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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

The first month is free, so you can build the whole thing and look around before paying anything.

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

  1. Go to https://missionbroadcast.com/signup and choose Continue with Google.
  2. 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.
  3. Select Create.

You land on the Dashboard. The left sidebar is your home base from here. On a phone, the sidebar collapses behind the menu button in the top bar — tap it to open the same list.

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 account starts in maintenance mode

This is the most important thing to understand up front: a brand-new account starts disabled, in maintenance mode, on purpose.

Maintenance mode lets you explore everything — create the site, write letters, design how broadcasts look, add subscribers — without sending any real email to real subscribers. While it's on:

  • 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.
  • A persistent Maintenance mode is on banner sits at the top of every console page so you never forget you're in test mode.

To send or receive real email, you have to subscribe

Maintenance mode is locked on until you pick and pay for a plan. Real (non-test) broadcasts, the public subscribe form, and welcome emails all wait until you've subscribed. The first month of Monthly is free, so there's no upfront cost to go live — see Plans & pricing.

Set up who can receive while you're testing

Test recipients are the only addresses that get a broadcast while maintenance mode is on.

  1. Open Site Settings in the sidebar and expand Maintenance mode.
  2. The Send broadcasts only to test recipients checkbox is the maintenance toggle. With it on, the Test recipients (up to 3) field appears.
  3. 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 maintenance mode is on but no test recipients are set, a broadcast is skipped entirely — nothing goes anywhere. Add at least your own address so test broadcasts have somewhere to land.

Turning maintenance mode off (after you subscribe)

The maintenance toggle stays locked until you've subscribed. Once you pick a plan and checkout completes, the lock releases and you turn it off yourself:

  1. Go to Site Settings → Maintenance mode.
  2. Clear the Send broadcasts only to test recipients checkbox.
  3. The top-of-page banner disappears. Broadcasts now go to real subscribers.

Why you still start in maintenance mode after subscribing

Subscribing doesn't flip the switch for you — and that's deliberate. Maintenance mode is a safety default so you can't accidentally broadcast to real subscribers before your site and first letter are ready. You turn it off on purpose, the moment you've checked your test send looks right and you're ready to go live.

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 your first approved sender

In Site Settings → Incoming mail & replies, set the missionary's direct email and add it under Approved senders (up to 3). Add a parent's relay address too 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:

  1. Importing skips duplicates, so re-running an import won't double up.
  2. Imported subscribers don't get a welcome email — only people who subscribe themselves from the public site do.
  3. 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:

  1. Select + New Letter.
  2. Write a subject and body. The body is a rich editor — bold, italic, lists, links, and pasted formatting all come along.
  3. 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 maintenance mode is on, 'Send' goes to your test recipients

Because your account starts in maintenance mode, Send to All Subscribers 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 later. 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 upfront plans, not on Monthly.
  • Managed Custom Domain (we register it and set up DNS for you) — a paid add-on available on any plan, including Monthly, and 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 the first month of Monthly is free.
  • 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.