Don't spend your weekend building a website: what it really takes
Nov 9, 2026 · Taylor
The "Wix gives you the tools. We give you the website." series, part 1 of 6.
Full disclosure: Yes Boss Websites is our own done-for-you service, so we're not neutral. This post describes what doing it yourself involves in general. We don't make claims here about any particular builder's features or prices, so check those on the builder's own website.
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Describe your business in a sentence and see a finished website in about a minute. You only pay if you love it: A$9 a month or A$89 a year, no setup fee, hosting and changes included.
See my websiteMany people plan a weekend to build their website. It's a sensible plan: pick a builder, choose a look, add your details, publish. This post goes through what that weekend has to cover, so you can decide honestly whether it's the best use of your time.
What the weekend has to cover
Builders like Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy give you tools, and the work of using them is yours. Here is each job, and what tends to make it take longer.
| Job | What it involves | What can make it take longer |
|---|---|---|
| Decide what to say | Your services, hours, prices, area and contact details, written down in one place | Not having them settled yet, or changing your mind part-way |
| Choose a template | Looking through the options and picking a starting look | Having a lot to choose from |
| Lay it out | Placing text, photos and buttons so the page looks tidy | Spacing, alignment and getting sections to fit together |
| Prepare photos | Cropping, resizing and choosing the right ones | Not having good photos ready |
| Write the words | A headline, an about section, your services and a call to action | Staring at a blank page |
| Check it on a phone | Looking at the phone view and fixing what's off | Fixing the phone view separately from the computer view |
| Set up the basics | Page titles, descriptions, contact details and a way to enquire | Not knowing where each setting lives |
| Connect an address | Buying or choosing a web address and pointing it at the site | Settings in two different places |
| Test and publish | Clicking every link and button, then going live | Finding things you missed |
None of these is hard on its own. Together they add up, and the total depends on you: how much you have settled already, how much you want to customise, and how comfortable you are with this kind of tool.
The hours you don't plan for
Three things often sit outside the plan.
- Learning the tool. Every builder has its own way of doing things. The first hour is often spent finding where things are.
- Decisions. A done-for-you service makes most choices for you. A builder hands them to you: colours, fonts, spacing, wording. Each one is small, and there are a lot of them.
- Coming back later. Hours change, prices change, a photo needs swapping. Business.gov.au suggests putting the most important information first on your site, and keeping that information correct is an ongoing job.
When a weekend is well spent
Building it yourself is a good choice if you enjoy it. If you like design, want to control every detail, or want to learn how websites work, a weekend with a builder can be a good use of time. It's also a good fit if you have a bigger or more complex job than a simple business website.
When it might not be
If an hour on your website is an hour you're not spending on customers, the maths may go the other way. A quick test: write down each job in the table, give it an honest estimate, add them up, then ask what else you'd do with that time. There's no right answer. It depends on what your time is worth to you.
What a done-for-you service changes
With a done-for-you service, you describe your business and someone else, or in our case an AI designer with a real person handling support, does the jobs in the table. You give up some control, and bigger jobs usually cost extra. You get your time back. With Yes Boss, you describe your business in a sentence, see your website in about a minute, and ask for changes by typing them into a chat box. You see it before you pay. It's A$9 a month or A$89 a year, with no setup fee, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to build your own website?
It depends on how much content you already have, how much you want to customise and how comfortable you are with the tool. The table above lists the jobs, so you can estimate each one yourself.
Is a do-it-yourself website builder a good choice?
It can be, especially if you enjoy design or want full control. It asks for your time, so it helps to count that before you start.
Can I get a website without doing the building myself?
Yes. Done-for-you services, including ours, do the building and you ask for changes.
Want to see how Yes Boss lines up against the do-it-yourself builders? Read our comparison.
Try Yes Boss free: describe your business in a sentence and see your website in a minute.
Sources
Facts quoted from the pages below, checked 9 November 2026.
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