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Keyul Patel
Keyul Patel

Posted on Originally published at newsletter.mastermentee.com on

How I Set Up My Custom Domain and Email for Substack

Happy New Year, fellow mentees πŸŽ“! Last week, I shared a brief note (on Substack) about the new year, but here’s a more detailed follow-up with some exciting news.

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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 nowβ€”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: β€œCloudflare 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 trueβ€”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.

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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 β€œHello 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.

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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 meβ€”I’ll do my best to provide thoughtful and helpful answers!

πŸ“§ Email: keyul@mastermentee.com

Looking forward to hearing from you all! πŸš€


Originally published at https://mastermentee.com

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