From zero domains to a warmed sending estate.
Exactly which domains to buy, which TLDs, which registrar, and how to configure them so they survive the first cold campaign.
The 7-step domain procurement plan.
Seven steps from deciding the domain architecture to a warmed sending estate. Each step links to the deep reference if you want to go further. Each step also has the obvious alternative: have us do it.
- Step 1
1. Decide the domain architecture
Decide: corporate domain stays for transactional mail. Cold outbound runs from 2-4 separate sending domains.
Why: One bad campaign on the corporate domain kills payroll, invoices, password resets — none of which can be lost.
- Step 2
2. Pick the TLDs
Primary corporate stays on .com. Sending domains use .com lookalikes (yourbrand-co.com, getyourbrand.com), or .net/.io. Avoid .info, .biz, .xyz — receiver reputation scoring penalizes them.
Why: TLD reputation varies materially. Bad TLD choice is permanent.
- Step 3
3. Select a registrar
Cloudflare (cheap, stable, $9/yr), Namecheap ($10-15/yr, easy UI), Porkbun ($9-13/yr). Avoid GoDaddy.
Why: Registrar matters less than picking one with stable DNS hosting. Migration later is friction.
- Step 4
4. Buy 3-4 sending domains + main
Purchase 3-4 lookalike sending domains. WHOIS privacy on. Set auto-renew.
Why: 3 mailboxes per domain × 3 domains = 9 mailboxes = ~250-350 sends/day capacity, the realistic floor for B2B outbound.
- Step 5
5. Configure DNS hosting
Point each domain at a DNS provider (Cloudflare DNS is the default). Set up the four required record types (A, MX, SPF, DKIM).
Why: DNS provider affects propagation speed, reliability, and analytics. Cloudflare gives you Postmaster-grade insights for free.
- Step 6
6. Provision mailboxes
Google Workspace ($7/mailbox/mo) for most senders. Microsoft 365 if you're already on it. Avoid SMTP-only providers.
Why: Mailbox provider affects reputation. Google and Microsoft are the only ones with sustainable cold-sending profiles.
- Step 7
7. Wait 30 days then warm
New domains face a 30-90 day reputation cold-start. Don't send anything from a domain less than 30 days old. Warmup begins on day 30.
Why: Sending from a fresh domain is the single most common cause of immediate deliverability collapse.
The four layers, in plain English.
The procurement layer has four parts. Each part answers one specific question you have to commit to before you can buy a domain or provision a mailbox.
Architecture
The case for separate sending domains. Reputation isolation between corporate mail and cold outbound, so one bad campaign can't take down payroll.
Selection + procurement
TLDs, naming, registrars. Which TLDs receivers trust, what to name lookalike domains, and which registrar is worth the small annual fee.
DNS + hosting
Where to host DNS, which provider, and the four required record types (A, MX, SPF, DKIM) you'll touch on every domain.
Mailbox layer
Provider tradeoffs, the multi-mailbox-per-domain pattern, and the naming decision that runs across every mailbox. Why Google and Microsoft are the only sustainable hosts, and why phillip@ beats team@ on every metric that matters.
Go deeper — the procurement reference.
For the operator who actually wants to learn this. Seven chapters covering every TLD tradeoff, every registrar quirk, every DNS hosting decision, and every mailbox provider profile we've operated. Read by chapter to settle one decision, or read in order to procure a sending estate from scratch.
We provision the entire sending estate as a service.
Domain purchase, DNS configuration, mailbox provisioning, authentication, and 21-day warmup. Operated end-to-end by an engineer in your Slack.
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