Ten years ago, building products was slower and more expensive. Clients spent real money to refine an idea before committing to it, because the risk of taking the wrong path was enormous. We called this part of the process discovery, and we were very good at it. What people want is someone who can see the shape of an idea and distill its essence, so what gets built is something users comprehend and love. After that, building is the easy part.

A lot has changed since then. Building is faster, cheaper, and more accessible than it’s ever been. Some people think decisions matter less, because if you get it wrong, you can rebuild quickly. In practice, the opposite is true. When execution is cheap, the allure of progress carries teams forward, justifying their bad decisions instead of pausing to fix them. It doesn’t just enable bad decisions. It normalizes them. Good judgment is the differentiator now in a way it wasn’t ten years ago.

Sometimes the most important decisions are smaller than they sound. I’ve watched products reach clarity the moment the URLs got settled. URLs are the clearest expression of information architecture, and once they’re right, everything downstream gets easier. Small, early decisions tend to work like this. They look unimportant in isolation, but they compound and clarify.

This is what the Faculty Sprint is for: getting the small early decisions right.

We focus on the shape of the idea. Sometimes the decision is what not to build. Sometimes it’s how to position the product so people understand it. Sometimes it’s the details of the UI. We spend the first part of the engagement on the decisions, and the rest of it making those decisions real.

May is taken. July and September are open. Apply at faculty.com/sprint or reach out to learn more.

In last year’s recap, I made this commitment:

Optimism is the antidote to despair. For my part, I’m doubling down on building community, strengthening relationships, supporting people, and trying to make a difference.

I’m going to give myself credit for this one, even though I’ll admit it hasn’t always been easy to stay optimistic.

Much of my year revolved around my three labors of love: Faculty, Studioworks, and Roost.

Faculty

Faculty has built a reputation for doing good work over the years, and it continued to be both a source of pride and a source of uncertainty for me.

For the last few years, I’ve been anticipating a pendulum swing that has yet to materialize. When Andy Bell wrote about how hard last year was, it made me realize that we weren’t alone. Despite our struggles, I think those who aren’t participating in the race to the bottom might be poised for success in spite of it all.

It’s estimated that 90% of startups fail, so if that is your expectation, it makes some sense that fail fast is such a popular concept. The problem, of course, is that this leads to widespread mediocrity, and a lot of good ideas aren’t given a chance to succeed.

If you have a good idea and want to give it the best chance of success, consider hiring Faculty. (To get started, you can email me personally.)

Studioworks

Studioworks officially launched in October, after months of hard work. We aim to be a complete solution for creatives and freelancers who want a simpler way to run their business, so they can spend more time doing the work they love.

We started with invoicing, partly because we noticed a widespread trend among all of our competitors to skim a little off the top of every payment processed through their platforms. Our business model is simple and honest: we charge $39 per month, and that’s our only revenue. We win when our customers win.

Studioworks is opinionated in quiet ways. We focus on the parts of running a creative business that affect trust, clarity, and how seriously you’re taken by clients. Here are some examples:

• Professionalism - Studioworks is designed to make you look professional without making you look generic. All invoices and client pages are hosted on your own subdomain, presented in colors and type that you choose, and free of a lot of the third-party branding noise that makes free platforms feel so cheap.
• Customizations - We spend an unusual amount of time on color and typography. Not for novelty, but because these details signal care and craft.
• Security - Because you’re on your own subdomain and we know what we’re doing, we don’t have to take a paranoid approach to security and do things like log you out all the time or require silly password rules. This affects your clients, too. The result is small conveniences that add up, and you look more polished and competent.
• Reminders - We want to respect the fact that you own the client relationship, not us. We never email your clients without letting you know first. No more embarrassing reminders for invoices already paid.
• Line items - Your work doesn’t always fit neatly into “hours × rate” so we don’t force it to. Fixed fees are presented simply, and we offer more flexibility when you do need to charge in multiples. For example, charging “3 × $500 per item” makes it clear that you’re not charging an hourly rate that might invite scrutiny from finance and delay payment.

In short, Studioworks is designed to help creatives and freelancers look professional and streamline running their business.

I’m excited about all that 2026 has in store for our customers. Proposals, time tracking, file sharing, and a client hub that facilitates everything from contracts to approvals are just a few examples of what we have on the roadmap.

Roost

Running a coworking studio in a world where more people than ever are working from home has its challenges, but I still love getting to work at Roost every day.

