JaypeeOnline » Paypal

Weekend Roundup #107

Jaypee Habaradas — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:45:46 +0000

Hello people! Belated Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it. Hope you all had a good time with family and friends. Anyone here went shopping during Black Friday? Anyways, I was finally able to publish this week’s edition of the Weekend Roundup on time. Expect some cool and interesting posts this week and like I mentioned in the last week’s Weekend Roundup, I have an upcoming contest/giveaway that will start in the next few days so watch out for the official announcement and official contest post.

Hope you all enjoy this edition of the Weekend Roundup!

Blogging

WordPress

SEO

Social Media

Technology

Gadgets

Pinoy Blogs

JaypeeOnline Weekly Recap

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or want your article or find an interesting story that you want to be featured in the next Weekend Roundup, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page.

PayPal Advantage

Jaypee Habaradas — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:05:04 +0000

Got an email yesterday from PayPal welcoming me to their new priority service program called PayPal Advantage. Previously, this priority service program was exclusively available to users who’ve spent more than $5,000 with their PayPal accounts in the past 12 months but now, they’re opening this service to other active PayPal users.

Users who are enrolled to the PayPal Advantage priority service program enjoy exclusive benefits and perks like – priority customer support, faster dispute resolution, exclusive events, member savings, special rewards and many more.

PayPal Advantage Benefits

PRIORITY CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Dedicated Support Agents – Your calls to PayPal Customer Service will be answered by our most senior US-based customer
service specialists.
Faster Dispute Resolution – Our agents provide you with dedicated support to fast track your disputes to resolution.

COMMUNITY

Exclusive Events – Meet key members of the PayPal team as well as fellow Advantage members at exclusive events.
PayPal Advantage Live (New) – Experience all the ways you can use PayPal and hear about our future plans.
Stay tuned for upcoming cities and dates.
Members-Only Community (Coming Soon) – Connect with other PayPal Advantage members, post & vote on ideas you have
For us, and participate in Ask the PayPal Expert sessions.
Member E-Newsletters – Stay informed on special deals, upcoming events, industry trends, and insider tips.
Member Spotlight – Read about our most inspiring Top Customers as they share their stories with the world.

PROMOTIONS and REWARDS

More Ways to Use PayPal (New) – There are many ways to use PayPal beyond checkout. Every month we’ll give you an extra reason to try a new way to use PayPal. Find out this month’s reward.
Student Accounts (New) – Set up a recurring allowance for a new or existing Student Account and receive $15 cash
back into your PayPal account. Learn more terms.
Promotion Previews – Hear about seasonal offers before anyone else.
Special Rewards – Receive rewards like cash back offers or merchant discounts.

I am a very active PayPal user as I use my PayPal account and PayPal Debit Card not only for work but also for personal stuff. Fortunately for me, I haven’t had any problems with PayPal since I joined them and I hope it stays that way. Nevertheless, its good to know that I would get priority customer support in case I have any problems and also enjoy other exclusive benefits and rewards with the PayPal Advantage program.

Anyone else who got the same email from PayPal? For other PayPal users, what do you think of PayPal Advantage? Is it something that you will use or something you think that will benefit you as a PayPal user? Please share your thoughts.

PayPal Patches iPhone App Flaw

Jaypee Habaradas — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:54:23 +0000

While updating my iPhone apps earlier today, I noticed an update for the PayPal iPhone app – version 3.0.1. When I read the changelog or update details, it mentioned that the version included an important security update. It didn’t specify what type of security update so I decided to do a little research. Found out from CNET that the update was a patch for a security hole in the iPhone app.

The now patched security flaw could have allowed malicious users to do a “man-in-the-middle” attack, tricking users into thinking that they’re accessing the real PayPal site when actually they aren’t and intercept transaction data sent between the iPhone and a Wi-Fi hotspot. This can happen when PayPal users access their account using an unsecured Wi-Fi network.

Aside from patching the security flaw on the iPhone app, PayPal has also announced that it will provide a 100% reimbursement for any fraudulent activity caused by the flaw.

If you have the PayPal app on your iPhone, make sure that you immediately upgrade to the latest version. If you haven’t, do not access your account until you’ve installed the update. And just to be sure, avoid or never access your PayPal or bank account on your mobile device over an unsecured Wi-Fi network.

The latest version of the Paypal iPhone app is now available in the App Store.

[via CNET News]

PayPal Launches New Micropayment Program

Jaypee Habaradas — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:23:30 +0000

During the PayPal X Innovate Developer Conference last week in San Francisco, CA, PayPal announced the launch of their new micropayments program called PayPal for Digital Goods. This new micropayment program will offer a faster, safer and more cost-effective way to send and receive micropayments – a major problem in the digital goods industry.

Facebook will be PayPal’s initial partner for the PayPal for Digital Goods micropayment program and will be used to purchase digital goods like Zynga’s FarmCash and other Facebook games and applications. Other companies and websites that will be using PayPal for Digital Goods include FT.com (Financial Times), Autosport.com, GigaOM, Justin.tv, Ooyala, Plimus, Tagged, Tyler Projects and Ustream.

This is good news for both merchants and consumers. For news and media companies, developers and bloggers like me, this is great news because PayPal for Digital Goods allows us offer and sell digital content on our websites and blogs and be able to receive payments automatically and have instant access to our PayPal funds.

