Setting up your community store.

Step 1 - Connect your profile to Paypal.  If you do not have a Paypal account already you will need to go to the www.paypal.com website and set up your Paypal account before going any farther in this process.   If you already have a Paypal  account proceed to Step 2.

Step 2 - From your profile dashboard drop down menu, find and click on "payments", then click on the "settings" link found in the processed orders box (right side of page).  Click on the arrow found on the Paypal menu bar (far right) which will open up a selection of settings.

Step 3 - Click the active box, select mode "live", enter your Paypal recognized email address in the business box, select process type "direct", connection type should be HTML and leave the identity token and sandbox boxes blank.  Now click Save. You have completed your store payment setup.

Step 4 - Add an item(s) to your store.

From your profile dashboard quick links menu, click on the store button. Then click on the "add product" button found on the upper right of the page. You will now be asked to enter some basic product information.  Title (name of product or service), Description (enter in any information you would like to best describe your product or service, you can also add links to videos, photos, product reviews or to your profile or company website)  what is not allowed are random links that do not apply to your company, product or profile. Select a category for your product.

Upload your product photo (note: a clear photo of good quality is recommended) for best results Jpeg file types are preferred.  You can also upload a product video by using the product screencast box.  If you don't have a video leave this box blank.

Product files:  In order to use the shopping cart and accept payments via the store payment system you must upload a order confirmation document (we recommend that if you don't have a order confirmation document you create one in Word (or other similar word processing software) and include the following information in the document.  Your contact email, a phone number, a thank you to your customer for their purchase, and any information on shipping methods or length of time till the order is processed).  Once you have this document upload it to the store using the choose file/upload link in the product file box.   Enter your product name again in the title box and add your sales price.  Note, be sure include your shipping costs (if your charging shipping & handling) and any applicable taxes in the over all price posted and let your customer know in the product description areas that shipping (and tax if applicable) is included in the sell price.  Your final step is to select who can buy your product (we recommend members) and then the select who can view the product (choose public for everyone) and post comments (we recommend customers only). Once you have completed all of these tasks click "Submit" to post your product.  The product will now appear in the community store and on your profile page.

Important tips - if your product is posted and you see an error, it is possible to edit the posting by clicking on the product, then selecting the edit button from the Actions tab.  Make your changes and then be sure to click the "Submit" button when you are done or your changes will not be saved.  It is possible to use a PayPal Buy Now button. You can do this by following the Paypal instructions to create a button found on the PayPal website www.paypal.com and insert the HTML code provided by Paypal into your products description box.  For best results we recommend you put this code after your product description.