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There are a lot of creative ways to earn money right now.
You could get paid to sleep, go shopping, review music, and even just for walking.
Heck, you could even get paid just by blogging!
But the most fun one is to get paid to eat!
I know I’m a personal finance blogger and not a food blogger (though I do run a food blog too).
But as I’m writing this, I’m already drooling over the thought of getting paid to savor delicious food. It’s no different from how I get paid to gulp down those delicious Starbucks fraps – and you can find out how I get free drinks and food with these free Starbucks hacks.
The great thing is that there are a lot of ways to get paid to eat. You can become an influencer, participate in taste tests and surveys, work as a restaurant mystery shopper, and much more!
PIN THIS: I’ll be updating this post so make sure to pin this image here and save it to your Pinterest board. That way you’ll be able to come back to this page and learn how to make money and get paid to eat.
How To Get Paid To Eat
Just imagine – eating your heart out and getting full. On top of that, you’re paid while doing it. What a life, huh?
Well, I’m telling you that there are a ton of options for you to get paid to eat!
Some companies will pay you to dine in their restaurants.
There are also applications that make you eat at certain places and pay you to critique the whole experience.
It’s a fun world out there. And it’s a great time for food lovers – they’re able to make money from their passion for eating!
If you’re wondering how to get paid to eat food, I’m here to help you out.
Do people get paid to eat?
Although it might sound too good to be true, there are a lot of legitimate companies, applications, and websites that will pay you to eat.
With today’s technology and the need for excellent customer service, these businesses would go to the lengths of paying someone to try out their service and product.
Some businesses are strategic as well – they would send their product to certain people in exchange for some exposure or a shoutout.
Getting paid to eat isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There are also sacrifices and efforts needed in this field which you will know more about below.
1. Start a Local Food Blog
Never underestimate the power of starting a blog. It’s what allowed me to quit my job and earn over 6 figures per year! So, this can be an avenue for you to dine for free!
Local food blogs, especially when it’s the go-to website for food lovers, will receive a ton of invitations from your local restaurants. And these invitations usually entail that you eat at their place for free.
Of course, eating for free doesn’t come without favors. These restaurants will ask you to review your experience and their food. By doing so, they get exposure from your readers with the hopes of putting them in a good light.
Now, as a local food blogger, these restaurants will be at your mercy. Will you give in to every offer? Or will you be selective on which restaurant you will dine at?
And if your blog is popular enough, it’s almost certain that you will get extra fancy treatment at restaurants just so that they can impress you.
How I make money (and get paid to eat) with my brand new food blog
Since I’ve successfully built two blogs (this one you’re reading here right now along with my anonymous lifestyle blog on Pinterest), I decided to start a new one in a different niche for fun. This time, I started a food blog where I write reviews of places where I normally like to eat.
You actually don’t have to be a hardcore foodie and eat out every single day – this is a myth. You can just document your weekly takeouts or whenever you feel like eating out at a restaurant. I would casually write about my honest opinions and what I think about the food. Such posts are timeless and evergreen as long as that restaurant you wrote a review about doesn’t close down.
I use my iPhone to take pictures of the food I eat, like the one below, and just upload them to my blog where I write about my experience and thoughts regarding the food.
So, how does it make money?
As I grow my readership for this blog over time, I can monetize it with display ads. I haven’t tapped into sponsors or affiliate marketing for this particular blog yet.
For example, you can see that my new blog received about 12,000 pageviews in a month, which isn’t high compared to this blog and my other lifestyle one, which gets over 100,000 monthly pageviews from Pinterest.
But given that this blog is still in its beginning stages, and the fact that I do this as a hobby whenever I have time, I am still able to earn money from it through display ads via Monumetric. This extra money honestly feels like I’m just getting paid to eat at restaurants I enjoy!
So if you want to go down this route, build a food blog where you give your honest and non-biased opinion, and work diligently at it.
Building authority in your niche will take time (just like any blog you start) but it’s all worth it when you get a bunch of traffic and loyal readers.
Plus, imagine yourself getting paid to eat for a living!
You could earn anywhere from a hobby income to a full-time income, possibly as high as six figures a year. This dream can become a reality as your food review blog gains readership over months and years of consistent effort and quality content.
Start your food review blog today! If this idea sparks your interest, you can check out how to start a blog for beginners and make money with my step-by-step tutorial. I’ve helped thousands of readers start their blogs and they are now monetizing their passions! Many of them have also started a restaurant review blog including food recipe blogs!
2. Start A YouTube Channel
If you are confident enough to be in front of the camera, then starting a YouTube channel about food is a great way to get paid. There are numerous categories of content you can make around food on YouTube, ranging from recipes to restaurant reviews and much more.
