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PayPal: The Grand Daddy of Online Sales Transactions
By Merle (http://MCPromotionsPress.com) (c) 2005 

I love PayPal. They've been doing business online almost as
long as I have, and they're constantly improving and adding new
features to their service.

According to their website ( http://PayPal.com ), they have over
63 million accounts and more than 53,000 people who sign up for
new access every day. They deal in transactions totaling over
$48 million per day.

PayPal makes it easy for anyone to take payments over the Net
with no need for a merchant account. What that means to you is
lower fees and a level playing field. If you've been hesitant
to start your online business because you thought you couldn't
afford your own merchant account, PayPal is all you really need.

There are three types of accounts:

Personal: For your personal shopping use. You cannot accept
debit or credit card payments, but sending and receiving money
is free.

Premier: For buying and selling under your own name. Send
payments for free, with low fees for accepting money.

Business: This is perfect for your online business. Add your
own name to be included on your customer's credit card
statements. Sending money is free, but you are charged small
fees to accept payments.

There are no set up fees and the fee you pay PayPal when
accepting cash is based on your sales volume for the month.

Standard Rate: $0 to $3,000 - pay 2.9% and .30 per transaction
Merchant Rate: $3,000 to $10,000 - 2.5% and .30 per transaction
$100,000 and up - 1.9% and .30 per transaction.

To apply for the merchant rate, you'll have to have one month
of sales that meet the ranges above and fill out a short
application to get approved.

Many of the options I'm going to point out to you are for
"business accounts" only, so you'll want to go that route when
registering or upgrade your current account to that level.

Paypal has added so many new features over the years, it's hard
to keep up with just how powerful it is. I'm amazed every day at
the variety of features that can make your life as an online
entrepreneur run as smooth as silk.

Let's take a look at some of these options:

1)  Shopping Carts: If you sell multiple items on your site,
PayPal has a built in shopping cart. Just copy and paste their
buttons for an instant store front. No third party software
needed.

2) Subscriptions/Recurring Payments: If you sell a service
that needs to be paid for monthly, you can set up this type of
payment option on your site. This is great for trial periods and
membership sites.

3) Donations: Maybe you don't sell anything, but you have a very
informative site or newsletter. A PayPal button suggesting your
readers make a donation is one way to help defray your costs.

4) Optional PayPal Accounts: One of the drawbacks to using
PayPal used to be your buyer had to register for their own
PayPal account. This is no longer true and you can select in
your control panel to make it optional, not mandatory.

5) Customized Payment Pages: You can add your website colors
and logo to PayPal's payment pages. You can create and save up
to three different page styles for a seamless check out process.

6) Logo Center: If you accept PayPal on your site you'll want
to add logos to your website letting the world know. You'll find
many shapes and sizes to use.

7) Invoicing: Send your customers detailed invoices via email.
You can include detailed line items, descriptions, tax and more.
You can save up to 10 customized invoices for later billing
purposes.

8) Payment Request Wizard: Did you know you can add payment
buttons to your Outlook and Outlook Express messages? This is
a quick and easy way to get paid faster.

9) PayPal Debit Card: If you have a PayPal account you'll want
to get a debit card to go with it so you can easily access your
funds at at any ATM. The card has a Mastercard logo so you can
go shopping and the money will come out of your PayPal balance.
You can also use it to draw out cash from your account up to
$400.00 per day. You'll also earn 1.5% cashback on your purchase.

10) Refunds: Anytime you receive a payment, you can easily
refund it by clicking a button up to 60 days after the sale.

11) Mass Pay: Easily send payments to large groups of people.
This would be an easy way to pay your affiliates if you run your
own affiliate program.

12) Packing Slips: If you sell hard goods you can create packing
slips for your shipments.

13) Shipping Calculator: Easily add shipping costs for your "buy
it now" buttons or your PayPal shopping cart items.

14) Seller Protection Policy: If you meet their guidelines you
can protect yourself from liability and PayPal will absorb the
chargeback at no cost to you. Covers up to $5,000 on any
fraudulent transaction and is for tangible goods only.

15) Auto Return: You set the url for your buyers to come back
to after they make their payments. Great for setting up your
download page for what they purchased and makes for instant
delivery.

Since eBay also owns PayPal, they've also integrated some
pretty cool tools for eBay Sellers:

1) End of Auction Emails: When your auction ends, wouldn't it
be nice if you could send a customized email with all of the
details included automatically? Now you can. This is great for
putting nervous buyers at ease when they are waiting to hear
from you.

2) Auction Logos: If you want to offer an option in your eBay
listings so buyers can pay you directly you can manually add a
PayPal logo to do so.

3) Post Sale Manager: If you sell many items on eBay it can be
a full time job tracking it all. With PayPal Post Sale Manager
you can easily manage invoices, shipments, and feedback on
everything you sell.

4) Shipping Center: USPS and UPS have teamed up with PayPal to
offer you integrated service in one location. Calculate shipping
costs, print shipping labels, track shipments and much more.

5) Buyer Financing: Add promotional financing to your "big
ticket" items so your eBay buyers can more easily afford to
purchase with monthly payments. Buyers are approved within 30
seconds and you get paid your full price immediately.

6) eBay Gift Certificates: Send eBay Gift certificates to your
friends and family so they can buy anything on eBay as long as
the seller accepts PayPal.

As you can see, PayPal is all you need to run your online
business. If you thought all you could do was accept or send
payments, you're missing out on the powerful features that makes
PayPal the perfect business partner for any entrepreneur. And as
partners go, that's one thing you can both agree on.

================================================================
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================================================================

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