How to Set Up an Agony Aunt Website

This girl could use help from an Agony Aunt website.

Are you the one all your friends turn to when they have a problem? If you like to listen and help solve issues people have, you might like to create an Agony Aunt website. With some website design skills and your problem-solving abilities, you can become the next Agony Aunt online.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. Create a persona for your Agony Aunt website. This could be a made up person like "Aunt Marge, the advice lady," or your own name and personality. This is the woman who will be giving advice to all the lovelorn, confused, or troubled people who come to your website. Having a photograph you can use for this Agony Aunt persona is ideal, as it will make people more willing to spill their secrets to you.

2. Pay for website hosting with attached email service and a domain name. Include keywords such as advice, help with problems, or answers in the domain name and the title of the website. Pay for or design a layout and graphics for the Agony Aunt website that leave room for your photograph and plenty of text. Be sure to have a clear navigation menu that will bring visitors to the other pages of your website.

3. Encourage people to write to you with their problems about relationships, family, life, etiquette, or any other subject by putting a contact link right at the top of the home page of your website. Offer your help in solving their problems for free. When you build up a following, you might be able to charge a small fee for some services, but it probably would not work in the beginning. List the type of problems you offer assistance with on the front page as well.

4. Include pages on your Agony Aunt website that offer free advice about certain problems. It is a good idea to have a separate page for each type of problem: dating, marriage, finance, career, etiquette, etc. When you help specific people with their problems through email, ask permission to reprint the question and answer on your website. This will create instant content for your pages.

5. Create a page on the Agony Aunt website for testimonials from people who you have helped. This will not only help other people feel more confident that you are able to offer good advice, but will help increase the range of recommendations and word of mouth advertising. That is, more people will tell their friends about the advice you gave them. To make your Agony Aunt website successful, you need a steady stream of people seeking help with many different types of problems.

Tips & Warnings

• Never give legal or medical advice you are not professionally able to give.

Resources

• It's Worth Asking
• My Agony Aunt
• My Problem Exchange