I started Roost after realizing that “coworking” had slowly been co-opted by companies chasing scale and margins. What I wanted instead was something smaller, more intentional, and more human — a place for people who genuinely like working around other people (you know, coworking).

Roost is a true coworking studio. There are no private offices. We do have meeting rooms you can book for calls or meetings, but the expectation is that it’s fine to be visible, take calls at your desk, and make a little noise. It’s a space for people who feed off of the energy of other people working.

We’re community-first, but we don’t force it. We don’t offer day passes or short-term memberships, which means the people you see every day are the people you’ll keep seeing. Over time, that creates a familiar, neighborhood-like feeling. It’s worth getting to know people because they’re not just passing through.

We’re also flexible in ways other coworking spaces can’t be. We don’t police meeting room hours or enforce rules we don’t need. Instead, we rely on mutual respect and a shared sense of responsibility for the space and the culture.

Roost isn’t for everyone, and that’s by design. But for the right people, it’s a calm, welcoming place to do good work. I’m proud of what it continues to be, even as the world around it keeps changing.

The rest of the year unfolded in smaller moments — family milestones, injuries (unfortunately), recoveries, trips, concerts, and other small moments that matter (to me). Here are a few things that stood out, month by month.

January

• Tegan tried scuba diving and loved it.
• Jessica and I hosted a few Studioworks AMAs.
• Jessica and Nick visited Boulder, and we held a special Studioworks event at Roost.
• I started strength training in an attempt to regain my lost athleticism.

February

• I started playing pickup soccer again.
• I got recertified in CPR and Wilderness First Aid.
• I attended Klondike with Killian and Troop 78.

March

• Snowshoe hike in RMNP.
• We went skiing in Breckenridge, one of our favorite places.
• Tegan and Killian both won an award for their work with the Library Teen Advisory Board.

April

• Soccer season started. Strength training paid off, and I was back to scoring goals and loving it.
• Then I got injured.

May

• Tegan graduated from middle school.
• Tegan and Christina went to NYC to celebrate.

June

• I had knee surgery for the second time.
• We began onboarding Studioworks customers with 1:1 sessions.
• On June 30, we rolled Studioworks out to all Founding Members.

July

• Indigo Girls at Red Rocks. I didn’t get to meet them this time, but it was still awesome.

August

• I bought the Switch 2 with Mario Kart World. Fun for the whole family.
• Killian went on a backpacking trip with Scouts I was meant to lead, but I had to miss it due to my injury.
• Creative Mornings Boulder!

September

• Silksong released, and it crashed every video game store.
• Chris Glass visited Boulder. It was so good to see him.

October

• I took Tegan and Riley to see Jonas Brothers at Ball Arena.
• I went to Brooklyn for Kinference, which felt a lot like a Brooklyn Beta reunion.
• I attended Troop 78’s famous survival outing and built my own winter shelter.

November

• Tegan had her wisdom teeth removed.
• Joy Oladokun at Boulder Theater.
• Christina got to accompany Killian on a Troop 78 trip to the Great Sand Dunes.
• My dad visited Boulder while on a multi-day road trip. It was great to see him.

December

December was very full. Or maybe I just remember it better, since it just happened.

Early in the month, Jessica and I were on a couple of podcasts:

• Design Better, hosted by Eli and Aarron, explores the intersection of design, technology, and the creative process.
• ShopTalk, hosted by Chris and Dave, is a weekly podcast about building websites and the people who make them.

My mom visited Boulder and got to experience the early Christmas season, including seeing Tegan in the Christmas parade.

We hosted a very special event at Roost featuring Kelli Anderson, Erica Heinz, and surprise guest Rosston Meyer from Poposition Press. Right before they arrived, the power went out. Here’s what I wrote the next day:

Last night didn’t go as planned. Somehow it was even better.

The power went out just before Kelli Anderson and Erica Heinz arrived. Candles came out. String lights ran on batteries. We poured mulled wine and spiced tea, set up the battery-powered projector, and gathered closer.

Kelli and Erica were incredible, and we had a surprise guest: Poposition Press! The room was warm, attentive, and fully present. It felt intimate, human, and quietly magical.

Grateful for everyone who rolled with it and made the night what it was, and thanks to Dylan Zsigray for taking some photos.

I’m already planning more events in 2026 and cannot wait. Dan suggested we take the blackout vibe (candles, intimacy) to future events, even when we have power. I like it.

