Set up your site

What to do, and in which order, so a new site is ready before readers arrive.

Until everything is done, Home shows a checklist called Finish setting up. This page goes through it in the order that saves you redoing work. Each step can be changed later.

1. Choose a plan#

If you signed up yourself, PublishMe asks for a plan before anything else: the full dashboard opens, and the site goes online, after the first payment. If you joined with an invitation you're on a free trial and can choose any time before it ends.

2. Your languages#

Open Languages. The main language opens at your site's root address; others get their own address, like /hi. Add the others your plan allows and put them in the order the language menu should show. See Languages.

3. Logo, colours and theme#

1. Open Appearance. On Theme, pick the look: Classic, Longform or App style.
2. On Logo & favicon, add your logo (and a light version for dark backgrounds, if you have one), the site name and tagline, a favicon, and a Default story picture for stories that have none.
3. On Colors & fonts, set your Brand colour.
4. On Header & footer, add your contact email and social profiles.
5. Press Publish changes. Nothing reaches readers before that.

More in Appearance.

4. Your sections#

Open Categories → New category. Start from a template (National, City, Politics, Sports…) or a blank one. Top-level categories become the site's menu. See Categories and bylines.

5. Time zone and search engines#

Open Settings. Set the Time zone first — it decides what "today" means for story times, scheduling, ePaper dates and analytics. Then the description search engines show for your homepage, and your Google Search Console code if you use it. See Settings.

6. About us and contact#

Open Pages → New page and pick About us or Contact us: they're filled from your site name, about text and contact email, ready to edit. Then add them to the footer under Appearance → Header & footer → Footer links. See Pages.

7. Your team and bylines#

• Team → Invite people: enter an email and choose a role. The invitation link lasts 7 days. See Team and roles.
• Bylines → Add byline for each name that appears on stories, and link it to the person's account so their stories get it automatically.

8. Your own domain#

Your site already works at yourname.publishme.in. To use your own address, open Domains → Connect domain and add the DNS record it shows at your domain provider. See Custom domains.

9. Your first story#

Everything is in place. Publish your first story.