When using italki, it can be hard to find long lasting friends. Often, I message many people, and when I get a reply (usually a few days or weeks later) they turn out to be short term friends who chat, text, or skype for a day or week, then stop. To get a long lasting friend, I followed these steps: 1 Make an appointment to Skype, and be specific and flexible ie "Lets Skype Saturday the 18th of this month from 1 to 2 pm, If that time doesn't work for you, could you please suggest a better time?" 2 Follow up with the appointment, and if possible be 5-15 minutes early 3 Always have something to talk about. I usually have a list of topics to talk about. It usually includes things like work, school, family, hobbies, religion, issues, food, books, technology, etc. 4 At the end of the appointment reschedule another one for the same time next week. If that time is not possible schedule for another time. This is the most important step. 5 Repeat steps 2-4 with that person, and 1-4 with other people. Congratulations if you followed all the steps! You probably have an online friend now. (I created these steps myself after trial and error)

Depends, just be nice and reply to messages and be the first to message the other person every now and then, ask how they are doing, listen to the answer, if they are receptive and reciprocate, you'll keep talking. If they are not, keep talking to new people and you'll find some that stick.