A “Burner Domain” (or Secondary Domain) is a disposable domain name purchased specifically for cold outreach to isolate the reputation risk from a company’s primary corporate domain. While the term sounds illicit, the practice is a standard enterprise security protocol known as “Domain Segmentation.” It acts as a blast shield: if a cold email campaign hits a spam trap, the secondary domain burns, but the primary domain (used for invoicing and support) remains safe.
The “Shield” Strategy
Imagine your main website, yourcompany.com, is your “Castle.” This is where your CEO emails investors, where your support team replies to tickets, and where your automated receipts come from.
If you send 100,000 cold emails from the Castle and get blacklisted, the Castle falls. Your investors stop getting updates. Your customers stop getting receipts.
The Solution: Build “Outposts” (Burner Domains) outside the castle walls.
try-yourcompany.comget-yourcompany.comyourcompany-team.com
You launch attacks (outreach) from the Outposts. If an Outpost is overrun (blacklisted), you abandon it and build a new one. The Castle is never touched.
1. When to Use Burner Domains (The Green Zone)
You should exclusively use secondary domains for Cold Traffic.
Scenario A: High-Volume Cold Outreach
- Volume: > 50 emails/day.
- Audience: Strangers who have never heard of you.
- Risk: High. Strangers report spam.
- Protocol: Use 100% secondary domains. Never let a cold lead touch your main domain until they reply.
Scenario B: Testing New Scripts
- Goal: A/B testing aggressive copy.
- Risk: Aggressive copy triggers filters.
- Protocol: Use a specific “Test Domain” (e.g.,
yourcompany-labs.com) so a bad experiment doesn’t hurt your main sales infrastructure.
Scenario C: Outsourced Agencies
- Situation: You hired a lead gen agency.
- Risk: Agencies often cut corners or share IPs.
- Protocol: NEVER give an agency an inbox on your main domain. Force them to buy
yourcompany-growth.comso you can cut the cord if they mess up.
2. When to AVOID Burner Domains (The Red Zone)
Using a burner domain for the wrong audience looks suspicious and destroys trust.
Scenario A: Inbound Leads & Signups
- Audience: People who requested a demo or signed up.
- Expectation: They want to hear from You.
- Protocol: Use your Primary Domain. If I sign up for Dropbox, I expect an email from
@dropbox.com, not@try-dropbox-now.com.
Scenario B: Client Communication & Support
- Audience: Paying customers.
- Risk: False Positives.
- Protocol: Always use Primary. If a client invoice goes to spam because you sent it from a low-reputation burner, you lose money.
Scenario C: Newsletters
- Audience: Opt-in subscribers.
- Protocol: Use a dedicated subdomain of your Primary (e.g.,
news.yourcompany.com). You want to build long-term authority here, not burn it.
3. The 3 Rules of “Legitimate” Burner Domains
To avoid looking like a scammer, your secondary domains must mirror your real brand.
Rule 1: The Redirect Mandate
If a prospect gets an email from john@get-email360.com, they will type get-email360.com into their browser to check you out.
- Must Do: Set up a “301 Redirect” so
get-email360.comautomatically forwards to your main siteemail360.com. - Failure: If it leads to a blank page or a GoDaddy parking page, you look like a phishing scam.
Rule 2: The Consistent Branding
- Must Do: Use the same profile picture, signature, and physical address on the burner domain as you do on the main domain.
- Why: Consistency proves identity.
Rule 3: The “Burn” Protocol
When a domain hits a blacklist (e.g., Spamhaus):
- Stop: Immediately cease sending.
- Assess: Can it be delisted? (See our “550 Error” guide).
- Abandon: If it cannot be saved, remove the inbox from your sending tool.
- Retain: Keep paying the $10/year renewal fee. Do not let it expire. If it expires, a spammer could buy it and impersonate you using your old reputation history.
4. Technical Setup: The “Cousin” Strategy
Don’t make your burner domains look like twins; make them look like cousins.
- Registrar Diversity: If your main domain is on GoDaddy, buy your burners on Namecheap or Cloudflare. This prevents a “Registrar Lockout” where one provider shuts down all your domains at once.
- Hosting Separation: Don’t host the DNS on the same IP as your corporate email. Most cold email tools handle this by keeping the burner domain isolated.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: Is using burner domains illegal? A: No. Owning multiple domains is perfectly legal. It only becomes illegal if you use them to spoof someone else’s identity (Phishing) or violate CAN-SPAM laws (no opt-out). As long as you identify yourself correctly (“Hi, I’m John from [Company]”), it is standard security practice.
Q2: How many burner domains do I need? A: Rule of thumb: 1 Domain per 3-5 Inboxes. If you want to send 5,000 emails/day, you need ~20 domains.
Q3: Can Google link my burner domains to my main domain? A: Yes, if you are sloppy. If you redirect them to your main site, Google knows they are related. However, for email reputation, they generally treat them as separate entities. Penalties rarely cross over unless you are doing malicious phishing.
Q4: Should I use “.com” for burners or cheaper extensions? A: Always .com, .net, or .io. Never use .xyz, .biz, or .info for cold email. Spam filters automatically penalize cheap TLDs. The extra $8/year is worth the deliverability boost.
Q5: How long does a burner domain last? A: With good hygiene (cleaning lists, good copy), a secondary domain can last for years. We have domains running since 2021. They only “burn” if you spam aggressively.
Q6: Can I eventually migrate a burner domain to become a main domain? A: Technically yes, but why? The point of the burner is to take hits. Keep your main domain pristine.
Q7: Do I need to warm up a burner domain? A: YES. Mandatory. Just because it is a “burner” doesn’t mean it comes pre-warmed. You must warm it up for 14-21 days, or it will burn on Day 1.
Q8: What if my main domain is new? Can I send from it? A: No. A new main domain is even more fragile. Use burners to generate your first leads while your main domain ages like fine wine (used only for normal business).
Q9: How do I name them? A: Use prefixes/suffixes: get, try, use, team, app, hq, labs, partners. Avoid numbers (brand1.com, brand2.com)—that looks like a bot farm.
Q10: Does the “Redirect” hurt my main site’s SEO? A: No. A 301 redirect is a standard signal. It does not pass “bad email reputation” to your “web SEO reputation.” They are different algorithms.
Q11: Can I use the same Google Workspace account for all domains? A: You can add them as “Secondary Domains” in one Workspace tenant, but it is risky. If Google bans the tenant, you lose everything. Safer: Buy separate Workspace accounts or use a reseller.
Q12: What is the cost of a burner domain strategy? A: $10/year per domain. If you have 10 domains, it’s $100/year. It is the cheapest insurance policy you will ever buy.
Q13: Should I put a website on the burner domain? A: No, just a redirect. Building 20 separate websites is a waste of time. The redirect is sufficient for trust.
Q14: Can I use a burner domain for my calendar link? A: Ideally, use a neutral calendar tool (Calendly) or your main domain for the booking link. If you put a link to burner-domain.com/calendar, and that domain gets blacklisted, the link will break or trigger a “Dangerous Site” warning.
Q15: How do I check if a burner is “dead”? A: Monitor Open Rates. If a specific domain consistently gets <15% open rate while others get 40%, it is likely shadow-banned. Retire it.
The Burner Setup Checklist
- [ ] Buy 5 domains (Namecheap/Cloudflare).
- [ ] Set 301 Redirect to main site.
- [ ] Add SPF/DKIM/DMARC.
- [ ] Create Inboxes (John@).
- [ ] Connect to Warm-Up.
[Link: Purchase & Configure Domains via Email 360 Pro]