When I started my NutritionJobs business back in 2000 as a side hustle dietitian job, I had no idea how successful and fun it would be. Within a few successful years, it significantly boosted my overall dietitian salary, and eventually it became my full time venture.

I'm not alone though. Lots of other dietitians have found creative ways to boost their overall salary as a dietitian with a side hustle, or a side gig.

How to Make More Money with a Side Hustle as a Dietitian

As a dietitian, you have lots of career options. I think it is so important for dietitians to boost their income potential. With a side hustle, you have the option to actually make more money on the side.

As a dietitian, you can work full-time for another company, you can work for yourself, or you can combine the options and do both! Having a side hustle can fuel your creative side to bring in extra money on the side. And if you are running a side hustle in addition to your full-time job with another company you can enjoy their benefits, like health insurance too.

I have had tremendous success with NutritionJobs as my "side hustle" and I wish the same for all my fellow dietitians; that you can have fun, satisfaction, and more revenue in your career as a dietitian!

Who knows? Maybe your side hustle will turn into a full time venture too!

Freelance Dietitian Jobs vs Dietitian Side Hustles vs Alternative Dietitian Jobs

This list of side hustle work, or gig work, is similar to Freelancing Dietitian Jobs, but different than our Alternative Dietitian Jobs.

Alternative Dietitian Jobs - Alternative jobs are often when one is working for another company. An example might be working as a Worksite Wellness Dietitian for an established company.

Freelancing Dietitian Jobs - Freelancing as a dietitian can be considered full-time work where you are providing a service for a variety of other clients. An example would be as a freelance writer, putting in 30-40 hours/week with your writing business.

Side Hustle Dietitian Jobs - Side hustle jobs are more likely considered to be part-time work, as side work or a side gig in addition to your other work. Maybe you work on the weekends or after hours offering, developing, and marketing your extra work. An example would be developing and marketing digital goods, like a 3-week postpartum menu planner to boost breastmilk volume that you sell on Etsy, RD2RD Marketplace, your Blog, on Instagram or Facebook, or your website.

One dietitian who makes it her side hustle business to train other dietitians how to create a nutrition side hustle business is Katie Dodd of Dietitian Side Hustle. She runs an excellent program to train health professionals how to start a blogging business, the Blogging Accelerator Program*.

Why Start a Dietitian Side Hustle

Imagine what you could do with an additional $300 per month from your side hustle? I bring in that amount with my downloadable templates every month. You could spend that money on additional CEU courses, training, business subscriptions, or software. Or shoes!

Side hustles and freelance work can be combined with your regular job to bring in extra money, to foster your creativity (without supervision or approval from management!).

Speaking of, this article contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase a product using my affiliate link, I will receive a small commission or bonus. This will in no way impact the price you pay. Affiliate links on this page are denoted with an asterisk (*). And that's a side hustle (check out #14 below)!

Examples of Side Hustle or Freelance Dietitian Jobs

Here are some different side hustle opportunities for dietitians or dietitians-to-be to make extra money to boost your dietitian salary, while enjoying a flexible, self-made schedule.

1. Spokesperson or Brand Influencer. Companies look for dietitians to promote and represent their products and this is a great way to make an income. Research the companies you believe in and trust. Reach out to their PR department to find out how you can get involved. Send an email introduction and offer your services. Here's a resource on writing a pitch with a formula. This can be done on your own time, especially if you can create promotions on social media or an email to your following after hours. Brands are looking all types of dietitians who have any influence on consumers, not just macro-influencers. Rates will vary, but you can expect approximately $500 for every social media slide you create and promote. Have a media kit prepared and updated. Canva* offers really professional templates to create media kits and other marketing materials.

2. Sports Dietitian Consultant. Many sports teams have a dietitian on staff. Look at the teams you enjoy, whether it is professional, collegiate, high school, or middle school. And consider Club Level or Recreation Level. Pitch the lead coach the value of having a dietitian on staff, part-time or on-call, to optimize and enhance their players’ performances. Maybe you can provide them with game-day menu planning, snack support, or between training fueling programs. On your website or landing page, include a section about your consulting services with a list of service options they can choose from to wok with you.

3. Diabetes Educator Consultant. Diabetes care is covered through insurance. Network with doctor offices or outpatient services to provide the patients with classes or special programs you designed. You might not be able to do this type of side hustle work after work but you may be able to offer your services on the weekends.

4. Cook/Chef. Not only can you make meal plans for your clients, you can make actual real meals. Either deliver the meals or cook for them directly in their homes. Perfect for after hours or weekend work. You could also batch cook family lunches (casseroles, prepped sandwiches that can be frozen minus the condiments), hefty snacks (frozen fiber-bomb muffins), or to-go breakfast helpers (frittatas, veggie scones, mini breakfast burritos or pizzas).

5. Grocery Store Tours. Many grocery stores have hired dietitians to help their customers navigate the aisles from reading food labels to buying products to make a healthy meal. This is a great way to help clients set up a weekly meal plan. It's also a great way to gain clients for your private practice if you work for yourself. Partnering with a grocery store can be a win-win. The grocery store increases its community outreach and customer perks, while you get to build your skills and client leads. Plus they do all the marketing usually. And it's fun! Have you ever given a grocery shopping tour? I used to do them for my research participants at a busy Whole Foods in Mill Valley. Everyone flocks to you, you are an instant leader, and you get to sample new foods with your participants.

6. Pediatrics. This market is huge when it comes to private practice. Whether you want to focus on counseling the kids, providing recipes for entire families, teaching families how to eat healthy, or conducting cooking classes with the youth, you have a plethora of options. You could share your subscription menu planning services with a pediatric office as a side hustle. You could offer Ask an RD virtual Q+A where you could market your services to parents. You could offer 1:1 pediatric counseling services on the weekend when parents and their children are more available to meet.

