Publishing Your Campaign Using a Custom Domain

This feature available on the Pro Plan

For the more tech-savvy users out there who'd like to publish directly to their own domain for the ultimate white-label campaign, ShortStack provides a way to do just that. Publishing to your own domain allows you to completely control your URL - the entire URL, not just the subdomain - so that you can make the contest URL easier to remember or just more on brand.

This doc will cover the publishing process involved on the ShortStack end. What you'll need to do before going through these steps is to get things set up on your domain using the instructions in our Custom Domains, Subdomains, and Subfolders help doc.

Note: Unfortunately, any issues that arise while trying to change/edit DNS settings on your domain are outside the scope of our support. Proceed with caution.

Once you have your DNS settings configured correctly and your campaign is prepared, it's time to move onto the publishing process:

1. In the Campaign Builder, click on the blue Publish Campaign button in the top-right corner.
   
   

2. Before proceeding, you will see a Campaign Recommendations checklist; the aim of the checklist is to help you make sure your campaign is as complete as possible. This step is optional, but we do highly recommend taking a look at any areas that might need attention. Once you're done, click the blue Next button.
   
   

   Note: If you're a pro at building campaigns and no longer need to view the checklist when publishing, simply check the Skip these recommendations in the future box in the bottom-left before clicking Next.
   
   

3.  Click on the Landing Page button.

4. On the next page, click on the displayed domain (lndg.page by default), then select Add Custom Domain from the dropdown.
   
   
5. When you've done so, you'll see a new field pop in below the display URL. Add your domain (including subdomain, if you've set that up) into the Add your own domain field, then click the Save button.
   
   
6. When you add the domain, our system will automatically run a verification process to make sure the domain is legitimate and set up correctly - this can take 10-15 seconds. If the system has an issue verifying the domain, you'll see a message like this:
   
   
   
   If you know everything is set up correctly, you can click the verify DNS settings link to have the system check it again. If there are problems (or if the server just needs a bit more time to reflect your changes) you'll see an error message like this:
   
   
   
   
7. Once you've selected your domain and the domain has been verified, it'll appear in the display field. If you want to add a custom path, click on the area in the display URL where a path would go, and a Custom Path field will pop in. Add your custom path and click the blue checkmark to confirm.
   
   Adding a custom path is optional; if you leave the field blank, the campaign will publish to the URL shown in the display field.
   
   Note: The site will check in real-time to make sure your chosen URL is available; this information is listed below the Custom Path field.
   
   
8. Once the campaign is finished publishing, you'll get a confirmation message, and the link to your campaign will be displayed for you to copy. Click the blue Close button to close the panel.
   
   

To unpublish a campaign published to a custom domain is the same process as any other campaign:

1. Click the bookmark icon in the top-right to open the Publications Panel.
   
   
2. Click on the unpublish icon to the right of the publication name to unpublish the campaign.