One of the topics I covered in the How to Write an Ebook series was working with affiliates and how to pay your affiliates with PayPal's Mass Payment feature.
For me, my affiliates have helped me sell thousands of ebooks and it's important to me to make sure they get paid, and on time.
In my case, Mass Payments have saved me untold amounts of time since it allows me to pay all my affiliates at once. It literally takes me only a few minutes to complete the process each month.
But I've heard from a few of you who've said you haven't been able to use Mass Payments and have to pay each of your affiliates individually.
Since there seems to have been some changes in the program since my post, I contacted PayPal and asked about this directly. I imagine some of you did too, but I thought I would post what I learned here just in case it's helpful to anyone else (I'll also edit the other post with this link as well).
Me: Is the Mass Payment feature gone [for new users]? If not, what are the fees associated with it?
Brittany (from PayPal Merchant Solutions): The mass payment feature is not gone, but it is now something that you need to qualify for.
Me: Can you tell me what the qualifications are?
Brittany: It is ultimately the supervisors decision for enablement of the product but the account needs to meet all of the [following] criteria.
- The user either needs to have a Premier or Business account.
- The account needs to be in good standing (no limitations or restrictions).
- Their withdraw limit has to be lifted.
- The person that contacts us has to be the primary account holder.
In order for the user to find out if they qualify for enabling mass payments on their account they will need to contact us directly.
To contact us by phone:
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- Click Contact Us at the bottom of any PayPal page.
- Click "Call us" to see the One-Time Passcode (6 digits).
Call 888-221-1161 during these hours:
- 4:00 AM PT to 10:00 PM PT, Monday–Friday
- 6:00 AM PT to 8:00 PM PT, Saturday and Sunday
There is no monthly fee for having mass payments enabled on your account.
The sender of a Mass Payment is charged a fee of 2% of each individual payment within the Mass Payment. The fee is capped at USD 1 (CAD 1.20) per individual payment.
International Mass Payments have a cap of USD 20 (CAD 24).
Note:
- The balance that is in the PayPal account must cover the fees as well as the total amount of the Mass Payment
- The Fee is assessed at the time of the Mass Payment
- No fee is charged to the recipient.
I hope that helps some of you!
If you can manage to get approved, I think you'll find it to be very worthwhile. It's definitely worth a try!
Thank you for the information here – just called and I am back in the show! I used this feature before and it certainly did help – so was thrilled with your help in getting things back in gear. Will save me time for sure!
Oh I'm so glad to hear it, Susan. That's awesome!
I'm just someone else's affiliate at the moment so I probably need not worry about mass payments yet. Hopefully though, if things go for the better this year, I might just be browsing back to this page to make sure I know how to go about doing it. Hope Paypal doesn't keep on changing their policies though.
Useful advice. Hope to find out more wonderful posts later on.
Thanks for this information. I'm releasing my first ebook next week and I used your blog posts on writing an ebook to walk me through the process. Thanks for the tip on collecting sales tax. I would not have thought of that. I'm also meeting with our local small business admin to make sure I have all my ducks in a row. Here's a peek at the ebook, http://www.thegardeningnotebook.com
Congrats, Angi!
Just called and it is now enabled on my account! Yay! Thank you so much…I was just preparing to send out my very first affiliate payments in the next day or two!
I was able to qualify for mass payments by calling in and verifying who I was! I know some people have said they don't qualify, but it's definitely worth taking a few minutes to upgrade to a business account and then calling Paypal to see if you qualify.
I would love if you would address how to pay affiliates through Paypal if you don't have mass pay, because I find it rather annoying as an affiliate when I'm paid by someone and incur fees on my end. I've had this happen quite a few times recently, and I don't know if people are just picking the wrong way to pay affiliates? To me, the person selling the ebook (and not the affiliate) should pay any costs. It's a decent chunk out of my affiliate pay if I have to pay the fees…and it's frustrating!