Set up your sending domain

Newsletters can't be sent from a free mailbox address (@gmail.com, @yahoo.com). Those providers publish strict policies that make bulk mail sent "from" their domains fail authentication—it would land in spam or be rejected outright. You send from a domain you own instead, which also means the reputation you build is yours.

Verifying your domain

Go to your audience's Settings → Sending domain and enter the domain you want to send from—a subdomain like email.yourname.com is a good choice because it keeps newsletter reputation separate from your personal mail. You'll get four DNS records to add wherever your domain's DNS lives: three DKIM CNAME records (issued for your domain specifically) and one DMARC TXT (v=DMARC1; p=none;). Add all four.

One distinction that saves a lot of grief: where you registered your domain and where its DNS lives aren't always the same place. They often are—but if your website runs on a service like BookBub Author Websites, Wix, or Squarespace, that service may manage your DNS, and the records go in its dashboard, not your registrar's. The domain page checks your domain's nameservers and tells you where your DNS actually lives, so start from what it detects rather than from where you bought the domain.

Add each record exactly as shown, then wait. Verification usually completes within an hour but can take up to a day or two depending on your DNS host. Press Check status any time: the page checks each DKIM CNAME individually and tells you whether it's found, not visible yet, pointing at the wrong value, or saved under a doubled name—and it detects where your DNS is actually hosted, so the instructions point at the right editor. Those three CNAMEs are what our mail provider confirms. The DMARC record is still required to publish; it just isn't the verification gate.

DMARC

Add the TXT shown on the domain page at _dmarc. plus your sending domain. p=none is the safe starter—nothing is blocked. If your main domain already has a DMARC record, subdomains inherit it and that already satisfies this step.

Common trip-ups

• Your DNS editor may auto-append your domain. Some hosts turn abc._domainkey.email.yourname.com into abc._domainkey.email.yourname.com.yourname.com if you paste the full name. This is the single most common cause of a stalled verification—the status check flags it as "name doubled," and the fix is to enter only the short part of the name.
• On Cloudflare, use "DNS only." If a record's Proxy status is the orange cloud, the record is hidden and verification never completes. Click the cloud to make it grey.
• Your From address must match the verified domain. If your domain has a strict DMARC policy, even a near-miss (sending from yourname.com when you verified email.yourname.com) gets mail rejected, not just filtered.
• Changes take time. DNS edits can take hours to be visible. Re-check in the settings page rather than adding the records again.

Branded link tracking (your links, on your domain)

Every link in your emails is tracked so your reports can show clicks. That works by sending each click through a short redirect first. Out of the box that redirect uses NewsletterScriv's own tracking address; with your own domain, readers and inbox filters see your name on every link instead, and the link's reputation is yours alone. Click reports don't change either way.

Under Settings → Sending domain, the Branded link tracking card suggests a name under your verified sending domain (for email.yourname.com that is links.email.yourname.com). Any subdomain of a domain you own works, but staying under your verified domain is what keeps this to two records. Press the button and you get the CNAME records to add at your DNS host, all at once, plus a link you can forward to whoever manages DNS for you: one validates an HTTPS certificate and one points the hostname at the redirect service. Only if you pick a name outside your verified sending domain do three more appear, to prove that subdomain to Amazon SES.

Nothing to press after that. We check every few minutes; the certificate and the redirect service finish on their own (the redirect service takes 5–15 minutes to deploy once the certificate is issued), and the card switches to Links use this domain the moment everything agrees. Keep the records in place afterwards—removing them breaks every tracked link in emails already sent. The same name-field and Cloudflare trip-ups as your DKIM records apply.

If verification stalls completely

Our mail provider looks for your records for 72 hours, then stops checking. If that clock ran out, fixing the DNS records alone won't finish the job—the domain page will show "Verification stalled—restart needed" with a Restart verification button. Correct whatever the record check flags, press the button, and a fresh 72-hour check begins. (If a domain sits unverified for more than a day, we'll also email you a heads-up—a silent stall helps no one.)