Create your site

Creating a site takes one short form and about a minute. The site starts on the Free plan, with you as its first admin. This page is for an account holder who has signed in and has no site yet. If you came through a plan's button on the home page, the same form is the last screen of signing up.

An account has one site. Once you have it, the form is replaced by your site's details.

Fill in the form

1. Sign in to your account. The first card, Hosted site, holds the form.

2. Fill in the four fields:

   Field	What it is	Rules
   Your choir's name	The name shown on your site. It starts filled in with Choir or organisation from Your details, if you gave one.	Needed. Up to 120 characters. You can change it later in Site Settings.
   Web address	The first part of your site's address. The page shows the ending, .cmcms.org, beside the box: type harmony and your site is at harmony.cmcms.org.	Needed. See Choosing a web address. It cannot be changed later.
   Country	Where your choir is. It is kept in your site's settings, and if your account has no country yet it becomes your account's country too.	Needed. One of the list.
   Currency	What prices on your site are in: tickets, for instance.	Needed. One of the 14 below. You can change it later in the site's settings.

3. Press Create my free site.

The page reloads with "Your site is ready. Open its admin panel to set it up."

Choosing a web address

The web address is permanent, so choose it with care.

• It is 3 to 40 characters long.
• It may contain lower-case letters, digits and hyphens, and nothing else: no spaces, dots, accents or capital letters.
• It cannot start or end with a hyphen.
• It must not be in use by another choir.
• Some names are reserved and cannot be used, among them www, admin, account, mail, email, support, help, billing, blog, docs, demo, test, status, sales and security.

A short form of your choir's name works well: harmonychoir, harmony-choir, hcc.

If you later connect a domain of your own, such as yourchoir.org, visitors use that instead and seldom see this address. It keeps working all the same. A domain of your own needs the Starter or Premium plan: see Use your own domain name.

The currencies

US dollars (USD)	Canadian dollars (CAD)	Pounds sterling (GBP)
Euros (EUR)	Australian dollars (AUD)	New Zealand dollars (NZD)
Swiss francs (CHF)	Swedish kronor (SEK)	Norwegian kroner (NOK)
Danish kroner (DKK)	South African rand (ZAR)	Singapore dollars (SGD)
Hong Kong dollars (HKD)	Mexican pesos (MXN)

This is the currency your audience pays in. It is separate from the currency we bill you in for a plan, which is decided by your country: see Your details and country. If you plan to take card payments, choose the currency your bank account is in: see Take card payments.

After the site is made

The Hosted site card now reads, for example:

Harmony Community Choir is at harmony.cmcms.org, on the Free plan.

Below that are the Open its admin panel button, and the Plans, Your own domain and Taking payments sections.

Open the admin panel for the first time

1. Press Open its admin panel. It takes you to your site's address followed by /admin/login.
2. Enter the same email address you use for your account, and ask for a login link. As the card says, "You sign in there with a link sent to" your address, "as here."
3. Follow the link in the email.

The first time you reach the dashboard, a guided setup takes you through your choir's details, a look for the site, a few pieces of text, your contact details and which features to switch on. Your choir's name is already filled in. See Log in to the admin panel and Set up your site step by step.

What a new site starts with

	A new hosted site starts with
Plan	Free. See What each plan includes and Move to a paid plan.
Admins	One: you, as a Site Admin, logging in with your account's email address. Add others in the admin panel: see Add, change or remove an admin.
Name, country and currency	What you entered on the form.
Time zone	Eastern (Toronto), whatever country you chose.
Content	The sample wording every new site begins with, under your choir's name, for you to replace.

Check the time zone

The form does not ask for a time zone, so every new site begins on Eastern (Toronto) time. If your choir is anywhere else, change it straight away: in the admin panel go to Site Settings, open the Choir section and set Time zone. Gifts, refunds and receipts are dated by the day it is where your choir is. See Your choir's name, place, currency and time zone.

If something goes wrong

The form keeps you on the page and shows one of these in red at the top.

Message	What to do
"Enter your choir's name."	Fill in Your choir's name.
"Choose the country your choir is in."	Choose a Country.
"Choose the currency for prices on your site."	Choose a Currency.
"The web address is 3 to 40 lower-case letters, digits and hyphens, and cannot start or end with a hyphen."	Fix the Web address. A space, a dot or a hyphen at either end are the usual causes.
"That web address is not available. Try another."	The name is reserved. Choose another.
"That web address is taken. Try another."	Another choir has it. Add a word or your town: harmony-orillia.
"You already have a site."	Your account has its one site. Reload the page to see it.
"Your site could not be created just now. Try again in a minute."	Something failed at our end and nothing was made. Wait a minute and press the button again. If it keeps happening, get help.
"Hosted sites are not open for signup just yet."	New hosted sites are switched off for the moment. Write to sales@choirmastercms.com.

Your browser may also stop the form itself, before it is sent, if a field is empty or the web address contains a character that is not allowed. The wording of that message is your browser's own.

More than one site

One account holds one site. If your organisation runs two choirs that each need a site, create a second account with a different email address, or write to sales@choirmastercms.com.