Cooking With Kya is all over the internet. People are making reaction videos about her. Influencers are meeting with her. Other creators are posting hot takes about whether she is good or bad for society. And while everyone is busy arguing in the comments, a handful of regular people are quietly making real money off of the same niche she occupies.
That is the actual opportunity here. Not being Kya. Not copying her style. Not even having a strong opinion about her. The opportunity is recognizing that the cooking niche is blowing up right now, and you can build a business inside that niche starting today. In this post I am going to walk you through all 10 ways I laid out in the video above. These are real monetization methods that could realistically earn you $100, $200, or possibly $300 per day without the TikTok shop, without the TikTok creativity fund, and without the YouTube Partner Program.
## What You’ll Walk Out With
– A clear understanding of why picking a niche is not optional if you want to make money online
– The one platform rule that lets you grow faster and make money sooner
– All 10 specific income methods available to anyone in the cooking niche, explained in detail
– The difference between front-end and back-end products and why you need both
– An honest look at why affiliate marketing commissions are low and what to do about it
– Real brand names and affiliate programs you can apply to today (Amazon Associates, Blue Apron, Butcher Box, Williams-Sonoma)
– A product ladder framework that keeps you earning even when new sales slow down
– A free quiz to find the right income method for your current situation at finder.platformproof.com
## First, You Need a Niche
Before we get into the 10 ways, I want to address something that trips up a lot of people getting started. You have probably heard some creator online tell you that you are your niche. That you do not need to pick a topic. That your personality is enough. That is bad advice, and the people giving it almost always have a clear niche themselves.
Cooking With Kya has a niche. It is cooking. Her personality, her style, her approach to the camera, those are all things that make her content interesting and get people to watch. But the reason people hit follow is because they are interested in cooking. The niche is what makes you findable. Your stories, your experiences, and your personality are what make you worth following once someone finds you.
If you want to make money in this model, you need a niche first. Then you layer your own stories and experiences on top of it to connect with your audience. That is how it works.
## Second, Pick One Platform and Commit
Once you have your niche, you need to pick one platform and go all in. You can choose TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram. All three of them get billions of visitors every single month. YouTube alone gets 20 billion visitors. You only need a tiny fraction of that audience to make $200 per day.
The mistake most beginners make is trying to be everywhere at once. They spread themselves across four platforms, do mediocre work on all of them, and then wonder why nothing is growing. The creators who grow fastest are the ones who pick one platform, study it deeply, and become the best they can be on that one platform before branching out. The more you understand how a platform works, the faster you can grow and the more money you can make. Start with one. Go all in.
## The 10 Ways to Make Money With This Business Model
### Way 1: Amazon Associates
This is the easiest starting point for anyone in the cooking niche. Amazon has an affiliate program called Amazon Associates. You sign up, you get approved, and you start generating affiliate links for the products you already use in your videos.
For Kya, that means linking to the specific pots, pans, cutting boards, knives, and kitchen gadgets she uses in every video. For you, it means doing the same thing inside whatever cooking content you create. You put the links in the description of your videos or in the bio of your profile, and any time a viewer clicks and buys, you earn a commission.
The commissions through Amazon run between 3 and 10 percent. That is on the lower side, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But here is why it still makes sense as a starting point: you do not need your own product, you do not deal with shipping, you do not handle customer service, and you are borrowing the trust people already have in Amazon. When you are just getting started and you want to earn something while you build your audience, affiliate marketing on Amazon is a very low-barrier entry point.
If you are making content on TikTok, set up a storefront and drop all of your affiliate links there. Link to your storefront in your bio so every viewer who lands on your profile can find everything in one place.
### Way 2: A 30-Day Meal Plan Ebook With a Shopping List
This is a digital product, and digital products are where things start to get genuinely exciting. The idea is simple: take what you already know about cooking, put together a 30-day meal plan, include a shopping list so people can actually follow it, and sell it directly to your audience.
