Pros and cons of writing to an agony aunt problem page. You may be considering writing to a newspaper or magazine to ask about your agony aunt problem. Hoping that someone out there can give you the advice you want and help you with your situation. One of the biggest reasons that people write to a newspaper or magazine about such a thing is because it is free of charge, but there are a lot of other things to consider before you decide whether you will or not. Now you have an idea of the pros and cons of writing to an agony aunt problem page.

The cons include…

* If the free agony aunt problem you are posing is particularly interesting or exciting they will decide to include it in the publication you are writing to. After all the reason they allow the general public to write to them for free advice is so that they get fodder, juicy tit bits, page fillers, without paying a journalist or writer to write them. The publication’s main concern is to get this tit bits to print. The other requests for agony aunt advice are dealt with as quickly as possible rather than being given the time and consideration they deserve. It is cheaper for them to pay a free advice columnist online to read and reply to readers and print the best than it is to pay someone to write a whole page. You may feel embarrassed if your letter is included. You may worry that someone you know will see it and recognise your situation or who you are and know more about you than you want them to. Even if you change your name and details it may be hard not for them to recognise you. Just one thing to remember when thinking about the pros and cons of writing to an agony aunt problem page.

* It takes on average at least a month for a newspaper or magazine to read and reply to your mail. This can cause you worry, impatience and distress, it can also be difficult to deal with if you have nobody else to support you or you desperately want to know what the person reading it thinks. Especially if you are asking for free agony aunt advice about an ongoing situation which is serious. If you are asking agony aunt questions about whether or not to do something which is life changing a month can be a very long time and things could become worse in the meantime.

* The publication is seeking fodder to print on it’s free advice columnist online page. It will not encourage you to become a regular writer, especially if none of your letters are useful to them. Some write to these publications for all of the wrong reasons, perhaps they are lonely or trying to turn the people responding to them with free advice columnist online help into a sort of penfriend. Others have mental health issues and can become too friendly and time consuming or too aggressive, demanding and difficult, believing that the patient and caring person who receives their mails must be at their beck and call, always eager to reply and say something they like. That is just one of the pros and cons of writing to an agony aunt problem page.

* The free agony aunt advice you receive in your reply is often very vague and urging you to go elsewhere. People who are going through a marital problem may be told to go to see a counsellor or think long and hard before doing anything drastic. People who are dating someone and struggling with being in love may be told to go to see life coach or relationship expert. Your reply is often very short consisting of just a few words and a phone number or link to a website which gives information. The phone number may be for a helpline. It will often be for one which is known nationally, very popular and which you had already heard of! Where you could have found the phone number online in just a few moments instead of waiting a whole month for it. It may well be that you have already rung it and others similar to it and ended up sending a letter to a publication because they did not work for you.

* The part time staff who read and reply to pleas for help are less experienced and knowledgeable than someone who has been doing it for a very long time as a full time professional with a lot of experience.

* If you decide to write to the same publication again for follow up agony aunt advice you will be very unlikely to get consistency. Most publications have loads of people working for them part time and cheaply. Your first plea for a free advice columnist online to read your mail and reply to you with regard to your agony aunt problem might have been answered by Emily, who only works Tuesday, your second mail might be replied to by Mary. Both will have different attitudes. Both will have different ways of looking at things. You may have felt that your first response was helpful, and worth a follow up if the replies are free, but this does not mean that you will think that waiting for ages for this reply was worth it.

Of course there are pros and cons of writing to an agony aunt problem page. And there are alternatives, such as consulting a private clairvoyant psychic.

Things to remember if you decide to send a letter to a newspaper or magazine about your problem.

* Do not hold your breath waiting for a reply believing that it will help you. It may or it may not. If it helps great but do not rely on it and wait until you receive your reply to make a decision.

* The publication you write to is far more interested in getting juicy letters they can publish than the usual run of the mill stuff they receive in abundance each and every day. If they receive 500 letters asking about whether or not to end a bad relationship they will all receive the same reply. Replies are short, they may tell you nothing you do not already know or could have found out far quicker or are not of any help. Compared to the free advice columnist online the private agony aunt, such as Honest Holly, our resident advisor, takes more time over each and every letter and makes far more effort to make those replies personalised, she is far more experienced than the people who work behind the scenes for a newspaper or magazine replying to people who want free agony aunt advice and you will also get that reply to their agony aunt problem much quicker. Pros and cons of writing to an agony aunt problem page.