wpXPRESS does subscriptions for its clients, so that we can not only host their website, and keep their domain registered, but also provide updates and tech support, etc., long after we build them an awesome-looking website. A lot of the clients we’ve been blessed to work with lately are awesome, and also happen to have very unique requirements for their business. This means we’re working on a lot of custom projects. They don’t fit our typical “small business website” packages very well, so we create customized ones.

Customized packages have unique monthly subscription fees. But searching all over Paypal didn’t reveal any way to sent a “payment request” that was for a subscription payment. I also tried searching Paypal’s knowledge base, and nothing there either. Finally, after going back and forth with email tech support, an agent sent me a link (no longer active).

It explains that you can create a subscription button, designed for embedding in a webpage, but then there’s an email option so you can write your own email, just embedding the code, or copy/paste the link within the code into an email, and request that your client use it, to sign up for the appropriate subscription.

Update: we now do all this through Gravity Forms which allows you to setup custom recurring payments, one-time payments, etc. on PayPal, Stripe and more.