Learning how to create a PayPal payment button or link using PayPal’s Website Payment Standards is perhaps one of the most basic things you need to master if you want to make money online. After all, why bother with advanced stuff like SEO and copywriting when you don’t even know how to collect money?

There are some advantages to using PayPal’s payment buttons:

• It’s easy to do and you don’t need any additional software
• The money goes directly to your PayPal account via a secure page
• You can also collect payments via credit card if the user doesn’t have a PayPal account

I tried searching for tutorials on how to create a PayPal payment button but wasn’t satisfied with what I found. So I decided to create my own tutorial.

To setup PayPal buttons and payment links however, you need to have a Premier or Business account. You cannot do this with a personal account. However, you can upgrade from a personal account to Premier / Business at no cost. The only difference is that you will be paying a higher fee per transaction.

Setting Up Your Product and Pricing

The first thing you need to do is enter your product name and pricing details. Just login to your PayPal account and click on Merchant Services. Then, click on Website Payment Standards.

Next, select which type of payment you need. If you’re selling a single item (for example an ebook) then you only need to choose the Sell Single Items button. If you’re selling recurring products (like a membership site), then you can choose Offer Automated Payments. For this example, just select Sell Single Items.

Next, enter your product name and product price. If your product has an SKU number or reference number, you can enter that as well under Item ID.

If your product has a shipping fee or a tax rate, you can enter that as well. PayPal gives you the option to accept payments to your PayPal email address or you secure merchant account ID. I recommend choosing the merchant account ID option for better security.

Setting The Return URL to Your Website

To automate the deliver of your product, you must have a “Thank You” page on your website where customers will be redirected to once they have made a successful payment. The “Thank You” page should contain the product download links (for digital items) or instructions on what to do next.

Make sure you enter the correct thank you page URL for completed payments, and your website’s product page URL for canceled payments.

Getting The PayPal Payment Button or Link

The final step is to get your PayPal payment button code. You can just copy this code and paste it into your website’s salespage. The PayPal “Buy Now” button will appear on your site, and users can click on that button to be taken to the payment page.

However, if you already have a different payment button or if you want to get a link to be included in your emails, click on the the Email tab and you will see a link like this:

This is the direct payment link that you need to put on your salespages. Make sure you copy and paste the URL exactly as it is, or the payment link will not work.

If you’re planning to open a complete e-commerce store however, creating PayPal payment buttons for your entire product line is way too tedious. Instead, I recommend you try the BigCommerce shopping cart software. It comes with a complete e-commerce store, templates, and built-in PayPal payment system.

If you’re from Malaysia and want to learn how to use PayPal, here’s the best place to get video tutorials: PayPal Malaysia