The difference between this and Amazon Associates is significant. With affiliate marketing, you earn a percentage of someone else’s sale. With your own digital product, you get all of the money up front. The moment someone buys your ebook, that money hits your PayPal or Stripe account and you can use it. There is no 30-day, 60-day, or 90-day wait for a payout like there is with most affiliate programs.
You also collect the customer’s information, their name, email address, and sometimes their phone number, which means you can reach them again later when you have another product to sell. That customer relationship is worth a lot more than a one-time affiliate commission.
Price a product like this somewhere between $7 and $49 depending on how much value you pack into it. It is a low enough price that buying it is an easy decision, but high enough that you are building a real income stream.
### Way 3: Blue Apron as an Affiliate or Brand Partner
Blue Apron is a meal kit subscription service that ships pre-portioned ingredients and recipes directly to your door. It is a natural fit for anyone making cooking content because you can literally cook a Blue Apron meal on camera, show your audience how easy and convenient it is, and get paid for doing it.
You can approach Blue Apron two ways. First, as an affiliate, where you join their affiliate program and earn a commission every time someone signs up through your link. Second, as a brand deal or sponsorship, where Blue Apron pays you directly to feature their product in your content. If you can land both at the same time, you are earning on two levels from the same piece of content, which is a very good position to be in.
This is also a great example of how matching your affiliate partnerships to your niche makes your content feel natural instead of forced. A cooking creator promoting Blue Apron makes complete sense. A gaming creator promoting Blue Apron feels random and does not convert.
### Way 4: A 10-Minute Meals Mini Course or Ebook
People are busy. That is not a revolutionary insight, but it is a real pain point that you can build a product around. A guide or mini course focused specifically on 10-minute meals solves a problem that millions of people have right now: they want to eat at home, they want to eat something decent, and they have almost no time to cook.
This could be a downloadable ebook with 20 or 30 quick recipes. It could also be a short video course where you walk through each meal on camera. Either format works. The key is that you are solving a specific, named problem: not just “cooking” but “cooking when you only have 10 minutes.”
Specific problems command specific prices. A general cooking ebook is harder to sell. A “10-minute weeknight meals for busy parents” guide practically sells itself because the person searching for it already knows exactly why they need it.
### Way 5: Butcher Box Affiliate
Butcher Box is a subscription service that ships quality meat directly to customers every month. People order once and the meat shows up automatically. For a cooking creator, this is a natural partnership.
You get a shipment, you cook something with it on camera, you show how the quality stacks up, and you drop your affiliate link. Viewers who like what they see and want that same convenience click through and sign up. You earn a commission each time someone converts.
What makes subscription-based affiliate programs appealing is that you often earn not just on the initial signup but on recurring months as well, depending on the program structure. A customer who signs up and stays subscribed for a year is worth significantly more than a customer who buys a single item.
### Way 6: A Niche Cooking Course
This is where you go from broad to specific and the income potential goes up sharply. Instead of teaching general cooking, you pick one specific cuisine or method and build a course around it.
Here is the example I gave in the video: Jamaican cooking. Let’s say Kya specializes in Jamaican breakfast dishes. She could put together a mini course teaching people how to make ackee and saltfish, festivals, callaloo, and other traditional dishes that most people outside of the Caribbean have never tried to cook at home. That is a highly specific course with a built-in audience of people who either grew up with that food and miss it or people who fell in love with it while traveling.
Specific courses sell better because they match a specific desire. They are also easier to market because you know exactly who the buyer is. You are not trying to appeal to everyone who has ever cooked anything. You are talking directly to a person with a very particular culinary interest.
> **Not sure which of these 10 methods fits where you are right now?** Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com and find out which income stream matches your skills, schedule, and situation.
### Way 7: Williams-Sonoma Affiliate
Amazon is a great starting point because almost everyone buys on Amazon. But the commissions are low. Williams-Sonoma offers a different opportunity. Their products cost significantly more, and that changes the math.