By consistently sharing content and building your channel’s following, you can monetize it through the YouTube partner program. To qualify for the program, you need to achieve at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of content watched (or 10M views on Shorts). After that, you’ll get paid to display ads on your videos and Shorts.
Keep at it with your food channel, and eventually, companies will start noticing your content. You could also be offered direct sponsorships or the opportunity to take up affiliate marketing where you would get paid for promoting the products or services of their brands.
Although it takes a lot of patience and hard work to build a successful YouTube channel, the rewards are totally worth it as it’s a fabulous way to earn money while trying out new cuisines and eateries. If you’re truly passionate about food, you could make it big like Mark Wiens and travel around the world indulging in authentic culinary experiences.
3. Become A Restaurant Mystery Shopper
Mystery shoppers are people who act as customers but are actually paid by the company to ask questions and look for products. This is done to assess the company’s customer service.
Now take that concept and put it in the context of restaurants – that’s exactly what mystery diners are. Basically, these are people who get paid to eat at restaurants while being observant of the service and the food!
There are a ton of websites that pay you to eat out and be analytical about the dining process, the food, and the overall experience.
As a mystery diner, you are tasked to complete certain objectives and take note of specific details about the place.
All of this should be done in return for reimbursement.
What’s great about this side gig is it doesn’t require any upfront capital. You can get started with zero investments!
To qualify, you must have excellent communication skills. People who can clearly express their thoughts and feelings in a structured and concise manner are perfect for this field.
Communication skills are important because companies that hire you to dine want to understand your dining experience – and they want to know every single detail of it.
If you’re able to convey that information clearly, the chances of you eating food for free significantly increase.
4. Getting Paid To Eat On Camera (like Mukbang)
Imagine if you could get paid to eat food on camera. Well, luckily it’s actually a possibility now.
Eating on camera has a special place on the internet – it’s called Mukbang videos.
Mukbang is a video of someone eating a large quantity of food while still talking to their viewers.
It’s a term that originated in South Korea and then took the internet by storm. People love to see others eat on YouTube!
This trend has gotten so popular that it branched out to various content creators from different countries.
But what makes it so popular?
It’s normal to see another person eat – we experience this every day.
But to some, there’s both curiosity and fascination to see another person devour a huge amount of food while holding a conversation.
While it’s typical to see another person eat, but to watch them finish a 20,000-calorie meal in one sitting? Now that’s quite a sight.
There’s also a level of satisfaction to it. The introduction of ASMR to these Mukbang videos has made viewers feel like they’re there with the content creator.
ASMR stands for an autonomous sensory meridian response. It’s a tingling or goosebumps sensation that’s triggered by high-quality audio or video.
In Mukbang, it’s triggered by auditory experience. The cracking of shells, the munching of burgers, and the gulping of sweet soup; all of it contribute to making the whole Mukbang experience great to watch.
5. Be A Competitive Eater
Yes, there’s such a thing as a competitive eater.
However, this is not for everyone.
If you don’t have the stomach for eating at a fast pace, then you can ignore this part.
This is for people who love beating restaurants at their food challenges and competing in tournaments.
The ones who participate in such competitions treat this line of work seriously. They learn techniques and ways how they can easily digest food and consume it in the shortest time possible.
They constantly push themselves to the limit to increase their threshold on how much food they can eat in one standing.
The events in this space usually have competitions for eating the most hotdogs, bacon, oysters, ribs, and much more. The prizes for these tournaments can reach $10,000 or even higher.
This is why some treat this as a sport – they train to beat others and be the best in the field.
You also get sponsors and endorsement deals when you’re constantly crushing the competition. Brands could supply you with their food and shoulder some of your expenses.
6. Have An Instagram Food Page
An underrated route to eating for free is having an Instagram page dedicated to high-quality food and restaurant photos.
Just like a food blog, having this kind of page has the potential to be a go-to profile for people looking for “Instagrammable” places to eat!
When you build authority and amass thousands of followers, restaurants will come flocking to your DMs.
Why?
Because they want to be featured on your page. If they’re featured, more people would know about their place, thereby increasing the chances of people dining there.
Asking to be featured in your profile is how you can earn extra money.
So, how do you start one?
Just look at the successful accounts in this niche. Study how they take pictures and what angles they use to make the photos stand out. Read their captions and analyze how they make them engaging.
If others can do it, you can too.
They were also once in your shoes trying to build an account and get more followers. The only difference between those successful accounts and the failed ones is their dedication and consistency.
It’s going to be a grind to take your account to where you want it to be, but when requests and sponsors come in, you’ll realize that all your time and efforts were worth it.
7. Become A Food Tester
Being a food taster is different from being a mystery diner.
