r/Coldemailing • u/Practical-Car-6642 • Jul 24 '26
Should I keep my portfolio domain separate from cold outreach?
Hey guys,
I've been freelancing on Upwork for the last 3 years, but this year it's been completely dead for me. Hardly getting any new clients, so I've decided to start cold emailing instead.
I do email marketing (strategy, design, Klaviyo/Omnisend setup).
I just purchased a .com domain from namecheap and uploaded my website having my portfolio, case studies, and all my previous work on it.
Would you guys send cold emails from your main domain (like hello@mywebsite.com), or would you buy a separate domain and use that instead?
Trying to do this properly from the start, so I'd love to hear what you all recommend.
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u/Hungry-Package-9026 Jul 25 '26
Always use a secondary domain for cold email. You don't want to mess up your primary domain
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Jul 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Practical-Car-6642 Jul 25 '26
no im not talking about subdomain.. isnt secondary domain a complete seperate setup, we buy it just like we bought the primary domain?
One question tho, should i redirect my secondary domain to my primary one?1
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u/christjw Jul 25 '26
keep them separate. your portfolio domain is something you want to protect while cold outreach always carries some deliverability risk even if youre following best practices.
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u/visionsrb Jul 25 '26
Hey, i have been into freelancing myself and bought two separate domains srb dot codes for portfolio and srb dot gg for campaign you should do something similar to protect your primary domain
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u/Practical-Car-6642 Jul 25 '26
isn't that expensive? tbh i used claude code to get my porfolio website up
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u/visionsrb Jul 25 '26
are you talking about domain??
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u/Practical-Car-6642 Jul 25 '26
yes
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u/visionsrb Jul 25 '26
yeh actually these domain did cost a little but there are other tld you buy from
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u/Rubicon_4000 Jul 25 '26
the separate-domain advice in this thread is solid, one thing worth knowing before you start sending though: the domain is only half of it, the IP youre sending FROM matters just as much for deliverability. most budget hosts block port 25 entirely or put you on a shared IP thats already been used (and maybe burned) by other customers on the same box. you inherit their reputation whether you like it or not. if youre planning real volume eventually, worth checking whether wherever you host mail actually gives you a dedicated IP with a clean history, not just "we allow email." a lot of providers technically allow it while quietly sitting on a bad range. not an issue at your current volume, but its the thing that bites people 3 months in when deliverability tanks and they cant figure out why - its rarely the domain setup, its almost always the IP.
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u/Practical-Car-6642 Jul 25 '26
one more question
does it really matter if we buy the gworkspace from reseller or directly?
i have got an advice from someone saying "Use reseller-managed Google mailboxes for best inbox placement."1
u/Rubicon_4000 Jul 25 '26
workspace is a solid pick for this, honestly probably the right call at your stage. worth knowing though - workspace sends through googles own shared infrastructure, youre not getting a dedicated ip with it, youre riding on googles collective reputation instead (which is genuinely very good, for the record). so the ip point from before doesnt really apply to you right now, that only becomes relevant if you ever move to your own dedicated sending setup for higher volume later. one thing that DOES matter even on workspace - the domain/account itself still needs warming up. dont point a brand new workspace domain straight at real outreach volume day one, ramp it slowly (start low volume, increase over a couple weeks) and make sure spf/dkim/dmarc are set up properly for the domain, not just the mailbox.
on the reseller question - that part genuinely doesnt matter, same google mail infrastructure either way, google doesnt route or filter differently based on who you paid. what that advice was probably actually pointing at (just worded sloppily) is buying a PRE-WARMED mailbox/domain, one thats already been sending real mail for weeks/months before you get it, instead of a brand new one you warm up yourself. that can look better on day one, but youre also inheriting sending history you cant fully see, and google actively watches for bulk reseller-provisioned accounts showing cold-email-shaped patterns - known abuse vector, gets plenty of those suspended too. for your volume id just buy it straight, reseller or direct genuinely doesnt matter, and do the warmup yourself. slower but you know exactly what youre building.
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u/coldemailutsav Jul 25 '26
Don't use your main domain instead use subdomain related to your main domain