Start a site we host
This page walks you from the Choir Master CMS home page to a working site of your own. It is for the person setting up a site that we host. Allow about fifteen minutes. Each step links to a page with the full detail.
You need an email address you can read straight away, because you sign in with links we email to you. There are no passwords.
1. Choose a plan
Go to choirmastercms.com and look at the plans. Press Start for free for the Free plan, or Choose Starter or Choose Premium. If you are unsure, start with Free: you can move between plans at any time. What each plan includes compares them.
2. Go through sign-up
Sign-up is three short screens, marked Step 1 of 3 to Step 3 of 3. The first shows what the next plan up would add (it is left out if you chose Premium, which has nothing above it), and the second offers a package in which we set up the site for you; you can decline both and carry on. On the third, enter your email address and press Email me the link. Open the email and follow the link. Sign up covers every screen.
3. Name your site and choose its web address
On the screen headed Now, your site, fill in Your choir's name, the Web address, your Country and the Currency for prices on your site, then press Create my free site. On a paid plan you also choose to pay monthly or yearly, and the button, Create my site and continue to payment, takes you on to payment. Each account can have one site.
The web address you choose here cannot be changed later. It must be 3 to 40 lower-case letters, digits and hyphens, and cannot start or end with a hyphen. On a paid plan you can put your own domain name in front of it.
Create your site explains each box and what to do if an address is taken.
4. Open the admin panel
You arrive on Your account. In the Hosted site card, press Open its admin panel. This takes you to the admin login of your new site.
5. Log in by emailed link
On the admin login, type the same email address you signed up with and press Email me a login link. Open the email, follow the link, and press Log in. The link works once and lasts 15 minutes. Log in to the admin panel explains this, and what to do if no email arrives.
6. Run the guided setup
The first time you log in you are taken to Set up your site, six short steps that put your choir's name, look, words and contact details in place of the sample ones. Your choir's name and currency are already filled in. You can skip any step after the first and come back to it in Site Settings. Set up your site step by step describes every step.
7. See your site
On the last step, press See your site to open the public site in a new tab, then Go to the dashboard. Your site is live at the web address you chose.
Straight afterwards
- Check your time zone and currency. A new hosted site is made on Eastern (Toronto) time. The guided setup offers the time zone of the computer you are using instead, so if you skipped the setup, or set it up from somewhere else, put it right in Your choir's name, place, currency and time zone.
- Add your first concert. See Add a concert.
- Invite your members, on the Starter and Premium plans. Set up the member portal, then add your members or import them from a spreadsheet. Members are not sent anything when you add them: they log in with their email address when you tell them the site is ready.
- Add a second admin, so that the site does not depend on one person. See Add, change or remove an admin.
- Work through the checklist in After setup: a checklist.