SELLING RECIPES BY MAIL
During the past few years, a number of very
enterprising housewives (and a few man) have
established a very successful business selling
recipes by mail.
The idea is very basic. You create a new recipe
and then you advertise it in the classified
section of a magazine or newspaper which is read
primarily by housewives. You advertise your
favorite recipe for a $2, and some dealers also
request a self addressed, stamped envelope. When
you receive orders in the mail you mail them a
typewritten copy of your recipe. Or a Xerox copy.
Even handwritten copies are permissible, if the
handwriting is ver legible. Along with your
recipe you include a list of additional recipes
which you have for sale. The list should tie in
with your original offer.
Let us imagine that you have advertisied a secret
recipe for Danish Butter Cookies. Your list
should include other cookie recipes, as well as
Danish recipes. If your customer bakes your
Danish Butter Cookies and likes them, she will be
in a good frame of mind to purchase more recipes
from you.
In researching this article, I combed through the
classifies sections of dozens of magazines
studying recipe ads. Here is a partial list of
recipes that were being sold by mail:
Four Fabulous Christmas Cookies
Delicious Frosted Brownies
Red Velvet Christmas Cake
Old Fashioned Nut Roll
Greek Donuts with Warm Honey
Cinnamon and Sesame Cookies
Aunt Sarah's Original Turkey Goulash
Delicious Coconut Cake
Italian Gravy
Texas Longhorn Bar-B-Que Sauce
Sparkling Burgundy (French Wine Recipe)
Chocolate French Mint Pie
Quick Punch
Sugar Free Fudge
Homemade Cheese
Unique Plum Pudding
Twenty German Recipes
Russian Tea
High Protein Diet Candy
Italian Candies
Grandma's Old Fashioned Bread
Polish Recipes
Grandma's Fantastic Mocha Cream Cake
Chocolate Pie
Hungarian Green Bean Soup
Molasses Donuts
Effortless, Bakeless Fruitcake
Vegitarian Recipes (Cottage Cheese Meatloaf)
Delicious Ambrosia Cake
Fantastic Frosting
Man Pleasing Chili
Sour Dough Starter Bread & Pancakes
Wine - Australian Style
Famous Pastry Shop Cheesecake
Sugarless Diet Desserts
Light Moist Coconut Cake
German Christmas Cake
Coldwater Dill Pickles
Old Testament Scripture Cake
Easy Delicious Cherry Cobbler
Beer Cake
Holiday Honey Balls
You will notice a lot of reginal and national
recipes. If you collect recipes from a specific
country, say Finland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,
they would probably sell very well. Also recipes
from New England, the Deep South, or some other
special area would do well. Also notice the
number of recipes that contain words like
delicious, tempting, and easy.
Further, recipes which are sugarless, or which
feature Vegitarian specialities would seem to do
very well.
Many housewives pay a great deal of attention to
holiday recipes. If you can time your ad so that
it happens about thirty days before Valentine's
Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day,
Father's Day, Halloween or Christmas, you will do
very well selling these recipes.
Where do you find recipes?
Start by selling your own recipes. Ask your
friends if they have recipes that you can use.
Often they will be delighted to help you. Or you
can go to the library and search through OLD
newspapers and magazines. When you find recipes
that look promising, go home and experiment with
them. Write them in your own words, otherwise you
could be violating copyright laws.
To get an idea of what kind of recipes are
currently being sold, it would be advisable to
study the recipe section on the classified pages
of most women's or food magazines for several
weeks (their advertisment rates are sky-high, but
they sell about four million copies of their
magazines every week. I notice some ads in every
week, and they could not continue unless they
were getting stacks of orders).
Closing thought: Give your customer their monies
worth and you will be in business for many years
to come. Good Luck.
