How to Create a PayPal Button
For newbie internet marketers, the notion of
creating a paypal buy now button can be extremely intimidating.
I confess that it took me a VERY long time to make the attempt
myself. I have to laugh now because my first attempt at
ecommerce involved installing the 'Opencart' software through
Simple Scripts in Cpanel.
The installation and setup for that cart was
vastly more complex than setting up a paypal button... Oh well,
live and learn!
If your site is an online shopping mall then
you would be best to use shoppingcart software. However, if you
only sell a small range of products or individual items like
downloadable information products then a paypal buy now button
is perfect. Paypal buy now buttons are especially perfect for
digital download products because once you set them up you will
earn on autopilot.
Just imagine waking up in the morning to
discover you've sold ten $17 products during the night... and
they're already delivered! NICE!!!
The best thing is that people TRUST paypal
so using paypal buttons actually increases sales (especially if
the payment section of your page contains a paypal logo and
states that payments are via paypal and are therefore 100%
secure).
Before you start, you will need a success or
thank-you page for paypal to direct customers to after checkout
completion. If you are selling information products this page
could contain the download link.
Alternatively, you could harvest the buyers
email address and send the download link to them via email in
which case your success page would contain an optin form.
A good way to ensure that people stay on
that list is to offer some kind of tutorial or bonus product
that comes in instalments.
So how do you create a paypal buy now
button? You will notice that Paypal has the process set up in
three steps; button type and payment details, inventory
tracking and customizing checkout pages.
Just follow the step-by-step instructions
below to make a paypal 'buy now' button. After you have created
your first 'buy now' button you can create additional buttons
using the 'create similar button' function.
- Log in to paypal and click 'Merchant Services' and 'buy
now buttons' as per the image below
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Step 1: Creating Button type and payment details
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Specify the type of product you are
selling. Choices include; Products,
Services, Subscriptions/recurring billing,
donations and gift vouchers. Once you have
created your first paypal button you can
click the 'go to my saved buttons' under
this option to edit an existing button or
create similar buttons. To create a similar
button click the 'action' link beside the
chosen button and select 'create similar
button'.
-
Select whether you want an 'add to cart'
button or a 'buy now' button. Add to cart
buttons are for sites that offer multiple
products whereas buy now buttons are for
those that sell individual items.
-
Specify the name of the product you are
selling - Use something logical as this
becomes the name the button is saved under
for future reference. That way you will
recognize it later. Under this option you
can also add an item ID if you are selling
physical products and want to use Paypal's
inventory management system to track your
inventory
-
Enter the item Price in the next field and
which currency you want to receive payment
in (eg. US dollars)
-
Next you customize the appearance of your
paypal buy now button and the options
associated with it. You can add drop down
menus for size, color or any other option.
You can customize the appearance of the
button. You can even specify your own
button graphic.
-
The next option is Postage. If you are
selling a physical product that a flat
postage rate on (i.e. small, lightweight
items like CDs) then you can fill this
field in to specify the postage rate. To
activate this option you will need to go to
myaccount>profile>selling
preferences>postage calculations and
check the 'override postage methods per
transaction' box.
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The last option under this section is the
type of Merchant identification you wish to
use. You can use plain text where your
email address is visible in the button code
or you can select to use 'secure merchant
account ID' which replaces the plain text
email with a merchant number that only
paypal can connect to your email address.
Using this option stops spammers being able
to harvest your email address so it's a
excellent option to choose.
- Step 2: Inventory Tracking
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There are only a couple of options under
this section. The first option is to save
your buttons at paypal
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Protects buttons from fraudulent
changes (eg. switching your paypal
account for someone elses)
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Saves buttons in your paypal
profile
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Easily create similar buttons
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Edit buttons with paypal tools
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Inventory tracking for physical products -
Allows you to specify item quantities and
stop additional sales of sold out items
- Step 3: Customizing checkout pages
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If you are selling physical products you
can select to allow customers to update the
order quantity under this section.
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You can also add a field to allow customers
to leave special instructions.
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Request customer address if required for
postage purposes
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Specify a URL to forward to in the even of
order cancellation.
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Specify a URL to forward to after
successful payment - As mentioned earlier,
if you are selling downloadable products
this page can contain your download link OR
an optin form to harvest customer emails
and send them the download link via email.
-
Ebay power users can also add other
variables
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Finally - just click the 'create button' button and
your paypal buy now button will be saved to your
profile and you will be taken to a page containing
the code to add to your webpage. You have two
choices, either use the button or a link.
If you want to know how to increase
conversion rates by up to 300% then check out The Conversion Kode!
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