If you've bought or sold items through eBay, or through hundreds of other online sites, then you're familiar with PayPal, the online payment service. With PayPal, a valid email address, and a credit card or bank account, you can easily send and receive payments online. Not a bank or financial institution itself, PayPal describes its service as one that builds on the financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards, and using advanced propriety fraud prevention systems, creates a safe, global, real-time payment solution. Put simply, PayPal provides the means for people to conduct financial transactions online, instantly and securely.

But there's more to PayPal than meets the eye. "PayPal Hacks" shows you how to make the most of PayPal to get the most out of your online business or transactions. Authors Shannon Sofield of Payloadz.com and PayPal evangelist David Nielsen guide you through the rigors of using and developing with PayPal. Whether you're building an ecommerce site using PayPal as a transaction provider, or simply trying to pay for an eBay auction without getting burned, "PayPal Hacks" will give you the skinny on this leading global online payment service.

The collection of tips and tricks in "PayPal Hacks" shows you how to find or even build the right tools for using PayPal to buy and sell on eBay or as a transaction provider for ecommerce on your own site. Written for all PayPal users, from those just starting out to those developing sophisticated ecommerce sites, this book begins with the basics such as setting up your account, then moves quickly into specific tips and tools for buyers, sellers, and developers.

With PayPal Hacks, you can:

Learnextra steps to help protect yourself while buying or selling on eBay

Save time and money with advanced tips and undocumented features

Learn dozens of easy-to-follow procedures to help you request and receive payments and fill orders

Use PayPal to handle subscriptions, affiliate systems, and donations

Create and customize your customers' checkout process

Effortlessly integrate PayPal's shopping cart system into your own website

Implement digital fulfillment with Instant Payment Notification (IPN) and Payment Data Transfer (PDT)

Develop and distribute ecommerce applications with the PayPal API

Each hack consists of a task to be accomplished or a creative solution to a problem, presented in a clear, logical, and task-oriented format. "PayPal Hacks" provides the tools and details necessary to make PayPal more profitable, more flexible, and more convenient.

How do you know how well or how poorly your online business is doing? There are obvious indicators such as positive cash flows or increasing traffic trends, but exactly how well is it doing? Online ventures are unique in their difficulty in evaluating them objectively since there are usually no directly comparable competitors that can be used as a benchmark for evaluating your online success. That is where this book comes in. Throughout this book, we take a look at various equations and their meanings in order to help the non-mathematician make sense of what is being calculated and how to use that information to make business decisions. We explain the equation, the variables that go into formulating the equation, where to get them, and what to do with the end result. By quantitatively measuring your business, you will develop an objective framework on which to base your progress that will be removed from the emotional highs and lows we all experience in running an online business.