How to create a PayPal button.

[Misty11]

How do you create a PayPal button?

Browsing around on the Forums I have found many posts asking questions about the different PayPal buttons and the options available. Attached to this post you will find a basic Step-by-Step overview about how to create a PayPal button and what button is best for your business. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions.

~ Misty

[kfannin2]

Im trying to sell items on craigslist. How can apply the paypal feature to my craigslist accout?

[Misty11]

Hello kfannin2, 

Welcome to the Forums. 

I am aware of a couple different ways you can sell on Craigslist offering PayPal as a way to pay. You can follow the steps to create a button offered in the PDF my post - in the last step "Viewing your button code" take a look at the Email URL step. Copy and paste the email URL link and paste it in the body of your Craigslist post and follow the steps to complete your Craigslist listing. What your buyers will see? Once they click on the link it will re-direct them to the PayPal shopping cart to complete the sale.

You can also ask the buyer for their PayPal email address and send them an invoice thru your PayPal account.

I hope this helps.

~ Misty

[LoraRDV]

Thanks for the instructions Misty. I followed them and created a button, but when I pasted the code into my WordPress-based site, the button is huge and pixelated--almost exactly like the button on the cover of your PDF, only worse.

Here is a cropped screenshot of the button so you can see what I mean. I've tried resizing the button using parameters in the <img> tags, but nothing has helped. Any suggestions?

[Misty11]

Hello LoraRDV, 

Welcome to the Forums. 

Wordpress can be tricky when it comes to pasting PayPal button code into a page. I am not sure how familiar you are with Wordpress, there are PayPal button plugins that work a lot better then creating a button in your PayPal account and copying and pasting the button code onto a page. I do know you can paste the HTML PayPal button code into the text widget from the Wordpress dashboard. If you would like to reply with your website URL I can take a look and see if I can come up with a better answer for you.

Misty

[MTS_MichaelL]

Hi all,

Probably Misty's idea is the easiest way to get it working properly, however I thought I'd share the link approach anyway. It works on the principle of hiding a payment link behind an image (of a button).

First, let's create the payment link. Let's go to the PayPal account, directly to the button designer:
https://www.paypal.com/ie/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_button-designer
(this link will likely require login)
Make sure the button has no interactive elements - no dropdowns or additional edit boxes, as you won't get the "email" option once it has been created. It doesn't matter in this case if the button is stored on your PayPal account or not.

Let's save this link somewhere (in Notepad, for example) or open the new Wordpress post in a separate browser tab/window. In the post window let's upload image.

Now let's choose an image for our button. It can be anything whatsoever, but I chose this one:

(https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_SM.gif)

Other button examples are here:
https://ppmts.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ppdts.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=632

Now, let's choose "From URL", paste in the image link and the payment link:

Click "Insert into post" and you're done!

This technique will likely work with most forums and sites that don't quite allow inserting code, but tolerate links and images.

Regards,

Michael

MTS

[LoraRDV]

Michael and Misty, thanks so much! I've never received better answers from online help forums. I will try your solutions later today.

Meanwhile, I inserted style code in the <input> attributes. It looks better, but still not great.

Here is the code in question:

<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="1" style="width:130px;height:53px;" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">

And here is how it looks: http://www.reddesertviolin.com/button-test/

Thanks again. I'm sure these solutions will be great!

[MTS_MichaelL]

Have you tried changing the dimensions width:130px;height:53px; to width:147px;height:47px; ?

These are the original dimensions of the button.

I hope this helps.

Michael

MTS

[peyton666]

Thanks! This procedure works with CONSTANTCONTACT'S new "Paypal" tool (the chain link icon). The key is to select the 'EMAIL OPTION' on PAYPAL when first creating the BUTTON. Becasue just as you wrote that option will not appear if you select any "drop' down' etc options in creating the button. Thanks! this was great helpt to me!

[Misty11]

Hello peyton666, 

Welcome to the Forums. 

Thank you for the feedback. I am glad we could all help. 

Misty