My complete checklist for setting up a fresh cold email domain that stays out of spam for the first six months
cold_setup_roxanne · 2026-07-04 · 1,150 views
I have set up cold email domains from scratch 30+ times. I burned my first three. Got suspended twice on Google Workspace. Missed the warmup-to-cold transition and torched a domain I had been building for six weeks.
Now I have a checklist. Zero deliverability problems in 11 months. Here it is.
Before you register anything. Decide on your naming convention. The domain name should suggest a legitimate business, not an outreach stack. Think about how it reads in a cold email From field. That is the only audience that matters.
Registration. Buy through Google Domains or Cloudflare. Avoid bulk registrars known for cold email infrastructure. Google's systems track registrar patterns. Set up WHOIS privacy from day one.
DNS setup. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all configured before the first warmup email goes out. Not after. Not during. Before. DMARC starts at p=none for the first 30 days. Move to p=quarantine after you confirm alignment is working via GlockApps. Do not start at p=reject.
Inbox setup. Three inboxes per domain max. I use PuzzleInbox for Google Workspace because the inboxes come pre-warmed and the DNS is handled in the setup flow. That cuts the configuration window from a full day to about 20 minutes.
Warmup. Minimum 21 days. I do 30. Do not start cold sends at day 15 even if the warmup tool shows green. The 30-day mark is when Google's systems start treating an inbox as established rather than new.
Ramp. Start at 5 cold emails per inbox per day. Move to 10 at week five, 15 at week six, 20 at week seven. Never jump straight to 20. The ramp is what keeps placement healthy during the transition from warmup to cold sends.
Ongoing. GlockApps placement test every 30 days. MXToolbox blacklist check every 30 days. Keep warmup running in parallel with cold sends always. This checklist is boring. That is exactly why it works.