I took 6 kids to see Zootopia 2 (Tegan, Killian, and Riley each brought a friend). I love the cinema and thought Zootopia 2 was very cute.

2025 was hard in ways that don’t always show up cleanly on a timeline, but I’m still here, still building, and still grateful for my family, friends, and the people I get to work with.

Studioworks is live!

I can honestly say Studioworks is the best invoicing platform out there, with the lowest fees, best design (and most design customizations), and simplest UI.

But that’s not all we’re about. We’re building a company that honors and serves creatives, because we think creatives can help us imagine a better future. We’re building a company with a simple, honest business model, because we want to prove that it’s possible. We’re building a company with strong values, because we think values matter.

We don’t offer free trials, but to celebrate our launch, we’re offering a free month to anyone who signs up with a referral link. If you’re curious to try it out and support a small team doing things a little differently, here’s mine:

https://studioworks.app/join/chris

Our new marketing site has some fun interactions, too, including some of the design customizations we use in the product:

https://studioworks.app/

Thanks to everyone who has given us your support, enthusiasm, and feedback along the way. We're very grateful.

Some people like to reflect on the previous year sometime in December. I like to have a little more distance from it, so I’ve always written these recaps in January. For better or worse, the extra few weeks gives me time to gain a clearer perspective of the year as a whole.

What I remember is that 2024 was a pretty good year, all things considered. What felt at times like limbo was just transition, and I’m excited about what I’m working on and who I’m working with.

Of course, 2024 was challenging, too. Among other things, the US re-elected the worst president in my lifetime and one of the worst presidents in history.

Optimism is the antidote to despair. For my part, I’m doubling down on building community, strengthening relationships, supporting people, and trying to make a difference.

January

We kicked off the year with a family trip to Breckenridge. We even brought our dog Bear. Because I wasn’t cleared to ski yet, I shuttled everyone to and from the slopes, walked the dog, and spent time with Tegan, who was on crutches at the time.

Tegan and I spent a few hours one day making candles, which was a lot more fun than I expected. We were the only people there, so we got a lot of personal attention and instruction. It was nice to do something that was so unrushed.

The kids and I started playing Super Mario Wonder, and we had a lot of fun together. Killian decided to 100% the game, so I decided to do the same. At first, it was just a fun way to continue playing, but we were rewarded with probably my favorite Mario level of all time, The Final-Final Test Badge Marathon.

I took Tegan to a dog sledding event at Snow Mountain Ranch as part of Girl Scouts. While she was doing that, I enjoyed spending some time with Riley, who came along for a weekend of fun that included archery, rock climbing, roller skating, and the cafeteria (her favorite part).

Killian and I visited Troop 78 during their Pre-Klondike. (He would later join the troop.)

February

We went back to Snow Mountain Ranch with some friends. This is the trip I missed the previous year, during which I tore my ACL playing soccer. I wasn’t going to miss it again. The kids enjoyed all of the activities, and Riley showed off the natural route on the climbing wall, which is when you don’t use any of the holds. (I didn’t even know that was a thing.)

Christina took the kids skiing in Keystone. I was still doing PT regularly, trying to build back the strength in my legs, hoping I could join them before the season ended.

March

Killian won Pinewood Derby again, and he had the fastest car of the entire pack. It was his last time racing, since he was aging out of Cub Scouts. It was nice to see him go out on top.

The kids and I started playing Hollow Knight, and we all got really into it. The maps, the art, the lore, everything. Killian and I decided to 112% the game, but we lost interest after getting to 111% and completing Path of Pain. Maybe we’ll come back it before Silksong is released.

Killian went on a snowshoe hike around NCAR with Troop 78, and I went with him. We were able to walk to it from our house.

We went back to Brooklyn and stayed with Jessi and Creighton. We always live it up when we go back, catching up with friends, eating at favorite restaurants, and seeing shows. We also spent a day on Governor’s Island, a car-free utopia that we love. Our ferry was delayed for a while, because Presidents Biden and Obama were departing from the helipad near the ferry terminal.

April

We got to see another solar eclipse. I remember telling everyone at Roost to go outside and check it out. I had some glasses to share, and everyone appreciated the reminder.

Christina and I watched It’s Only Life After All at the Dairy with a bunch of other Indigo Girls fans. It was fun and nostalgic.

At long last, I was finally cleared to ski again and took the family to Vail for one last ski trip, which coincided with Christina’s birthday. We stayed in a very cool Airbnb that was just across the walking bridge, so it was inexpensive but still incredibly convenient. I was especially cautious, because I know people tear their ACLs skiing all the time, and I wasn’t back to full strength yet. On the first day, disaster struck, and I still can’t believe it. Christina tore her ACL! It would be several days before we knew for sure. I felt terrible.

May

I went with Killian on his first outing as part of Troop 78. After a pleasant day of hiking and a nice night at Wellington Lake, the weather took a turn. The clouds descended upon us as we went to bed, and we awoke to some of the worst weather I’ve experienced. We were in thick fog, everything was covered in snow and ice, and because the temperature was barely below freezing, we were assaulted with a constant rotation of freezing rain, sleet, hail, snow, and more freezing rain. Everything and everyone was soaked and miserably cold. Not the weather you might expect in May, except this is Colorado. To cap it off, the drive back was so treacherous that the adults count that as the hardest part of the whole trip. I was impressed with the resiliency of the scouts, Killian especially.

Tegan’s bike was stolen in front of King Soopers, underneath a security camera, which was devastating to her. It’s always hard when something is stolen from you, but her bike was her most cherished posssession and how she got around (including to school each day). It was like having her freedom taken from her.

We went to Casa Bonita for my birthday. Wow, what a place. The food wasn’t great, which everyone warned me about, but I can’t wait to go back. It’s such an experience.

Killian graduated from Bear Creek. I did the slideshow again. I think I’m already on the hook to do it one last time when Riley graduates in two years.

We started a garden in our backyard, which was great. I mostly planted tomatoes and hot peppers.

June

I visited my dad in Florida shortly after a life-saving surgery. My sister joined us after the first day. Despite the circumstances, it was really nice to spend some time together, something we rarely get a chance to do.

Christina and the kids surprised me with Janet Jackson tickets for Father’s Day. Nelly opened. Lots of nostalgia.

I spent a few days at Summer Camp with Killian and his fellow scouts. While there, I helped with the backpacking shakedown, an overnight backpacking trip meant to help the new scouts get some experience.

We saw Brett Dennen at Boulder Theater. Riley came with us, and when Brett asked for requests, she shouted “See The World” as loudly as she could. He liked that idea and looked to see where that tiny voice came from. Christina shouted her name. He pointed to her and said, “I see you, Riley.” Then he played the song. Riley was beaming.

July

There was another wildfire close to home, but we didn’t have to evacuate this time, and they were able to contain it. Thank you, firefighters.

We went camping at Golden Gate Canyon State Park with some friends, and we brought Bear. On our way to the campsite, we encountered a couple of moose and had to wait for them to leave.

Christina had ACLR surgery. There was no meniscus damage, which was a huge relief.

We saw Alanis Morissette. This was only my second time seeing her, the first of which was in 1996. She was incredibly energetic and gave an amazing performance. We were pretty far from the stage, but during the show, she set up a mini stage right in front of where we were sitting and performed several songs. It was like having a small, private concert.

August

Killian had a backpacking trip with scouts coming up, so the girls wanted a trip of their own. I took them to Crater Lakes, a favorite spot. It rained, but it was fun. The raspberries along the way weren’t quite ripe. On the way home, we capped off the trip with our traditional visit to the Carousel of Happiness and Crosscut.

The following weekend, I went backpacking in the same place with Killian and his fellow scouts. The raspberries were perfect, so they spent a good amount of time collecting and eating handfulls of them. We got rained on quite a bit, but they had fun.

On the second day, there was a nice moment when the sun came out, we were above tree line, and the scouts could see the Continental Divide. Although it was time to head back to camp, they decided they wanted to go for the summit. We made it to the summit and back down below tree line before the rain started again. It was the best part of the trip.

September

I’ve seen the Indigo Girls in concert many times over the years, but Red Rocks is a pretty special venue, and this turned out to be a very special night. Some friends of Christina’s are also friends of Carol Isaacs (an illustrator who was playing keyboards), so they got free tickets and were sitting closer to the stage than we were. During the show, Christina went down to chat with them for a bit. When she came back, she told me to hurry down there, because one of them was donating their backstage pass to me.

I made my way down and found them, and as soon as Amy and Emily left the stage, we went to the stage door, passes in hand. A few minutes later, I was meeting the Indigo Girls!

