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Paypal
IPN (Instant Payment Notification)
- A tutorial for both Dummies & Developers
Featuring
an Exclusive How-To section on
"Securing your Downloadable e-Products
and
Setting up a Members-Only site using IPN"
Hi
Ravi!
I just wanted to let others know what wonderful
service they can expect, should they be apprehensive
about buying something online. I recently purchased
your Paypal Download Protector script via online
check, so I wouldn't have to worry about my e-books
being stolen by those who would give out the download
URLs to their friends. I must say, the script works
GREAT, and the promptness with which you got back
to me, when I had a question, was very impressive...not
to mention professional. I have your site bookmarked,
and will definitely do business with you in the
future! Thanks again for all your help!
Keith Dotzler
AVDefense.com |
So
What exactly is IPN?
IPN stands for "Instant Payment Notification".
To truly understand what it is and how it works, we
need to start with a little flash-back.
Now,
you are probably aware of what is Paypal, and how you
can use a regular Paypal account to accept payments
over the web from your web site.
Paypal,
since it was first introduced, was used mainly by individuals
to exchange cash online, and also by small business
and home-based business owners to sell goods over the
Internet and accept payments from Paypal users visiting
their web site from around the world.
Before
IPN, this is how digital products were sold (and meant
to be purchased :-) through Paypal:
1.
Through my Paypal account, I use the form generator
to generate my "BUY" button.
2. I use the "return_url" field to specify
the "Thank You" page to which my buyer would
return to if the payment was successful.
3. I provide a link to my super-duper-awesome e-Book
on my thankyou page.
4. My buyer, who has paid for my ebook, happily downloads
it from the page and goes on to conquer the web-world
with the "Explosive" ideas from my e-Book!
Simple,
right?
Not
so fast - there was one major glitch in the system.
Not
enough credit was given to those individuals who were
"technically-savvy" enough to do a "view-source"
on my sales page as soon as they landed on it, figure
out the "return_url" and go straight to that
page and download my "million-dollar-ideas"
e-Book by paying ZERO dollars!
e-Commerce
where "e" actually stood for "e-Mail"
The
smarter merchants woke up to this flaw pretty quick
- though not before they'd lost quite a few thousand
dollars in stolen e-products, of course - and instead,
on their thankyou-page, they now said:
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"Dear
Customer,
Thank
you for your purchase. You
will be shortly receiving the e-Book that you
just purchased by email.
Please
note that it may be a couple of days (or weeks)
before I get home from my fishing trip, wake up
to harsh reality, settle down at my work place,
get over my hang-over, and finally check my email
just before midnight after the wife and kids've
gone to bed, to finally see that you've purchased
my e-Book, and send it to you as an attachment
(oh, BTW it may take a few more hours if I can't
log in to my free ISP straightaway, as you know,
that free ISP's, being free and all, don't have
too many access numbers…."
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After
hundreds of rude, angry customers who said "I've
paid for your eBook 2 days ago. Where the %$&* is
my eBook???", Paypal finally came up with a kick-butt
solution which let your buyers download the product
in real time, and made technology available which let
you authenticate your buyers in real time and hide it
from the hackers and show it to the legitimate buyers.
And
thus was born IPN.
IPN
- Instant Payment Notification - a behind the scenes
look
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WebmasterInABox.net
is now MyWebmasterInABox.com |
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