diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ad5f064..650f9da 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,17 +10,35 @@ Structure:
 └── infrastructure: The infrastructure of my website as code
 ```
 
-## Running
+## Running with Podman
 
-To run with Docker or Podman:
+These instructions will probably work with Docker, too: just substitute `podman`
+for `docker` in all the commands.
+
+To run with Podman, first set up your environment variables. Copy `example.env`
+to `.env` and edit the values accordingly.
+
+Then, create the `remote_smtp_password` secret, storing the password for the
+remote SMTP server which will send the contact emails on behalf of the website.
 
 ```bash
-docker build -t joeac-net .
-docker run joeac-net [port]:4321
+sudo podman secret create remote_smtp_password /path/to/remote/smtp/password
 ```
 
-To run with Node:
+Now build and start the containers:
+
+```bash
+sudo podman-compose build && sudo podman-compose up -d
+```
+
+## Running on the host machine
+
+To run on the host machine, first, as before, set up your environment variables
+by copying `example.env` to `.env` and editing the values as appropriate.
 
 ```bash
 npm run start
 ```
+
+Note that emails may not work locally without further setup. These instructions
+are of course woefully incomplete.
diff --git a/example.env b/example.env
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..9a2451f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/example.env
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# The username for authenticating to the local SMTP server
+# Recommended to be the same as REMOTE_SMTP_USER, else the remote may reject it
+LOCAL_SMTP_USER=
+
+# The envelope-from used by the local SMTP server
+# Recommended to be the same as REMOTE_SMTP_USER, else the remote may reject it
+LOCAL_SMTP_ENVELOPE_FROM=
+
+# The host of the remote SMTP server, e.g. smtp.gmail.com
+REMOTE_SMTP_HOST=
+
+# The port of the remote SMTP server: usually 25, 465, or 587
+REMOTE_SMTP_PORT=
+
+# The username for authenticating to the remote SMTP server
+# Usually the email address which will be sending the contact emails
+REMOTE_SMTP_USER=me@joeac.net
+
+# The email address where contact emails will be sent
+CONTACT_MAILBOX=me@joeac.net