The Custom Domain + White-Label Quickstart (1 Hour to Go Live)

Why Most Agencies Take 3 Days to Go Live

Most agencies sign up, intend to "set up white-label this weekend," and three days later still have a default DM Champ logo on the login page. They pitch a client, send the dashboard link, and the client sees DM Champ branding.

The deal stalls.

The technical work is not hard. Buying a domain takes 2 minutes. Pointing DNS takes 5 minutes. Uploading a logo takes 30 seconds.

The problem is the order. Most agencies try to figure it out on the fly, hit a CNAME error or an SSL delay, get blocked, and walk away.

This quickstart is the right order. Do it once, top to bottom, in one hour. Done.

The Quickstart in 5 Steps

Step 1: Buy the Right Domain (5 Minutes)

You need a domain that looks like your brand, not like DM Champ.

Pick a domain pattern:

• app.[yourbrand].com if you already have a main domain
• [yourbrand]ai.com for a fresh agency brand
• chat.[yourbrand].com if your main domain is reserved for marketing
• [yourbrand].chat for a clean modern feel

Avoid:

• Numbers or hyphens (my-ai-app.com)
• Misspellings (agentss.com)
• TLDs that look unprofessional (.xyz, .online)

Buy at Namecheap, Cloudflare, or any registrar. Cost: $10 to $30 a year.

Set DNS provider to Cloudflare if possible. Cloudflare is fast, free, and the DNS UI is clean. If you bought through Cloudflare directly, DNS is already there.

Step 2: Add the CNAME Record (5 Minutes)

DM Champ uses a CNAME-based custom domain system with auto-SSL via Caddy on-demand TLS.

Inside DM Champ, go to Settings > White-Label > Custom Domain.

Paste your domain (e.g., app.youragency.com). DM Champ shows the CNAME target (e.g., custom.dmchamp.com).

In your DNS provider:

1. Add a CNAME record
2. Name: app (the subdomain, not the full domain)
3. Target: paste the DM Champ-provided target
4. TTL: 5 minutes (low for the first hour while testing)
5. Save

If you're using Cloudflare, set the proxy status to "DNS only" (grey cloud, not orange). DM Champ handles the proxy and SSL.

Wait 30 seconds. DNS propagation is usually near-instant on Cloudflare.

Step 3: Confirm SSL Issuance (2 Minutes)

DM Champ uses Caddy on-demand TLS. Once the CNAME resolves, the first HTTPS request to your domain triggers SSL issuance automatically.

Open https://app.youragency.com in an incognito tab.

First load: 2 to 5 seconds (SSL issues during this load).

Second load: instant. Padlock green. Your domain. DM Champ dashboard.

If you see an SSL error after 30 seconds, check:

• CNAME points to the exact target string DM Champ gave you
• Cloudflare proxy is OFF (grey cloud)
• Domain is not in a holdover from a prior provider

Once SSL is live, your domain is permanent. Auto-renewal handled.

Step 4: Upload Branding (15 Minutes)

Inside DM Champ, Settings > White-Label > Branding.

Upload:

• Logo (PNG, transparent background, 400x100px minimum). Shows in the dashboard header.
• Favicon (32x32px PNG). Shows in browser tabs.
• Primary color (hex code). Buttons, links, accents.
• Secondary color (hex code). Hover states, secondary buttons.
• Login background (optional, 1920x1080 PNG). Shows on the login screen.

Set SEO meta:

• Page title: "[Your Agency Name] - AI Sales Agent"
• Meta description: short pitch your agency makes to clients
• OG image: 1200x630 PNG. Shows when clients paste your dashboard link in Slack or LinkedIn.

Open your domain again in incognito. Everything should be branded.

This is the moment to send the first dashboard preview link to a client. The card preview will show your brand, your colors, your favicon. That preview alone closes deals.

Step 5: Set Email Sender Identity (15 Minutes)

DM Champ sends transactional emails to your clients (welcome, password reset, billing receipts, weekly reports).

By default, these come from [email protected]. That kills white-label.

Inside Settings > White-Label > Email:

• Set the sender name (e.g., "Your Agency Name")
• Set the sender email (e.g., [email protected])
• Verify the email domain via SPF, DKIM, DMARC

DNS records to add (provided by DM Champ during setup):

• SPF: TXT record adding DM Champ's mail server as authorized sender
• DKIM: TXT record with the DKIM key
• DMARC: TXT record with the DMARC policy

Wait 5 to 30 minutes for verification.

Once verified, every transactional email comes from your domain, with your sender name, with your logo in the template. Clients never see "DM Champ" anywhere.

Step 6 (Bonus): Test the Full Client Experience

Spend 15 minutes pretending you are a client.

1. Open the dashboard URL incognito. Look at it like a buyer would.
2. Sign up with a test email.
3. Receive the welcome email. Check the sender, the design.
4. Click around the dashboard. Look for any place DM Champ branding leaked.
5. Try the inbox. Try sending a test message.

If anything looks off, fix it before pitching clients.

Common gotchas:

• Footer of the login page sometimes still shows DM Champ (check settings)
• Help tooltips occasionally link to DM Champ docs (use your own help URL)
• Email templates may need text tweaks for tone

90 minutes total. Polished, branded, live.

The Math

Time investment:

Cost:

• Domain: $10 to $30 a year
• DM Champ Agency tier: $497 a month (includes everything)

Outcome: a branded, white-labeled SaaS dashboard you can sell to clients for $1,000 a month each. Five clients = $5K MRR off a 1-hour setup.

What This Looks Like When DM Champ Runs It

The manual version of white-label SaaS is buying servers, getting SSL certs, building auth, building admin tools, building branding configuration, building billing, building the AI itself. 18 months of engineering.

When DM Champ runs it, you paste a domain into Settings, paste a CNAME into DNS, upload a logo, and you have a white-labeled AI sales agent SaaS product. The auto-SSL handles certs. The sub-account architecture handles client isolation. The Stripe credit reselling handles billing.

The features that make this work: custom domain with auto-SSL on the Agency tier, full branding (logo, colors, favicon, login background), SEO meta override for the dashboard URL, white-labeled transactional emails with SPF and DKIM verification, the unlimited sub-accounts to onboard clients.

If you want to skip the manual work, the Agency $497 tier includes the full white-label stack. See /for-agencies/.