Yes, you have my permission, provided that you follow the simple recipe sharing guidelines below.
I want to make it as easy as possible to share the joy of eating healthy vegan foods, and I’d be thrilled if you wanted to share my recipes with your audience.
Just make sure you follow the simple steps below every time you share a recipe, and everyone wins.
Please contact me if you have questions.
Thank you!
Simple recipe sharing rules
Here’s my simple rules on how to share one of my recipes:
- Share the ingredients list and directions freely
- Share up to a maximum of two unmodified photos with the recipe
- Include a link back to the original recipe
If you ensure that your recipe share meets all three of the requirements above, then everything’s good.
Here’s what it’s not OK to do:
- Copy and paste my entire post. That just hurts everyone!
- Share word-for-word any content other than the ingredients and directions. Write your own original content (introduction, etc) around the recipe please!
- Include three or more of my photos in your content, in any form or on any platform
- Modify my photos e.g. cropping out watermarks, changing colour balance, modifying content, adding text (resizing is OK)
- Include my image directly from my site (hotlinking), instead of downloading it and uploading it your site. This uses my server resources and is very bad manners!
- Share any part of my posts without including a link back to the original source
Bonus recipe sharing guidelines
If you want to earn serious brownie points with me, follow the in-depth instructions below.
Please note that these bonus guidelines are totally optional, and if you want to just follow the simple steps above, that’s completely fine with me.
These extra steps are just for anyone who wants to go the extra mile and earn some great karma ;)
1. Use “Do follow” links
There are two kinds of links you can create, called “dofollow” and “nofollow”.
Nofollow links are generally only used when there is a paid relationship between the sites (e.g. a sponsored post), or if the site you’re linking to is untrustworthy. It also tells search engines to ignore these links.
So if you want to make me a happy camper, please use “dofollow” links at all times.
You can tell if your link is a do follow link simply by looking at the source of the page, or the text version of your post, and ensuring that the text rel=”nofollow” is NOT present. You can also install browser plugins that will show this information.
Dofollow link example
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/recipes/vegan-sausage-rolls/">vegan sausage rolls</a>
Nofollow link example
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/legal/privacy-policy/" rel="nofollow">Privacy Policy</a>
So please use dofollow links for all of your links to my site.
2. Use the recipe name as the text in your link
For even more points, I’d love it if you would use the name of the recipe as the text for your link.
OK – Link with vague text
e.g. You can find the original recipe for these amazing vegan sausage rolls here.
Better – Link using the recipe name
e.g. Check out the original recipe for these amazing vegan sausage rolls.
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/recipes/vegan-sausage-rolls/">vegan sausage rolls</a>
3. Add a link to my home page
To make my day, add a link to my home page as well.
Best – Link to my home page
e.g. Check out the original recipe for these amazing vegan sausage rolls from Eating Vibrantly.
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/">Eating Vibrantly</a>
Superstar – Link to my home page with ‘vegan recipe blog’
And if you’re a total superstar, make the text of that link to my home page “vegan recipe blog”.
e.g. Check out the original recipe for these amazing vegan sausage rolls from Eating Vibrantly’s vegan recipe blog.
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/">vegan recipe blog</a>
4. Link the photos back to the original recipe
People are learning to click on images to take them somewhere with more information.
So if you can, please also make the images of mine that you’re sharing a link back to the original recipe post.
e.g.
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/recipes/instant-raw-vegan-feta-cheese/"><img src="https://myamazingsite.com/wp-content/uploads/vegan-feta-cheese.jpg" alt="Raw vegan feta recipe" width="300" height="300" /></a>
Just make sure you’ve downloaded the image and uploaded it your site before sharing it.
5. Write your own directions
If you’ve made my recipe, then I strongly suggest that you describe how YOU made it, rather than using my words.
It’s better for everyone for you to put your own spin on my recipes as much as possible.
6. Tell people what you love about my recipe
Rather than just sharing my recipe and nothing else, it really makes my day when you can tell people why you love my recipe, and what about it makes it so great.
That way, people understand why you’re reposting my recipe, and are more likely to be interested in trying it out for themselves.
You’re just making it that much easier for the world to eat a plant-based wholefoods diet.
7. Tell me about it!
I love it when people share my recipes, so please tell me about it when you’ve done it, and I might just give you a shout out.
Social media is a whole world unto itself, but my simple recipe guidelines still apply here as well. Keep in mind that the rules of social media platforms may prohibit you from sharing my recipe content wholesale, so please check the rules of your specific platform before sharing my recipes.
Ideally, I’d prefer that you share the ingredients list and photos only, with a link back to my site for full instructions, as this is much better manners.
But again, I’d rather that people got introduced to the joys of vegan recipes, so please go ahead and share my recipes with your audience, so long as you follow the above rules.
And if you tag me, I might just give you a shout out, or at the very least I’ll like and/or comment on your post.
Photographs
Please note that all photos on my site belong to me, unless otherwise noted, as per my copyright notice.
I always take original photographs of my recipes, so using them without my permission, or in contravention of these guidelines or my terms and conditions is a breach of copyright.
If you want to use one or more of my images in a way that is not covered by these guidelines, please contact me first for permission.
Modifying my recipes
If you’ve made my recipe, but altered it in some way, I’d still appreciate receiving credit.
Slight modifications
If you only made slight modifications, such as changing out a couple of ingredients, or adjusting the balance of flavours, then I’d appreciate you giving me credit in the form of an “adapted from” link.
e.g. Adapted from Eating Vibrantly’s vegan feta cheese recipe.
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/recipes/instant-raw-vegan-feta-cheese/">vegan feta cheese recipe</a>
Larger modifications
Of course, once you seriously modify a recipe, then it’s your creation, not mine, but it’s always nice to be given credit in the form of an “inspired by” link.
e.g. Inspired by Eating Vibrantly’s vegan feta cheese recipe.
<a href="https://eatingvibrantly.com/recipes/instant-raw-vegan-feta-cheese/">vegan feta cheese recipe</a>
Offline recipe sharing
The above guidelines apply only to online sharing of my recipes.
If you want to publish my recipe in print form, whether that’s a cookbook, magazine, newsletter or other hard-copy form, please contact me for permission.
Other recipe sharing guidelines
Here’s some other people’s thoughts about sharing recipes:
- How To Share A Recipe Properly – Step By Step Instructions at The Gracious Pantry
- Recipe Attribution by David Lebovitz
- Recipe Attribution from Food Blog Alliance
- Recipes, Copyright and Plagiarism at Plagiarism Today
- The Definitive Guide to Recipes and Copyright from Paleo Flourish
Keep in mind that there are lots of opinions out there on recipe copyright, what you are allowed to share, and how to cite a recipe correctly.
But ultimately, if you’re not sure, the best thing you can do is to ask the recipe creator for permission.
And of course, please contact me at any time if you have further questions.