What you will learn
- Take payments
Watch the class
Video links coming soon
Submit your homework
Submit: 五行产品说明全文；测试付款后看到的确认消息原文；正式链接的状态（自己买过并退款了，或还在审核、卡在哪一步）；链接放在了哪里（写平台，不用贴链接）；记账表的栏目；你删掉的效果承诺。不要交 SSN、银行账号或截图里的个人号码。
→ Submit homework
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▶ AI Grading Rubric
| Dimension | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Clear offer card | 20% | All five lines present (name, who/what change, deliverable, delivery, price and refund), no result promises. |
| Sandbox test | 20% | Built a sandbox payment link, paid with a test card, submitted the confirmation text. |
| Live link verified | 20% | Bought and refunded once on the live link, or honestly reports review status / alternative provider. |
| Reachable by buyers | 15% | Link placed in at least one real channel and as a site button, without pretending the file site is hosted. |
| Records and boundaries | 10% | Keeps a sales log, defers taxes to a professional, never shares SSN/bank/card numbers. |
| Authenticity | 15% | The student's own work in their own words, with personal context, not AI boilerplate or a copied example. |
90-100 Excellent: every part done, clearly their own · 70-89 Solid, one or two things to improve · 50-69 Done but missing parts or thin · 30-49 Mostly not done · 1-29 Nearly empty
Further notes
Expand full notes
<!-- page: First decide what you sell and how you deliver it -->
**Before you start:** Do this lesson on a computer (a phone screen is too small to see the whole Stripe dashboard). It comes in two sittings: **first** (about 25 minutes), write your product card, build a payment link in the test environment, and "pretend to pay" once yourself; **second** (about 20 minutes), turn on your real account and put the link where buyers can see it. Stripe has to review a new account, and that can take a day or two, so two sittings fit well.
**What this lesson uses:** Stripe's **Payment Links**. No setup fee and no monthly fee; Stripe only takes a fee when you make a sale: **2.9% + 30¢** per US card; another 1.5% for cards from other countries, and another 1% if the money has to be converted (see stripe.com/pricing for the current numbers). For example, on a $10 sale Stripe takes about $0.59 and you keep $9.41.
**First, check whether you can open a Stripe account.** To open a personal account in the US, have these ready:
- Your SSN (Social Security number; you type the last 4 digits first, and Stripe asks for the full number if it needs it). If you have an EIN (business tax ID), you can use that instead;
- A US bank account in your own name, to receive the money;
- A web address that shows what you sell. No website is fine: you can enter the **full address** of your YouTube channel or a social media profile (the YouTube channel from Lesson 3 works well). That page needs to show: your name or your small business's name, what you sell, how to reach you, and what happens with refunds.
Not in the US? First check stripe.com/global to see if your country is supported. If it is not, see "Other ways to get paid" on the last page of this lesson.
**A privacy reminder:** Stripe asks for a "support address", and that address is printed on your buyers' receipts. If you don't want strangers to see your home address, rent a PO Box first and use that [to verify: whether a PO Box passes review].
**Write your product card first.** Go back to your "My Website" project on claude.ai and start a new chat:
```
I want to sell the small product I chose in Lesson 1 online: [product name], price [price].
Please write a product card for it in plain English, in five lines:
1. Product name (no more than 8 words);
2. One sentence: who it is for, and what small change it helps them make;
3. What the buyer gets: [for example: one PDF, how many pages, what is inside];
4. How it is delivered: within [24 hours] after payment, I send it to the email the buyer entered when paying;
5. Refunds: [for example: if you are not happy within 7 days of receiving it, write to me for a full refund].
Use only the facts I gave you. Do not make anything up, and do not promise results.
```
Check it with trick C from Quick Start Lesson 5 (check whether AI made anything up): does it say "guaranteed" or "you will definitely learn"? If so, delete it. Save these five lines; you will need them on the next page.
