By Sara Richardson-McCreery

Did you know you can receive customer payments on your own Web site? With the PayPal Module and a PayPal Business Account on Microsoft Office Live Small Business, you can create your own payment buttons, position them on your site and start receiving payments from your customers--today.

How does it work?

In a nutshell, PayPal operates as your site’s payment processor to fulfill and complete online payment transactions. PayPal gives your customers the following payment choices: all major credit and debit cards, eChecks, bank transfers, and PayPal accounts. Here’s a breakdown of the process so you can see how simple it is for your customers to complete a transaction:

ü Step 1: Customers shop on your site for something and click your PayPal button.

ü Step 2: A secure PayPal page appears (with your company logo), and the customer makes a payment.

ü Step 3: The customer returns to your site after completing the payment.

Guess what you are doing while the above steps are happening…

Enjoying a cup of coffee, organizing your desk, or maybe writing customer thank you e-mails? What you are not doing is fussing with the bank about your online merchant application, fiddling endlessly with third-party shopping cart software, and forking out cash for set-up or cancellation fees.

It’s a win/win situation for both you and your customers. Your business profits and your customers benefit because you just gave them a little something in their lives that is hassle-free, efficient, and uncomplicated to use.

With no monthly fees, low per transaction fees, and no big commitment or contract—you can easily try out a PayPal payment button and see if it works for you and your business.

Before you begin

You will need to register for a free PayPal Business Account. If you already have a PayPal personal account, it is easy to upgrade to the business account. Inside the PayPal Business Account, there is a section called Merchant Services. I encourage you to sniff around this portion of the site, because along with the Create Buttons feature, PayPal offers a lot of free and useful e-commerce tools to keep your business running smoothly.

Create a PayPal payment button

PayPal offers not just one, but 5 payment button choices. This is fantastic because you can select a button that is a perfect match for your site’s needs. The buttons to choose from are:

• Add to Cart — Use it to sell multiples and variations of an item; it includes inventory tracking.

• Buy Now — Designed for single purchases and/or the one-at-a-time customer.

• Donate — Similar to the “buy now” single purchase button, but meant for donations.

• Buy Gift Certificate — A single-purchase button that allows you to sell gift certificates in amounts you specify.

• Subscribe — Great for reoccurring payments like membership dues or subscription fees.

So you can see that the benefits of PayPal buttons are not limited to only e-tailers with products to sell. Take your time deciding which button best suits your site. Be sure to factor in the goals you want to accomplish.

Next, sign in to your Office Live Small Business account. You will need to navigate to your site’s Page Manager and then select the page in which you want to embed the payment button. You can also insert the same payment button site-wide if you want to have a button that acts more like a permanent reminder or as a means of highlighting a special offer.

In Page Editor, click in the location that you want your PayPal button to appear. Then, under Module, click PayPal. A dialogue box opens and prompts you to log in to your PayPal Business account. After you have logged in, click Merchant Services. This is the section I mentioned earlier that has all the cool e-commerce tools, including the button creator.

Choose the type of button you want to work with, such as Buy Gift Certificate or Subscribe. Add the button ID information, customize its appearance, and then, depending on the type of button, you can set up your own detailed billing data such as pricing, shipping amount, tax rate, currency options, etc.

Copy and paste. When you have finished setting up the parameters for your PayPal payment button, click Create Button, and you are directed to a page where you copy a small amount of HTML code and paste the code into the open PayPal Module dialogue box inside your Page Editor. Then click OK. It sounds a bit tricky, but all you are doing is copying HTML code from the PayPal site and pasting it into your site’s PayPal Module. Then click OK to confirm the changes.

Drag and drop. You are now ready to position your button inside your site's page layout by dragging and dropping the button module. Once you have finalized the placement of your button, you can insert the button on different pages. You will need to select and copy the button module, pick a page from the Web pages drop-down list, and paste the module into the new page. This is nice because you don’t have to build new buttons for each page–you can use the same one.

Below is an example of the PayPal Buy Now button on the Fourth Coffee site:

Feel the breeze

By adding online payment transactions to your small business operations, you open the door to potential new revenue resources. There is also the possibility for company growth, sales expansion, and a larger customer base. Let’s face it, the small-business world is highly competitive, but you can stay ahead of the game and make your customers happy by offering a safe, convenient, and simple shopping experience. Don’t forget to send those thank-you e-mails to your customers!

About the author Sara Richardson-McCreery is an 11-year veteran Web developer with proven expertise in custom Web site design, development, and usability for clients ranging from big brands to startup organizations. She is the creative director and founder of Spike Likes Web Design, an award-winning Web design company located in the Washington, D.C., area.