Amy and I talked about Boulder and her love of Mustard’s Last Stand. Emily was tired and clearly eager to get back on the bus, but she graciously said hello and posed for a photo.

October

A friend of Killian’s invited us to go camping with them for his birthday. Looking back, I’m realizing I spent quite a lot of time in the outdoors last year.

I saw Aurora Borealis for the first time, and I only had to travel to our deck. It was barely perceptible to the naked eye, but really vivid and obvious when looking through a camera.

We got to see the comet, which was utterly spectacular. I’m really glad the kids got to see it, too.

I accompanied Killian on a survival outing with scouts, where luxuries like tents weren’t allowed. I overprepared, because it sounded harder than it turned out to be, and because the May outing was so extreme.

November

I went to New Orleans for a high school friend's birthday, which felt a little like a reunion. This was my first time visiting New Orleans. I stayed in a cute hotel right on the St. Charles Streetcar Line, which was a nice way to get around. Dinner was at Commander’s Palace, which was pretty fancy and very good.

The US had an election, and it didn’t go well. I texted my friend Jessica:

Grim day, but let’s start a company.

I saw Aimee Mann and Jonathan Coulton (again) at Boulder Theater. They were great as always.

Tegan performed in the school play, and the girls both had a dance performance. It’s really fun to watch your kids on stage. The nervousness, the pride, the hard work paying off. And that moment when they see you in the audience? It’s great.

We saw Wicked at the cinema, which was really great. The girls have been singing the songs ever since. (To be fair, they were already singing the songs.)

We got a massive Christmas tree for Roost at my friend Dan’s property in Nederland. Roost has really high ceilings, and I’ve always wanted to have a huge Christmas tree. It really livened up the place.

December

We announced Studioworks and gave people a chance to sign up for lifetime discounts and other perks. The response has been amazing. As I write this, almost 1,000 people have signed up based purely on the promise of what we’re building. It’s the wind in our sails, and I’m so grateful to everyone who believes in us.

My mom visited. She arrived on a Friday, and I took some time off of work to spend some time with her. After lunch at Alpine Modern, we visited the Apple Store to demo the Vision Pro. I thought it would be something fun to do, and it was. I can’t imagine ever buying one or using one in public, but they’re really impressive.

The annual Roost holiday party was so much fun. The pandemic years were hard, but I can feel the community energy returning. I’m looking forward to pouring my heart into it again.

The night before Christmas, I received the strangest email. Someone in Colorado Springs had bought Tegan’s stolen bike. They were offering to meet up and return it to me. I was a little skeptical and glad to be meeting in a public place for safety, but it turned out to be legitimate. Her bike was pretty badly damaged (they destroyed a fender cutting the wheel lock off and marred the frame in a few places), but it was really nice to have it back.

Christmas break was great, as always. Lots of movies and family fun.

After Christmas, we went to Oakland. Well, we flew into San Jose, stayed in Alameda, and spent time in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. Christina’s sister Rose and her wife live in Alameda, and we stayed nearby and spent most of our time with them. Every day was packed with fun.

On Christmas Eve, which happens to also be Rose’s birthday, we went to a kid’s dance party at Jessica’s place in Berkely, which was a lot of fun. At the end of the night, we all sang happy birthday. Jessica even cut a piece of cake she happened to have and put a birthday candle on it.

That was 2024. I like that I mostly remember time spent with family and friends.

I’m really looking forward to 2025. I can’t wait to make the most of it.

Thankfully, everyone loved it.

But, we had a problem. Many subscribers didn’t realize we had sent it until they saw me mention it on social media. They never got it.

What happened?

It turns out that our newsletter was being flagged as spam. In the years since we sent the last issue, a lot has changed. Google, Yahoo, and others started requiring email authentication (SPF or DKIM) in 2022. Beginning February 2024 (tomorrow), they’ll also require DMARC for bulk senders. If you have a newsletter with more than 5,000 subscribers, that includes you.

Email authentication, like HTTPS, has evolved from being a nice-to-have to a standard expectation.

I’ll show you how to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

SPF

SPF was the first real attempt at email authentication. It uses a DNS TXT record to indicate which servers are allowed to send email from your domain.

It’s easy to implement, but you’ll need to know two things:

• How to create a TXT record for your domain
• Which servers you use to send email

The SPF record syntax is pretty straightforward, but there are a lot of options, so it can be overwhelming. Here’s the record I use for my personal email:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

For clarity, this is the value of a TXT record with a host of @. It’s what Google recommends if you only send email from Google.

