Maybe you’ve heard of this website, or maybe not: SaveKaryn.com. SaveKaryn, run by Karyn Bosnak asked for those reading her website updates and blog to donate money to her so she could pay off the $20,000 in debt she managed to rack up while having difficulty maintaining a job. She wound up paying off her debt through these donations and wound up writing a book, Save Karyn. Her original website read “Wanted: $20,000: Learn how you can help!”
While Bosnak was not the first to ask for money on the internet, she did spark a trend in people asking for money outright, from strangers, online. Her internet site also sparked a backlash against asking for money on the internet.
More recently, there are blog plugins like “Buy Me a Beer” for PayPal that allows readers to donate $3 or $7 to the blog owner. Many homeless people are moving online to panhandle, thanks to the advent of free computer usage in libraries, computer training centers, and other programs. While internet panhandling is not as in-your-face as the people you may encounter while walking around downtown Chicago, it is still a form of begging for money.
Where is the line drawn between panhandling online and making money online? Many bloggers make a living through affiliate marketing. Some internet TV programs ask for donations. What do you think?
About Ronda Bowen
Hello there, and welcome to my page! I have been working as a full-time freelance writer and editor since 2008 when I decided that while I rather enjoyed philosophy, the Ph.D. program I was in was not a good fit for my life goals. Since then, I have published many papers and articles, started two blogs, worked as a senior editor for a magazine, served on the board of a start-up non-profit organization, and walked across fire.
I strongly believe that it is important to work to make the world a better place – one project at a time. I’ve worked with Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program to construct living quarters for those in need, written content for Stonewall Alliance, and edited the newsletter for my local natural foods cooperative. One of the blogs I founded, Activism My Way is dedicated to helping people get involved with causes they feel passionate about.
Although my academic background is in philosophy and social and political theory, my heart has always been in writing fiction and poetry. I have a novel in progress, and I am working on putting together a collection of short stories to share with readers. I also worked as part of a creative team on a project with a hip hop artist that involved world-building and creating an amazing back story to a concept album. I have worked with several authors to edit their novels (as well as dissertations, children’s books, journal articles, and non-fiction projects).
Non-fiction topics I have written about include pop culture and philosophy, project management, business startups and management, insurance, technology, and much more. I also have created web content for a wide variety of clients (ranging from gas station owners to hotels to lawyers), and I’ve had an opportunity to interview some amazing people (Michele May, Kevin Sorbo, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Mark Victor Hansen to name only a few). Needless to say, I love what I do.
I enjoy photography, and my subjects these days are usually my children as well as food, beverages, craft projects, and other such things for my blog, Wining Wife™. My favorite subjects are landscapes, nature (particularly clouds, flowers, and trees), and architecture.
Chicago Panhandler Project 