Hi,
There are so many different ways of doing this that I'm rather
surprised that you are having trouble finding a service to help you.
I'm going to go with a very simple scenario, and if you have questions
or preferences then you can use the clarification button to ask them.
First off, let's go with a free web-space area, Blogger. Blogger hosts
blogs, and a blog is a web log, which are very easy to use and add
content to, so you can make posts in this blog and customize some of
the areas with very little knowledge in HTML or web hosting.
http://www.blogger.com
There are many free web-space areas on the Internet, Blogger is not
the only one, but this is where I'm going to start you out. Go to
blogger, and open an account. Very simple and free.
The Payment area you are looking for has Paypal in the request list,
and the only way to accept Paypal is by having a Paypal account. This
is not difficult either, and in fact makes the job much easier, since
with a PayPal account you can accept Visa, Master Card and other
payment options.
Paypal can be connected to a bank account, so that when someone makes
a donation, the transfer to the bank account is very simple. You can
also get a mock ATM Master Card for the Paypal account as well. All of
that comes with setting up the account at paypal.
http://www.paypal.com
Paypal also has the code on their website, which you can see once you
get an account there, for making little donation buttons for your
website.
Once you have the Paypal account and the Blogger account, go to the
Merchant Tools area on Paypal, and in the Key Features box on that
page you will see listed "Donation Buttons" .. click there and you
will be walked through the creation of a Donation Button.
Once that is complete you are going to have some Form code that looks
something like this:
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-butcc-donate.gif"
border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast,
free and secure!">
<img alt="" border="0"
src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1"
height="1">
g==-----END PKCS7-----
">
</form>
All very cryptic looking, but never mind that... you don't really need
to understand it, just block and copy the code out into a text file
(use notepad, not Word .. Notepad is under Start->All
Programs->Accessories->Notepad)
Now, back to our Blogger... Sign in and go under the Template Tab.
That first screen there where the code is... scroll down until you
find a line that says ... :
<!-- Begin #sidebar -->
<div id="sidebar">
... Find that, then copy the form code you got from Paypal to the next
line under those two lines. Click on the Save Template Changes.
And you are done, you now have a web-space that anyone can find which
allows donations to be made to a bank account.
To see an example of what this will look like, you can view this blogger area
http://researcherdregs.blogspot.com/
thanks,
webadept-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
dparizo-ga
on
24 May 2006 10:00 PDT
Thank you for your reply -- I understand how this will accomlish SOME
of what I'm after, but I do have a follow-up question:
You wrote: since "with a PayPal account you can accept Visa, Master
Card and other payment options."
But when I clicked-thru on your demo link to see what it would be like
to donate, it seemed to be requiring me (the person making the
donation) to open a PayPal account. That doesn't really feel like
"accept[ing] Visa, Master Card and other payment options" to me. That
feels like "accepting PayPal only." If that's the case, this isn't a
practical solution for me.
I have no problem opening up a PayPal account to RECEIVE the
donations. But I don't want to force folks who wish to donate to open
one also -- I don't think most people will go that far for my cause.
How can my site accept credit cards and bank transfers (as well as
PayPal) without requiring people to open a PayPal account?
Thank you.
|
Clarification of Answer by
webadept-ga
on
24 May 2006 14:28 PDT
Hi,
I agree, it does feel like that and for the most part it is (Paypal
keeps hinting that it will change this, but so far hasn't done so).
You can add an account to this system, using Paypal for one button
(use one that says PayPal on it, instead of the Visa), and then get an
account with 2Checkout.com:
http://2checkout.com/rates.htm
2Checkout.com is the most reasonable provider for taking in Visa and
Mastercard payments. That link takes you to the rates page. It is very
easy to setup, and sends the payments directly to your bank account,
minus the transaction fee of 5.5%. They also have "wizard" setup pages
so that you can alter and customize the appearance and message that
shows up on the payment page. The payments (the actual taking of the
CC number) is done on their website, so you don't have to worry about
setting up a secure page area, which means Blogger is still an option.
You would just use a CC graphic as a button link to the 2Checkout.com
payment page. Again, still very simple.
They don't take PayPal... again the only people who take PayPal is
PayPal, so you will need both of these to get what you are after if
PayPal is not a complete answer for you.
webadept-ga
|
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