As a food taster, you need to have a much-developed palette and be more analytical with the food you eat.
A professional is different from an occasional diner because they have a better assessment of food texture, aroma, color, and flavor.
Professionals “grade” each food in these areas. They also give explanations to restaurants and companies on how they came up with their grade, which is why good communication skills are also needed.
Unlike most jobs in this list, you need a bachelor’s degree to be a professional food taster. According to ZipRecruiter, professionals in this field earn an average of $30,000 per year.
Most of these job positions are under a food manufacturer. The way it works is that you help them improve existing food products and develop new tasty ones.
It’s a fun way to get paid while you eat. Although it’s in a more professional setting, like in a lab, you’re still getting paid to taste food and even make a new meal to be tasted by the public.
8. Be A Health And Wellness Influencer
The health and wellness industry is on track to being a 7-billion-dollar industry by 2030.
It’s a massive space where consumers buy products and services to better themselves both physically and mentally.
Being an influencer in this niche can be a great way to eat food for free.
Brands are active in giving out their product to influencers that have thousands of viewers watching their content.
Some companies would even sponsor up-and-coming creators who are not yet well-known in the space. They’re willing to establish a relationship with them even when they’re still coming up in the scene.
It is through these sponsorships that will allow you to get paid to eat. They will give you free food in return for a short shout-out in your videos. In some cases, influencers don’t just get food, but they also receive supplements and merch gear from these companies.
So, if you’re big on health and wellness, it may be high time that you monetize that passion of yours. Start building your brand and you might just land endorsement deals and sponsorships along the way!
9. Become A Food Critic
The job of a food critic differs quite a lot from that of a food blogger. As a food critic, your responsibility is to visit different food establishments and craft detailed reviews regarding their food, service, presentation, and dining experience.
While food bloggers have a more informal way of conveying their opinions, food critics are required to be much more formal in presenting their views while also maintaining an unbiased stance. This position doesn’t require you to stick to the timings of a traditional 9 to 5 job, but you do have to adhere to deadlines.
Some food critics also choose to specialize in certain cuisines or dietary preferences, which differentiates them from the rest. Regardless of which category of food critiquing you choose, you will make money tasting food.
The job requires individuals to keep up with the latest food trends while also evaluating eclectic types of foods and beverages. They often get invited to high-end launch parties and events of popular restaurants and food chains.
With the evolution of technology, the duties of the food critics of today also involve taking pictures and videos of the dishes they sample. They are often required to upload these visuals along with their reviews to the website and social media platforms of the publication they work for.
10. Get Cashbacks When Eating
Want to get paid when going on dates?
Go to a restaurant that partners with a company that gives cashback to its users. It’s the perfect way to earn money while eating and you get to impress your date by paying the bill!
Jokes aside, the overall process of getting cashback isn’t complicated either. Just choose your application, sign up, connect a debit or credit card, pay with that card when you dine, and you can start receiving cashback from the company.
To help you get started, here are some applications that give cashback:
Rakuten – Rakuten Dining is a program that offers cashback to its users. They’ve partnered with more than 10,000 restaurants giving you a ton of choices on where to dine. They give out 3% cash back on your qualifying purchases. I absolutely love everything about Rakuten and that’s why I wrote an honest review about Raktuten’s program here. You can learn how I earned $1,000 cash back!
Swagbucks – There’s no secret to how I earn free drinks at Starbucks. But, it’s not only that. They are known for their cashback programs and they don’t disappoint with their dining category either. You can earn up to 10% cash back on eligible purchases when you shop for food or dine in restaurants. They also allow you to earn Swagbucks (SB) points when you eat and drink at all your favorite places as you can see in my Swagbucks review here.
Drop – This is a highly recommended platform even though it only gives gift cards from its partners. This is perfect for users who would accept getting gift cards instead of cash back. I also use Drop to redeem free gift cards and have a review about them too.
Dosh – Just download their application, link your cards, swipe those cards, and Dosh will give a cashback to your wallet automatically.
Some other cashback apps and platforms like these give you a decent percentage of cashback. An important tip I can give you is to read about them first and find out what other people are saying.
FAQs
1. What is it called when you get paid to eat?
There isn’t a particular word for the job where one gets paid to eat. The reason behind this is because there are numerous positions where a person’s job involves eating food.
For example, you could get paid to eat as a food critic where you review various eateries for their food, presentation, and dining experience. You could be a food content creator on YouTube where you create food-related content, such as recipes, restaurant reviews, first impressions of certain dishes, and so on.
There is also the Mukbang trend that has become popular in the last few years. In it, people get paid to eat huge quantities of food while talking to their viewers on camera.
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