**Done:** You have a five-line product card, and you know whether you can open a Stripe account.
<!-- page: Build a payment link in the test environment -->
**Practice in the "test environment" first.** Stripe has a practice area called a **sandbox** (also called the test environment): all the money in it is fake, so pressing the wrong button does no harm. A brand-new account starts out in the sandbox [to verify: how the dashboard shows you are in the sandbox].
**1. Sign up.** In your computer's browser, open **dashboard.stripe.com/register**, enter your email, name and country, and set a password you use only for Stripe. After signing up, open the verification email from Stripe and click the link. From now on, type your password only on a stripe.com address; if an email has a link that asks you to log in, check the web address before you click.
**2. Build the payment link.**
1. In the dashboard, find **Payment Links** and click **+New**. If you can't find it, click the **+** on the page and choose **Payment link**.
2. Click **+Add a new product**.
3. Fill in the name and description from your product card on the last page, enter your price, and choose a one-time payment (One-off) [to verify: the exact wording of the button in the price field]. You can upload a cover image, or leave it empty. Click **Add product**.
4. Click the **After payment** tab at the top. Under **Confirmation page**, choose a custom message [to verify: the exact wording of the option], and write:
```
Thank you! Within [24 hours] I will send [product name] to the email you entered when you paid.
If it doesn't arrive, please write to me at [your email].
```
5. Click **Create link**.
**3. "Pretend" to pay once yourself.** Copy the link (there is a copy icon next to it), paste it into your browser and open it. A test link usually starts with `buy.stripe.com/test_`. On the payment page, enter:
- Card number: `4242 4242 4242 4242`
- Expiration date: any date in the future, for example `12/30`
- Security code: any 3 digits, for example `123`
- ZIP code and the other fields: anything
Click pay. You should see the "Thank you" message you just wrote. Then go back to **Payments** in the dashboard; you can see this fake payment there.
**Don't add anything to the end of the link.** Some people add a `?` and a string of letters to the end of a link to tag it. Stripe only accepts English letters, numbers, `-` and `_`; any other character is quietly dropped, so the money arrives but your tag is gone. You don't need tags in this lesson; share the link exactly as it is.
**Done:** You built a payment link in the test environment, paid once with the test card, and saw your own confirmation message.
<!-- page: Go live, and buy once for real -->
**1. Turn on your real account.** In the dashboard, click the button that asks you to activate your account, or open your account settings under **Settings** (the address is dashboard.stripe.com/account/onboarding). Fill in the page one item at a time:
- Business type: if you work alone, choose individual or sole proprietor [to verify: the exact wording of the options]. If you don't have an EIN, choose "no EIN" and enter your SSN.
- Your personal details, your web address (the YouTube channel or social media profile from the first page), and a sentence or two about what you sell.
- The name shown on card statements (statement descriptor): use a name your buyers will recognize, such as your own name. If a buyer doesn't recognize the charge, they may ask their bank to reverse it.
- The bank account that receives the money.
- Turn on two-step authentication.
- Finally, click **Agree and submit**.
**Fill these in only on Stripe's website.** Never send your SSN, bank account number or password to any AI, and never send a screenshot of them to someone to look over. If you get stuck, you can send Claude a screenshot, but cover those numbers first.
Once the review passes, your account moves from the sandbox to live. Sometimes Stripe asks for a photo of your ID; just follow its instructions.
**2. Turn on automatic receipts.** Go to **Settings → Business → Customer emails** and turn on **Successful payments**. Now every time you make a sale, Stripe emails the buyer a receipt automatically. (The test environment does not send receipts automatically, so it is normal that you didn't get one on the last page.)
**3. Build the link again in your live account.** Links made in the test environment cannot take real money. In your live account, follow the steps on the last page again to make the product and payment link. A live link has no `test_` in its address.
**4. Buy once for real, then refund it.** Use your own card to buy once through the live link. Check three things: the confirmation page is right, a receipt arrives in your email, and the payment shows up under **Payments** in the dashboard. Then find that payment under **Payments**, click the **⋯** on the right, choose **Refund payment**, pick a reason, and click **Refund**. The refund reaches your card in a few days. Stripe usually keeps the original fee; think of it as paying a few dimes for peace of mind.
