What does each onboarding checklist item do?

When you first log into VeloCMS, the dashboard shows a five-item onboarding checklist. Each item unlocks a key part of the platform. You can complete them in any order — none of the steps are gated behind the others — but tackling them roughly in sequence makes the most sense. Here's what each one actually does.

Step 1 — Publish your first post

This one's the proof-of-concept step. Click 'New post' from the dashboard or Admin → Posts → New, write anything (really, a few sentences is fine), and hit Publish. Once you've done that, the checklist marks the first item done and your blog has actual content at its URL. The purpose isn't to get your best work out — it's to confirm the publish pipeline works end-to-end and give you the tactile sense of how VeloCMS's editor handles the flow from draft to live.

Step 2 — Choose your theme

VeloCMS ships with a wide range of themes, each with a distinct visual identity — Aperture for photographers, Newsletter Hub for writers, Engineering for technical blogs, and so on. The theme picker at Admin → Themes lets you preview each one live before switching. This checklist item is asking you to make a deliberate choice rather than leaving the default in place indefinitely. You can switch themes at any time without losing content, so 'choose' here means 'pick a starting point', not 'commit forever'.

Step 3 — Connect a custom domain

This step takes your blog from yourblog.velocms.org to yourdomain.com. Go to Admin → Setup → Custom domain (also reachable from Admin → Settings → Branding), enter your domain, and follow the DNS instructions (the panel shows the exact CNAME target for your domain, plus a TXT ownership record). SSL is provisioned automatically once DNS propagates — usually within 15 minutes, sometimes up to 48 hours depending on your DNS provider's TTL. You can skip this step and keep the velocms.org subdomain indefinitely on any paid plan, but your own domain builds brand equity and makes the newsletter 'from' address match your domain.

Step 4 — Set up your newsletter

The newsletter setup step walks you through connecting your email sender identity so posts can be delivered to subscribers' inboxes. In Admin → Setup → Newsletter, you'll set a Sender name and a Reply-to email, then click Enable newsletter. For better deliverability you can later send from your own domain under Admin → Newsletter → Sender Domain (Business and Agency plans). Once this is live, every new post you publish can be emailed to your subscriber list with one toggle. Newsletters go out through VeloCMS's own email service, so there is no email provider account or API key for you to set up. There is no monthly send quota and no per-send charge: how many people you can email is set by your plan's subscriber limit — 5,000 on Pro, 50,000 on Business, unlimited on Agency.

Step 5 — Enable paid subscriptions

This is the revenue step. VeloCMS uses a Bring Your Own Keys (BYOK) Stripe model — you connect your own Stripe account rather than going through a VeloCMS marketplace, which means Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction is the only fee (VeloCMS takes no platform cut). The Reader Subscriptions section of Admin → Settings → Membership is where you paste your Stripe secret key and set the price of your first paid tier. You can set monthly, annual, or both pricing options, and gate specific posts behind the paywall once the membership system is live.

Don't feel obligated to set up paid subscriptions right away. You can close the checklist and revisit it later from the dashboard. The checklist stays visible until all five items are checked, after which it collapses and the dashboard shows your standard analytics view. There's no penalty for leaving items unchecked — it's a guide, not a gating mechanism.

Frequently asked questions

• Can I close the checklist before completing all steps? Yes — there's a dismiss button. You can reopen it from Admin → Dashboard at any time.
• Do checklist items have to be completed in order? No, they're independent. Connecting a domain doesn't require publishing a post first.
• What happens if I skip the newsletter step? Your blog still works; you just can't email posts to subscribers until it's configured.
• Is the custom domain step required for paid subscriptions? No — you can run memberships on a velocms.org subdomain. Custom domain is optional.
• How do I know which steps are done? Completed steps show a green checkmark; incomplete steps show a circle with a number.