Squidblog

Believe it or not, this question comes up a lot.

Once someone realizes, with hearts in their eyes, that they can earn money by making good pages on Squidoo, their next step is usually to wonder how the money is actually sent.

So I wanted to take 4 minutes to explain how Squidoo uses PayPal to send you cash.

The short answer is: Simple. You set up a PayPal account. We have a PayPal account. We transfer money, in the amount of the royalties you’ve earned, from our account to yours. Then it’s up to you to turn your PayPal money into greenbacks.

The longer answer is perhaps best explained as a list, below.

1. First, read who PayPal is. Yes, they’re trustworthy.

2. Next, go create a free account on PayPal.

3. When signing up there, you’ll be asked to provide an email address. Use one you check regularly. Preferably the same one you use to login to Squidoo. Important! If you want to set up PayPal using a different email address, please make sure you enter it into your Squidoo profile.

4. Tip: If you have a bunch of email addresses that you’d like to associate with your main PayPal account, you can always add them as aliases within PayPal. That way you can receive money someone sends to any of your email addresses.

5. Now on to the fun part, the part where you get money from Squidoo…

6. Every month, your lenses could earn royalties. The royalties come from the ads we run on your pages, as well as any direct sales you’ve made, like through our Amazon, eBay or CafePress modules. Some people make a dollar or two a month. Others make thousands.

7. Toward the beginning of every month, we will add up your royalties, look at your payment settings, and send the money where you’ve told us to. If your payment settings are earmarked to charity, that’s where your money will go automatically. If your payment settings are for cash, that’s when PayPal enters the scenario.

8. On payday, we’ll show you on your Squidoo dashboard how much cash you’ve earned.

9. Shortly thereafter (sometimes a day or two) you will get an email from PayPal. That email will include the amount you’re getting paid, and acts as a confirmation that the money has been transferred to your PayPal account.

10. It’s entirely up to you to make sure that:
a) this email goes to the right place.
b) it doesn’t get stuck in your spam filter.
c) you have all your PayPal account settings working.

11. If you don’t set up your PayPal account and claim your cash within 30 days, it will default back to Squidoo. We then put it into our Squidoo Charity Fund.

12. If you start making money from Squidoo and you don’t have a PayPal account set up yet, don’t worry! You’ll get an email from us, via them, the first time you earn some cash. That email will have info on how to go set up your PayPal account and claim your money.

13. But… Repeat #11 above.

14. Okay, so you’ve gotten that far. You’ve made great lenses, they earned royalties, and you successfully received a monthly payment to your PayPal account. Now what?

15. Now PayPal gives you a bunch of options for “getting” and spending that money. You can move your PayPal money to a bank account. You can request a check from PayPal, for a small processing fee. You can get cash from PayPal out of an ATM. You can shop in a ton of places online and spend your PayPal money there. Plus a few other options that you’ll learn about when you register with PayPal.

16. If you don’t want to mess around with PayPal at all, then please change your Squidoo payment settings to charity.

17. Sorry, we don’t ever pay by check or money order or make any exceptions. PayPal or charity are your two options.

18. So go make lenses. Make them great. The better they are, the more royalties you’ll earn. Then the only question left is: what do you want to buy with your newfound cash?