How to put a “buy now” button for your website

If you sell your books or services from your own website, you’ll want to take the time to set up a “buy now” button there.

With a buy now button, readers or clients can make a payment via credit card with just a click.

Doing so ensures that impulse buyers purchase your book or services immediately rather than wait, giving them the opportunity to then talk themselves out of. It also gives your website credibility, as asking potential buyers to send checks or go to another site to make a payment is a little suspicious for some in this automated age. A buy now button also helps you capture some of the international audience, as it avoids currency exchanges.

To set up a buy now button, you’ll need to use a payment gateway. This is a third-party company that handles credit card transactions. Begin by exploring which payment gateway you’ll want to use. Some factors to consider are the initial cost of setup, fees for services, reputation, and the company’s longevity. Once you decide, you’ll have to set up an account with that company.

Next, you need to customize and obtain imagery, order forms and html coding that will appear on your site. Look for text like “Buy Now Buttons,” which usually is under a “Merchant Services” or similarly worded tab. Once you’ve found that, you should arrive at a page that allows you to customize your buy now button and order forms. Follow the instructions there. Be aware that if you don’t customize your order form, it usually will work with the default settings that the payment gateway company sets.

Once you’ve customized the order forms and buy now button, you’ll receive html coding. You’ll need to copy this. Store a copy of it on your computer then paste it on the web page where you want it to appear. Check out the page to make sure it looks the way you want it to. If it doesn’t, go back to the payment gateway company website, tweak, and recut and repaste.

And then watch your profits grow!

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.