I’m also a consumer and this development is also good news for me and other consumers because with PayPal for Digital Goods, we could quickly, easily and safely purchase digital goods like music, software and games online. For current PayPal users like me, this new micropayments program extends the value and usability of PayPal.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

PayPal Unveils New Payment Solution for Digital Goods
Industry Leaders Facebook and FT.com Using PayPal to Simplify Micropayments for Digital Content
INNOVATE 2010, SAN FRANCISCO – Oct. 26, 2010 – PayPal today announced the upcoming availability of PayPal for digital goods, a new in-context, frictionless payment solution that lets consumers pay for digital goods and content in as little as two clicks, without ever having to leave a publisher’s game, news, music, video or media site. The online equivalent of dropping a quarter in the slot to buy a newspaper or play a video game, PayPal’s new solution solves a key problem for the digital goods industry by offering a faster, safer and more cost-effective way to send and receive micropayments globally.
The new solution offers PayPal’s competitive fee structure for micropayments, with pricing at 5 percent plus 5 cents for purchases under $12 — lower than the fees typically charged by payment processors in the digital goods industry. Every time a customer purchases content, publishers and merchants get paid quickly, giving them fast access to their funds. PayPal for digital goods will be available late fall this year.
At PayPal’s second annual Innovate developer conference, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg announced that Facebook will integrate PayPal’s new digital goods payment flow to make PayPal the way to make purchases on Facebook.
Several additional companies, including Autosport.com, FT.com, GigaOM, Justin.tv, Ooyala, Plimus, Tagged, Tyler Projects and Ustream announced that they are also using PayPal to monetize the growing opportunity in digital goods.
“Our readers want their news on demand, whether they’re on a laptop, a mobile phone or a tablet,” said Mary Beth Christie, head of product management at FT.com. “PayPal helps us provide the experience our customers expect, along with flexibility to experiment with payment mechanisms for subscriptions. This gives our customers the flexibility to pay for what they want, when they want.”
“The decision to purchase digital goods and content usually happens on impulse, so the act of paying needs to be as quick as that impulse,” said Sam Shrauger, PayPal’s vice president of global product strategy. “PayPal for digital goods is an ideal solution for game developers, newspapers, bloggers, media companies, and anyone who is looking to monetize premium digital content around the globe.”
Because PayPal for digital goods is built on PayPal’s sophisticated fraud prevention engine, developers don’t have to worry about building the systems required to protect customers’ sensitive financial information. PayPal is already one of the leading payment methods for digital goods, giving merchants global reach with 90 million accounts in 190 markets around the world. The company closed out 2009 with $2 billion of total payment volume for digital goods and reached $1.3 billion in the first half of 2010.
Innovate 2010 is the only developers conference dedicated to payments. The conference, at Moscone West in San Francisco from Oct. 26-27, brings together developers and industry experts to explore three main areas that are changing the way we pay: the phenomenal growth of mobile payments, the rise of social commerce and the move to Internet-enabled local payments.
Follow PayPal on Twitter: #xinnovate, @PayPal and @PayPalX. For additional information please visit www.paypal.com/digitalgoods, or www.x.com.
About PayPal
PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing. With more than 90 million active accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce. PayPal is an eBay company and is made up of three leading online payment services: the PayPal global payment service, the Payflow Gateway and Bill Me Later.
More information about the company can be found at PayPal.com. PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and its international headquarters is located in Singapore.

Watch Out For Bogus Freelance Content Writers

Jaypee Habaradas — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:37:03 +0000

Inviting guest bloggers or hiring freelance content writers to write articles for your blog is one way to maintain the consistency and add variety to a successful and growing blog or help a blog owner who’s too busy to maintain the blog. In case you find yourself in this situation and decide to hire freelance content writers, make sure that you choose carefully and watch out for bogus freelance content writers.

Klaus of TechPatio recently wrote about his unfortunate experience with a freelance content writer who goes by the name Pranav Jain. Klaus was contacted by Pranav on September 2nd, with an offer to write articles for TechPatio. Both parties exchanged emails and agreed on a price/fee for a 500 word article on “blogging tips“.

Pranav wanted the payment upfront and sent Klaus his PayPal email address. Klaus sent the money via PayPal and waited for Pranav to submit the article. The article was submitted an hour later and when Klaus checked the article, he felt suspicious with the writing style and decided to run the article through Copyscape to check whether it has been copied from another source. The Copyscape results showed that the article was indeed copied, not from another blog or website but from 2 eBooks or PDF documents released in 2008. The first part of the article was taken from “Blogging Essentials” written by Karina Wright and the latter part of the article was copied from “Top Performing SEO/SEM Strategies” aka “Quick and Dirty SEO-SEM” by Rendall Wright.

Klaus tried to file a dispute with PayPal but the writer – Pranav, claims that he wrote the article himself and never copied it from another source. Since the transaction was done under electronic goods or services, it is considered as an intangible good and PayPal can’t do anything about it. Klaus has lost his money but learned a valuable lesson from this experience. Thank you Klaus for sharing this incident and warning us about bogus freelance content writers.

Be careful if you receive any offers coming from freelance content writers whom you don’t know. In case you decide to accept an offer make sure that you DO NOT pay upfront! Request for a copy of the article and check it. Run it through Copyscape to make sure that it wasn’t copied from another source on the Internet. Also, warn your blogging friends and other bloggers about this. I hope this article will keep you from falling victim to bogus freelance content writers.

Anyone here had a similar experience or know someone who also fell victim to the same kind of tactics used by bogus freelance content writers? Please share your thoughts.