Subscription Button Factory

Generating Your PayPal Subscription Button

PayPal Subscriptions lets you accept recurring payments for your service. You can create customized Subscriptions buttons for your website or generate a Subscriptions link to email to your customers.

Getting Started

l	Log in to your PayPal account at www.paypal.com

l	Click on the Merchant Services tab

l	Click the Subscriptions and Recurring Payments link under the Website Payments heading to open the Subscriptions Button Factory

1.	Enter the name of your subscription.

Subscription Name

Enter the name of the subscription you wish to sell in the Subscription Name field. If you do not enter anything in this field, your customers can complete it. PayPal recommends entering a Subscription Name to make it easier for you to deliver the order.

Reference Item Number

If you have an ID or tracking number for your item, enter it in the Reference Item Number field. This field will not be displayed to your customers at the time of payment, but they will see it in their transaction details on the PayPal website.

Currency

Choose the currency in which you would like this payment to be denominated. This field will default to the currency of your primary balance.

Subscriptions Password Management

Optional field for advanced users. If you would like PayPal to generate usernames and passwords for your subscribers, click the Subscriptions Password Management checkbox. Instant Payment Notification and server modifications are required.

Note:

To learn more about managing passwords, see “Password Management”.

2.	Enter the terms of your subscription.

Trial Periods

You may enter up to two trial periods and rates for your subscription. To create a free trial period, enter an amount of 0. Trial periods can be entered as a number of days, weeks, months, or years.

Example 3.1

Your subscription may be free for the first week, and $5 USD for the following two month

In Trial Period #1, you would enter:

l	Bill the subscriber now for $0 USD

l	This trial period should last 1 week

In Trial Period #2, you would enter:

l	Then bill the subscriber for $5 USD

l	This trial period should last 2 months

 

Regular Billing Cycle

Required Field. Enter your regular subscription rate. If you entered one or two trial periods, the regular rate will take effect once the trial periods are over. Billing cycles can be entered as a number of days, weeks, months, or years.

Example 3.2

(Continued from previous example) Your subscription is $50 USD per year

In Subscription Price, you would enter:

l	Bill the subscriber for $50 USD

 

Recurring Basis

Select “Yes” if you would like your subscribers to be billed on a recurring basis. This means that after the regular billing cycle that you previously entered is complete, your customers’ subscriptions will be automatically renewed unless a customer manually cancels his subscription. If you select “No,” your customers’ subscriptions and payments will end after the first cycle is completed.

Example 3.3

(Continued from previous example) Your subscription is $50 USD per year

In Subscription Price, you would enter:

l	Bill the subscriber for $50 USD

Example 3.4

Examples of Regular Rates

l	“9.99 per week” would mean a payment is made every 7 days.

l	“9.99 per month” would mean a payment is made on the same day of the month every month.

l	“9.99 per 30 days” would mean a payment is made every 30 days.

 

Recurring Times (Installments)

Select Yes if you would like to end your customers’ subscriptions after a certain number of payments at your regular rates. This means that once a customer has made the specified number of payments at your regular rate, his subscription will be completed. If you select No, your customers’ subscriptions will continue unless it is cancelled manually or by payment failure.

Example 3.5

Examples of Recurring Times (Installments)

l	“9.99 per month for 12 installments”

You would receive 12 payments of $9.99 USD

l	“3.99 for the first week”

l	“9.99 per month thereafter for 12 installments”

You would receive 1 payment of $3.99 USD and 12 payments of $9.99 USD

 

Reattempt on Failure

Click the Yes radio button if you would like PayPal to automatically reattempt failed payments. Payments will be reattempted three days after the failure date. After a second failure, PayPal will try once more five days later. A third failure will lead to an automatic cancellation of the subscription.

Payments made with bank accounts are automatically reattempted once, three days after PayPal notifies the user that the payment failed. If you select No, failed payments will result in the automatic cancellation of the subscription.

Note:

For more information, see “Timing of Scheduled Subscription Payments”

3.	Choose a subscription button to put on your website

If you are going to be using PayPal Subscriptions on your website, choose the image for the button you would like your customers to use to make their purchase. To display your own image, enter the URL of the image’s location in the URL field.

If you have no further details to add to your subscription, click Create Button Now. Otherwise, click Add More Options.

4.	Add option fields to your button

Let your customers specify information about their purchase by creating an option field. You can use option fields to specify things like color, size, or gift-wrapping. Options must not change the price of an item, but let you collect additional information from your customer without extra email communication. Each Subscriptions button may have up to two option fields, and you may use a drop-down menu or text box to collect the information.

Unfortunately, option fields cannot currently be used if you are creating an email hyperlink. If you would still like to send out Subscriptions links in emails, you may try either sending an HTML email, providing a link to the Buy Now Button (with Option fields) on your website, or asking your user to include the optional information in the Note field.

Option Field Type

Choose the type of option field: drop-down menu or text box. If you choose drop-down menu, you will enter the different choices. If you choose text box, your customer will enter his choice.

Option Name

Enter the name of your option. There is a 60-character limit on Option Names.

Drop Down Menu Choices

If you are using a drop-down menu, enter your menu choices. There is a 30-character limit per choice, with a maximum of 10 choices. Use a carriage return (press ‘Enter’) to separate each choice.

