Receive Gifts from Visitors (money and more)
Bloggers blog for many different reasons–rarely though is it for direct financial gain. So what should you do when visitors inquire about contributing financially to your blog? Even if you find yourself disinterest in receiving financial contributions from visitors, accepting such offers can be a way for your visiters to feel acknowledged and connected to your site.
The biggest hurdle for bloggers is how to facilitate this outpouring of gratefulness, especially when such outpouring takes the form of small donations, while maintaining a certain level of anonymity. There are several different ways to receive small donations from your blog visitors:
PayPal
PayPal is the most flexible and universal way for visitors to send money/donations. The transaction is free if visitors send a personal payment. To send a personal payment one must:
1) log into their paypal account
2) select the send money tab
3) select the personal payment tab
(there is a credit card fee if the visitor uses a credit card: the visitor decides whether he/she pays this fee or whether it comes out of the donation he/she is sending).
Alternatively you can make a donate button ( 
) on your website. Users will be directed to login or create a paypal account. Transaction costs for payments through a donate button are 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
My recommendation generally is to write a short blurb about personal payments: If you would like to support my work through a donation, please feel free to send me a money gift from your paypal account to myemail@address.com.
Other payment options:
flattr – neat micro payment scheme that is starting to take off (flattr keeps 10% of what you make)
pledgie – make a fundraising goal and allow visitors to pledge (uses paypal 2.9% + $0.30 per donation)
gift cards – visitors can buy new or load top up e-gift cards (eg starbucks, amazon, chapters)
online wish list – nice visitors might buy you books (eg amazon, chapters)
Other ways to monetize blog traffic:
ads – post ads on your site; ad companies pays per click (eg adsense)
affiliates – companies pay commission for sales/customers sent to them from you (eg netflix, cafepress, amazon, etc)
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