Agony Aunt

To clients

99% of the people who use this site are clients who realise they need valuable, wise, helpful advice and only the very best will do. After all any fool can speak or puts downs down it does not mean that what they say is worth listening to. Listening to the wrong advice can make things far worse.

You can trust us because Charlotte Craig has been doing this for over thirty five years as a full time professional. She is properly qualified, she has written for newspapers and magazines and been offered a lot of radio and television work. She has had a lot of famous clients. You cannot get better than that. You can consult her. Usually when you want to consult someone they pass you on to someone who works under them - a less experienced junior - but here you can choose between Charlotte or one of her experienced, qualified experts. This covers all bases. You are sure that the advice you get here is worth having and the very best.

There is only one other professional agony aunt or uncle site online at the moment and that is run by someone who used to work for us, a lovely guy called Christian. Although he is great at advising women he works as an agony uncle advising men too.

To Job Applicants

Only 1% are hoping to work for us. For that 1% remember...

Frequently asked questions....

Q. I have applied for a job with you before, can I apply again?

A. Yes you can, as many times as you wish, but we ban people who deliberately waste our time.

Q. How do I get paid?

By paypal. It is totally secure and safe and Worldwide.  We pay our staff once a month in arrears. Usually this means they receive about £1100 or the equivalent in their currency each four or so weeks. One of the wonderful things about working for us if that your own expense is a computer and electricity. No travelling time, no money spent on petrol or train or bus fares. Many people have to spend money and two hours travelling two and froem work before they do any work.

Q. Is there any charge for using the site?

A. Our clients - those who want us to help them make a decision, give insight into a problem or have lessons helping them to become professional advisors obviously have to pay us for our help and time. Those who are applying for a job or just using the site for fun on the forums etc. do not pay us one cent. Yes it costs us a lot to administer the site and pay staff to read all of the posts every day, but when we find someone who is genuine and great at giving advice and writing posts we are rewarded and have achieved our purpose. Many have told us that we should charge the timewasters who do not have talent and waste our time but it would mean a lot more work to contact them all too. Instead we just contact those who are special.

Q. But surely if I am using the site hoping to get a job and you are paying staff to read my posts you are losing money?

A. Yes you are right! Those who come to the site who are not genuine or not good at writing posts and giving advice are wasting our professional time and costing us money. All they have lost is some of their spare time.  We have thought of charging people to apply on this site but it takes a lot of organisation and time and not practical.

Q. I have been posting on the site and have not heard from you?
Why not?

A. We consider everyone who does a proper job interview. If you do not then we do not consider you for the job. Contacting everyone is not possible. It would be a lot quicker and cheaper for us to do all of the work ourselves. Then you would not get an opportunity to work for us at all!  

Q. I have queries and cannot write to you with my questions!

A. That is right. If a paying client thought we would write back and forth answering questions in the hope of them booking a paid consultation we would not. it would cost us more than we earn. Time is money when you sell a service.

All of the information needed is on the site and in the emails we send out to those who have signed up. We are advertising for staff because we are struggling to find time to deal with all of the clients who write to us PAYING us for our advice not so that we can waste our time on something less important that does not pay. We used to let applicants email us with queries. 98% expected us to write back and forth telling them information they could have read on the site! 1% were things they could have worked out using sense. Some tried to demand that we give them the job - or else. Others would nag us to give them free advice. Some would try to tell us that if we write back answering their queries individually - neglecting our paying clients while we do so - they might then take the time to apply for a job!  That is the same as us paying them to do an interview. You can hardly expect us to respect you and take you seriously if you do not take seriously that we are professionals who charge properly for our time and have expenses to cover.

If you are very knowledgeable, mature and bright you will end up working for us and we will value your time too and pay you well whenever you do work for us. If you were posting on a busy mass forum every day in the hope of being picked to be the forum moderator they would not write back and forth to you regularly, they would be too busy AND you would have to put in a great deal of time to try to prove yourself worthy of this job which pays NOT ONE CENT. It is a volunteer position. But they would still be very fussy.