5.	Create a Cancel Subscription Button

If you are going to be using PayPal Subscriptions on your website, you can let your subscribers cancel their subscriptions from your website. Choose an image for a Cancel Subscription button you would like your customers to press to cancel their subscriptions. To display your own image, enter the URL of the image’s location in the URL field. A link that you can send to your subscribers who wish to cancel will also be created.

6.	Customize Your Payment Pages

Custom Payment Page Style

Give your customer's a seamless payment experience by customizing PayPal's payment pages to match the style of your website. If you have already added Custom Payment Page Styles in your Profile, they will be listed here. Choose the page style you would like to appear when your customer presses your PayPal Website Payments button. To learn more about creating page styles, please see Chapter 7, “Custom Payment Pages.”

7.	Customize Your Customers’ Experience

Your customers will expect information about accessing their subscriptions on your Successful Payment page.

Successful Payment URL

Enter the URL where you would like to send your customers after they have completed payment. Once your customer has completed his payment, he will see a payment confirmation page. From this page, he will click the Access Subscription button and return to the successful payment URL you have specified. If you do not enter a successful payment URL, customers who click this link will be taken to a PayPal Web page.

Cancel Payment URL

Enter the URL where you would like to send your customers if they cancel their payments at any point in the PayPal Website Payments payment flow. If you do not enter a cancel payment URL, customers who click this link will be taken to a PayPal Web page.

8.	Miscellaneous

Shipping Address

If you would like your customers to be prompted to provide a shipping address, choose ‘Yes’. If you choose ‘No’, your customers will not be asked to provide a shipping address.

9.	Copy and Paste the Subscriptions Code

When you have finished filling out the Subscriptions Button Factory form, click the Continue button.

Your subscription terms will be listed under the Here are the Terms of the Subscription heading you just created. Make sure the terms listed are correct.

If your customers will be using Subscriptions through your website: Copy the code from the For Web Pages text box by highlighting all of the text and pressing Ctrl+C, or by highlighting all of the text, right-clicking on your mouse, and selecting Copy.

In your website files, open the code for the Web page from which you wish to collect payment.

Paste the code you just copied into your Web page file wherever you would like the image to appear (typically, next to the description of the subscription service) by either pressing Ctrl+V or by right-clicking on your mouse and selecting the Paste option.

Note:

Please ensure that the HTML code on your Web page exactly matches the code you copied from PayPal. Some HTML editors may add, delete, or change some characters in your code. If this is the case, please change the code on your Web page to exactly match the code you copied.

Note:

Please be sure that when you paste the HTML code for your button, you are pasting this information into a field that accepts HTML code. If you paste this code into a standard text field, the code will be posted on your Web page as standard text.

Note:

For more tips on placing your payment button on your Web page, see the Help section of your Web page editor.

If you will be sending your customers the Subscriptions link via email: Copy the code from the second text box (titled “For Emails”) by highlighting all of the text and pressing Ctrl+C, or by highlighting all of the text, right-clicking on your mouse, and selecting Copy.

Open the email you wish to send.

Paste the code you just copied into your email by either pressing Ctrl+V or right-clicking on your mouse and selecting Paste.

When your customers receive the email, the code will appear as a link. Clicking the link will take them to your PayPal payments page.

10.	Copy and Paste the Cancel Subscription Code or Link

Copy the code from the Cancel Subscription text box by highlighting all of the text and pressing Ctrl+C, or by highlighting all of the text, right-clicking on your mouse, and selecting Copy.

Follow the steps described above to paste the Cancel Subscription code or link into your website files or email.

11.	Testing the Button and/or Link

Now that you have the HTML code in your website or in your email, you should test it. Click on the link in the email or click the button on your Web page. A PayPal-hosted payment page should appear with the subscription terms you specified.

Because your PayPal user information is saved in a cookie on your computer, you will see your own PayPal username. Your customers will not see your username. Instead:

–	If your customer is already a PayPal member, he will see his PayPal username here

–	If your customer is not yet a PayPal member, he will see a sign-up page. To view this from your computer, click the link that reads If you are not Bob Smith, Click Here

Testing Your Subscription Implementation

You should always test your subscription implementation with the live PayPal system. Here’s an easy way to do it:

1.	Sign up for a Personal PayPal account if you don’t already have one, and add a credit card to the account. This will be your “buyer” account.

Note:

According to the PayPal User Agreement, you may have both one Personal and one Premier/Business account. Please do not set up any additional PayPal accounts, as this may result in your account access being limited.

2.	Make sure that your Business/Premier account is verified. This is your “seller” account.

3.	Open your Web browser and click the button you’ve created. Use the login and password for your buyer account to purchase the subscription.

4.	Check the results of your subscription test by looking at the emails received by both accounts and by viewing the History page for each account. They should be similar to those shown in the previous How It Works section of this document.

5.	Log in to your seller account and refund the payment. To refund a payment, go to the Transaction Details page and follow the Refund Payment link at the bottom. The refund reverses the entire payment, including transaction fees. Remember that you only have 60 days to refund the payment.

This testing method is free of charge and lets you complete the entire process yourself. You can also have friends or trusted clients buy test subscriptions, then refund them, if you would prefer not to open a second PayPal account.

How You Get Your Money

After your customer has subscribed and made any necessary first payments:

l	You will receive an email notification of the subscription (and payment, if any).

l	Your customer will receive an email receipt of the subscription (and payment, if any).

l	Your PayPal account will reflect the new subscription and be credited for any initial payments. You can download this information from your History transaction log.

Note:

To learn more about Subscriptions-related notifications, see “Notifications Merchants Receive”.