This article was written to assist people who are looking for pen pals online and provide encouragement for people who are still deciding if they want to use the Internet to find pen pals.

If you wanted find a pen pal prior to having regular access to the Internet you would have to join a mailing list or pen pal club and have your contact details available to other club members looking for people in your country. Finding a pen pal online has now become easier due to the rapid expansion of Internet access around the world and the availability of websites providing pen pal services.

The first step to finding a pen pal online is to find a suitable website that has a lot of profiles of people who want to make new friends from around the world. A quick search at any of the major search engines will reveal hundreds of pen pal and online dating sites for you to choose from. I recommend Pal Factor which has thousands of members looking for new friends from all over the world.

A lot of pen pal sites these days are free but many have begun to charge for the privilege of contacting other members. Do not be put off by websites that charge you a monthly fee for contacting members because often people who pay for membership are going to be more serious and more selective about the type of people they write to which can benefit you because you won't receive as much spam and advertising messages from people on those sites as you will on free sites.

When you are registered with the website you should create your profile and make sure you select the options that say you are looking for pen pal or friends so it is clear what you have signed up for. You should consider uploading a photo of you so other people can see who they are writing to but I know some people are not comfortable with sharing their photo with people until they have already made contact so that is up to your discretion.

Each day log into the pen pal site and see who has visited your profile. These are the people you may want to contact because they have seen your profile and may be interested in knowing you. Do not be scared to be the first one to write a message because if you do not get a response you can move on and try to contact other members. You may find some sites do not provide the ability to see who has visited your profile so you may have search the user profiles on that site and add the profiles that interest you to your bookmarks so and return to contact them later. Most credible pen pal services will allow you to see who has visited your profile so this shouldn't be a big problem.

The next this to do is start writing to people and introducing yourself. Write a small introduction letter about you that is no more than one paragraph. Remember to tell them you are looking for pen pals and where you are from and your interests. You should address it to their user name so they know you have seen their profile. Always mention you look forward to their reply or thank them for reading. You should allow a few days to a week for a reply because not everybody can access the Internet every day. Making friends from all over the world can be a rewarding experience so feel free to send messages to people all over the world and do not limit yourself to one person at a time because you will find most people who enjoy correspondence with international pen pals write to several people from different countries.