How I Set Up My Custom Domain and Email for Substack
Setting goals, practicing patience, and using the right tools to build an engaging community.
Happy New Year, fellow mentees 🎓! Last week, I shared a brief note about the new year, but here’s a more detailed follow-up with some exciting news.
In fact, it was 2:40 AM PST on the 31st night when I initially wanted to share this information with you, but I waited to provide more comprehensive details. Now, I am more than happy to share the complete story.
Back in October 2024, I made a promise to myself: I would reward my consistency and dedication by purchasing a dedicated domain for this newsletter. However, I didn’t want to rush the decision. So, I set a clear goal: if I posted 44 consecutive updates or started gaining more mentees in this community, I would reward myself with the domain.
Although the cost of a domain is relatively inexpensive, setting this goal helped me develop consistency and patience. MasterMentee is in its current situation primarily because of those two factors. Takeaway: Patience is an underrated skill in today’s fast-paced, doomscrolling world. (I’ll save that discussion for a future post!)
Fast forward to now—thanks to all the new subscribers joining us, I finally took the leap and purchased MasterMentee.com!
Choosing the Right Domain Provider
In my search for the best domain provider, I prioritized top-notch support, ease of use, and great value. I spent hours reading blog posts, searching on Perplexity and Google, and diving into countless Reddit threads. Even though it was a one-time cost and setup, I wanted everything to be perfect. Finally, I found the perfect match: Cloudflare.
If you’re unfamiliar with Cloudflare, here’s an eye-opening fact: “Cloudflare protects approximately 20% of the web, blocking an average of ~165 billion threats per day.” Impressive, right?
A Free Custom Email Address?
While researching, I discovered something even more exciting: you can set up a custom email address on your domain without paying extra! Yes, it’s true—I created keyul@mastermentee.com without any additional costs, thanks to Apple.
You might be wondering:
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Well, technically, this wasn’t entirely free, but here’s why it felt like one: I’ve been an iCloud+ subscriber for years. I had no idea that iCloud+ includes the ability to configure a custom email domain. Setting up my email through iCloud was a no-brainer.
The Setup Process
What I loved most about this entire process was how seamless Apple and Cloudflare made it. From purchasing the domain to sending my first “Hello World” email, the setup took less than five minutes!
Surprisingly, linking my domain to Substack took longer than setting up the email. I had expected the reverse to be true! In total, the costs were:
$11.51 to Cloudflare for the domain
$0 to Apple for custom email
$50 to Substack for linking newsletter to domain
If you’re working on a project where you’ll need a domain and email setup, leave a comment on this post! I’d be happy to write a full guide on the process.
A Dedicated Email for You
With this new custom email, I’m now even more accessible to answer your questions. Feel free to reach out to me—I’ll do my best to provide thoughtful and helpful answers!
📧 Email: keyul@mastermentee.com
Looking forward to hearing from you all! 🚀
I have a domain which I intend to use for my website not substack but I want to have an email like abc@mybrand.com to send emails to my subscribers instead of abc@substack.com. Can you help?