Community Support Forums

Hello s2Member users,

I would like to have a product (delivered gradually) and a forum.

I would like to charge for the product in advance and have it delivered gradually.

For the forum I would like to have a monthly fee.

Further I would like the user to choose if he wants only the product (one time payment), only access to the forums (monthly fee) or both (one time payment + monthly payments).

How would you solve it?

Thank you for your ideas!

Cheers!

Martin

First part solved:
Maybe using Custom Capabilities: forum,product would solve it. But how to structure it?

And now I need to think about the payments also, right?

Is it really THAT hard?

Hey, Martin!

FAIR WARNING: The following MAY or MAY NOT be accurate. If you come up with a better answer, please share it with us.

Admittedly, I am not current with this information, and at the risk of appearing to be an idiot, I offer it up as a starting point for talking with PayPal. If I remember correctly, this is what Russell Brunson was teaching last Fall in his micro-continuity program, BEFORE the FTC changed so many of the advertising rules. Those changes also impacted billing practices, especially 'Free + Shipping' offers, 'Free Trials with Recurring Billing', recurring billing that comes as a surprise to the customer, etc. This all became very sticky after November 2009.

So with the above disclaimer in mind, take a look at this, and then contact PayPal to see if this is what they recommend.

Anyway, your PayPal business account may be able to do this for you. Or it may require a different approach through a Shopping Cart process.

Here's what used to be recommended:

You need 3 PayPal Payment Buttons, which PayPal will create for you:
1. 'Product Only'
2. 'Forum Subscription Only'
3. 'Product + Forum Subscription'
All 3 buttons will be on your 'sales Page' where your customers decide what they want.

The starting point is the same for each button.
'Product Only' Button
1. Log into your PayPal account, click on the tab 'Merchant Services'
and you'll see a 'Buy Now' icon.
2. Open that, and a page will open, 'Choose a Button Type...'. The drop-down list default is 'Buy Now'. Leave that as it is.
3. Fill in the blanks (product description, price, etc),
4. Tick the radio button 'Use my secure merchant account ID'.
5. Fill in Steps 2 and Step 3 as you require.
6. Click on 'Create Button'.
7.Copy and paste the button code onto your page, and for now, add a simple identifier in html for it, either before or after the button code - perhaps something like

Code: Select all

<p><b>'This Is The [i]'Product Only'[/i] Button'.</b></p>

'Forum Subscription Only' Button
1. Go back to the starting point, the 'Merchant Services' tab; open the 'Buy Now Button' .
2. At 'Choose a Button Type...', this time select 'Subscription' from the drop-down list.
3. Fill in the the 'Item Name' and 'Currency'. You won't need to customize (small, medium, large).
4. Do NOT tick the box 'Have PayPal create user names...' . s2Member handles that for you.
5. Fill in the Billing Amount, Billing Cycle, and length of time.
6. Tick the radio button 'Use my secure merchant account ID'.
7. Fill in Steps 2 and Step 3 as you require.
8. Click on 'Create Button'.
9. Paste the button code onto your page, add an identifier - 'This Is The Forum Subscription Button'.

Product + Forum Subscription Button
1. Go back to the starting point, the 'Merchant Services' tab; open the 'Buy Now Button' .
2. At 'Choose a Button Type...', select 'Subscription' from the drop-down list.
3. Fill in the the 'Item Name' and 'Currency'.
3a. Make the 'Item Name' clearly descriptive of what they are buying; for example, the Item Name might be: "Downloadable Product Ebook Title (One-Time Payment of $39.95) PLUS Monthly Membership in Exclusive Forum ($9.50 / month for 6 months) or ($9.50 / month until you cancel)"
4. Do NOT tick the box 'Have PayPal create user names...' . s2Member handles that for you.
5. Fill in the Billing Amount at $9.50 (whatever), Billing Cycle at 'monthly', and length of time.
5. Tick the box 'I want to offer a trial period'; new options appear.
6. In 'Amount to bill for the trial period', put in the price of your 'Product' $39.95 (whatever) goes here.
7. In 'Define the trial period' , put in 1 Day (PayPal may require '10 Days.')
8. Second trial period = No
9. Tick the radio button 'Use my secure merchant account ID'.
10. Fill in PayPal Steps 2 and Step 3 as you require.
11. Click on 'Create Button'.
12. Paste the button code onto your page, add an identifier - 'This Is The Product +Forum Subscription Button'.

