How You Can Earn Passive Income Selling Digital Products In Nepal

People often ask me how I make money online from blogging in Nepal.

Further, they have other queries like:

• How can I sell eBooks in Nepal?
• How to earn passive income in Nepal?
• Can you make money blogging in Nepal?

Ever since I heard about passive income,  it has intrigued me. I wanted to know what it was and how to make money through it.

• Start a blog.
• Make videos on YouTube.
• Use affiliate marketing.
• Sell a course.
• Invest in the stock market.

These were some ideas I found online regarding passive income sources.

I started looking into all the ways to make passive income.

But, sadly, there were only a few options to do so living in Nepal.

For instance, starting a blog was doable. But monetizing it with Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, and other methods was tough.

Similarly, making Youtube videos was easy. But growing an audience was hard. Even if you reached 1000 subscribers, creating real, sustainable passive income from Nepal was tough.

Starting a blog

I started a blog back in 2016, thinking I would monetize it with Google Adsense and earn passive income. But, my plan failed miserably. My blog sucked—it had less than 10 views, and it broke down because of technical errors.

After 4 years, I gave another shot at blogging. During the 2020 Covid pandemic, I started a personal blog and wrote articles there.

Furthermore, I learned about building websites, email marketing, content marketing, and freelancing.

I was also able to monetize my blog with Google Adsense. But, as I said before, it was tough making money off display ads.

Even though I wasn’t making any money (or making only a tiny sum), I didn’t stop writing. I loved it.

So, I explored more platforms where I could write and connect with others.

Writing and selling an eBook

After a year of writing, I decided to publish an eBook.

But the hard part was selling it. I researched many platforms in Nepal, but none supported selling digital products like eBooks.

I was frustrated. Nepal has a lot of restrictions regarding receiving and sending international payments for selling products. So, I could not use a global platform too.

At last, I decided to give away my eBook for free.

I have written three eBooks so far, and two are free.

Fortunately, I was able to develop a strategy that allowed me to sell my eBook to my international audience and make a passive income. I will discuss my approach in this article.

How to earn passive income in Nepal by selling digital products?

Before getting into the steps, I would like to address the meaning of “digital products.” Digital products are intangible goods that exist in digital form. Examples include ebooks, graphic design, courses, stock photography, templates, music/audio, videography, apps, etc.

In this article, I will be giving the example of an eBook as it is a primary product for me.

Below are the steps you can follow to create digital products, sell them, and make a passive income in Nepal.

Step 1: Build an audience.

Before creating and selling your digital product, you must build an audience because they will be your potential customers.

How do you build an audience?

Create lots of free online content.

You must first build your online portfolio and get recognized by people in your niche.

If you want to sell stock photographs (for example), allow people to see your work first. Use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

I create blog posts, articles, and social media posts as a writer. I wrote free blog posts for more than a year before making my first digital product (eBook).

So, start creating content. And remember to provide value through your work. This will increase your followers, viewers, and subscribers. In other words, you will build an audience.

Step 2: Create a digital product.

People know who you are now. It’s time to create your digital product.

Write an eBook, create a course, build an app; whatever your expertise is, do it.

Take time building your product. Make sure it provides value because nobody likes to spend money on something that is not beneficial to them.

I wrote my third eBook (the one I’m selling currently) in one month. So, thirty days of hard work has provided be a lifetime of potential income.

Step 3 (IMPORTANT): Choose a platform and set up a payment method.

This step is crucial because it is where creators in Nepal fail. We do not have online platforms to sell digital products. I’ve already said that.

Our government does not support PayPal and other international payment systems. Sad!!!

Freelancers and creators with many skills are bound to miss out on opportunities.

I’ll be sharing my exact method of how I chose a platform and set up a payment method.

I write on Medium, a platform for writers worldwide to read, write, and connect. I have a good following there. Through Medium, I learned about a platform called Gumroad that allows writers to sell their digital products independently.

Upon experimentation, I found that Gumroad is not suitable for me. Then, I found a similar platform called Payhip, which worked perfectly. So, if you are looking for a place to sell your digital product from Nepal, use Payhip (click here to join it using my affiliate link).

How to get paid?

What I did was I asked a friend living in Australia to open a bank account in his name so that I could use it to send my payments.

Then I signed up on a website called Stripe (which is similar to PayPal) to receive payments from Payhip. I linked my Stripe account with the bank account I created through my friend in Australia.

Whenever people buy my eBook, the money goes to my Stripe account first. Then, after a few days, they automatically send it to the bank account. My friend will then transfer it to my bank account here in Nepal.

Important note: If you want to use this method, make sure that your friend living in Australia or another international country is trustworthy. It is better to have a sibling or cousin whom you can trust more.

Step 4: Market your product to your audience.

I market my eBook by writing about it on Medium. Moreover, I also share it on LinkedIn and write blog posts on my website.

Here are a few things you can do:

• Write about your product on Medium (like I do) and post a link for people to buy.
• Post on social media (frequently).
• Repurpose your post and send it to all platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
• Make Youtube videos about it and post links in the description.
• Use paid ads on Google and Facebook to promote your product.

Step 5: Earn passive income.

The last step is to earn passive income through your product. The beauty about selling digital products is that you only have to create them once, and they can make money throughout your lifetime.

However, keep experimenting with ways to promote your product. Do not rely on a single strategy.

You can start building more products and sell them online using the methods I described here.

Conclusion

It is hard to earn passive income by selling digital products like ebooks in Nepal. The main reason is the payment method.

I learned about my method through trial and error. I was desperate to make a passive income doing what I loved, which was to write. So, I had to figure out a way to do it. I have been fortunate enough to make a good income using this method.

Try out my strategy of creating and selling digital products in Nepal. If you have any queries, you can write to me directly at biliz@bilizmaharjan.com or reply to this article.

Thanks for reading.

Please check out my eBook How to build side hustles & make money online here.