Last week, I finished teaching a fabulous group of people how to navigate their own WordPress websites. When I made up the name “WordPress Swimming Lessons” for the class, I really wanted to convey the sense that participants would come away with some new skills, and ideally a new sense of empowerment.
Plenty of people ask me if I’ll build (or fix, or manage, or change) their websites for them. And I usually say no. I mean, technically I could do the work. But I’d much rather spend the time teaching them to do it themselves.
That’s why I write posts like How to build your online empire for free. It’s why I think it’s perfectly OK to have a blog built on Blogger if that works for you. It’s why I teach classes, answer emails from readers, and why I hold Open Office Hours every Thursday to talk to anyone who needs help.
Because I believe you can do it yourself.
Do-it-yourself doesn’t always mean building everything from scratch
There are certainly things (one-time tech hassles like installing WordPress, configuring your theme, and setting up your email newsletter sign-up form) that you might not want to take the time to learn, because you’ll only have to do them once (or very seldom).
It’s like being a homeowner. Most of us don’t actually build our own houses. If you buy a house, you either hire a contractor to do the building for us, or you buy one that’s already built.
When it comes to major renovations, like replacing the roof or adding a room or installing a new water heater, it usually makes sense to hire an expert to do that for you, since learning how to do it yourself would probably take more time, energy and money than getting it done right the first time by someone who already knows how shingles or framing or plumbing work.
But then there are basic maintenance tasks, like mowing the lawn, painting a wall, replacing the furnace filters, and cleaning out the gutters. If you’re renting, these tasks might be the responsibility of the landlord. If you’re a homeowner, it’s usually simpler and less expensive to do basic maintenance yourself. And there are plenty of do-it-yourself checklists and reference books that you can use to keep your home clean, safe, and well-maintained.
For a website, your online home, it works the same way. You might hire someone to build a custom site for you, or someone who can quickly install a pre-configured theme, so you won’t have to learn how to do the setup and configuration.
But the day-to-day maintenance, including writing and publishing blog posts, adding items to your sidebar, creating new sales pages, is something that’s well within the grasp of Regular People. I’ve seen plenty of self-described non-tech-savvy people learn how to perform basic WordPress functions in just a few hours. I’ve even taught some of them how to do it.
And anyone who tells you that WordPress websites are best left to professionals or require special technical knowledge is either wrong or lying.
Do-it-yourself doesn’t mean go-it-alone
I probably could make quite a bit of extra money by perpetuating the myth that you need my mystical technical wizardry to safely manage your website.
But I’m not interested in that.
First, it would backfire eventually, because Regular People aren’t idiots. You’d eventually figure out that I was preying on your ignorance for financial gain. And you’d (rightfully) never trust me again.
Second, I’d be lying. And that’s just not cool. Period.
Third, I’d rather make an honest living by providing services and products that really fill a need. Teaching people new skills fills a need. Doing one-time setup/configuration/fix-it work fills a need. Creating recorded products that include instructions, checklists, and tips fills a need. But keeping people in the dark and making them dependent on me doesn’t fill anyone’s needs. Not mine, certainly not yours.
There will always be technical tasks that are beyond the comfort level of My Right People, and I’ll always be here to say “I’ve got your back” with those — either by offering classes, writing how-to blog posts, or doing one-time client projects.
I believe that’s totally compatible with the do-it-yourself mindset that I’m such a big fan and champion of. We all need help with things outside our comfort zone. I’m here to help when those things are website-related.
And at the same time, I’m here to say that you can be your own webmaster. You can add and change items and pages and posts on your website. You can manage a mailing list and a shopping cart. Yes, you can do it yourself.
And I’ll be cheering you on all the way.
