Peenie Wallie: Adding a PayPal Tip Jar to your site

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July 31, 2005

Adding a PayPal Tip Jar to your site

Several commenters suggested that I add a "Tip Jar" to my web site. Basically, my idea for it is that this is sort of a "can a brutha get a break all up in heagh" handout scheme to help offset the costs of my Internet Service Provider, Wispertel.

Normally, my monthly ISP fees are manageable, but that was before the avalanche of traffic that started yesterday at 7:51 a.m. MDT. Now, Wispertel representatives have surrounded my house and are threatening to raze my mouse and sow salt into my land. OK, so it's a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.

Tip Jar

Now, if there were just some way I could test the PayPal Tip Jar to see if it works... ;)

I found this web site useful. I've updated and pasted the modified instructions below.

1. Go to http://www.paypal.com/.

2. Sign up for an account, if you don't have already have one.

3. Activate and login to your PayPal account.

4. Click on 'Merchant Tools'.

5. Look on the right side in the "Key Features" section of the screen and scroll down until you see the the 'Donations' link. You should now be at this URL address:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick-donations-factory.

5. Provide the necessary information to set up your donation button. You can enter the optional information if you choose to (donation name/service, donation ID/number, donation amount, currency, etc.).

6. I decided to waste a half a day creating a little custom Donation button.

7. Under 'Security Settings', I chose to encrypt the html.

8. Then I clicked on "Create Button Now".

9. Next, I copied and pasted the HTML into my miserable little web site, rebuilt the template, and Voila!(Note: It's not 'Walah', like i see posted all over the net by public school graduates.)

10. Now, I just need to see if it works. Someone make a contribution and let me know if it works. ;)