How to Write an Internet Advice Column

If you always know the answer to other people's problems, then you should start helping them out with an internet advice column.

If you are one of those people who always knows what is best and helps your friends get out of "trouble," then you may be the perfect person to write an internet advice column. It can be very difficult to get an advice column in a local paper without previous clips and journalism experience, but starting your own internet advice column can be a great way to build a portfolio, enjoy helping others and even make some money.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Internet connection
• Blog

Instructions

1. Build a blog. Also called a web log, a blog is conversational in tone. It is comprised of a network of pages online that contain "posts" about the thoughts, ideas and opinions of the author. The easiest way to get started with your online advice column is to start a blog. Through blogs, people can communicate with you, comment on your tips and advice and even request clarifications. These are all crucial facets of an internet advice column. You can build a blog by signing up on a free blogging website which will help you choose a template, background and format, then let you upload pictures and start writing immediately, or by registering a website and uploading blog software (also free) to the website. You may wish to hire a coder to help you with this if you want to customize your blog more than a blogging directory will allow. These experts charge varying amounts depending on their reputations, experience and degree of customer service.

2. Start out with some basic content. Once your blog is ready to go, start typing! In order to establish credibility, you may wish to start out by addressing some basic issues that you often see causing problems for people. Common themes are cheating or jealous partners, inattentive boyfriends and girlfriends, money issues and sex. By writing some "opinion pieces" on these subjects or others of your choosing, you will help establish yourself as a person qualified to give advice.

3. 

   Solicit questions. Once your blog is set up, send out an email to your friends, relatives and colleagues (where appropriate) to let them know that you now have an online presence. Ask them to submit some questions to you by entering their questions in the comment area of your blog. This will help you get started giving advice to real people. It will also help you add to your blog content quickly and regularlly, which is vitally important. Make sure that you keep your answers general enough to help other readers in similar situations. For example, if you have a friend that feels like her husband ignores her, do not address her directly just because you happen to know that her husband is a football fanatic and basically glued to the television during the season. Instead, suggest a number of ways, including learning more about sports, for example, that she can attract her husband's attention.

4. Promote your column. Once you have some content, start promoting your column on a larger scale. You may wish to advertise on or offline. If you do not want to pay to promote your column, use social networking websites and forums to publicize your presence. You can invite people to come and read your column or leave comments in forums with your website included in the text so that people will click the link to hear more about what you have to say.

5. Consider advertising or online promotions. Once you have an established readership, you can begin to earn some money with your advice column. You may wish to promote affiliate products on your blog that are related to your content, such as self-help books or relationship texts. You should also consider content-related advertising. To include this in your column, you will need to insert a short line of code into the HTML of your blog. The blog software will instruct you where and how to do this. Then, ads related to your subjects will appear on your blog around the written content. When readers click those ads, the search engines will pay you.

Tips & Warnings

• Never reveal anything personal online about yourself or another person that you--or they--do not want the entire world to know. Even if you do not think anyone is reading your column, the second you reveal confidential information you will discover that this is far from true.

Resources

• You can set up a free blog here.
• Set up a free blog and download free blog software here.