Skip to content

Custom domain walkthrough

This is the long version of the Custom domain overview. Follow it top to bottom the first time you set up a domain. The Domain Setup page runs in the same order: save the domain, pick your registrar, add the DNS records, verify them, then activate letter-receiving.

Keep the Domain Setup page open in a tab

Almost everything in this walkthrough refers back to it. You'll copy values from there into your registrar.

Step 0 — Pick (or buy) a domain

If you already own one, skip to Step 1.

Otherwise, register a domain at the registrar of your choice. Mission Broadcast doesn't sell domains, doesn't take a cut, doesn't care which one you pick. Plain .com domains run $10–15/year and re-up every year. Pick one that's short, easy to say out loud, and unlikely to embarrass anyone in five years.

Common picks:

  • <missionaryname>.com — for example, eldersmith.com. Most common.
  • <missionaryname>mission.com — works when your last name is taken.
  • <lastname>mission.com — when there are multiple missionaries in the family and you want one shared archive site.

Registrars Mission Broadcast has step-by-step in-app guides for:

  • GoDaddy
  • Namecheap
  • Cloudflare (Registrar)
  • Squarespace Domains (formerly Google Domains)
  • Bluehost

Other registrars work fine too — pick Other / not listed and you'll see a generic walkthrough.

Step 1 — Save the domain in the app

  1. Open the Domain Setup page from the account sidebar.
  2. In the Custom domain card at the top, type your domain (without https://, without a trailing slash — just eldersmith.com).
  3. Select Save domain.

Saving the domain builds the list of DNS records you'll need. The Activate letter-receiving step further down now refers to letters@<your-domain>.

Saving a new domain resets the setup

If you change the domain later, saving the new one resets the DNS setup below — you'll re-walk the steps for the new domain.

Step 2 — Pick your registrar

In the Where is your domain registered? card, choose your registrar from the dropdown. We try to auto-detect it from the domain's nameservers and pre-select it; if our guess is wrong, just override it.

Once you pick a registrar, a panel appears below it with:

  • A link to that registrar's DNS settings page.
  • The steps for finding the DNS settings there.
  • Known gotchas (GoDaddy auto-rewrites @, Bluehost ships default MX records that need removing, Cloudflare's proxy toggle must be OFF for the A records).

Picking your registrar also adjusts the Host column in the records list below to that registrar's preferred format.

Bluehost users — kill the default MX records FIRST

Bluehost ships every new domain with default MX records pointing at their built-in email forwarder. These must be removed before you add the MX record below, or inbound letters to letters@<your-domain> will bounce.

Step 3 — Add the DNS records at your registrar

The Add these DNS records at your registrar card shows one combined list of every record you need, grouped under three headings:

  • Public website — points https://<your-domain> at the public archive (one or two A records plus a TXT for ownership).
  • Outbound mail — authenticates broadcasts so they don't land in spam (an ownership TXT, two DKIM records, an SPF TXT, and a DMARC TXT).
  • Inbound mail — routes mail for letters@<your-domain> (CNAME records plus one MX record).

Work through every row. For each one:

  1. Open your registrar's DNS panel (use the link from Step 2).
  2. Select the value in the row to copy it. (Each row also has a Why this matters? link that opens a short explainer for that record.)
  3. Add a new record at your registrar with the row's Type, the Host as shown (the format already matches your selected registrar), and the value you copied.
  4. Set TTL to 300 (5 minutes) during setup if your registrar asks. You can raise it later.

When every row is added at your registrar, select I just saved my records. We note the time you saved them and scroll you to the verify step below.

Your https:// certificate is issued automatically

You don't have to buy anything for https://. The certificate is issued and renewed for you, automatically and indefinitely. The only cost is the domain itself.

Don't paste a competing SPF record

If your domain is already used for outbound mail elsewhere (for example, a parent's Google Workspace mail at the apex), the SPF record we give you will conflict — a domain can have only one SPF record. Merge them instead. See troubleshooting.

If your registrar shipped default MX records, REMOVE them

The MX record on the list (mx.sendgrid.net, priority 10) must be the only MX at the apex. If your registrar auto-added MX records for a built-in email-forwarding feature (Bluehost, some HostGator plans, Cloudflare's email routing), delete those before saving. Otherwise inbound mail will bounce or get silently swallowed by the wrong service.

Step 4 — Verify your records

In the Verify your records card, select Check DNS now. We look up each record across three public DNS resolvers (Google, Cloudflare, Quad9) and show, per record, what's live now versus what we expect.

DNS changes take a few minutes to spread — sometimes longer. Rather than clicking Check DNS now over and over, select Start auto-poll: we re-check for you in the background (every 30 seconds at first, then less often), and stop on their own once everything verifies. Select the button again to Stop auto-poll.

Each record shows one of four statuses — verified, propagating, mismatch, or missing. The troubleshooting page explains what each one means and what to do about it.

When every record is verified across all three resolvers, you'll see a success banner with a link to your new public archive. We also email a "Your custom domain is live" confirmation to everyone with access to this missionary.

Step 5 — Activate letter-receiving

Verifying the records gets the website and broadcasts working. To start receiving the missionary's letters at your domain, you turn on inbound mail explicitly.

  1. Once every record above is verified, go to the Activate letter-receiving card.
  2. Select Activate letter-receiving.

When it succeeds, the card confirms that mail sent to letters@<your-domain> will now arrive in the Letters tab. If it can't activate yet, the card shows what went wrong and lets you try again — and if it keeps failing, use Ask for help with this domain at the bottom of the page.

Send the missionary a quick note to confirm their new intake address:

Letters now go to letters@<your-domain>. The old letters@<your-slug>.missionbroadcast.com address keeps working too — no rush to update saved contacts, but the new one is what we'll show subscribers.

What happens after setup

  • A daily health check re-verifies all your records about every 24 hours. If anything stops resolving, you'll get an email within a day or two — see DNS drift alerts.
  • Your registrar can mostly be ignored. You only need to log in if:
    • You change registrars (then re-do this walkthrough at the new one).
    • You let the domain expire (it'll cost more to re-register at a premium if it gets caught by a domain squatter).
    • You add other services that need DNS records — never delete Mission Broadcast's records without checking with us first.

If something feels stuck, jump to troubleshooting.