Create Custom Download Message and Encrypt Paypal Buttons


One of the most significant website problems I needed to solve when creating and selling Ebooks online was a way to allow customers to automatically download Ebooks after completing their purchase on Paypal.

Selling Ebooks and other digital products online is becoming increasingly popular as the Internet continues to explode. Enabling customers to automatically download the Ebook or digital product right after they make the purchase is of utmost value to customers. However it is also just important to authors and artists to protect their work from nefarious characters prowling the Internet. Part of the solution to this problem is to provide authors and artists the ability to offer their products online, while providing security and protection during the purchasing process. Part of this protection process includes encryption of “Buy Now Buttons� from companies such as Paypal.

Paypal does offer the ability to create unique encrypted payment buttons with unique return URL hyperlinks on the final Paypal payment page, however there is a significant limitation.

By creating separate return URLs you can create separate download pages that have hyperlinks to the downloadable Ebook document. The problem, however, is that the URL is referenced (or titled) by a “Return to Merchant� button or statement on the final Paypal payment page. This “Return to Merchant� statement is vague and consequently many customers do not click on it to go to the download page. Instead they get angry and frustrated and contact webmasters like myself to vent their frustrations.

For me, the simplest way to solve this problem was to change the text “Return to Merchant� to something like “Click here to Download Your Order�. However, I learned that this was easier said than done. The major reason for this was that I like most businesses; wanted to protect the location of the download files. As a result, I always selected to have my Paypal buttons encrypted when creating the Paypal buttons using Paypal’s Buy Now Buttons tool. The problem with using the encryption tool under the Paypal Buy Now Buttons utility tool is that you have no way to edit the “Return to Merchant� text.

After several weeks and many hours of research I finally figured out a solution to change the “Return to Merchant� text AND encrypt the “Custom� Paypal button. The solution consists of knowledge gained from many different websites and forums and combining into a standard process. As a result of this work I have created an Ebook that documents this process. The Ebook provides easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions for solving this problem on both Windows XP and Windows 2000 computers.

I now can create custom encrypted Paypal buttons that provide clear download instructions to my website customers.

For more information on how I solved this problem see:
http://www.homeadditionplus.com/Bid-Sheet-Ebook-info/Selling-Ebooks-Using-Encrypted-Paypal-Buttons-Ebook.htm.

About the Author: Over the past 20+ years Mark Donovan has been involved with building homes and additions to homes. His projects have included: building a vacation home, building additions and garages on to existing homes, and finishing unfinished homes. For more home improvement information visit http://www.homeadditionplus.com and http://www.homeaddition.blogspot.com