5 Personal Skills Every Webmaster Needs

Running a website isn’t just about technical skill – although it clearly helps to know your stuff.

But thanks to CPanel, WordPress and other popular tools, you can get by without much technical knowledge at all.

In fact, if you’re willing to use a free hosting service, you can normally opt to use a site builder, or rely on your host’s online help and one-click installers.

There are actually a number of personal traits that will serve webmasters (and webmistresses) well as their site develops.

1. Webmasters Need People Skills

Working on a website can be a lonely pursuit, but you’ll still interact with others online.

You’ll need support, either from other users or from your host, and you’ll need to be able to liaise effectively with users and customers.

Good people skills will ensure you can get the help you need quickly, work through problems amicably and give your customers what they want.

2. Webmasters Must Be Patient

Building a simple website takes a few hours. Building a truly great website takes months of hard work.

Overnight success stories are widely reported, but for many people, this kind of speedy success isn’t proven by their real life experience

. They spend years carving out a niche for themselves, finding their audience and building authority. Crucial aspects of a good site, like content production, require persistence and time.

It also helps to be patient when you experience the inevitable technical problems all webmasters face at some stage.

3. Webmasters Need Research Skills

Being technically minded is a plus when working with new tools and software. But every new site presents a series of challenges.

You’re going to have to learn new things with every project you take on.

Being able to find the information you need is crucial. Being self-reliant, you’ll need to find answers to technical problems, promotional strategies for your site or guidance on content and SEO.

Don’t just Google the problem: train yourself to evaluate information too.

4. Webmasters Need Humility

You might be a quick learner, but you will never know everything. As much as you try to run everything by yourself, there are times when you need help and support.

Being able to recognize the superiority of others will allow you to trust their judgement.

Putting the expertise of others ahead of yours isn’t easy, but it’s a useful skill to use when learning ‘blind’. Not allowing yourself to trust people could limit what you can do with your site, and not recognizing that support could leave you on your own next time.

5. Webmasters Must Be Persistent

Let’s be realistic: with all websites, something is going to go wrong at some point.

From site outages to poorly judged content, you’re going to suffer setbacks and defeats. The key is to not let those setbacks stop you and find ways around your obstacles.

Working through problems requires hard work and determination. Are you ready to pull all nighters to fix urgent bugs? Will you stay indoors on a summer afternoon to write a killer blog post after the last one tanked?

Dig your heels in, roll up your sleeves and commit long-term to achieving those goals.

Do You Have What it Takes?

There are a few other things we’d recommend when running a website. Resourcefulness, creativity and a sense of humor.

Becoming a webmaster is often a great way to grow our expand your personal skill set. If you have the time and energy, you will almost certainly find it very rewarding.