Q. Why can't I just send you my c.v.?

A. Now come on, use a bit of common sense! People can make up c.v.s It takes hours to check them out, especially if they live abroad. BUT what good is a c.v. that rambles on and on about how much you want to help people and can give great advice? That does not prove you can do the job. It is very unlikely that you are already working as an agony aunt or advice columnist so whatever your c.v. says is not relevant to THIS job.  Telling us that you work for the Samaritans as a volunteer does not mean that you would be good at giving advice. When people go on Britains Got Talent to try to prove they are great singers or dancers or comedians Simon Cowell is not at all interested in their normal day to day job. All he cares about is whether or not they can really sing, dance or tell jokes. It is the same with this. Why would he care how many O or A levels you have or if you have a Phd or a degree? None of that makes you a better singer, dancer or comedian? Why would he care that when you worked in the office you were there for six years. None of it is relevant.

Q. What are the qualifications for this job?

A. Any age. Any location (you are working from wherever you choose on your computer). Male or female. No qualifications or experience needed. But must have the right attitude, personality and skills.  We have a lovely girl working for us who is only 26, has no qualifications at all but is one of the most streetwise and logical people we have ever met.  Age is no guarantee of wisdom. We have had people who are 60+ apply to us who have a lot less aptitude than youngsters.  Good English is important.

Q. How do I do the Job Interview?

A. Go to the Your Problem Page and post a reply to each problem on there. They are fake problems. Nobody gets any benefit from them. Our clients get a personal email from one of our quaified expert staff, they do not use the forums or the Your Problem Page. They are only used for job interviews. Clients can get free advice from their family and friends if they want someone unqualified who probably gets it all wrong. We would not let you anywhere near clients until we were sure you were bright enough to be able to actually help them. Then go to the forums and post at least one message on each forum, this should only take you half an hour tops. Show us that you have time to spare, that you write the best advice, that you are consistent. We need to be sure you have time to spare each week. We need to know that you are not doing this as a five minute wonder and do not lose interest quickly. But most of all we need to see that you give the very best advice, write it well and can deal with all types of people in all situations. Remember that we are the only busy, high profile, proven site that pays advisors at the moment, and we pay them well. We are also the only site that offers the chance to get jobs elsewhere where you are properly paid for advice. Other sites, magazines, newspapers etc. know about our site and come here looking for their staff. So even if we do not have a vacancy right now it is still worth your while posting and showing how good you are and that you have the spare time so that they can talent spot you. Obviously ,they will vary from week to week. Some weeks there might be nothing and then weeks later there may be three of them looking at the same time, that is life. These employers look on our site regularly to see who posts the best and the most and contacts the ones that interest them. It is up to YOU to make sure they choose you. If you do not post at least one proper posting on each of the forums we will not consider you.

The more you post and the better your posts the more of them will see you and maybe choose you.

Things not to do...

Remember we are busy dealing with paying clients and have to watch every minute we spend and how we spend it! Trying to contact us to tell us that you have put a post on a forum is just wasting your time. You are not doing us a favour when you post. You are merely doing your job application. We are far too busy to discuss a few postings or acknowledge it every time you do it!  If you want us to tell you something such as how you can improve your posts then you have to pay for a lesson.  Do not assume you are better than the rest, you may be but you are not expert enough in this to judge and you have not see the others that are hoping for the same job.

Q. How we select our staff

If you write a book and send it to a prospective publisher or agent he may just flick at the first page and then throw it in the bin. Usually they do not even bother to reply to you. He receives loads of these manuscripts every day. His time is far more valuable than yours because he earns his living at it. You may have spent several years writing that book but that does not mean that you can expect the agent or publisher to waste their professional time. Most agents and publishers hire juniors to read and flick through the volumes they receive and only the best get passed on to the boss.   If he wants your book he writes to you, if not he does not. He is far too busy to write back to everyone and he would not give you free advice. If you need advice on how to improve your writing you pay a teacher or pay for a writing course. The agent is only interested in those who are very good.

