Often when I speak to friends and they pour out their heart to me, I try to remember to ask if they want advice or for me to just listen. My natural inclination is to try and fix things but that is not what everyone wants. Others do and sometimes it is easier to get advice from an impartial stranger rather than from a friend. That's why newspaper syndicates created advice columns. And now that tradition carries over into the blog world.

You can still find the classics like Dear Abby (now written by the daughter of the original) and Dear Margo (written by the daughter of Ann Landers). The Washington Post features advice from Style Columnist, Carolyn Hax. In today's column she answers a question about parents cultivating healthy relationships with children:

She didn't just grant us freedom to decide who we wanted to be. It was clear she enjoyed the process of watching us become those people. When we asked for help, she gave it, but otherwise stepped back and let us figure things out (even though it was obvious it was straining her very being just to hold herself back).

I love that her advice includes the admiration of not giving advice. Wise.

But if you are looking for more tailored advice, the internet is your friend.

Cary Tennis, writing at Salon offers advice to a range of questions but his voice is quite distinct. I was taken by his lengthy, thoughtful and complex answer to a question about finding the focus to write when it calls you and you get distracted by the internet (something I'm sure many of us can relate to):

There are certain things you’re just going to have to assume from the outset. Assume that your writing is important. Assume that you have the right to do it and that it’s necessary and important. Assume that something has happened in your life such that you must attend to certain moral, aesthetic and philosophical needs, or that you have reached a certain passage, or phase, or that you have been blessed, contacted by aliens, touched by God, whatever works, however you want to put it. Something has happened. You have received a call. Assume whatever you need to assume in order to answer the call.

That is what I would suggest.

Kim at dimberly has a round up of her favorite advice columns and also manages to answer her own question to boot.

For teens, Teen Diaries: The Ultimate Life Guide for Young Urban Women offers Dear Nicole. The column does offer a small print disclaimer which would be smart to keep in mind when using or reading any advice site:

Dear Nicole should not be used as a substitute for nor is attempting in any way to offer clinical therapy. While the advice offered on our site is thorough and comes from professionals, Dear Nicole is an advice column to be used for entertainment purposes only.

The lovelorn can seek answers to questions about relationship, dating, love or sex at Dear Cupid. Members answer questions so you get a range of responses. Dear Cupid bills itself as an "agony aunt"

An agony aunt is mainly a UK term... It is someone who will help you out with life's agonies! You ask a question, they give advice.

Another site where readers answer the questions is The Lesbian Question where you can "ask a sister, we always answer." It can be hit or miss, though, when you have random community members answering questions rather than one advice giver with a defined point of view so it might be worth reading through some answers to get a sense of the community's approach before diving in and asking a question.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Melissa Ford, offers wide ranging advice in her column "Barren Advice" at Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters. Melissa says:

You can ask questions that are infertility or non-infertility related: infertility, adoption, donor gametes, living child-free after IF, parenting after IF, pregnancy after IF...um...anything IF. But also general issues: relationships, etiquette, wedding, friendships.

Melissa's posts are kind, caring and thoughtful so if I had a question on infertility or other issues hers is a voice I'd seek out.

Need techy advice? Dave Taylor offers answers to "questions about a wide variety of technical topics." Currently you can learn how to quit a Yahoo group, survive in the World of Warcraft, how to email photos from your cellphone to facebook or find a good newsfeed for South African news.

The internet has also brought us a range of voices that I don't think we would ever have heard otherwise. Ask a Ninja and the Ninja will provide you with a video answer. If you've never seen a Ninja answer then click on over and give yourself a treat.

More cheeky, humorous answers come from Ask A Mexican! Bring your sense of humor. In a similar vein, from a female point of view, comes the somewhat more politically militant but also humorous, Ask A Chola.

So if you've got questions, someone's ready to give you answers. What's your favorite advice column? Do you give advice, solicited or otherwise on your blog? Spill in the comments, please.

BlogHer CE Maria Niles contemplates starting an Ask Maria feature on one of her personal blogs (like PopConsumer) as an outlet for her pent up advice and random bits of knowledge.