**When does the money reach your bank?** Your first real payment usually reaches your bank 7 to 14 days later; after that, payouts usually come about every two business days.
**Done:** Your live payment link works: you bought once yourself, got the receipt, and refunded it. If your account is still under review, that's fine: write down the review status and hand in the test link for now.
<!-- page: Put it where buyers can see it -->
**The honest truth first:** the website you made in Quick Start Lesson 9 is an HTML file on your computer. Nobody can find it with a search, and there is no web address for them to open. So buyers won't find your payment link on your website. They will find it in these places:
1. **Send it straight to them.** When someone asks "how do I buy?", send them the payment link by email or text message. In person, click **QR code** on the payment link's detail page and download the QR code for them to scan.
2. **In your video description.** Paste the payment link into the first or second line of the description of your YouTube video from Lesson 3, with a sentence in front like "Want [product name]? Click here:".
3. **Your SRlink page.** Once you set up SRlink in Lesson 9, put it there too [to verify: whether an SRlink page can hold a clickable payment link].
**Add a buy button to your website too.** When you send someone your website file, or open it in front of them, they can click it right away. Go back to the chat in your "My Website" project where you built the website:
```
Keep everything else the same. Add a big button to the website that says "Buy [product name] ([price])", and when clicked it opens this link: [your live payment link]
Above the button, put my product card: [paste the five-line product card from the earlier page]
Don't use any code from the internet; just use a plain link button.
```
When it's done, click the button in the web page on the right and see if it opens the Stripe payment page. Then download a fresh HTML file the way you did in Quick Start Lesson 10.
**After the money comes in:**
- The first time you receive real money, Stripe emails you. If you want a notice for every sale, turn on notifications in your personal settings (Personal details) under **Settings** [to verify: where the notification switch is].
- Send the product to the buyer's email by the time you promised.
- Start a spreadsheet and add one row for every sale: date, buyer's email, amount, fee, amount you keep, sent or not. You can also look up every sale under **Payments** in the Stripe dashboard.
**About taxes:** The money you take in may need to be reported on your taxes. Keep good records and ask a tax professional (an accountant or tax preparer). This course does not teach how to file taxes.
**Other ways to get paid (only if you can't use Stripe):** A PayPal business account can also make payment links; in the US, a Venmo business profile can take payments too, for a fee of about 1.9% + 10¢ per sale. Check their own websites for current fees and requirements. Whichever one you use, have buyers pay only on that company's own payment page; never ask a buyer to give you their card number by email or phone.
**Done:** Your payment link is in at least one real place (sent to one person, or pasted into your video description), your website has a buy button, and you have started a sales spreadsheet.
**Before you start:** Do this lesson on a computer (a phone screen is too small to see the whole Stripe dashboard). It comes in two sittings: **first** (about 25 minutes), write your product card, build a payment link in the test environment, and "pretend to pay" once yourself; **second** (about 20 minutes), turn on your real account and put the link where buyers can see it. Stripe has to review a new account, and that can take a day or two, so two sittings fit well.
**What this lesson uses:** Stripe's **Payment Links**. No setup fee and no monthly fee; Stripe only takes a fee when you make a sale: **2.9% + 30¢** per US card; another 1.5% for cards from other countries, and another 1% if the money has to be converted (see stripe.com/pricing for the current numbers). For example, on a $10 sale Stripe takes about $0.59 and you keep $9.41.
**First, check whether you can open a Stripe account.** To open a personal account in the US, have these ready:
- Your SSN (Social Security number; you type the last 4 digits first, and Stripe asks for the full number if it needs it). If you have an EIN (business tax ID), you can use that instead;
- A US bank account in your own name, to receive the money;
- A web address that shows what you sell. No website is fine: you can enter the **full address** of your YouTube channel or a social media profile (the YouTube channel from Lesson 3 works well). That page needs to show: your name or your small business's name, what you sell, how to reach you, and what happens with refunds.
