PayPal hack, donation link
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Many users complained about the PayPal payment page being designed in a way that intentionaly hides the credit card payment option and forces users to login with a PayPal account. Bad for PayPal as it slays their user base, double evil for online merchants conversions. I’ve hacked PayPal to fix this (not cracked).
Edit: PayPal have fixed the issue. Well done PayPal! Their site now checks for the PayPal login cookie. If you don’t have one, it presumes you are not a regular PayPal user and returns a complete form. You can still use the below to learn how to make an elegant PayPal donation link without involving messy HTML form markup.
The link syntax is very simple: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=***INSERT YOUR EMAIL HERE***&item_name=***YOUR PROJECT/CAMPAIGN/CHARITY... NAME HERE*** - HINT: TRY TO FIND ON THE SCREEN A TINY LINK TO >CONTINUE< CREDIT CARD PAYMENT&amount=***INSERT INTEGER FOR THE AMOUNT HERE***¤cy_code=***CURRENCY HERE***
Note the added hint for the user to click continue link to display the credit card form. The text is a bit cheeky but it illustrates the issue well. Edit: Forget about that bit now.
Every commercial merchant or non-profit organization can use my simple technique to increase conversions. This technique doesn’t break PayPal terms of service (I’ve read carefully). It doesn’t break PayPal undefeated security. It’s just a tiny clever trick in fact.
So what do you think?
Let's do business: 00447 857 309 211 / vizualbod@vizualbod.com