How to write a penpal ad : tip 2

Choose a website that gives you the space to express yourself.

At least a couple of the larger penpal websites place a severe restriction on how long your ad can be. On the face of it, this shouldn't be a problem - all you're trying to do at that stage is catch someone's attention and intrigue them enough to make them want to contact you, and the phenomenon of Twitter is proof enough of how easy it is to do this in a very small number of words. Unfortunately, Twitter also gives a clue as to the main snag here - people who respond in those circumstances will invariably do so in roughly the same number of words! Of course, on Twitter they have no choice, but in my experience the same thing almost always happens with the very short penpal ads. It's quite logical when you think about it - if you haven't given them enough information about yourself to feed off, the responder to your ad will feel awkward about launching into a 300-word self-introduction. And of course, when you start off with an exchange of very short emails or letters, the harder it is to build the kind of rapport necessary for there to be a chance of a long-lasting pen-friendship.

So the lesson is - choose a website that doesn't restrict how long your ad can be. There are plenty of free sites that fall into that category, so there's no good reason not to. Two possibilities worth considering are Interpals and Penpals Now.