Everyone is entitled to take the job interview and if they have failed before, maybe because there were lots of high quality applicants last time, they can apply again as much as they wish. We select the one who posts the most and the best. If you post a lot but your posts are not good you are not suitable. If you are fantastic but only post a bit you are not suitable. We also judge by your attitude and personality.  If you have tried to contact us with time wasting queries or to ask us silly little things then that loses you brownie points.    The whole idea of hiring staff is so that we have less work to do. We do not do a job interview face to face because people can lie and sitting there chatting to you does not prove you are good at giving advice! Anyway, many who apply to work for us live hundreds or thousands of miles from us

Q. Why did I not get offered the job?

It might have been because your English was not good enough. It might have been because you did not post enough and give us a proper flavour of how good you are and what your personality is like. It might have been that your replies were too long or too short. Or perhaps because they were giving terrible advice. Only you know.

Q. What other options are there?

A. For those who need help we offer lessons. We are the only place that offers lessons on how to be an agony aunt. Whether you work for us, another site, magazine or wherever or not you also have the option of becoming self employed and advertising your services on here. Setting up your own site takes ages, needs a lot of skill and can cost a fortune. You can make an actual website fairly quickly and easily but one that has over a thousand pages is another thing. Some just do not have the time or are not knowledgeable enough or good enough at English. The really difficult thing with a website is to get it noticed and have people trust it enough to spend money on it. To get it to become popular and stay popular is very difficult. Lots of people have wasted a lot of time and money on setting up a site nobody ever sees or uses. Then you have to administer the site each and every day, including Christmas and holidays, or pay someone to. Far simpler to put an ad on a very popular and busy site.

Some pay for us to give them lessons. Many are naturals with this. But just as you can have people who go for singing lessons, acting lessons, lessons in how to do carpentry, how to cook, how to make a dress or even how to write a book you can improve your skills with this. We actually prefer to have people who have the necessary personality and skill come to our site, show their talents and get hired. But for those who are really keen on doing this work and recognise their limitations and know they need help with them you can pay for lessons.  We hate giving lessons and we offer them at a very cheap price where we make no profit. So before you get on your high horse and accuse us of trying to make money out of lessons please think clearly. We did not ask you to apply for a job you are not qualified to do. Most people would stop and think before applying whether or not they really have what it takes. We are professional agony aunts so it is obvious we will charge for our time. Just as you are applying for this job in the hope of being able to charge for yours. If you prefer go to a website called selfgrowth.com which offers lessons in how to become an advisor or how to set up your own business at $400 per hour. And if you asked them to help you become a good agony aunt they would flounder because we are the experts at it, offering our better advice at a lower price.

Q. How do I know this is genuine?

A. Simple. It costs us a lot to run this site every day. We do not want a penny of your money so where does our income come from to pay for our costs and our professional time? Our clients. Without these paying clients we would not be here, there would be no point. We are not asking you for any money. We have nothing to gain from the posts except for when we find someone who is great at this and offer them a job! The problems on the Your Problem Page are made up. Not real. The problems and postings on the forums are from other job applicants or those just wanting to visit the sit for fun. And nobody with any sense would listen to an amateur anyway. People can always easily get FREE advice from their family, friends and free amateur forums if they want free advice... usually free advice is rubbish. The free agony aunt sites you see online are full of very young people who want to feel important if they read a post and give "advice" to it. Not people who know enough about life to get paid for it. We are the one spending a lot of professional time and money on administering that part of the site. It is not costing YOU a penny of your money or a minute of your professional time. All of the loss is ours.

The real question is how genuine are you?

Are you wasting our valuable time? 