Not in the US? First check stripe.com/global to see if your country is supported. If it is not, see "Other ways to get paid" on the last page of this lesson.
**A privacy reminder:** Stripe asks for a "support address", and that address is printed on your buyers' receipts. If you don't want strangers to see your home address, rent a PO Box first and use that [to verify: whether a PO Box passes review].
**Write your product card first.** Go back to your "My Website" project on claude.ai and start a new chat:
```
I want to sell the small product I chose in Lesson 1 online: [product name], price [price].
Please write a product card for it in plain English, in five lines:
1. Product name (no more than 8 words);
2. One sentence: who it is for, and what small change it helps them make;
3. What the buyer gets: [for example: one PDF, how many pages, what is inside];
4. How it is delivered: within [24 hours] after payment, I send it to the email the buyer entered when paying;
5. Refunds: [for example: if you are not happy within 7 days of receiving it, write to me for a full refund].
Use only the facts I gave you. Do not make anything up, and do not promise results.
```
Check it with trick C from Quick Start Lesson 5 (check whether AI made anything up): does it say "guaranteed" or "you will definitely learn"? If so, delete it. Save these five lines; you will need them on the next page.
**Done:** You have a five-line product card, and you know whether you can open a Stripe account.
<!-- page: Build a payment link in the test environment -->
**Practice in the "test environment" first.** Stripe has a practice area called a **sandbox** (also called the test environment): all the money in it is fake, so pressing the wrong button does no harm. A brand-new account starts out in the sandbox [to verify: how the dashboard shows you are in the sandbox].
**1. Sign up.** In your computer's browser, open **dashboard.stripe.com/register**, enter your email, name and country, and set a password you use only for Stripe. After signing up, open the verification email from Stripe and click the link. From now on, type your password only on a stripe.com address; if an email has a link that asks you to log in, check the web address before you click.
**2. Build the payment link.**
1. In the dashboard, find **Payment Links** and click **+New**. If you can't find it, click the **+** on the page and choose **Payment link**.
2. Click **+Add a new product**.
3. Fill in the name and description from your product card on the last page, enter your price, and choose a one-time payment (One-off) [to verify: the exact wording of the button in the price field]. You can upload a cover image, or leave it empty. Click **Add product**.
4. Click the **After payment** tab at the top. Under **Confirmation page**, choose a custom message [to verify: the exact wording of the option], and write:
```
Thank you! Within [24 hours] I will send [product name] to the email you entered when you paid.
If it doesn't arrive, please write to me at [your email].
```
5. Click **Create link**.
**3. "Pretend" to pay once yourself.** Copy the link (there is a copy icon next to it), paste it into your browser and open it. A test link usually starts with `buy.stripe.com/test_`. On the payment page, enter:
- Card number: `4242 4242 4242 4242`
- Expiration date: any date in the future, for example `12/30`
- Security code: any 3 digits, for example `123`
- ZIP code and the other fields: anything
Click pay. You should see the "Thank you" message you just wrote. Then go back to **Payments** in the dashboard; you can see this fake payment there.
**Don't add anything to the end of the link.** Some people add a `?` and a string of letters to the end of a link to tag it. Stripe only accepts English letters, numbers, `-` and `_`; any other character is quietly dropped, so the money arrives but your tag is gone. You don't need tags in this lesson; share the link exactly as it is.
**Done:** You built a payment link in the test environment, paid once with the test card, and saw your own confirmation message.
<!-- page: Go live, and buy once for real -->
**1. Turn on your real account.** In the dashboard, click the button that asks you to activate your account, or open your account settings under **Settings** (the address is dashboard.stripe.com/account/onboarding). Fill in the page one item at a time:
- Business type: if you work alone, choose individual or sole proprietor [to verify: the exact wording of the options]. If you don't have an EIN, choose "no EIN" and enter your SSN.
- Your personal details, your web address (the YouTube channel or social media profile from the first page), and a sentence or two about what you sell.
- The name shown on card statements (statement descriptor): use a name your buyers will recognize, such as your own name. If a buyer doesn't recognize the charge, they may ask their bank to reverse it.
