How does a person get started if he/she wants to be an advice columnist?

Originally posted by vitaminA
How does a person get started if he/she wants to be an advice columnist?

First, you must have all the answers!

And then, you must hire a gaggle of gruntworkers to print up your knowledge in tidy columns for newspapers across the country.

So there you have it.

If you're asking seriously....try contacting a newspaper or magazine. (Was that so hard?)

Originally posted by DarkEyedBeauty
If you're asking seriously....try contacting a newspaper or magazine. (Was that so hard?)

Well many times their advice is mundane and pitiful.

Who honestly writes to advice columnists anyway?

Originally posted by DarkEyedBeauty
Who honestly writes to advice columnists anyway?

Hey now Ann Landers and Dear Abby aren't still going strong for no reason. There are always insecure people who need advice and people who are just overwhelmed from certain situations in life and need a guiding voice.

Psychologist, Friend, Spouse, Relative, Employer....I'd ask all these people before I would ask the help of someone like that.

fantastic that you should think that.
lots of people are constantly in trouble. always needing support and insecure about their actions.

but i do have to smile a little at medicine woman's remark:
"First, you must have all the answers!"

because it's true! You can't just have psycho babble.
plus you might lead them into the wrong path.
dýou not think those talk shows are the same way?
exposing peoples lives on television so they can express their troubles to the whole world?

first off, you got to have money to start a column don't you?
why don't you just get to know someone in the newspaper business,foremost in the free ads, then go from there. you can give your advice for free, then if your popularity soars, there's great possibility you can be better than ms landers or abby.

There's a lady named Carolyn Hax who writes a column called "Tell Me about It: Advice for the Under-30 Crowd" in the Washington Post twice a week. Her insights and her way of explaining them clearly to a confused population are amazing. She can see what people are thinking and worried about even when they haven't talked about it, and she gives them straight-up 21st-century suggestions on solving their own problems that Dear Abby and Ann Landers wouldn't think of in a million years.

I'm way over that hill, but I wish there had been someone of her caliber and forthrightness when I was in that age group. We really were stuck with Abby and Ann, and their advice to anyone of our age was always the same. Cut your hair, register for the draft, give up drugs and forgive your parents because raising you was hard on them.

I enjoy reading "Tell Me about It" just because it gives me faith in the human race. There really is somebody out there that can help young people with problems, given that their parents and teachers are just about totally incompetent.

It's easy to check her out online. WashingtonPost.com has all the columns in HTML.

Originally posted by vitaminA
How does a person get started if he/she wants to be an advice columnist?

start posting on internet forums

Originally posted by vitaminA
How does a person get started if he/she wants to be an advice columnist?

Ask an advice columnist for advice.

Who would know better?

I have actually considered starting my own "Advice Column" web site in the past.

All you have to do is get some traffic to your site, and some decent advertizing.

If your advice, site and advertizing are any good, you are bound to be successful.

Syndications will come looking for you, and if your site is profitable enough, you can tell them to stuff it. :)

Make sure you are good at BSing almost anything. I learned how to BS essays on biology tests I had every two weeks.. I never studied. I knew nothing of the subject, yet I got near perfects on the papers... I made it look like I knew what I was talking about. You will not always have the answers, but you will have to make it look like you do in those times :cool: