Set up email for your domain in about ten minutes
The exact records to add, in what order, and how to tell which step you are stuck on.
Every provider's setup is the same four ideas wearing different names. Once you have seen them once, every future domain takes minutes.
Step 1 — prove you own the domain
You add a TXT record containing a token the provider generated. Nobody who cannot edit your DNS can add it, which is the whole point. This is the only step that exists purely for the provider's benefit.
Step 2 — point mail at the provider (MX)
The MX record says "mail for this domain goes here". It looks like:
example.com. MX 10 mail.snailworkmail.com.The number is a priority — lower wins, and additional records are fallbacks. Once this resolves, mail starts arriving. If you are migrating, this is the moment your old provider stops receiving, so do it deliberately.
Step 3 — authorise sending (SPF and DKIM)
SPF is a TXT record listing who may send as your domain. DKIM is a set of CNAME records that let the provider sign your outgoing mail cryptographically. Together they are why Gmail believes a message claiming to be from you actually is:
example.com. TXT "v=spf1 include:amazonses.com ~all"
<token>._domainkey.example.com. CNAME <token>.dkim.amazonses.com.Only one SPF record per domain. Two v=spf1 records is a hard
failure, not a merge — if you already have one, add the include: to it
instead of creating a second.
Step 4 — DMARC (start permissive)
_dmarc.example.com. TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:you@example.com"p=none means "monitor, don't reject". Start here, read the reports for a few
weeks, and only then move to quarantine and reject. Starting at
reject is how people make their own mail disappear.
How to tell where you are stuck
| Symptom | Usually means |
|---|---|
| Nothing arrives | MX not resolving yet, or still pointing at the old provider |
| Mail arrives, sending blocked | DKIM not propagated — this can take up to 72 hours |
| Sent mail lands in spam | SPF alignment or a brand-new domain with no reputation |
| Provider says 'record not found' | Registrar appended the domain twice — check for example.com.example.com |
That last one catches almost everyone. Many registrars add the domain automatically, so entering the full name produces a doubled record. When in doubt, look at what the record resolves to rather than what you typed.