Getting Started
From zero to published in a few minutes. This guide walks you through creating your site, building your first page, and sharing your story with the world.
1. Creating your site
After signing in at rvns.app, you'll land on your dashboard. This is where all your sites live.
Click "New site"
Give your site a name — this is what your visitors will see in the browser tab and in navigation. Choose something that feels like you.
Choose a subdomain
Your site is instantly available at yourname.rvns.app. The subdomain is filled in automatically from your site name — adjust it if you like. You can connect a custom domain later.
Click "Create site"
Your site is live immediately with a home page. From here you can create pages, upload media, and customise the design.
/ that lists all your published pages automatically. You don't need to manage navigation manually — it updates every time you publish.
2. Your first page
Pages are the building blocks of your site. Each page lives at its own path — /iceland-2025, /about, whatever makes sense for your content.
There are three page types to choose from:
- Story — A visual, block-based editor designed for photo essays and travel journals. This is the heart of Ravens of Odin.
- Markdown — Write in plain text with simple formatting. Great for journal entries, notes and longer prose.
- HTML — Full control over the markup and styling. For those who want to build something completely custom.
Creating a page
Open your site and click "+ Page"
Enter a path for your page — for example /iceland or /about. Paths always begin with a slash.
Choose a content type
Select Story, Markdown, or HTML. This determines which editor opens. You can't change the type later, so choose based on what you plan to create.
Click "Edit" to open the editor
The editor opens for your chosen content type. From here you write, arrange, and preview your content before publishing.
3. The story editor
The story editor is where Ravens of Odin shines. Stories are built from blocks — discrete pieces of content you arrange in any order.
Block types
- Text — Headings, paragraphs, pull quotes, and impact statements. Supports Markdown formatting in paragraph and impact blocks.
- Image — A single photo at various sizes: bleed (full width), wide, medium, or small.
- Video — Upload an MP4, WebM, or MOV. Videos play inline in the story.
- Hero — A full-screen opening statement. Can have a background image or stand alone as a typographic title card with your choice of text and background colour.
- Scene — Full-viewport background image or video with optional overlay text. Good for cinematic transitions between sections.
- Grid — A photo grid with configurable columns, aspect ratios, and gaps.
- Masonry — A flowing, column-based photo layout that respects each image's natural proportions.
- Section break — A visual pause between sections of your story.
Adding and arranging blocks
Use the toolbar at the bottom of the editor to add new blocks. Drag the handle on the left of any block to reorder it. Click a block to expand its settings.
Uploading media
Each story page has its own media library. Upload photos and videos by dragging them into the editor, or use the media manager (the icon in the sidebar). You can also browse Pexels for free stock photos or import from your Flickr account.
Page info and metadata
Click the "Page info" panel below the toolbar to set your page title, description, cover image, and tags. These control how your page appears in search engines and when shared on social media.
4. Publishing
When you're ready to share, click Publish ▶ in the top-right corner of the editor. Publishing does three things:
- Renders your content to a static HTML file and saves it to your site
- Updates your site's page index so the home page reflects the new page
- Makes your page immediately accessible at its URL
Saving (the "Save" button) stores your draft without publishing it publicly. You can save as many times as you like and publish when you're satisfied.
Unpublishing
To take a page offline without deleting it, click Unpublish (visible in the editor toolbar once a page has been published, and also in the page list on your site dashboard). The page becomes a draft again — your content is preserved and you can republish at any time.
Drafts
Pages that have never been published show a Draft badge in your site dashboard. They are not publicly accessible until you publish them.
5. Connecting your domain
Your site is available at yourname.rvns.app from the moment you create it. When you're ready, you can connect your own domain.
Go to Site Settings → Custom Domain
Open your site in the dashboard and click Settings, then navigate to the Custom Domain section.
Enter your domain name
Type your domain — for example mysite.com or stories.mysite.com — and click Add.
Update your DNS
Add a CNAME record at your domain registrar pointing your domain to rvns.app. SSL is provisioned automatically — it usually takes a few minutes.
yourname.rvns.app address continues to work throughout.
You're ready
That's everything you need to get started. Create a site, write a story, publish it to the world.
More guides — covering templates, fragments, the design system, and advanced publishing — are on their way.