Digital Products to Life
Once you’ve decided on your meal plan idea, it’s time to create it. You’ll need a tool that lets you whip up professional PDF files that are full of color and engaging content. You want your customers to be excited to dive in!
Nutrition professionals often turn to two main tools:
- That Clean Life: This tool makes generating meal plans, recipe books, and meal planning guides super quick and easy. It gives you access to a huge database of over 6,900 unique recipes, all with beautiful photography and a simple format. You can even add your own recipes if you’re creating a cookbook of your personal creations and just need help with the formatting. It automatically generates shopping lists for meal plans, and you can add extra pages like prep guides to make it super easy for your customers to follow along. No design experience or extra software needed here! You can share a link or export a professionally formatted, custom-branded PDF.
- Canva: This is a free and user-friendly design tool that’s popular for creating marketing materials or adding extra, eye-catching pages to your meal plans or recipe books.
Step 3: Set Your Meal Plan Price Tag
Ah, the million-dollar question: “How much should I charge?” There’s no single perfect answer, as pricing is a personal decision for you as the entrepreneur. However, looking at what other health professionals commonly charge can give you a good starting point:
- Recipe Books: You’ll typically see these ranging from $8 to $90.
- Meal Plans: These generally go for $20 to $97.
Keep in mind that products for highly restrictive diets, like SIBO or individual food sensitivities, often command higher prices. These common prices are for general, self-serve e-books, not custom resources. If you’re customizing resources for a client’s unique needs, you absolutely should charge more, as that takes extra time and effort.
A crucial tip from the experts: Don’t undervalue your hard work by selling your resources too cheaply! This can devalue your professional nutrition guidance and make it harder to charge fair prices for custom work later on.
Step 4: Set Up Your Online Store (This is Where I Come In!)
This is arguably the most exciting part! I recommend selling your meal plans and recipe books directly from your own website. Why? Because you’ll get paid quicker, avoid fees, maximize your profit, and have way more control over your customers’ experience.
You’ll want to create a dedicated “shop” page on your website for all your amazing products. Then, you’ll use an e-commerce plug-in. For example, if your website is built on WordPress (which many nutrition pros use), the WooCommerce plugin is a fantastic option for selling your PDF e-books.
This is also where I, as a web designer, can be a huge help! I can work with you to build that seamless “shop” page on your existing website and integrate the right e-commerce tools like WooCommerce. We’ll ensure it looks professional, functions perfectly, and provides a smooth shopping experience for your customers. We’ll also invest time into crafting captivating copy that clearly communicates the value of your resources and encourages visitors to make a purchase.
Alternatively, platforms like Payhip offer an all-in-one e-commerce solution where you can create a free online store or embed their checkout and shopping cart directly into your existing website. They handle everything from file uploads to instant downloads, secure checkouts, and payments to your PayPal or Stripe account. Payhip has a “Free Forever” plan with a 5% transaction fee, or paid plans with lower fees, and all plans give you access to all features.
Step 5: Start Marketing and Selling
Okay, your products are created, your prices are set, and your online store is live. Now comes the exciting part: promoting your products! Your digital products won’t sell themselves; you’ll need to work hard to make those sales. Dedicate time each week to promoting your online products to your social media followers, email subscribers, and blog readers.
Here are some fantastic promotion tips:
- Go Live: Use Facebook Live, Instagram Live, or Instagram Stories to talk about a topic related to your e-book or even make one of the recipes from your recipe book. Then, tell everyone where to go to buy the full product.
- Blog About It: Write blog posts sharing tips related to your e-book’s topic. If you’re selling a “21-Day Meal Prep Plan for Athletes Working 9 to 5,” write a post like “Meal Prep Tips To Help You Stay Fit While Working 9 to 5.” Always include a clear call to action to purchase your e-book.
- Show and Tell on Social Media: Post pictures of yourself cooking and meal prepping to promote your store’s products.
- Email Your List: Send a series of emails about your new product or mention it in your regular newsletters.
- Launch an Affiliate Program: Let others earn a commission by referring their friends to your products.
- Podcast Appearances: Mention your digital products in your own podcasts or when you’re a guest on others, and always include the link to your shop page in the show notes.
- Host a Giveaway: Giving away a free copy of one of your digital products is a super way to raise awareness and grow your following.
Creating and selling digital products doesn’t have to be complicated, overwhelming, or something you “get to eventually.” When you’ve got valuable resources to share and a website that’s set up to sell, you can start bringing in income without squeezing more hours into your day.
And remember: even the best meal plan won’t sell if it’s buried three clicks deep on a janky site with no clear call to action.
If you’re ready to make your digital products actually work for you, I’d love to help. From setting up a clean, functional shop page to making sure your products look as good as they are, I’ll help you build the kind of online presence that sells with confidence.
