Associate Programs Newsletter #83

Special Edition

Imagine having all your affiliate commissions zapped regularly into your bank account. No waiting, no checks lost in the mail. Well, it's
possible now, and the service is FREE, for you and for the merchant. I reckon that news deserves a Special Edition.

CONTENTS:

1. Beam me up money, Scotty - PayPal system
    save merchants thousands of dollars a month
2. You get paid $10 just for signing up
3. "You've got cash!"
    Refer-A-Friend bonus pays up to $1,000

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1. Beam me up money, Scotty - PayPal system can
    save merchants thousands of dollars a month
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Affiliate programs merchants and other companies which make many small payments regularly can now save thousands of dollars a month by using a new FREE electronic transfer service.

Confinity's PayPal says its new service puts an end to the old days of printing checks, stuffing envelopes, paying postage and waiting for checks to arrive.

"Now businesses can beam money over the Internet at warp speed," PayPal says.

Rebate and affiliate programs merchants send hundreds of thousands of checks each month. When the dollar amounts are small, the cost of mailing these checks can almost equal the amounts paid.

"The check itself costs about 15 cents, postage 33 cents, and raw materials (such as the envelope and invoice) 10 cents, says PayPal Chief Executive Officer Peter Thiel.

"Add to that the labor involved in stuffing envelopes and the overhead associated with managing the banking relationship, and the cost of mailing a check often exceeds $1 each. Over the course of several months, these expenses can add up to millions of dollars of saving for many affiliate programs. This is money that could be split between the business and consumers."

After joining PayPal's Partner Program (PPP), businesses can make unlimited payments of any amount to any affiliate, consumer or business with an e-mail address.

"The only information needed to complete a transaction is the dollar amount and the recipient's e-mail address. Payment recipients do not need to be registered PayPal users."

Here's how PayPal works:

Recipients are notified by e-mail that a payment has been beamed ("You've got cash!"). To claim the payment for the first time, the recipient simply clicks on a link in the e-mail and completes PayPal's quick one-page registration process. Recipients may then download the money from their new PayPal account at any time by direct deposit to their bank account or by requesting a check from PayPal. They may also opt to beam the money on to others via e-mail.

The service is completely free to consumers and businesses. PayPal makes money from interest on the float - money waiting to be collected.

So far, the service is available for payments made in the United States only. Next year, an international version will be available.

PayPal says the system allows detailed transaction accounting and record-keeping, "so businesses can keep track of payables and receivables".

The company has impressive muscle behind it.

The system's security protocols were designed under the direction of the inventor of public key cryptography, Dr Martin Hellman, who also sits on PayPal's Board of Advisers, and Stanford computer science professor Dr Dan Boneh, who leads a team of researchers in cutting-edge cryptology research.

Financial partners include communications giant Nokia and Deutsche Bank, the biggest bank in Europe.

Key backers also include Bill Melton, founder of Verifone (the leading provider of credit card readers) and CyberCash, and executives from Idealab! and Hewlett-Packard.

Check out PayPal here:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/pal

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2. You get paid $10 just for signing up
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While I've concentrated on the benefits of PayPal to affiliate programs merchants, anyone can use it.

"PayPal lets you split a restaurant tab, pay your rent, buy a baseball card at an online auction or send money for Christmas," PayPal says. "The money is drawn from your credit card or bank account. Your friend can retrieve the money by direct deposit or check mailed from PayPal."

Once you've joined, sending money is as simple as typing in your e-mail address and the sum you want to pay.

Unlike other Internet payment mechanisms, PayPal requires no special software. It works with e-mail and your existing Web browser, PalmPilot, pager or other Web-enabled device.

Another advantage is that you don't have to pre-load money into a special account. Your credit card is charged only when you send cash to someone.

PayPal is obviously keen to spread the word. It has an incentive program which automatically rewards you with $10 just for signing up.

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/pal

(At this stage, it's just for the United States, so unfortunately I can't join yet. I'm waiting eagerly for the international version.)

[UPDATE: PayPal has gone international.]

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3. "You've got cash!"
    Refer-A-Friend bonus pays up to $1,000
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Once you've joined PayPal you can earn a Refer-A-Friend Bonus of $10 each time you refer a friend who registers for a PayPal account.

"You can earn up to 100 referral bonuses. That means you can receive up to $1,000 for introducing your friends to PayPal," the company says.

To earn that $10, you have to zap at least one cent to your friend.

"All of your friends are eligible as long as they are not already PayPal users, and have not been referred by someone else. To protect our users' privacy, we will not notify you if your friend is already a PayPal user, or has already been referred," PayPal says.

You can start earning those $10 referral bonuses here:

Check out PayPal here:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/pal

All the best,

Allan Gardyne