About to add Paypal to my site

[clairel99]

As a first step in our foray into ecommerce we plan to begin with Paypal's Website Payments standard. This is the version where all transactions are done on their servers (we don't capture any cust data), but we can customize with our logos, etc. Later, if all goes accordingly we will go the full route. My questions at this point are:

- Do we need a dedicated ssl at this point?

- What else are we missing that may need to be done on FQ? We have the Prospector Pkg.

- To customize with our logo, Paypal "recommend[s] that you enter an image URL for your custom page style only if the image is stored on a secure server. If the image is not stored on a secure server, your customer's web browser will display a message that the payment page contains nonsecure items."

What does this mean practically; how do I make that happen?

Thanks in advance. Sorry if this has essentially been answered in a different thread, but I didn't quite understand the other listed.

[McDuff]

A lot of people complain about PayPal, but if you are careful, you should be OK, we have it on our site already several years. We run the smallest FQ package and three different sites use the same PayPal account, so you have flexibility enough to start with. They all do however, have the same header image but that is ok with us.

No dedicated server needed for PAyPal itself. Now, your e-commerce might need it in future, but probably nonsense to start with it.

The biggest problem is that PayPal has a $ 500 limit to withdraw to your account each month. We managed to get that lifted, but mostly you need to mention all kind of private things or link a credit card to your PayPal account, give Soc Sec numbers etc. And make sure you never leave much money on PayPal, get it out asap. That is SERIOUS, they sometimes freeze accounts and then it can take a long time before they unfreeze it.

I am not sure anymore where I uploaded the URL, but our websites don't display this non-secure item thing, would not worry too much about that unless your eCommerce is running in the thousands per week, but then you should get away from PayPal anyway.

our site are below, the link brings you immediately to our page, follow the link there and you will see how it ends up with PayPal. :
CzechEmgirationMuseum.com : donations

CzechFriends.org: donations

CzechAncestry: payment for services

[oheso]

@clairel99, your logo needs to be served via SSL, that is it is accessible via a URL that begins with "https". If you're going to put the logo on an FQ server, then contact the service desk to enable to SSL for your site (if you haven't already done so).

[clairel99]

Thanks much McDuff & Oheso.

@Oheso, do I need a dedicated ssl or is the shared enough? I am guessing the shared is enough...?

@McDuff, I'll forward your links to my friend who is of Czech descent. She has visited there too.

[Matt]

Claire,

McDuff & Oheso are technically correct, but an SSL just to host a secure image seemed like overkill to me, so I googled "secure image hosting" and pulled up several sites that provide a secure logo image hosting service. The first result I saw (www.sslpic.com) is free.

-Matt

[clairel99]

Matt,

You Rock!!! Thanks yet again!!