Setting up automatic recurring payments

If you are involved in selling any kind of regular service where customers make regular payments, what you need to do is set up a recurring payment.  Many payment services (also called “gateways”) can take care of recurring payments, but for the most part, I like to use Paypal for this kind of arrangement.

Up until about a year and a half ago, I did not use recurring payments.  Stupid me!  With recurring payments, you do the work of getting it set up one time, and after that everything is automatic!  You never have to worry again.

What kinds of services should you use recurring payments for?  Well, just about anything that requires regular payments.  Some of the services where I use recurring payments:

• Web Hosting – I sell web hosting on my Web-Earner site, and of course for something like Web Hosting, the customer normally pays each month, or in other regular payments like quarterly, bi-annually or even annually.
• Advertising services – On all of my websites, I offer the ability for people to advertise their products and services on my sites.  When they want to advertise, I set up automatic payments for them.
• Other types of services.  For example, I do things like website maintenance, SEO services and such for customers which require monthly payments.

OK, so I am sure that you have decided that it would be a wise move to use recurring payments for some of your billing needs.  If so, how do you do it?  Well, as I said, a number of payment services do this kind of thing, but I choose to use Paypal for such things.  So, here is how you do it on Paypal:

1. I will assume that you have a Paypal account.  If you don’t, just sign up for one.
2. Log in to your Paypal account, and then click on the tab that says “Merchant Services”.
3. Next, look on the right for a link that says “Subscription & Recurring Payments” and clicks on that link.
4. Next, enter the item name of what you are selling.  Maybe it’s “Advertising Services” or something else, it is up to you to name it.
5. Next, where you see a box that says “Customize Button” you need to make a choice.  If you are going to put a button on your website you need to choose an option for that.  If you want to send an e-mail to your customer to request payment, choose the e-mail option.
6. Next, in the box that says “Billing Amount each cycle” just enter the amount that the customer will pay whenever they make the payment.
7. Next, under “Billing Cycle” you need to choose how often the payment is to be made.  If the customer will pay monthly, just select “1 month” in this area.
8. In the next box, where they ask “After how many cycles should billing stop?” you need to enter that info.  If this is an ongoing monthly payment, just select “Never” or if you have like a 1-year contract, you would choose “12 Months”.
9. Next, click “Create Button” and you will then be given the code needed to put the button on the website, or you will get the link that you need to e-mail to your customer.

My next step is to e-mail the link to my customer and let them know that when they click on the link they will be going to Paypal and set up a recurring payment.  Just make sure they understand that the payment will automatically be made monthly, or whatever the interval, so that they don’t get a surprise in subsequent months and their credit card or Paypal account is charged for the service automatically.

Once the customer goes and sets up the payment, everything is automatic, and you will get a Paypal payment automatically on the same day every month!

So, it’s very easy to set up these automatic payments!  And, it saves you a lot of work every month!