A premium set of pots and pans through Williams-Sonoma can run $300, $400, or even $1,000 and up. If you earn even a 5 percent commission on a $1,000 sale, that is $50 from one transaction. Compare that to a $30 pot on Amazon where you might earn $1.50.
Not every viewer is going to spend $1,000 on cookware, but some will. The people who take cooking seriously and want tools that last decades are actively looking for recommendations from creators they trust. If you build an audience in the cooking niche and you consistently use high-quality equipment, you have real authority when you recommend premium products. Williams-Sonoma also carries cookbooks, small appliances, and specialty ingredients, which gives you multiple product categories to draw from.
### Way 8: Live Cooking Workshops
This one does not get talked about enough. A live workshop is one of the highest-value things you can sell because people are paying for access to you in real time, not just a recorded product they might never finish.
Here is the example from the video: a Valentine’s Day dinner workshop. You announce the event, you charge a ticket price, and then you walk your audience live through how to cook a full dinner for two, an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert, in real time. They cook along with you. They ask questions. They come out the other end feeling like they actually learned something and accomplished something.
The perceived value of a live experience is much higher than the same content in a recorded format. You can also charge more for it and run it multiple times a year around different occasions. Think about all the moments when someone needs to cook something impressive for a specific reason: holidays, anniversaries, date nights, dinner parties. Every one of those is a potential workshop topic.
### Way 9: A Monthly Membership on Patreon or Skool
Here is the problem with digital products and affiliate marketing: you start from zero at the beginning of every single month. You have to keep selling to keep earning. A membership changes that equation.
When you build a monthly membership, your baseline income is the number of members you have multiplied by what they each pay per month. That number does not drop to zero on the first of the month. It resets, yes, but from wherever you ended the previous month. As long as you keep members happy and keep solving their problems, they keep paying.
For a cooking creator, a membership could include exclusive recipes and meal plans that non-members do not get, monthly live cooking sessions where members cook along with you, a library of guides and cheat sheets, and a community where members connect with each other and ask cooking questions. Platforms like Patreon and Skool both work well for this kind of setup.
The recurring revenue is what makes a membership worth building early. It is slower to grow than selling a one-time product, but once you have 50 or 100 paying members, your business becomes much more stable and predictable.
### Way 10: Batch Cooking Guide Plus Affiliate Pairings
Batch cooking is the practice of preparing a large amount of food at once and then freezing or refrigerating portions to eat throughout the week or month. It solves a specific, recurring problem for a specific kind of person: the busy adult who wants to eat well without cooking every single day.
A guide built around batch cooking can teach the fundamentals of planning a batch cook session, which foods batch well versus which ones do not, storage and freezing techniques, and how to reheat without losing quality. That guide also creates natural affiliate opportunities. You can recommend the best food storage containers, the best freezer bags, the best vacuum sealers, and the best tools for meal prep, all with affiliate links attached.
This is a good example of what I mean when I talk about building products that create natural affiliate pairings. The guide solves the problem. The affiliate products are the tools someone needs to execute what the guide teaches. Both income streams work together.
## The Front-End and Back-End Product Ladder
One concept I always come back to with clients is the difference between front-end products and back-end products. A front-end product is what someone buys first. It is usually priced between $7 and $49. It is low enough that the buying decision is easy, but meaningful enough that the person takes it seriously. The goal of the front-end product is to solve a real problem, build trust, and get the customer into your world.
A back-end product is what you sell after someone has already bought something from you and has seen the quality of your work. Back-end products can be priced higher because the customer already trusts you. They might be a full course, a group coaching program, a premium membership tier, or a done-for-you service.
Here is why this matters: when you solve someone’s first problem, that solution almost always creates a new problem. If you sell a 30-day meal plan and someone follows it, the next question is “what do I do in month two?” That is your next product. If you teach someone basic batch cooking, they might want a more advanced guide to batch cooking for a family of five. That is another product. The front-end gets them in the door. The back-end keeps them buying from you over time.
