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How to Set Up Your Inbox Site

Claim the invitation Plucky sends your newsroom, create your account, confirm your Inbox site's details and branding, and register the address your site sends email from. Setup is a three-step form that takes about ten minutes, and you can change everything you enter later.

Before You Begin

You are setting up your newsroom's Inbox site: a branded submission portal that gives local businesses, PR reps, and community members one clear way to reach your newsroom (see How Inbox Works). Setup starts from an invitation that Plucky staff email to the owner address your newsroom agreed on, and the person who completes it becomes the site's owner.

You will need:

  • The invitation email from Plucky, with the subject "You are invited to set up [your site's name] on Plucky for Business". The link in it works once and expires 14 days after it was sent.
  • Your newsroom's US mailing address.
  • The domain your newsroom sends email from (the part of your email addresses after the @), for the final step. It helps to know who manages your website's domain settings, but you do not need them standing by.
  • Optionally, a logo file (PNG or JPEG, up to 2 MB) or the web address of a logo you already host, and your brand color as a hex value.

Not invited yet?

Inbox sites are rolling out with pilot newsrooms. If your newsroom would like one, email hello@pluckyworks.org.

Instructions

  1. Open the invitation email and click the setup link.

    A step-by-step setup form (a wizard) opens, with a progress bar showing its three steps: 1 Account, 2 Your details, 3 Email.

Create Your Account

The first page is titled "Set up your [site] account." and shows the invited email address in a locked field.

Field Required? What to enter
First name Required Your first name.
Last name Required Your last name.
Password Required At least 10 characters. Passwords that have appeared in a known data breach are rejected; if yours is, choose another.
Confirm password Required The same password again.
Organization name Required Pre-filled with your site's name. This names the account your team works from; keep the pre-filled value unless your Plucky contact told you otherwise.

Below those fields, the Mailing address section asks for your newsroom's street address, an optional suite or unit, city, two-letter state abbreviation, and ZIP code. The form notes: "We verify this US address before your organization can distribute."

Fill in the fields and click Create account and continue.

Already have a Plucky account?

If the invited email address already has an account, the page says "Sign in to set up [site]." instead: enter your existing password and click Sign in and continue. Either way, the account that finishes setup becomes the site's owner.

Confirm Your Site's Details

Step 2, titled "Your [site] details.", moves you onto your site's own web address (a subdomain of inbox.pluckyworks.org that Plucky assigns during the pilot). The page reminds you: "You can change any of this later."

Check the Mailing address section first. It is pre-filled from the address Plucky has on file; correct anything that is not right.

Then fill out the Branding section:

Field Required? What to enter
Support email Required The address shown to your senders when they need help.
Support phone Optional A phone number for the same purpose.
Primary color Optional Your brand color as a hex value, like #A72536. Leave blank for the default palette.
Logo Optional Upload a PNG or JPEG up to 2 MB, or paste the web address of a logo you already host in the field below the upload.
Footer text Optional A line that appears in the footer of your public pages, such as a legal notice.

Click Save and continue.

Note

Your site's name is not edited here; Plucky set it when creating your site. To rename it later, see How to Customize Your Inbox Site.

Register Your Email Sending Domain

Step 3, titled "Send email as [site].", sets up the address your site's email comes from, so notifications to your senders arrive from your newsroom rather than from Plucky.

Field Required? What to enter
Sending domain Required The domain your email should come from, like yourdomain.com. This is the domain the DNS records in the next step will be added to.
From address Required An address on that domain, like news@yourdomain.com. This is who your email comes from.
Reply-to address Required Where replies go. It does not have to be on the same domain.
Display name Optional The name shown beside your address in a recipient's inbox. Pre-filled with your site's name.

Fill in the fields and click Register and continue.

Add the DNS Records and Finish

A green confirmation appears: "Your domain is registered." The page then shows a table of DNS records under the heading "Add these DNS records". DNS records are entries in your domain's settings; adding these ones proves to email services that your Inbox site is allowed to send email as your newsroom.

  1. Copy each record with the copy button at the end of its row, and add them all at whoever manages DNS for your domain (your website host, domain registrar, or IT person). Send them the whole table if someone else handles this for you.

  2. Click Finish.

    You do not need to wait for the records: as the page says, DNS changes commonly take several hours to take effect, and setup is finished either way.

What Happens Next

  • Your site is live. Clicking Finish lands you on your Operator Dashboard, and your public landing page is already up at your site's address: businesses and PR reps who visit can register and submit from that moment, using standard copy plus the branding you entered. See How to Customize Your Inbox Site to adjust what visitors see.
  • Submissions wait for your review. Until you configure automated review, every submission waits in your Review Queue for a person on your team to approve it. See How to Configure Submission Review.
  • Your email sender verifies in the background. The dashboard shows a Setup pending badge until the DNS records are picked up, which can take up to a day. Check progress any time from Settings → Email sender in your site's admin app, using the Check verification status button.
  • You also have admin access on Wire. Your account was granted administrator access to your newsroom's Outlet or Group on Wire, where your site's pricing, branding, and review settings live on the Inbox tab.
  • Want the site on your own domain? Plucky assigns your site a subdomain of inbox.pluckyworks.org during the pilot. Your Plucky contact can connect your own domain when you are ready.

Next Steps

Troubleshooting

  • The link shows "This link is no longer valid.": The invitation has been used, expired (14 days), or been replaced. If you have not started setup, ask your Plucky contact to send a fresh link. If you already created your account, you do not need the link: sign in at your site's address and the wizard resumes where you left off.
  • The page says "You're signed in with a different account.": The invitation is tied to the invited email address. Click Sign out and return to this invitation, then sign back in as the invited address. Your invitation link stays valid.
  • "An account already exists for this email.": Sign in first (use the Log in first link below the form), then reopen your invitation link to finish setup.
  • My mailing address will not verify: Check the spelling, use the two-letter state abbreviation, and note that only US addresses are accepted during early access. If the form says the address check itself failed, nothing was lost; try again in a moment.
  • Step 3 rejects my from address: The from address must be on the sending domain you entered ("Use an address on the domain above, so the records you add cover it"). Only the reply-to address may be on a different domain.
  • I cannot add DNS records: You can authorize the single from address instead. In your site's admin app, open Settings → Email sender and click Confirm this address instead under "Cannot add DNS records?". A confirmation link is emailed to that address; click it and sending is active for that one address. Completing the DNS records later is still recommended, since it improves deliverability.
  • I added the records but the badge still says Setup pending: DNS changes can take up to a day. Open Settings → Email sender and click Check verification status to re-check.
  • I closed the wizard partway through: Sign in at your site's address and you are returned to the step you left off at. If you do not know your site's address, ask your Plucky contact.
  • Still stuck? Ask your Plucky onboarding contact, or email support@pluckyworks.org.