In this article, we will show you how to sell digital files via PayPal and send private download links using the MailChimp platform.
- Connect with PayPal & MailChimp account
- Create a PayPal button
- Associate a protected file with the PayPal button
- Set up MailChimp automation
- Sell your products
Requirements:
- Prevent Direct Access Gold version 3.1.6 or greater
- PDA PayPal Integration extension version 1.0.0 or greater
- PDA MailChimp Integration extension version 1.0.0 or greater
Connect with PayPal & MailChimp account
Step 1: Go to your PayPal business account and get API credentials.
Step 2: From your site’s dashboard, navigate to Settings >> PDA PayPal Integration and input the API keys as per instructions.
Step 3: After configuring settings successfully, you will see the “General” tab where you can get the Notification URL.
Step 4: Go back to your PayPal account and select Account Settings from the navigation menu.
Step 5: On the Notifications page, choose Update the “Instant payment notifications”.
Step 6: Click the Choose IPN Settings button then you’ll be sent to a page where you can paste in the Notification URL (step 3) and enable “Receive IPN messages.”
Don’t forget to save your settings.
Step 7: Go to your MailChimp account and get an API key.
Step 8: From your site’s dashboard, navigate to Settings >> PDA MailChimp Integration and input the key that you have created.
Create a PayPal button
Step 1: From your PayPal account, go to All Tools and select PayPal buttons.
Step 2: You can choose to create a “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” button. The other buttons are not supported at the moment.
When creating the PayPal button, it’s important to insert MailChimp Audience ID as an Item ID. So when users buy your products via a specific button, their email will be added to the corresponding MailChimp list.
To get the ID of a MailChimp audience, go to Audience dashboard, select Settings from the Manage Audience dropdown list.
You will see the audience ID at the bottom of the settings page. Copy and paste it into the Item ID field in PayPal.
After creating a button successfully, you will receive some custom code to display the button on your WordPress site.
Associate a protected file with the PayPal button
Step 1: Protect your file with Prevent Direct Access Gold plugin.
Step 2: Go to PDA PayPal Integration settings page and connect the created PayPal button with the protected file.
It’s possible to associate a protected file with multiple PayPal buttons.
- If you don’t see the PayPal button from the dropdown list, simply click “Refresh” to get the latest data.
- Since the sample buttons generated by PayPal won’t be shown, you should create a new button instead of editing the sample one.
- If you don’t see the protected file from the dropdown list, make sure that you have protected it with PDA Gold.
Set up MailChimp automation
Step 1: Go to Settings >> Audience fields and *|MERGE|* tags from your Audience dashboard.
Step 2: Select Add A Field at the bottom of the page to create a new field.
Step 3: Choose “Text” type and add PDA_PRIVATE_LINK as Field label.
Don’t forget to save the created field.
Step 4: Add the PDA field to MailChimp template.
When editing the email design, select our PDA field from Merge Tags drop-down menu and insert it into the content.
Sell your products
Once your users buy a product by clicking on the PayPal button, our plugins will add their PayPal email to the associated MailChimp list.
Depending on your automation settings, an email containing a private download link will be sent to the customer after their purchase.
The private download link will expire in the next 24 hours.
Limitation: Emails can only be sent to customers who have never subscribed to the specific MailChimp list before.
