Moonshot: Become A Squarespace Web Designer FAQs – Autumn 2023
Why This Matters
Everyone loves the idea of a career with more freedom, creativity, and, to be honest, a bit less nonsense from the boss. Learning web design, especially on a platform as user-friendly as Squarespace, feels like it should be the quick-fix answer. Build beautiful sites. Get paid. Work in your slippers. But there’s a catch: education that actually gets you there tends to be foggy about time, cost, and real-world results.
I’ve spent the last twenty years carving out a living as a web designer, making every mistake you can imagine, and occasionally a few brand new ones. Over that time, I discovered that a programme’s FAQ page is often where the honest truth and gritty details are tucked away.
The Moonshot Squarespace web designer programme grew directly from all those hard-earned lessons. Students continue bringing up questions we hadn’t predicted, so the programme evolves to solve real needs as they arise. If you’re considering joining, this guide gives straight answers to the questions that genuinely affect your journey, from “I’ll try” to “this pays the rent next quarter”.
If you’ve got nagging doubts about time investment, support, or value for money, you’ll find your answers here. Let’s cut through the sales fluff and talk in concrete terms about what you actually get and what it’ll cost you.
Common Pitfalls
The most regular tripwire is believing you need to throw your life out the window to become a web designer, or worse, latching on to generic online courses that deliver less than their gloss suggests.
Students often:
- Dive in expecting to mimic “six weeks to pro” case studies, burning out by week two.
- Assume everything will be live and personal, or the opposite: just video dumps with no support.
- Ignore the details about plugins, tools, and real extras, only to be stung by extra costs down the line.
- Grab the cheapest plan available, only to discover a load of essentials are missing unless they “upgrade.”
If you steer clear of these traps, you’ll make actual progress instead of collecting another login for your browser bookmark graveyard.
Step-by-Step Fix
1. Get Real About Time Commitment
How much time do you need to succeed with Moonshot?
In simple terms: As much as you like, with three days a week being the sweet spot for most results-driven learners.
When we call it an “intensive six-week programme,” we’re not locking you in a virtual classroom for forty hours a week. If you’re working, studying, or juggling a family, you can absolutely pace yourself. We've had students who stretched the material out over a year (often alongside busy jobs). Others treat it as an all-in sprint to change careers in under two months.
Practical Example:
Anna, a recent grad, chipped away at the content for nine months between work shifts. Meanwhile, Dave, a freelance photographer stung by the pandemic, blitzed Moonshot over seven weeks by giving up Netflix after 9pm and spending his mornings building dummy sites.
Try blocking out six solid hours a week and see where that takes you. You’ll find a rhythm before you know it, and you won’t feel guilty every time there’s a birthday party or school run that needs you.
2. Understand the Course Delivery and Make It Work For You
Everything starts with the core, pre-recorded content. Expect around six to eight hours of solid, step-by-step Squarespace training you can dip into any time, whether you’re an early riser, night owl, or “fifteen-minutes-between-meetings” learner.
On top of the main lessons, there are nearly 30 extra hours covering everything from advanced design to AI tools and social media bits. We’ve deliberately made these as a “buffet style” approach so you pick what fits and skip what doesn’t.
As for live support, from Autumn onwards, we’re adding live monthly sessions with me and the team. Sometimes we invite other experienced designers to join us. Every student also gets two personal “workshop” slots (video calls, scheduled around your life). These are a chance to tackle your first client site or ask all the “dumb” questions you can’t Google.
Bookmark questions or roadblocks in a notepad as you work through content. Then, when you hop on your personal workshop calls, you’ll squeeze maximum value out of our time together without having to remember your questions on the spot.
3. Get to Grips With the Payment Plans and Discounts
Web design education can be a minefield of “from only £x/month!” claims. With Moonshot, we keep it clean: pay in full (at a discount), or spread payments over four months.
We share special discounts from time to time, typically posted on the Pixelhaze Academy website. The Moonshot Early Bird offer for the first 50 students is significant (40% off), but this only applies if you pay up front.
Important: Monthly plan means regular price. The Early Bird discount is only for full payment. Don’t get caught out by fine print.
For those truly on a shoestring, our Lifetime VIP Membership is a clever way to reduce costs. For a one-off £99, you unlock our VIP course collection, plugins, and a £99 discount off Moonshot, so you have a way to advance later without feeling fleeced.
If your bank balance is creaking, grab a VIP spot first. Learn essential skills, earn a few quid with small projects, and then roll that saving into Moonshot when you’re ready. Many of our under-30s and side-giggers do this.
4. Don’t Overthink Tools, Plugins, and Templates
The lure of “free” everything hooks a lot of learners, but here’s the honest breakdown:
- You get all Pixelhaze plugins free, plus a lifetime VIP membership (which covers all updates, not just the first term).
- Your Moonshot plan includes your first three Squarespace templates by Pixelhaze.
- Need more templates? Enjoy 30% off any further templates you fancy from our library, for life.