I don't know how the descriptions would appear to the buyer on the PayPal check-out page. You may be able to try this out in the PayPal Sandbox. I found some great instructions about PayPal's Sandbox here: http://www.jeremyyoung.ws/posts/how-to-test-a-payment-process-using-paypal-sandbox-and-s2member/

Another source said he couldn't get the SandBox to work, so he just used a low figure like 'one dollar' when he created the buttons, did some 'live' PayPal tests with his real credit card, and then refunded the money to himself. When he was satisfied, he went back and edited the amounts and re-created the buttons.

Again, please take a look at this yourself before you put it into action. PayPal will tell you if this is the right way or if it is not.

Best to you,
Marty

Marty, thank you for sharing your tips with me! I had luck trying PayPal's Sandbox mode, so the next time I will be re-launching my products I will try this. Thank you!

martin wrote:Hello s2Member users,

I would like to have a product (delivered gradually) and a forum.

I would like to charge for the product in advance and have it delivered gradually.

For the forum I would like to have a monthly fee.

Further I would like the user to choose if he wants only the product (one time payment), only access to the forums (monthly fee) or both (one time payment + monthly payments).

How would you solve it?

Thank you for your ideas!

Cheers!

Martin

Great question. You can do this with s2Member, but you just need to use the long Button Code, rather than using the Shortcode format. What you do is set the a1,p1,t1 variables in the Button Code. These are, (A)mount for Period1, (P)eriod for Period 1, and (T)erm for Period 1.

Period #1 will last for (1) (M)onth, and cost $129 initially:

Code: Select all

<input type="hidden" name="a1" value="129.00" />
<input type="hidden" name="p1" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="t1" value="M" />

Period #2 is recurring, and will be 24.95 every (1) (M)onth

Code: Select all

<input type="hidden" name="a3" value="24.95" />
<input type="hidden" name="p3" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="t3" value="M" />

Here is the full Button Code example, just to be thorough:

Code: Select all

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="example@example.com" />
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick-subscriptions" />
<!-- Instant Payment Notification & Return Page Details -->
<input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="http://www.example.com/?s2member_paypal_notify=1" />
<input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="http://www.example.com" />
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.example.com/?s2member_paypal_return=1" />
<input type="hidden" name="rm" value="2" />
<!-- Configures All Of The Checkout Fields -->
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="custom" value="www.example.com" />
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD" />
<input type="hidden" name="page_style" value="paypal" />
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Subscription description." />
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="1" />
<!-- Customizes Prices, Payments & Billing Cycle -->
<input type="hidden" name="src" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="sra" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="a1" value="129.00" />
<input type="hidden" name="p1" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="t1" value="M" />
<input type="hidden" name="a3" value="24.95" />
<input type="hidden" name="p3" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="t3" value="M" />
<!-- Displays The PayPal® Image Button -->
<input type="image" alt="PayPal®" style="border:0;" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_xpressCheckout.gif" />
</form>

Jason,

thank you for coming back to me. I think I get it.

After reading your guide I have another idea of getting the needed part of the long code:

You create one of the buttons using s2Member's built-in editor and then just cut the parts with a1, p1 and t1 values. Then, after creating the other button, you just paste this part back to the button code. And that should be it...

Make sure that you preserve the "item_number", "custom" fields, and all of these:

Code: Select all

<!-- Instant Payment Notification & Return Page Details -->
<input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="http://www.example.com/?s2member_paypal_notify=1" />
<input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="http://www.example.com" />
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.example.com/?s2member_paypal_return=1" />

Thank you for clarifying it to me...

~ Very welcome.
Marking this resolved. ~Thanks.

Hi Jason,

Do you have a list of all the button variables somewhere? Generate Button Code is not working for me and I need to create buttons manually.

Thanks.