Production access for AWS SES is approved. The waiting game is over.
The application itself is almost comically bureaucratic. AWS wants to know exactly how you intend to behave before they let you anywhere near a stranger's inbox:
- Use case description - I wrote a small novel about the newsletter.
- Sending frequency - daily and weekly.
- Recipient acquisition - strict opt-in on the website, no scraped lists, ever.
Until now I could only send to verified addresses, which basically meant emailing myself. The infrastructure was already built, hardened, and waiting. The only missing piece was the green light.
Now it is here. The pipes are open, the sender reputation starts clean, and the newsletter can finally reach real inboxes.
Want the full build? Read the AWS SES setup guide.