Most internet merchants today are using Paypal as a primary form of payment, and as a result many individuals are also required to have a Paypal account. Although Paypal may not be available in every country, if it is available – are you making the most of it? Apart from using Paypal to accept payments and pay other merchants, you can also make money online with the Paypal referral program. With all the hype these days around advertising widgets, pyramid schemes, and traditional affiliate products like eBooks, it can be easy to forget something like this that’s right in front of you!
Who Should Use the Paypal Referral Program?
If you have a Paypal account yourself, can receive Paypal payments to your country, and have a website that targets people looking to make money online then you should definitely consider promoting the Paypal referral program. If you own a blog where your audience is tech savvy and shopping online, finding ways to work the Paypal referral program into your regular advertising activities is a must.
Why You Should Use the Paypal Referral Program
Paypal is the most popular choice for merchants receiving payments online and although many merchants already have a Paypal account, new online businesses are opening up every day and they need to have some way of receiving payments. Many of these will turn to Paypal due to its popularity and reputation, and you can take advantage of this. Joining the Paypal referral program is a simple as logging into your Paypal account and picking up your affiliate link. From there, you can earn up to $1,000 for each merchant that you refer based on 0.5% of their payment volume on a premier or business account.
Within the Merchant Referral Bonus Program page, you’ll get access to your link, as well as a banner like this one:
which you can place on your site and use to build your downline.
Some Details on How the Paypal Referral Program Works
When you sign up a merchant for a Paypal business or premier account and they reach $200 in Net Merchant Sales you will receive your first dollar. Thereafter you will receive recurring payments over a period of about twelve months based on 0.5% of their sales. The total maximum amount that you can make from any one merchant is $1,000. It’s that easy!
Keep in mind that in order to make the most money from Paypal, you’ll want to have a website that targets businesses that are looking to get a website and start selling online. You can also target existing business owners migrating from a personal to merchant account, but the total amount that you earn might be a little less.
This is a product that millions of people use and believe in, so promote it guilt free! 
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Courtney TURTLE responded on 17 Oct 2007 at 7:46 am #
I had no idea PayPal had an affiliate program. Thank you for the heads up!
WhyDoWork responded on 17 Oct 2007 at 7:52 am #
Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in the hot ticket item of the day that its easy to forget “the old standy-by’s”
You can read more about it here:
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_web-referrals-mrb-outside
Lizard Wisdom responded on 17 Oct 2007 at 3:11 pm #
Yes, we too thank you for the heads up as we also didn’t have a clue about PayPal’s referral program.
OK, now we are going to have to write a post about using PayPal as your preferred payment method and use an affiliate like so that people can sign up for the service. Of course, this will fit in perfectly with our theme about teaching people how to sell on eBay.
We will also have to add PayPal to our Resources page, which is full of affiliate links.
Thanks again for the heads up!
Lizard Wisdom responded on 17 Oct 2007 at 3:20 pm #
Oh, minor problem with our situation, educating people about selling on eBay.
We just visited the PayPal site that you link to above and noticed the following:
Note: The Merchant Referral Bonus program is designed to reward referrals of non-eBay merchants. As a result, payments received for eBay items will not contribute toward the Merchant Referral Bonus.
That puts a crimp in our plans to talk up PayPal and include our affiliate links as the payout does not apply to eBay payments. We guess that this is another way for them to drum up business for PayPal outside of eBay.
Oh well, it is still good information to have.
George, Dallas TX responded on 11 Mar 2008 at 5:18 am #
I’ve used the Merchant Referral Program 3 times with websites that I designed for friends of the family. Each time, getting PayPal to actually honor the referral program has been a pain in the rear. I don’t think they have a dedicated department for administering this program, and it shows because PayPal never pays out without me first escalating a customer service claim.
The CSRs always try to convince me that I must have made a mistake setting up the account (ie; “maybe your friend didn’t click your referral link” or “perhaps they haven’t had enough sales to qualify yet”) but since I get paid an additional commission from the friends websites (and do the coding myself) I have all the info I need to call shenanigans on PayPal.
Has anyone else been jerked around with this program?