Wednesday, September 17, 2008

PayPal...It's Easier Than You Think


# 0908

If you have a product or service to sell, you might consider offering PayPal to your customers as an alternative way to pay. If you already have a business merchant account and take credit cards, stop reading now.

PayPal is hassle free and all you need to get started is a bank account. Oh yeah...and something to sell. If you're a comic, musician or other entertainer you may already have CDs, DVDs or t-shirts that you sell at your shows. These are all great items to sell on your website using PayPal.

A PayPal account can be set up in minutes. After you sign up with PayPal, they will make two very small deposits in the bank account you specified within a day or so. All you need to do is verify the amounts (this is to make sure you are the account holder) and you're ready to go. Oh yeah...you'll need a spot on your site to display your wares. We can do that for you.

Basically, here's what happens when someone makes a purchase using PayPal.

- You will receive a notification email that a payment has been received.
- Click on the link and it will take you to the PayPal page where you can transfer the money to your account. The fee PayPal takes per transaction is listed below. For example, on a $15 t-shirt, PayPal will take 2.9% or 0.44, plus an additional 0.30 per transaction. You are left with $14.26. That will almost pay for your web hosting for a month! The fees are taken out before you transfer the money to your account. It takes about 3 business days for it to show up in your account. You can also add shipping charges and a host of other services, depending on what you're selling.


I have no affiliation with PayPal other than being a satisfied customer. Many of our clients are using PayPal with great results. Here is one of the first PayPal accounts we set up which has been very successful.

As always, best of luck! Tom