Michael Miller - The PayPal Official Insider Guide to Growing Your Business: Make money the easy way (PayPal Press)

Make money the easy way

The PayPal Official Insider Guide to Growing Your Business

Michael Miller

This PayPal Press book is published by Peachpit.
For information on PayPal Press books, contact:

Peachpit
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (fax)

Find us on the Web at: www.peachpit.com
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Copyright 2012 The Molehill Group

Project Editor: Michael J. Nolan
Development Editor: Margaret Anderson/Stellarvisions
PayPal Press Editor: Matt Jones
Production Editor: David Van Ness
Copyeditor: Gretchen Dykstra
Proofreader: Jan Seymour
Indexer: Joy Dean Lee
Cover Design: Aren Howell, Charlene Charles-Will
Interior Design: Charlene Charles-Will
Compositor: David Van Ness

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact .

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy at the time of writing, the products and offerings by PayPal, including pricing and the manner in which they are accessed or controlled through www.paypal.com, are subject to change without notice. Subjective statements about the quality of products described in this book are not claims by PayPal but represent the sole opinion of the author.

Trademarks

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

ISBN 13: 978-0-321-76852-0
ISBN 10: 0-321-76852-3

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

To Sherry, as always.

Thanks to my old friend Michael Nolan for thinking of me for this project, and to Margaret Anderson for shepherding it through the process. Thanks also to Matt Jones and all the folks at PayPal for providing the opportunity and helping to make this book a reality.

PayPal Press would like to thank David Hershfield, Sarah Brody, Janet Isadore, Cynthia Robinson, Cynthia Maller, Anjali Desai, Jacqueline Cisneros, Angelo Vergara, Sumin Eng, and Sophia Cheng, among many other talented PayPal contributors, for their outstanding creative and constructive reviews. Most especially, wed like to applaud Michael Budwig, our product manager, whose great subject-matter expertise was only matched by his superb dedication to this books success. And for his singular focus on bringing the first PayPal Press book to print, a very special thanks to Matt Jones.

Whether youre shopping for clothes from your computer or mobile phone, or selling artworks around the globe, you face a dizzying array of choices and decisions. How do I pay? How do I get paid? What if something goes wrong?

The answer? PayPal.

We areand will continue to bethe leader in helping you send or receive payments, anytime and anywhere.

PayPal was founded in 1998 as the first web-native payment system. Innovation drives our business. Our Internet roots position us to expand PayPal as technology continues to change the way business gets done.

In the end, merchants and their customers want simple, safe, time-saving ways of doing business. They dont want to be bogged down with confusing choices. Whatever your idea, business, or payment need, PayPal can bring it to life, and youll enjoy a competitive advantage that comes with ease of use.

Once youve become the expert you didnt expect to be, youll be prepared for the next wave of innovation and change in commerce. Best of all, those changes will seem familiar because theyll be built on what you already know. After you get the basics, the rest is easy.

Sam Shrauger
Vice President, PayPal Global
Product & Experience

If youve ever purchased anything online, chances are youre familiar with PayPal. PayPal is an online payment service that enables businesses of all sizes, as well as individuals, to accept bank or credit card payments for the items they sell. When a customer pays for his or her purchases, PayPal processes the payment and transfers the funds to the sellers PayPal account. PayPal also offers a start-to-finish shopping cart and checkout system.

PayPal facilitates online payments for hundreds of thousands of Internet e-commerce ventures, as well as traditional brick-and-mortar businesses that have an online presence. Read on to learn why, for many sellers, PayPal is a necessary component of doing business online.

PayPals mission is to build the Webs most convenient, secure, cost-effective payment solution. But what is it that PayPal does, exactly?

Lets take a look at a typical online transaction involving PayPal, as shown in :

The transaction starts when a customer (lets call her Mary Ann) goes to the website of an online clothing retailer. Mary Ann finds a sweater she wants to purchase and clicks the Buy button on the product page.

Figure 1.1. A typical PayPal transaction sequence.

At this point, PayPal steps in behind the scenes. The retailer has followed PayPals instructions and inserted the necessary HTML code onto the Buy button on the sites pages. When Mary Ann clicks the Buy button, an electronic command is sent over the Web to PayPal. PayPal now takes command of the rest of the purchasing process.

Mary Ann can, if she chooses, resume shopping on the merchants website, but to keep this example simple, lets say she chooses to finalize her purchase.

Mary Ann sees a shopping cart or checkout page. Depending on the type of PayPal service involved, she might see a shopping cart page at the merchant site, or one that appears integrated with the merchant website. In other instances, Mary Ann will see a shopping cart or checkout page hosted at the PayPal site (labeled with the merchants name).