Send Your Newsletter From Gmail With a Custom Domain

Why you want '[email protected]' instead of a free Gmail address for your list

A newsletter that arrives from [email protected] reads as an amateur operation before the subscriber opens it. One from [email protected] reads as a real publication. The sender address is the first trust signal a reader sees, ahead of subject line, ahead of content.

You do not need to buy a mailbox to fix this. You can send mail that shows up as coming from your domain while the message is actually composed, sent, and stored inside the Gmail account you already have. That is what this guide sets up: a free alias, not a new inbox.

The two paths: paid Google Workspace mailbox vs a free 'Send mail as' alias

There are exactly two ways to send from a domain address in Gmail.

The first is Google Workspace: you buy a real mailbox tied to your domain, with its own storage, its own login, and full support for sending and receiving natively as that address. This is the correct answer if you need a dedicated inbox, multiple team members, or high send volume.

The second is the free route this guide covers: you keep your personal or existing Gmail account, forward your domain's incoming mail to it, and add the domain address as a "Send mail as" alias inside Gmail's settings. Gmail then lets you compose and send as [email protected] using your existing Gmail account's outgoing servers. No new mailbox, no new login, no monthly mailbox fee.

The tradeoff: it is genuinely free, but it inherits Gmail's personal-account sending limits and it is one more layer of configuration than a native mailbox. The rest of this article is the setup for that second path.

What you need: a domain, an existing Gmail account, and DNS access

Three things, all of which you likely already have if you run a Floggy blog on a custom domain:

• A domain name you control (the one your blog and newsletter use)

• An existing Gmail account (a personal @gmail.com account works fine)

• Access to your domain's DNS settings, usually through your domain registrar or host's control panel

You do not need a mail server, a Workspace subscription, or any software beyond a browser.

Step 1: set up a forwarding address at your domain host

First, get mail addressed to your domain flowing somewhere Gmail can read it.

1. Log in to your domain registrar or DNS host (wherever you manage records for your domain).

2. Look for an "Email Forwarding" or "Email Alias" feature. Most registrars (Namecheap, Google Domains successors, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, and others) offer this as a built-in, usually free, tool. It does not require a mailbox on their end either; it just relays mail.

3. Create a forwarding rule: mail sent to [email protected] forwards to your existing Gmail address.

4. Save the rule and send yourself a test email to the domain address to confirm it lands in your Gmail inbox.

If your host has no built-in forwarding, a dedicated forwarding service (several offer a free tier for a single alias) does the same job: it accepts mail for your domain and relays it to your Gmail inbox.

Step 2: add the alias under Gmail's Send mail as settings

Once forwarding works in one direction (domain to Gmail), set up the reverse: sending as your domain address from Gmail.

1. In Gmail, open Settings (the gear icon) and go to See all settings.

2. Click the Accounts and Import tab.

3. Under Send mail as, click Add another email address.

4. Enter the name you want shown to recipients and the address, [email protected].

5. Leave "Treat as an alias" checked unless you have a specific reason not to.

6. Click Next Step, then Send Verification.

Step 3: verify with the confirmation code and set SPF so it doesn't land in spam

Gmail sends a verification email to [email protected], which your forwarding rule from Step 1 routes into your Gmail inbox.

1. Open that verification email and either click the confirmation link or copy the code into the verification box Gmail shows you.

2. Once verified, your domain address appears as a selectable "From" option whenever you compose a new email in Gmail.

Verification alone gets the alias working, but it does not by itself stop your mail from landing in spam. Because the message is technically routed through Google's servers but claims to be from your domain, some receiving mail servers check whether your domain's DNS authorizes Google to send on its behalf. That check is SPF (Sender Policy Framework).

To pass it, add an SPF TXT record at your domain's DNS settings that includes Google's sending servers, using the value include:_spf.google.com. If you already have an SPF record for other services, add this include to the existing record rather than creating a second one; a domain can only have one SPF TXT record. Check your DNS host's documentation for the exact record format, since the surrounding syntax (the v=spf1 prefix, the ~all or -all suffix) varies slightly by what else your domain already sends mail through.

For the strongest deliverability, you would also want DKIM signing configured, but DKIM through a free Gmail alias setup is limited, since Gmail signs the outgoing mail with its own DKIM key rather than one tied to your domain. SPF is the practical baseline this free setup can achieve on its own.

Where this breaks: send volume limits and when you actually need a real mailbox

A free Gmail alias sends through your personal Gmail account's normal sending limits. Those limits exist to stop spam from personal accounts and they are low enough that they were never designed for bulk newsletter sends. If you try to send a newsletter to a list of any real size directly through Gmail's own compose window using this alias, you will hit that ceiling.

In practice, this setup is for the sender identity, not the delivery pipeline. You use the alias to make individual replies, confirmation emails, and low-volume test sends look like they come from your domain. For the newsletter send itself, the actual bulk delivery should run through a proper sending service (which is what Floggy's newsletter feature does under the hood) rather than through Gmail's own outgoing servers.

If you find yourself needing a dedicated inbox that receives high volumes of reader replies, needs its own storage, or has to support multiple people managing it, that is the signal you have outgrown the free alias and should move to a real mailbox, either Google Workspace or another hosted email provider.

Matching this address to your Floggy newsletter sender

Once your alias is verified in Gmail, use that same address, [email protected], as the sender configured in your Floggy newsletter settings. Floggy's Pro tier supports sending your newsletter from a custom domain address, so subscribers see mail arrive from your domain rather than from a generic Floggy or Gmail default sender.

The Gmail alias and the Floggy sender are two separate things doing complementary jobs: the alias lets you personally compose and reply as [email protected] from your own inbox, while Floggy's newsletter sender handles the actual bulk delivery to your subscriber list under that same address. Keeping both pointed at the identical address means every touchpoint, individual replies and bulk sends alike, presents one consistent identity to your readers.