- No, you don’t need our templates to complete the course or your mentorship project. Squarespace’s own templates work with every lesson, and experimenting with the built-in designs is encouraged.
Heads-up:
If you fall in love with a third-party (non-Pixelhaze) template, that’s not covered, but you’ll have enough tools in Moonshot to edit, chop, and style most layouts yourself.
Start with the stock templates unless you know exactly which industry you want to specialise in. Too many choices can stall your creativity.
5. Make the Most of Lifetime Value
Your Moonshot membership goes beyond just a set of videos. When you join, you get:
- Access to every course we offer: “Squarespace Box of Tricks,” “Canva Box of Tricks,” “Photoshop Box of Tricks,” all AI and automation toolkits, plus new modules each month.
- Lifetime updates for all plugins and continued VIP status.
- Starter commercial license to use Pixelhaze resources on your real client projects. We do not charge for additional upgrades when you land your first big contract.
- Access to future content launches (like our Descript video production series).
This approach ensures you keep up as web tech shifts rather than having to relearn everything each year.
Bookmark the Moonshot library dashboard. When a client makes a special request—like an AI-powered testimonial widget—you’ll know exactly where to find practical help without hours of YouTube rabbit-holing.
6. Choose the Right Entry Point For Your Budget
If Moonshot feels out of reach at the moment, don’t let that freeze your progress. The Lifetime VIP Membership option is an easy way to dip a toe in and prove to yourself it’s worth it. For £99, you get a useful set of resources, discounts, and the chance to apply the £99 to Moonshot down the line. We restrict these to five a week to keep things civil in the support queue.
If finances are tight, use this window to build your confidence. Complete a VIP course, launch a simple portfolio, and see if the designer life clicks for you. When the budget opens up, moving to Moonshot will be a smooth transition.
What Most People Miss
The single biggest mistake I see is assuming there’s a “perfect” way to structure your learning or a fixed path to a web design career. All the success stories I know—from students to pros—built their skills in fits and starts, often fuelled by deadlines, actual projects, and the odd embarrassing mistake.
Embrace the flexibility. The Moonshot modules are built to fit your lifestyle, not force your diary into a rigid shape. Progress varies from person to person, and chasing someone else’s schedule may well hold yours back.
And do not underestimate the value of real, human support. Two focused, one-to-one workshop sessions can unlock progress that might otherwise be held back by weeks of frustration. Many students say a single conversation unlocked weeks of frustration.
The Bigger Picture
Taking a step back, it’s clear Moonshot goes beyond learning Squarespace, ticking boxes, or collecting certifications to show on LinkedIn (those will happen as well).
You’re building practical, revenue-generating momentum. When you complete the programme, you leave with a toolkit that isn’t out of date the next time a new platform or tool is released. This lets you:
- Create websites for paying clients, friends, and the occasional demanding aunty.
- Reinvent your working week: more remote gigs, less “commuting for the sake of it.”
- Stay current as new tools are released (AI, video, marketing automation).
- Earn genuine, repeatable income—whether as a freelancer, agency team member, or budding entrepreneur.
Many of our alumni started with small side projects, built up a side hustle, and then made the leap to full-time freelance work. The journey is rarely linear, but the practical focus of Moonshot puts you on track to build your bridge from the start.
Wrap-Up
I hope that clarifies the main Moonshot questions, clears away the sales talk, and gives you the tools for a calm, informed decision. Here’s what to remember:
- You don’t need to quit your job or cancel your life to get started.
- Course delivery is a mix of pre-recorded and live elements, always available when you actually need them.
- Payment plans fit most budgets, with VIP options for those on a tighter budget.
- Templates and plugins are flexible—use ours, use yours, mix and match as you build your portfolio.
- Lifetime VIP status means you keep access to real resources with no expiry.
Ready to take your web design ambitions seriously? If you want practical systems and genuinely supportive teaching, join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.
Pixelhaze Jargon Buster
Squarespace
Website builder that lets you create stunning sites without code. The backbone of Moonshot.
Templates
Pre-designed website layouts. Pixelhaze offers unique options, and there are plenty built into Squarespace.
Plugins
Add-ons that bring extra functionality—a bit like apps for Squarespace. All Pixelhaze plugins come with Moonshot and VIP Membership.
Done With You (DWY) Approach
This approach means we teach the material and then support you, one-to-one, as you apply it. It’s not “do it for you” and it’s not “you’re on your own.”
VIP Membership
One-off payment gives you lifetime access to our Pixelhaze library, exclusive plugins, discounts, and priority support.
Workshop Sessions
Your two personalised video calls during Moonshot, where we get hands-on with your specific website headaches.
Early Bird Offer
A substantial discount for the first batch of students who pay up front. Always check the site for current spots left.
Commercial Licence
Allows you to use Academy resources on websites you build for paying clients.
If anything’s still unclear, just reach out. There are no silly questions here. And no, you don’t have to own a MacBook to join (but we do like a nice pair of slippers).