Get started¶

This is the parent's (or admin's) first-run path. By the end you'll have a live site, a first letter sent, and your first supporters subscribed — about 20 minutes of work.

Start a site for your missionary See plans & pricing

You can build the whole thing and look around before paying anything — new sites start in Setup mode, where letters go only to you and none of your paid time is counting yet.

Who this page is for

You're the person setting up and paying for the site. If you're the missionary, you don't log in here — see What you can do by email. If you just want to read the letters, see For subscribers.

Before you start¶

You'll need:

A Google account — Mission Broadcast signs you in with Google, so there's no new password to remember.
The missionary's name, mission name, mission location, and start date. You can change all of these later.
Optionally, the missionary's own email address so their letters can relay automatically.

One account can run several missionaries

A parent with more than one child serving, or a ward member helping a few families, can manage every site from the same Google sign-in. After the first site exists, a Pick a missionary screen lets you switch between them or create another.

Step 1 — Create the site¶

Go to https://missionbroadcast.com/signup and choose Continue with Google.
The first time, you'll fill in a short Create a new missionary site form:
- Missionary ID (URL slug) — lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens (for example, elder-smith). This becomes the web address.
- Missionary name — what subscribers see (for example, "Elder John Smith").
- Mission name and mission location.
- Mission start date — used for the end-of-mission timeline and the Letter Book.
- Missionary's direct email — optional, but setting it now means replies to letters go straight to the missionary.
Select Create.

You land on Home. The left sidebar is your home base from here — it groups everything into areas (Home, Letters, Subscribers, Map Pins, Public Page, Email Design, Delivery & Domain, Account). Pick an area and its sections appear in a second menu beside it. On a phone, the sidebar collapses behind the menu button in the top bar — tap it to open the same areas.

Your site starts at a missionbroadcast.com address

Until you set up a custom domain, the public site lives at missionbroadcast.com/m/<your-slug>. That works for the whole mission. A custom domain is an optional upgrade — see Step 5.

Your site starts in Setup mode¶

This is the most important thing to understand up front: a brand-new site starts in Setup mode, on purpose — and your paid time doesn't count while you're in it.

Setup mode lets you explore everything — create the site, write letters, design how broadcasts look, add subscribers — without sending any real email to real subscribers, and without using up any of the service months you buy. While your site is in Setup mode:

Broadcasts go to your test recipients only. Real subscribers receive nothing. The first test recipient is set to the email you signed in with, so a test broadcast lands in your own inbox.
The letter stays in Pending. It isn't marked sent, so you can broadcast it for real later — once you're live.
Your service clock is frozen. Buying a plan doesn't start your paid months — they start when you activate the site (below). Buy five months before the mission starts and you lose nothing.
A persistent Setup mode banner sits at the top of every console page, carrying the Activate site button for when you're ready.

To send or receive real email, pick a plan, then activate

Real (non-test) broadcasts wait until you've picked a plan and tapped Activate site. Plans start at $50 as a one-time payment, with a 60-day money-back guarantee — see Plans & pricing.

Set up who can receive while you're testing¶

Test recipients are the only addresses that get a broadcast while your site is in Setup mode.

Open Letters in the sidebar and choose Test mode.
With the Send broadcasts only to test recipients checkbox on (it's locked on during Setup mode), the Test recipients (up to 3) field appears.
Your sign-in email is filled in as the first test recipient. Add up to two more (a spouse, a second inbox) if you want to preview on more than one device.

Leave test recipients blank and nothing sends

If no test recipients are set, a test broadcast is skipped entirely — nothing goes anywhere. Add at least your own address so test broadcasts have somewhere to land.

Going live — the Activate site button¶

When your missionary is ready and your test letter looks right, tap Activate site in the banner at the top of any console page. That one tap does two things:

Opens your real subscriber list. Broadcasts now go to everyone who's subscribed, not just your test recipients.
Starts your paid service clock. Your purchased months begin counting from this moment — not from when you paid.

Activation is one-way

There's no going back to Setup mode once you activate — the confirmation dialog will remind you. Take your time: nothing rushes you, and nothing is counting until you tap the button.

