Q: I have seen PayPal Donate Here icons on other blogs. At one point I put one on mine but didn't like the whole asking for money thing so quickly removed it. What do you think people think about something like that?
A: Well, I can only speak for myself, but I think it depends on what your blogging goals are. If you're really trying to promote your book, then you don't want to dilute that message by asking for donations. If you're doing it to sharpen your writing skills or express yourself creatively, then donations aren't really necessary. If your primary goal is to make money, then a Donate Here icon makes sense (and hopefully cents, too).
BUT I think in order for people to feel compelled to donate, your blog should be improving their lives in some way. For instance, Deb Ng's Freelance Writing Jobs blog posts writing gigs several days a week and many people have landed projects thanks to her postings. I think it's appropriate for Deb to have a link for donations, since she provides a valuable service to the freelance writing community. My blog, on the other hand, is more a creative outlet than a job board or service-oriented site, so I probably won't go that route.
Q: Do you need permission to link to another person’s site? Or what is the proper etiquette on that?
A: Nope, most people will be thrilled that you're linking to them. If you find that one in a million person who is not so thrilled, you can apologize and remove the link.
Q: Is there an etiquette to how often you post and can you post too often? Is once a day the ideal for posting?
A: Post frequency is up to you and your schedule. You'll notice that I've already posted a bunch of links earlier today, and I don't think two posts over the weekend is too much for readers to handle. I do try to spread it over the week, though, so that I don't go too long without a post or overwhelm readers with several posts at once (the links list is a quick read unless you're clicking on every single link).
I save posts in a email drafts so that when I'm ready to post, I can just shoot an email to my Blogger account and it posts automatically. This creates some inconsistent formatting, but the trade-off is that it allows me to stockpile posts for later (WordPress allows you to schedule posts in the future, but Blogger does not). I get the most traffic in the middle of the week (usually Wednesdays), so I always try to have a new post on Wednesdays.
Any thoughts you'd like to add?