I get 2 types of emails from Amazon Web Services. The first is when they send me an email that they are lowering their prices. I've gotten a bunch of these. Let me ask, how many times have you received notification from other companies that you do business with that are telling you that they are lowing their prices?

The next type of email that I get is for new service offerings. Often, for things I may not need. Today, however, I got an email for a new service that I really need. The Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES).

I have been researching different email providers. My site has recently outgrown the ability to use SMTP, and I wanted better tracking. I checked into several providers. They were either tailored for small business willing to put up with clunky interfaces, or big business sending millions of emails.

The best of these requires a $3000 monthly minimum spend.

Basically, I had come to the conclusion that there was no good solution for that medium sized business.

The Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is going to let me send up to 2000 emails a day for free. And when I do a monthly email blast, I'll pay pennies. This service will save me over $2800 per month over the next closest enterprise class system.

Thanks Amazon. And you other guys, look out!