Putting Paypal buttons on your website
Paypal will become an essential part of your life if you develop
an e-commerce business.
You probably won’t travel very far in the world
of making websites before you need to accept some form of payment
on your website.
However, when it comes to accepting other peoples’ money
on your website you need to make sure that those payments are safe,
secure and trustworthy and they’re not going to land you in
trouble.
Most simple, small business sites will be perfectly happy with
a simple, ‘off-the-shelf’ solution which takes away
the pain of getting involved in security certificates and the like
... believe me, you don't want to go there!
The best and most simple solution that I’ve found comes from
Paypal, though Google also offers a neat (but not so flexible) option
with 'Google Checkout'.
If you haven’t already got a Paypal
account, read all the info and get signed up now … there’s
a reason they dominate the market in online payments and it has
something to do with being a very good service.
 Adding
buttons to your website
First get yourself a basic account
Next, you need to upgrade to a business account - it doesn’t
cost anything to do so.
Once you’ve upgraded to a business account, head straight
for the 'Merchant' options.
With merchant options you can create:
… and being a member of Paypal means you can accept credit
and debit cards, a professional dimension for any small business.
What’s more, because you’re dealing with a third party,
they handle all the security issues for you, but they make the payment
process of leaving your website, then returning to your website
afterwards, completely seamless.
 How
the buttons look on your site
I’ve created a ‘Donate’ button as an example below.
‘Donate’ buttons are very popular on sites like this
one where much information service is provided for free and - if
it’s useful - readers are asked to make a small contribution.
Click on the button below (don’t worry, you won’t be
forced to make a contribution!) to see how it works ... just click
on 'Return to website-academy.com' to be taken to the cancellation
page:
You’ll see that as soon as you click on the button, you are
taken away from my site directly to Paypal.
Note that the padlock and security confirmations appear immediately
… the minute you’re with Paypal, the payment security
measures begin.
You’ll also see that the payment page is customised with
the name of my business website-academy.com, the reader can add
as much or as little as they want in the payment box and, if you
change your mind and decide not to donate, you can click on the
‘Return to website-academy.com’ link at the bottom of
the page.
 If
you click on that link, you’re taken to a
custom cancellation page which you can set when creating your
button … but if you go ahead and make a donation, you’re
taken to a 'Thank
you' page, again which I was able to set up when creating the
button.
Use these pages to offer other services to your customers ... never
waste an opportunity!
If you decide to donate, you get an automatic receipt and the entire
transaction is recorded in your account.
As the recipient of the donation, I get an automatic email notification
that a payment has been made to my account (I’ve just tested
it - my wife has donated 25p!), and all the accounting data I’ll
need at the end of the tax year is automatically generated.
Of course, Paypal takes a cut on each transaction - they are a
business after all - but it’s a price I’m happy to pay
as a small business making only occasional transactions and not
requiring a specialist and (very expensive) customised solution.
How to add buttons to your site
Paypal can also bolt in securely to other
online store options like those made with Zen Cart and osCommerce
so you can have an online shopping cart to which a customer can
add items, then Paypal acts as the checkout working seamlessly within
your website.
 Here’s
what you need to do when creating your Paypal buttons:
1) Make sure you’ve created ‘Thanks
for your payment’ and ‘Payment
cancellation’ pages if you want to use these.
2) Use the drop down menu to say what your button is for ... Products,
Services, Subscriptions and Recurring Billing, Donations of Gift
Vouchers.
3) Add your 'Organisation service name ('web-work-at-home.com donations',
'donations', 'My donations' etc)
4) Create an optional payment ID ... when you're making millions
on your website, this acts as a handy tracking device to allow you
to monitor strands of income.
5) Customise the appearance of your Paypal button ... make it smaller,
display credit card options (or not), set your home country and,
if you're feeling really ambitious, add your own button.
Here's an example of how that might look ... you can click on the
button below without making a donation, don't worry it's for demo
purposes only ... just click on 'Return to website-academy.com'
to be taken to the cancellation page:
My inclination is not to do this - make the most of Paypal's
brand and trust - people need to know that they can trust that payments
are secure on your website, a badly made or tacky button won't do
this.
If you do decide to take this route, the only additional thing
you'll be asked to do is to give the
direct link to your custom graphic.
6) Select other options ... currency, fixed or flexible donation
amounts and Merchant ID.
When select Merchant ID options, go for 'Secure Merchant account
ID' rather than your plain text email address for the good reason
given by Paypal:
A secure merchant account ID is a number that only PayPal can
match to your real email address in your profile. Your primary email
address is never displayed, so it cannot be used by spammers.
If you choose a plain text email address, however, it will
be displayed in the button code. Anyone, including spammers,
can copy this address for their own use.
7) Make sure you save your button, it will save you lots of time
in future.
8) Move on to 'Step 3' and cut and paste your ‘Thanks for
your payment’ and ‘Payment cancellation’ URLs
into the appropriate sections ... you don't really need to worry
too much about the other advanced options on that page.
9) Now click on ‘Create button now’.
Once you do this, you’ll be directed to a list of seemingly
meaningless code (this just means the information is encrypted)
which - if you cut and paste it onto your website, will create a
payment button as in my example above.
As you get more ambitious with buttons you’ll be able to
offer options in Euros and Pounds as well as creating custom fields
for customers and even adding your website banner to payment pages.
In my opinion, Paypal really has it sorted as far as easy payment
options on websites are concerned, and it's such a well established
brand, it gives you the benefit of worldwide credibility and excellent
security.
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