Verify your Cloudflare domain to improve your Buzzshot email deliverability

Does Cloudflare manage your domain's DNS?

Buzzshot sends emails to your players for you, such as your "Thanks for playing" emails. Verifying your domain tells other email servers that Buzzshot may send email for you, so fewer of those emails end up in spam.

If Buzzshot shows "uses Cloudflare for DNS" on your domain's page, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Find your records in Buzzshot

Log in to your Buzzshot Admin account. Go to Settings → Emails → Verify Sending Domains and click Setup next to your domain. You will see three records: DKIM (a TXT record), Return-Path (a CNAME record) and DMARC (a TXT record). Steps 2 and 3 cover the first two, and Step 4 covers DMARC. Click the copy button next to a value to copy it.

Step 2. Open your DNS records in Cloudflare

Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard, select your domain, then go to DNS → Records.

Add the DKIM record

  1. Click Add record.
  2. Set Type to TXT.
  3. In Name, paste the DKIM hostname from Buzzshot. You can leave off the end part that matches your domain; Cloudflare adds it for you.
  4. In Content, paste the DKIM text value from Buzzshot.
  5. Click Save.

Add the Return-Path record

  1. Click Add record.
  2. Set Type to CNAME.
  3. In Name, paste the Return-Path hostname from Buzzshot.
  4. In Target, enter pm.mtasv.net.
  5. Turn Proxy status off so the cloud icon is grey and reads DNS only.
  6. Click Save.

The Return-Path record will not verify while the proxy is on (orange cloud). Cloudflare turns the proxy on by default for new CNAME records, so check this before you save.

Step 3. Verify in Buzzshot

Go back to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. Once DKIM and Return-Path show a green tick, go on to Step 4. Status on the Verify Sending Domains page shows Missing DMARC until you have.

Step 4. Add a DMARC record

DMARC tells mail providers that email from your domain is genuine. Your domain needs a DMARC record: Microsoft requires one, so without it emails to Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and MSN addresses may not be delivered. Set up DMARC explains why. The DMARC row on your domain's page in Buzzshot shows what we found, with a button to copy the value you need.

First, check whether it is already there

A domain can have only one DMARC record, and a second one could make both stop working. Before you add anything, open your DNS records as you did in Step 2 and look through the list for a TXT record named _dmarc.

  • You find one: do not add another. Click Re-Verify in Buzzshot. If the DMARC row shows Verified, you are finished. If it shows Invalid, follow the warning on the page, or see Fix a record that does not work.
  • You do not find one: add it as shown below.

Add the DMARC record

  1. Click Add record.
  2. Set Type to TXT.
  3. In Name, enter _dmarc.
  4. In Content, enter v=DMARC1; p=none;
  5. Click Save.

Then go to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. The DMARC row now shows a green tick. On the Verify Sending Domains page, Status shows Verified and DMARC policy shows None with a green tick. None is the policy you just set, so you are done.

Troubleshooting

  • Cloudflare changes usually show up within a few minutes, but they can take up to 24 hours.
  • If Return-Path stays unverified, open the record in Cloudflare and check the proxy status reads DNS only.
  • If the DMARC row still shows Missing after you click Re-Verify, check that the record's type is TXT and its name is _dmarc, then try again later.
  • If it shows Invalid, the warning below it says what is wrong with the record.
  • If you still can't get things to verify, book a call with the Buzzshot team and we'll go through it with you.