'Tip Jar' Software
for a
Custom Paypal Donation Link
PayPal makes it relatively easy to create a donate button
to put on your web site.
To keep your email address hidden, the button must be
encrypted. That method, however, requires you to use one of
the styles PayPal provides.
I will show you how to hide your email address and use your
own link style, be it a custom image link, a text link, a
form button, or a combination thereof.
Make your very own tip jar.
It takes 4 steps:
-
Create a non-encrypted donate button at PayPal.
-
Paste the generated email link URL into the Tip Jar
software. (It's PHP software).
-
Upload the Tip Jar software file to your server.
-
Link to the Tip Jar software with your own donation
link style.
The Tip Jar software and instructions for each step are
with the online article. The PHP code is
easy to implement and the instructions are fairly simple.
If you can copy and paste and upload files, you can do it.
The online article is here.
Create A Non-Encrypted Donate Button At Paypal
Log into your PayPal account and make a donate button.
(As of this writing, use the "Donate" link under the
"Buttons" column of the "Merchant Services" tab.)
When you make the donate button:
-
Ignore the "Choose button style" section. The
Tip Jar software will ignore whatever
is checked. Let the default check be as it is.
-
In the "Button encryption" section, check the
"No" checkbox.
When the button is created, you'll see copy and paste code
for a form and for an email link. The email link URL is what
the Tip Jar software requires.
Paste The Generated Email Link URL Into The Tip Jar Software
Here is the PHP source code for the Tip Jar software. Save
it on your hard drive as a plain file. The file name needs a
.php extension, "tipjar.php" for example.
Copy the PayPal-created donation email link URL and paste it
into the Tip Jar source code. The place is marked.
The email link URL is long. The URL must be all one line and
pasted between the quotation marks where indicated.
Upload The Tip Jar Software File To Your Server
After the email link URL has been pasted into the source
code of the Tip Jar software, the file is ready to upload to
your server. The Tip Jar software file needs to be on your
server where your regular web pages are at.
To upload the file, use FTP software or, if your hosting
company provides it, the upload feature of a file management
system.
After the Tip Jar software has been uploaded, make a note of
its URL. You'll need the URL in the next step.
Before doing the next step, however, type the Tip Jar URL
into your browser to verify it opens the PayPal donation
page as it should.
Link To The Tip Jar Software With Your Own Donation Link Style
This section assumes the Tip Jar software was uploaded into
the document root (the directory where your main/index page
is, on your server) with file name tipjar.php. If that is
not the case, change the example links accordingly.
If the Tip Jar software is on a domain different than the
web page with the tip jar link, then the full http://... URL
must be used as the link. Example:
http://example.com/tipjar.php
You can now create our own custom tip jar/"donate" links.
Here are a few examples.
Example tip jar custom text link:
Example tip jar custom image link:
Example tip jar link with both text and image:
Example tip jar button:
As you can deduce from those examples, it is possible to
create tip jar links with any design possible with HTML,
CSS, and images. Without revealing your email address.
Let your imagination roam.
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Will Bontrager
©2008 Bontrager Connection, LLC
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