Have you got the skills and personality needed for this job? Until you do the job interview only you know if you are are great at giving advice and sorting out someone's life for them, writing and sticking with it so that we notice you or would you be wasting our time? You might be wonderful at this and the answer to our prayers or you might be totally unsuitable. We hope that you have the sense to only apply for this job if you have what it takes. Otherwise you are wasting our time and your time.

If you resent having to spend time doing a proper job interview then you are not genuine. Common sense tells you that nobody is going to hire you just like that. To attend a job interview elsewhere would take you at least three hours. If you resent that you cannot simply log onto our site and write a few sentences you are living in a dream world! It is actually quicker and easier for you to apply to work for us online than it is to travel to and from somewhere at a set time and date that suits the employer. It might also mean taking a day off unpaid of your other job. If you are too busy to do a proper interview you will be too busy to work for us. Likewise do not conveniently assume that if you post a lot you get the job. Posting a lot is very important but so is quality. If your advice is not top notch and your writing skills are not the best you will not be offered the job. Someone who truly wants to help others and truly enjoys reading and replying to problems would want to post a lot anyway, because they enjoy it, not doing it reluctantly just because they want to gain something at the end of it.

A genuine person would be concerned that they are good enough to advise our clients. They would be thinking of the huge responsibility and worried that another person is better for the job. It would concern them that the client takes their advice and follow it when they could have got better advice elsewhere. They may already be working for the Samaritans, No Panic, Perverted Justice or the many free amateur agony aunt sites online in their spare time. Remember that such organisations do not give advice and are not particularly knowledgeable, they are there to sympathise.   But of course they are not as fussy as us. They cannot afford to be.  Clients who pay for professional advice need the best. They are paying for advice because their lives are in a mess and they need help. They can go to family and friends for free advice if they want opinions from people who are not brighter than them.   One of our staff works for us five hours a week as well as at the Samaritans and a charity shop, she is genuine. If she was greedy she would give up the voluntary work and do more paid hours with us.

A genuine person has nothing to worry about. If they have the maturity, skill, and knowledge of people and life that we need then that they can easily set up their own business and make a success of it or get a good job working for someone else. Common sense tells you that if you cannot get a boring job that pays badly you will not get a well paid and interesting job.   It is obvious that we pay good wages because we need people who are very smart and very capable.  If we wanted people who are ordinary we could get those much cheaper and there would be no point to hiriing them. Our clients would not be interested in what they have to say.

When people join amateur dramatics and spend up to thirty hours a week attending there and appearing on their stage and helping them for free they do not say they will only do it if they are guaranteed to be talent spotted and get a leading role in a film. They do not see it as a way to earn a lot of money. They do it because they really enjoy it and if they get spotted and offered something more that is a bonus. When someone learns how to play the piano they do not think they will hate every second of playing the piano and only do it when they have no choice and only if they become a very well paid concert pianist, they play just for the love of it. A genuine writer, whether he is talented and skilled or not, is always writing. He writes lots of books or articles. If he manages to get any published he is very pleased but that is not why he writes. If none of his work is good enough and none of it sells he carries on because he enjoys it. But he would have the sense to see that although he enjoys it nobody else would waste their money on paying for it. A genuine agony aunt or uncle would often be on boards posting just because they love it.   Anyone who only does it when they think it will result in something wonderful and lose interest if it does not is not genuine.

If money is your only motive for wanting to work for us you are not genuine.  Your life should be all sorted and happy. If you need advice yourself then you cannot help others. Your motivation should be solely to help others who are not as bright as you.  Then you should be paying us for advice, not trying to become an advisor.

One of the people who applied to work for us and did so now has his own website and is very busy. This could be you one day. You can go to that at http://www.bestagonyuncleonline.com. If he had not worked with us and achieved the qualification nobody would go to him and pay him for his advice.  If he was not properly experienced and qualified nobody would trust him with their problems.

Earn £75+

per hour

Working from Home