Do not get so focused on the first sale that you forget to build what comes after it.
## Find Your X
The hardest part of starting is not writing the ebook or setting up the affiliate program. It is knowing which income stream to start with given where you are right now, what skills you have, how much time you can dedicate each week, and what your audience looks like.
That is what the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com is designed for. You answer a few questions and it tells you which method fits your current situation. No guessing. No starting five things at once. Just a clear starting point so you can actually move forward.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### Does Cooking With Kya actually use these methods herself?
The video does not make specific claims about which monetization methods Kya personally uses. The video uses her as an example of a creator who has built a large audience in the cooking niche and then maps out the business model someone in that niche could use. Whether or not she does any of these things specifically is not confirmed in the video.
### Do I have to show my face on camera to make money in the cooking niche?
The video does not require face-on-camera content. Plenty of cooking channels feature only the food, the hands, and the cooking process without the creator’s face ever appearing. What matters is that the content is useful, watchable, and consistent. You pick the platform and format that works for you.
### How long does it take to get paid through Amazon Associates?
Amazon Associates typically takes 60 days from the end of the month in which the qualifying purchases happened before you receive payment. So a purchase made in January would not pay out until late March at the earliest. The video specifically calls out this delay as one of the drawbacks of affiliate marketing compared to selling your own digital products, where the money arrives immediately.
### What is a realistic income expectation starting out?
The video mentions $100, $200, or possibly $300 per day as potential earnings for someone executing this model well. These numbers are not guaranteed results and will depend on the size of your audience, how consistently you publish, which income methods you use, and how well your content converts. Starting from zero, it takes time to build the audience that makes those numbers possible.
### Do I need a huge following to sell a digital product?
No. A small but engaged audience that trusts your recommendations will outperform a large disengaged audience nearly every time. Someone with 2,000 genuine followers who posts consistently in a specific niche can absolutely sell a $27 ebook. You do not need to wait until you hit 100,000 followers to put something up for sale.
### What is the difference between an affiliate deal and a brand deal with a company like Blue Apron?
With an affiliate deal, you sign up for their program, get a unique link, and earn a commission each time someone converts through your link. You are not paid upfront. With a brand deal, you negotiate directly with the company and they pay you a flat fee or retainer to feature their product in your content, regardless of how many conversions happen. A brand deal typically requires a larger audience to land, but it pays upfront and does not depend on your audience clicking a specific link.
### Can anyone build this kind of business or is it just for young women?
The video makes this point directly: anyone can do this. You do not have to be a woman. You do not have to be young. You do not have to dance on TikTok. You need a niche, you need to create content that connects with the people in that niche, and you need to find the right monetization methods for where you are. The fundamentals apply regardless of who you are.
### Which of the 10 methods should I start with?
The video points to Amazon Associates as the easiest entry point because you do not need your own product and you can get started quickly. But your best starting point depends on your specific situation. If you already have an audience, a digital product is faster to profit from. If you are brand new with no audience, affiliate marketing lets you start generating links before you have anything to sell. Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com to get a specific recommendation based on where you are.
## Read Next
If you want to understand which niches work best for affiliate marketing before you commit to one, read this next: 7 Best Affiliate Niches for Complete Beginners (Evergreen Picks). It covers the criteria for picking a profitable niche and walks through seven categories that convert well for affiliate income.
## Sources
– Transcript from Alston Godbolt’s YouTube video: “Cooking With Kya & Make Money Online” (youtu.be/3S1T1uZVHv0)
– Amazon Associates program details referenced in video
– Blue Apron affiliate/sponsorship model referenced in video
– Butcher Box affiliate program referenced in video
– Williams-Sonoma affiliate program referenced in video
– Patreon and Skool membership platforms referenced in video
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*Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.*