7. Author/Writer/Blogger. Write for a magazine, blog, newsletter, or be a ghost writer. You can get paid for the word count or for the project. You could develop your own money-making blog with enough monthly traffic. Lots of dietitians have been very successful in the blogging space.

8. Speaker. Presentations to corporations, businesses, and conferences can all provide a paycheck. Start speaking locally with groups or organizations and you can work your way up to national speaking gigs.

9. Public Relations Consultant. Be an advisor by developing and presenting food communications through various media outlets. Many companies now have dietitians on staff who assist with their PR. You can make consumer education or media materials. Or get other dietitians to help promote the product you are representing, too.

10. Social Media Manager. Most companies use social media to promote their products and services. Share your nutrition knowledge and expertise through their social media outlets. Using technology to reach the masses is a great way to get the message across.

11. Food Photographer. Photos help sell products. Whether you have a blog or develop recipes for companies, your photos can enhance your work. Many dietitians now incorporate their own food photography into their practice.

12. Direct Sales. This can include athletic wear, beauty products like Beauty Counter, personal care products, and supplements, to compliment your private practice or other job, as allowed by your work contract or the law.

13. Digital Goods. You can create workbooks, ebooks, menu plans, menu plan subscriptions, Canva templates to sell, handout sets, and so on. Just set up a shopping system on your website, or a landing page (with Leadpages, Mailchimp), Instagram or on Pinterest, leading back to your sales page. You can sell to your client (B2C), your customer (B2C), or to another dietitian (RD2RD) or to another healthcare professional (B2B).

14. Affiliate Sales and Marketing. Have you ever purchased a subscription to a service and then they offered you the opportunity to partner with them as an affiliate? For example, I purchased a course template from the legal template site, Businessese*, and she offered me my own unique affiliate link to pass along to others. If others also purchase a template from her I will make a small commission, at not additional cost to the buyer. Everyone benefits. I receive a small commission for spreading the word about a product I love, Businessese wins because she reached a buyer she wouldn't have connected without me, and the buyer gets an awesome product ... and can now become an affiliate as well.

Advertising Your Side Hustle

To help expand your market, you should consider creating a LinkedIn Company Page for your side hustle. Here's why:

1. A LinkedIn Company Page allows you more real estate to advertise your brand and services
2. You can cultivate followers for your business to capture email addresses, separate from your personal profile
3. You can showcase and feature your service, be it blog articles (another way to attract website sessions for ad revenue), private practice clients or referrals, podcast listeners, sponsors for your talks or webinars, members for your menu planner subscriptions, customers for your courses, supplements companies to buy your freelance nutrition articles.
4. You can host live events. you can do this on other platforms but LinkedIn uniquely advertises your events so you can get a bigger audience. Make your call-to-action focused so you can get those folks on your email list!

Tell us if you have another idea that we can add to the running list.

Resources for Dietitian Side Hustles

There are so many dietitian side hustle ideas, and more keep presenting as valuable opportunities for dietitians to make more money on the side.

Here are resources to help turn your side hustle idea into a reality. Again, some are affiliate links, which means I may get a commission if you purchase, at no extra cost to you. These are resources I like and recommend and are indicated with an asterisk (*).

1. Erica Julson, RD, of the Unconventional RD - It's time you start earning money blogging! Erika has a course with action-ables - sign up here and start making more money.* She also has a podcast where she shares lots of alternative job ideas for dietitians.

2. Katie Dodd, MS, RDN, CSG, LD, FAND of the Dietitian Side Hustle - Katie is an innovative dietitian entrepreneur who has both a Dietitian Side Hustle Podcast and Website to help you on your way to a solid side hustle as a dietitian. She runs an excellent program to train health professionals how to start a blogging business, the Blogging Accelerator Program She's got lots of ideas. Make sure you check her work out!

3. Alissa Rumsey - Resources and Tools for Dietitians

4. Heather Neal, RDN, at Dietitian HQ - Heather at Dietitian HQ has a Membership Society for Dietitians wanting to build a nutrition business.*

5. Ana Reisdorf, MS, RD - Ana is an expert freelance nutrition writer and has lots of resources so you can get in the game too. Your Guide to Freelance Writing as an RDN and Freelance Writing for the RD, The Course

Start Your Side Hustle

Having additional sources of revenue with a side business or side hustle can boost your overall dietitian salary, can foster your creativity, and open up opportunities to work with others.

There are so many ideas you can explore, but if you have any interest in writing (even if you aren't a "good writer"), having a nutrition blog is a great way to get started in the world of side hustles.

I can't wait to hear about what you dream up!

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NutritionJobs Dietetic Career Newsletter

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About the Authors

Sarah Koszyk, MA, RDN is founder of Family. Food. Fiesta. A family-based wellness program and blog focusing on recipes, family health tips, and videos with kids cooking in the kitchen. She is a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Coach specializing in sports nutrition and adult and pediatric weight management. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or LinkedIn.

Stacey Dunn-Emke, MS, RDN, is the Founder Owner of NutritionJobs and an established dietetic career expert. She helps steer dietetic and nutrition professionals to a successful job search process with the top-ranked dietetic job board platform, NUTRITIONJOBS. Stacey is the author of The Dietetic Resume Guide and numerous dietetic career action-ables. She gives the tools to create a modern standout dietetic resume to land that job interview, help with job interview prep, and with creating All-Star LinkedIn profiles. Stacey has interviewed and hired many dietitians and in running NutritionJobs since 2000, she has reviewed thousands of dietetic resumes. She works closely with dietetic hiring managers and recruiters to know what standout resume elements land a job interview.

Updated January 10, 2021; Created December 1, 2019