Testing after you've activated

The same test-recipient switch is still there after activation: Site Settings → Maintenance mode → Send broadcasts only to test recipients. Flip it on to rehearse a tricky letter against your own inbox, off to go back to real sending. (Unlike Setup mode, this switch doesn't touch your service clock — that keeps running once you've activated.)

Step 2 — Find your intake address¶

Every site has an intake address that the missionary emails letters to. It's shown at the top of the Dashboard with a Copy button.

On the shared subdomain it looks like letters@<your-slug>.missionbroadcast.com.
After you set up a custom domain it becomes letters@<your-domain>.

Send this address to the missionary. When mail arrives:

If the sender is on the approved senders list, the letter lands in the Letters → Pending tab for your review.
Anyone else's email gets a polite bounce-back explaining how to subscribe.

The missionary's email is always an approved sender

In Site Settings → Incoming mail & replies, set the missionary's direct email. That address can send letters automatically — you don't need to add it under Approved senders. Use those slots (up to 3) only for extra addresses, like a parent's relay address if you'll forward letters from home.

Step 3 — Add a few subscribers¶

Open the Subscribers tab.

Add one at a time (name + email), or
Import List — paste a Mailman2 roster, a CSV with an email column, or plain email addresses, one per line.

Three things to know:

Importing skips duplicates, so re-running an import won't double up.
Imported subscribers don't get a welcome email — only people who subscribe themselves from the public site do.
There's no subscriber limit on any plan. Add as many as you can faithfully keep up with.

Step 4 — Send a test letter¶

You don't have to wait for the missionary. From the Letters tab:

Select + New Letter.
Write a subject and body. The body is a rich editor — bold, italic, lists, links, and pasted formatting all come along.
Choose an action:
- Save Draft — keep it in the Drafts tab.
- Save to Archive — add it to the public archive without emailing anyone.
- Send to All Subscribers — broadcast it now.

While your site is in Setup mode, 'Send' goes to your test recipients

Because a new site starts in Setup mode, the send button reads Send to Test Recipients and delivers only to the test recipients you set up above — not to real subscribers — and the letter stays in Pending so you can broadcast it for real after you activate. This is exactly how you check that a real letter looks right before going live.

To preview without sending at all, open Email Design and select Preview broadcast — it renders a sample email with all your current settings.

Auto-relay (let letters skip the review queue)

Once you trust the missionary's emails to go straight out, turn on Site Settings → Auto-relay letters from approved senders. Letters from approved senders then broadcast immediately instead of waiting in Pending.

Step 5 — Decide on a custom domain¶

You can run the whole mission on the address we give you (missionbroadcast.com/m/<your-slug>). But many families prefer their own domain — it's friendlier to share and looks better in the Letter Book.

Custom domain options by plan

Your site is on the shared subdomain by default. To use your own domain, you have two paths:

Bring your own (you register the domain; we guide the DNS setup) — included on the Full-Mission and Pro plans.
Managed Custom Domain (we register it and set up DNS for you) — a paid add-on on Full-Mission, bundled with Pro.

Until you have one or the other, you stay on the shared subdomain. See Plans & pricing.

If your plan includes it and you already own a domain (or buy one for about $10–15/year at any registrar), you can point both the public site and the intake address at it. The setup is a guided DNS walkthrough that doesn't need a developer.

→ Custom domain (bring your own)

Step 6 — Invite other managers (optional)¶

If a spouse or another family member will help run the site, open the Managers tab and send them an invitation by email. The invite link is valid for 7 days, and they sign in with the Google account that matches the invited address.

What's next¶

Go deeper on any console area in Run the site — one how-to per sidebar tab (letters, subscribers, the map, email design, and more).
Fine-tune how your broadcasts look in Email design before the first real send.
Look at Plans & pricing and pick a plan when you're ready — there's no rush, and every plan has a 60-day money-back guarantee.
On a Full-Mission or Pro plan, set up your custom domain while you have the energy.
Forward the For subscribers page to family so Grandma knows what to expect, and send the missionary What you can do by email so they can write from the field.
Stuck on anything? The feedback button in the bottom-right corner of every console page reaches a real person. See Support.