In my WordCamp US talk, I suggested three different strategies to embrace your WordPress mediocrity.

My last two blogs have contained some more in-depth thoughts about two of those strategies – being authentic and working together.

For this article, I want to explore the third strategy to embrace that feeling of not being “good enough” at WordPress: helping others. I know what you may be thinking. How is it possible to help others at WordPress when you don’t know everything? Don’t you need to know everything to be able to teach it?

Well, the short answer is no. You can help people, even if you only know one more thing than they do.

Those of us who work with WordPress every day might find it hard to believe that people struggle with it. But there are many people out there who feel totally overwhelmed with technology in general, including with WordPress. These people have often been made to feel stupid or inadequate because they can’t do things that many of us take for granted.

I have seen people literally in tears because they didn’t understand how to install a website. But there’s no reason why they need to know that, and furthermore they probably know a lot of stuff that I don’t! So there is really no reason to feel stupid for not knowing.

I work with a lot of small business owners in nontechnical businesses. People like therapists, yoga teachers, and builders spend their days working away from the computer. And they can use our help to be freed up from tech overwhelm, so they can focus on doing quality work.

There are lots of ways that you can help others with WordPress. Here are a few suggestions:

1. The WordPress.org forums – People are always asking questions about WordPress on the support forums. And anyone can make an account and start answering them! A good place to start is messages that haven’t had replies yet.
2. Facebook small business groups – I’m a member of several Facebook groups consisting of other small business people. Since most of these people are using WordPress to power their websites, inevitably questions arise. If you answer them, make sure you’re coming from a place of being helpful, rather than simply promoting your business!
3. Look around – do you have an elderly neighbour running a small business? Maybe some of your friends need help getting their WordPress websites off the ground? Projects like these can be amazing learning experiences, and no doubt your friends will be in awe of your good enough tech skills!
4. Work for free – I generally wouldn’t condone working for free, as this seriously devalues your work. However, non-profits are usually always in need of in-kind support. If you find a non-profit whose cause you’re aligned with, then you can make a significant contribution to their work by volunteering your time and skills to help them with WordPress.

Don’t wait until you know everything to share your knowledge with people who could truly benefit from it. There are many ways that you can share your WordPress knowledge to benefit others.

You are valuable right now, with all your imperfections, just as you are.

Go out and get ’em!