When a server receives an email claiming to be from me, it can look up my SPF record to see that only Google is allowed to send email from my domain, and then verify whether the email was in fact sent by Google. (It does this by looking up the SPF record for _spf.google.com, which Google keeps updated.) If not, it’s flagged as spam.

At Faculty, we use Google for our regular email and Mailchimp for our newsletter. To allow both of these to send email from our domain, our SPF record is a little different. We need to include _spf.google.com to allow Google to send email on our behalf and servers.mcsv.net to let Mailchimp send email on our behalf. You can only have one SPF record, so to allow both, you need to include both like this:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:servers.mcsv.net ~all

I have a friend who uses Google for her personal email and MailerLite for her newsletter. Here’s her SPF record:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:_spf.mlsend.com ~all

If your situation is different, seek examples from your email service provider(s). Just remember that if you send personal email using one provider and a newsletter using a different provider, you might have to combine two examples into a single SPF record.

More information:

• SPF & DKIM records, a comic by Julia Evans
• The check_host() function and examples from RFC7208 if you want to learn more about how SPF records are checked
• The SPF Surveyor from Dmarcian

DKIM

DKIM lets you sign your outgoing emails using public-key cryptography. You publish the public key in DNS, so receivers can use it to verify the signature.

Google makes DKIM easy to implement but hard to find. Gmail settings are currently found here:

Admin → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail

From here, you should be able to authenticate email.

Google will generate a key pair and provide the TXT record you need to add to your DNS. This record contains the public key, and once Google confirms you’ve added it, it will use the corresponding private key to sign your outgoing email.

Once you set it up, it’s seamless.

Setting up DKIM with Mailchimp is a little different. Instead of publishing your own DKIM record, Mailchimp wants to do it for you. To give Mailchimp the ability to do this, you need to add a few CNAME records instead. Mailchimp uses selectors k1, k2, and k3, so you’ll need to have CNAME records for each of these. Here’s what we use for Faculty:

k1._domainkey.faculty.com → dkim.mcsv.net

k2._domainkey.faculty.com → dkim2.mcsv.net

k3._domainkey.faculty.com → dkim3.mcsv.net

If you use Mailchimp, just substitute faculty.com with your domain, and this should work for you, too.

MailerLite uses the same approach as Mailchimp, but you only need to publish one CNAME record:

litesrv._domainkey.example.com → litesrv._domainkey.mlsend.com

If you use MailerLite, just substitute example.com with your domain.

More information:

• DKIM Record Checker from Dmarcian
• DKIM Validator from Dmarcian

DMARC

DMARC uses a DNS TXT record to indicate whether email from your domain is protected by SPF and DKIM, what to do when a check fails, and how to report back. It’s required for anyone sending more than 5,000 emails per day, which includes a lot of newsletters.

Because reports are sent as individual emails, I decided to use a service. DMARC services can receive and consolidate all of the reports on your behalf, providing you with a user-friendly summary. It’s better than wading through thousands of emails or ignoring the reports altogether.

I’m currently using Dmarcian. It’s free for personal use, but if you have a newsletter, you might have to pay. My friend Jason recommends DMARC Digests from Postmark, which offers less detail but is less expensive.

Setting up DMARC with a service is easy, because the service will provide the record you need to add, complete with a unique email address where reports will be sent.

If you want to receive your own reports rather than use a service, you probably at least want to set up a separate email address that you can check independently. To set up a DMARC record for example.com and receive reports at dmarc@example.com, publish the following TXT record with a host of _dmarc:

v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@example.com;

Just substitute example.com with your domain.

More information:

• DMARC.org
• RFC 7489
• Dmarcian, the service I use
• DMARC Digests, another DMARC service

Testing

By far the most helpful tool I have found is AboutMy.email. This is a service that provides an email address for you to send email to, and it will give you every kind of insight you can imagine. If you have a newsletter, send a test email to this tool before sending to all of your subscribers, and you should be able to identify problems before they affect deliverability.

I can’t recommend it enough.

Summary

With email authentication set up correctly, your emails should reliably find their way to their recipients. With DMARC in particular, you’ll be able to quickly identify problems as they arise or reassure yourself that all is well.

If you like this post, perhaps you’d like to subscribe to my blog. And, if you like reading about design, technology, and assorted miscellany, I hope you’ll subscribe to the Faculty newsletter.

Thanks for reading.