Postcrossing is 5 Years Old!

Congratulations to the people at Postcrossing who are celebrating their 5th anniversary. I joined in August of 2005 shortly after they launched. I'm not sure exactly how I found their site, but have been pleased as punch that I did.

Last October I wrote a short post with one of my favorite postcards (that one was from Russia, this one is from Finland).

I go through phases where I will send lots of cards and then I will take a break for a month or two. At one time I got involved with journal swaps, themed postcards and such by logging onto their forums and searching for more specific items to trade in the mail. But now I have the magazine to keep me busy, so I have not been as active in these extra activities.

In their blog this week, they are promoting a contest where you can email a photo of yourself sending out some postcards. The winner will receive a packet of 60 cards! Well, what are you waiting for? Get your postcards, stamps and camera and get a move on!

Postcard from Russia

This postcard from Russia is a perfect depiction of what I imagine Moscow to look like. Trading postcards through Postcrossing has been a phenomenal experience. You can get them as often as you like and are willing to send them, as you have to send one to receive one.

At the first level you sign up to send cards to whatever addresses are assigned to your account. You also receive cards from random countries each time one of your sent cards gets registered.

But on the next level you can sing up for the Forums on Postcrossing and choose to do tags, trades, notebooks, round robins, pen pals, postcards art, fan clubs and more. If you don't see one you were looking for, you can always start your own swap. If this is new to you then you should spend some time reading through what other people are doing here so you can understand what the expectations are, the lingo and how things work.

Who Do You Write To?

The first question people ask when I tell them I'm starting a magazine on letter writing and journaling, is " Does anyone write letters any more?" And when I assure them we do, their follow question is "Who do you write to?"

The most common answers are friends, relatives and pen pals. Even with email and Facebook, people still do write letters. Results from the ongoing online survey I'm conducting on letter writing show

50% write 1-3 letters per month

And of those 243 respondents, here is who they write to:

74% write to friends
58% write to relatives
47% write to pen pals
22% write to someone in a category not listed

They could choose more than 1 category.

Some people want to write letters or just send/receive mail, but have no one to write to. That's where sites like Sendsomething.net, Postcrossing.com, Just Letter Rip, the Missive Maven, We Love Snail Mail and 365 Letters come in. You can find like-minded people here looking to talk about letter writing, read about it, comment on it and share in the passion of letter writing even without someone to write to. And if you are looking for people to write to, you can find those online as well.

There are also two popular pen pal newsletters that you can check out. They both have a printed newsletter and offer articles and information online as well.

Inky Trails
Lex Letters