Finding step by step instructions on how to set up paypal, for someone who isn't a developer

[dudawei]

I have experience creating websites, but pretty much anything outside of HTML 5.0 is pretty much jargon that i don't understand. I am starting off with Paypals's simplelest merchent account which shouldn't require any knowledge of PHP,SQL or databases, considering the merchant just creates a link to a pay pal page for shopping cart or creditcard info, and doesn't need to deal with any of the operations involved with the server-side. Does anyone know any resources that is appropriate to my knowledge level. ?

[Misty11]

Hello dudawei,

I would be happy to make a few suggestions.

Have you ever used a PayPal button? You can create a PayPal button right from your PayPal account and copy and paste the HTML right onto your website. This would allow your customers to shop on your website, add items to the shopping cart and check out with the PayPal shopping cart.

If this sounds like something that would work for you follow these steps to create a PayPal button.

Log into  your PayPal account, click Profile (under My Account), click My selling tools, click Update next to PayPal buttons, click Create button/Create new button. Follow the step to create the button, the last step will be to copy the HTML code and paste it onto your website.

I hope this will help you get started.

~Misty

[AMAA]

I know how to setup the buttons and they are working good on my website. The issue I am having is I want to add them to emails using CC but the code cannot be inserted. I need to link to the button destination which bypasses the data collection process. i.e. What belt rank, member/non-member, name, phone number. Is there a way to collect that information after getting to the button's URL using the same dropdown lists or radio buttons?

[broni]

I am only just learning about webdesign. I am trying to offer PayPal option on my website. I followed the instructions for the Button, copied & pasted the html. Now when you fill out the form and click the "subscribe" button, it sends data to my email but never connects to Paypal. What did i do wrong?

[PayPal_Frank]

Hi broni and AMAA,

Welcome! 🙂

broni,

It sounds like the payments are being sent especially if you are receiving emails from PayPal stating that money has been sent.  If that's the case and the money is not showing in your PayPal account, there are two possibilities:

1. The emails you are receiving from PayPal are fake and somebody is trying to make you think you have been paid.

or

2. The email address on your PayPal account needs to be confirmed.  Here are instructions for confirming your email address:  How do I confirm my email address?

If you're email address is confirmed and you know for certain that the payments are being sent, the next possibility to explore is that the money is being sent to a different PayPal account.

AMAA,

There isn't a way to collect custom form information from the PayPal pages but it is possible to require a phone number as part of PayPal checkout.  You may then want to setup an Instant Payment Notification (IPN) listener to receive the payment information from PayPal and update your email list.  Don't forget that the buyer needs to give permission to receive any emails not related to the PayPal purchase. You may also want to request the additional information before the customer clicks the PayPal button and forward that information to PayPal as part of checkout.  You could use the on0 and os0 variables to collect more information. Here's a list of all the HTML Variables PayPal buttons support: PayPal Button Variable Reference. There's also a "custom" variable that can be used as well.  These options do require that you use "non-hosted" button code and custom code the HTML on your website.

You may also want to explore 3rd party shopping carts to see if they have these features built-in.  For a list of shopping cart and PayPal custom button code tutorials, check out Nate's Blog on the PayPal Developer Network:

Nate's Blog

I hope this helps. 🙂

- Frank

[broni]

Thanks Frank. I finally got it sorted and payments are going through just fine. Fantastic!!