- The bank account that receives the money.
- Turn on two-step authentication.
- Finally, click **Agree and submit**.
**Fill these in only on Stripe's website.** Never send your SSN, bank account number or password to any AI, and never send a screenshot of them to someone to look over. If you get stuck, you can send Claude a screenshot, but cover those numbers first.
Once the review passes, your account moves from the sandbox to live. Sometimes Stripe asks for a photo of your ID; just follow its instructions.
**2. Turn on automatic receipts.** Go to **Settings → Business → Customer emails** and turn on **Successful payments**. Now every time you make a sale, Stripe emails the buyer a receipt automatically. (The test environment does not send receipts automatically, so it is normal that you didn't get one on the last page.)
**3. Build the link again in your live account.** Links made in the test environment cannot take real money. In your live account, follow the steps on the last page again to make the product and payment link. A live link has no `test_` in its address.
**4. Buy once for real, then refund it.** Use your own card to buy once through the live link. Check three things: the confirmation page is right, a receipt arrives in your email, and the payment shows up under **Payments** in the dashboard. Then find that payment under **Payments**, click the **⋯** on the right, choose **Refund payment**, pick a reason, and click **Refund**. The refund reaches your card in a few days. Stripe usually keeps the original fee; think of it as paying a few dimes for peace of mind.
**When does the money reach your bank?** Your first real payment usually reaches your bank 7 to 14 days later; after that, payouts usually come about every two business days.
**Done:** Your live payment link works: you bought once yourself, got the receipt, and refunded it. If your account is still under review, that's fine: write down the review status and hand in the test link for now.
<!-- page: Put it where buyers can see it -->
**The honest truth first:** the website you made in Quick Start Lesson 9 is an HTML file on your computer. Nobody can find it with a search, and there is no web address for them to open. So buyers won't find your payment link on your website. They will find it in these places:
1. **Send it straight to them.** When someone asks "how do I buy?", send them the payment link by email or text message. In person, click **QR code** on the payment link's detail page and download the QR code for them to scan.
2. **In your video description.** Paste the payment link into the first or second line of the description of your YouTube video from Lesson 3, with a sentence in front like "Want [product name]? Click here:".
3. **Your SRlink page.** Once you set up SRlink in Lesson 9, put it there too [to verify: whether an SRlink page can hold a clickable payment link].
**Add a buy button to your website too.** When you send someone your website file, or open it in front of them, they can click it right away. Go back to the chat in your "My Website" project where you built the website:
```
Keep everything else the same. Add a big button to the website that says "Buy [product name] ([price])", and when clicked it opens this link: [your live payment link]
Above the button, put my product card: [paste the five-line product card from the earlier page]
Don't use any code from the internet; just use a plain link button.
```
When it's done, click the button in the web page on the right and see if it opens the Stripe payment page. Then download a fresh HTML file the way you did in Quick Start Lesson 10.
**After the money comes in:**
- The first time you receive real money, Stripe emails you. If you want a notice for every sale, turn on notifications in your personal settings (Personal details) under **Settings** [to verify: where the notification switch is].
- Send the product to the buyer's email by the time you promised.
- Start a spreadsheet and add one row for every sale: date, buyer's email, amount, fee, amount you keep, sent or not. You can also look up every sale under **Payments** in the Stripe dashboard.
**About taxes:** The money you take in may need to be reported on your taxes. Keep good records and ask a tax professional (an accountant or tax preparer). This course does not teach how to file taxes.
**Other ways to get paid (only if you can't use Stripe):** A PayPal business account can also make payment links; in the US, a Venmo business profile can take payments too, for a fee of about 1.9% + 10¢ per sale. Check their own websites for current fees and requirements. Whichever one you use, have buyers pay only on that company's own payment page; never ask a buyer to give you their card number by email or phone.
**Done:** Your payment link is in at least one real place (sent to one person, or pasted into your video description), your website has a buy button, and you have started a sales spreadsheet.