How/Where do you actually market/sell your plugins?

[d.healey]

@ustk said in How/Where do you actually market/sell your plugins?:

I think about here: AWS Support > Your support cases

Mine's empty, maybe it was too long ago

[DanH]

@d-healey i searched my emails for ses amazon and scanned through the year I thought I signed up. got lucky...

[ustk]

Oh and also it is not advised to talk about marketing anymore, despite of course it represent the vast majority of any company's emails... The focus should be on transactional emails... Being hypocrite seems appropriate sometimes

[ustk]

WTF???

Second attempt to get out of the Sandbox mode in SES has been rejected and they don't give any reasons. Everything has been configured and all tests are working. 3 full days I'm on it to make everything compliant and here's the response, which is now definitive...

Hello,

This case was escalated for a secondary review. We appreciate your patience while we have reviewed your case.

I have thoroughly reviewed your account and the information you have provided so far. Although we appreciate your efforts to use Amazon SES, I am afraid we have come to the final conclusion that we are still unable to grant your request. We made this decision because we believe that your use case would impact the deliverability of our service. Unfortunately, for security purposes we cannot provide specific details that led to this decision.
We understand that you may not agree with the outcome, but we will not be able to assist you and there will be no further response to additional messages on this subject.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

We value your feedback. Please share your experience by rating this and other correspondences in the AWS Support Center. You can rate a correspondence by selecting the stars in the top right corner of the correspondence.

And here's my second attempt (plus screenshots of my system)

Dear AWS Support Team,

Thank you for your message regarding my previous application. I sincerely apologize for any shortcomings and appreciate the opportunity to clarify our use case further.

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to kindly request production access for Amazon SES to support our platform’s transactional email needs.

Use Case & Justification

We operate XXXX, an e-commerce platform that relies on Amazon SES for time-sensitive, user-triggered communications, including:

• Account verification emails (double opt-in)
• Password reset links
• Order/payment confirmations
• Critical system notifications (e.g., security alerts)

Our emails are transactional and we strictly adhere to AWS’s best practices and anti-spam regulations (CAN-SPAM/GDPR).
We deeply respect our customers’ trust and never spam. Our reputation is our most valuable asset.

Technical Preparedness

To ensure deliverability and compliance, we’ve implemented:

• Full email authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configured and verified for our domain (xxxxxx.com).
• Unsubscribe mechanisms: Included in all applicable emails (where required by law).
• Double opt-in: For user registrations to prevent unsolicited emails.

Volume & Scaling

• Current estimated volume: ~1,500 emails/day (will scale with user growth).
• Sending reputation: We monitor bounce/complaint rates via Amazon SNS and keep them below 2% and 0.1% respectively.

Sample Email for Reference (screenshot attached)

---

Subject:
XXXXXX : Please Confirm Subscription

Body:
Click the button below to confirm subscription:

[Yes, subscribe me to the mailing list]#activate_link#

If you received this email by mistake, simply delete it. You won't be subscribed if you don't click the confirmation link above.

For questions about this list, please contact:
newsletter@xxxxxx.com

---

We deeply respect AWS’s policies and the trust placed in SES users. If further details or adjustments are needed, we’re happy to provide them. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Warm regards,

Now I feel just stuck and desperate and will just rant on whoever mf* decided this...

[d.healey]

@ustk ah that's bad, I hate these faceless companies. Maybe there's an alternative to ses.

[Lindon]

@ustk said in How/Where do you actually market/sell your plugins?:

Volume & Scaling
Current estimated volume: ~1,500 emails/day (will scale with user growth).

Here might be your problem:

Volume & Scaling
Current estimated volume: ~1,500 emails/day (will scale with user growth).

What transaction web site doing these:

Account verification emails (double opt-in)
Password reset links
Order/payment confirmations
Critical system notifications (e.g., security alerts)

needs this many per day straight out of the gate? You have clearly found some magic formula for subscription and sales...

[Orvillain]

Marketing and selling plugins is one of the big challenges today; much more so than 18 years ago when I first got into the industry. I remember the early days of fxpansion, where we'd have 1000's of boxes in the office of BFD2 and various boxed expansion packs. I was the fresh faced 22 year old posting out boxed copies of "B.O.M.B" using Royal Mail - probably should've re-thought that product title!!!

These days, the various digital platforms that all eat massively into your revenue. I don't really know how anyone new is really making a success of selling plugins right now. Innovation is not really being rewarded because of this reseller system - imo.

[ustk]

@Lindon said in How/Where do you actually market/sell your plugins?:

@ustk said in How/Where do you actually market/sell your plugins?:

Volume & Scaling
Current estimated volume: ~1,500 emails/day (will scale with user growth).

Here might be your problem:

Volume & Scaling
Current estimated volume: ~1,500 emails/day (will scale with user growth).

What transaction web site doing these:

Account verification emails (double opt-in)
Password reset links
Order/payment confirmations
Critical system notifications (e.g., security alerts)

needs this many per day straight out of the gate? You have clearly found some magic formula for subscription and sales...

I'm not selling for a long time, but the website and some communications are running for several years. So over the time I gathered 1500+ subscribers even if the real sell is just starting. So 1500/day is what I need, even if only once per month.

Of course, I don't need SES for the transactional emails, but since it has been advised online (by professionals) not to talk about marketing, transactional emails are the only thing I can speak about technically. And they are affirmative, they want technical explanation and I gave them everything I have, with several screenshots of the configurations.

I have pushed to a support yesterday, and the guy seemed to understand the situation and pushed it further for a new assessment. In the waiting I provided even more stuff, screen copy of the CRM, DNS config, hook links, verified badges, and also tested their bounce and complaint simulator so they see it works...

I am ready to receive any advice but they are staying silent, their "security politics" is to not give any clue on what you are doing bad... no assistance...

At this point I am not confident it'll change anything. So I'll probably hire someone on Fiverr specialised with SES and moving out of sandbox + email limit.

I haven't yet found another cheap system that is not relying on SES, except maybe SendGrid at 20$/m

[d.healey]

@ustk said in How/Where do you actually market/sell your plugins?:

So 1500/day

You need 1500/30 if it's just one day per month, no?

[ustk]

@d-healey Hmmm… good point…

But since the original limit they give is 200/day, I’m pretty sure it’s not a monthly average and you trigger the security with the first newsletter

[virtuscapeaudio]

@JulesV AND they don't get you the customer's email which is why I stopped working with them. Joe at Audio Plugin Deals on the other hand is great to work with and I've had some good results as a brand new developer.

[JulesV]

@virtuscapeaudio said in How/Where do you actually market/sell your plugins?:

@JulesV AND they don't get you the customer's email which is why I stopped working with them.

Therefore, when working with resellers, there must be a proper licensing system. In other words, the customer who buys from them must register on your site.

If the plugin is using simple copy protection (offline serial number method), good luck, it will be difficult to get back the customers you sell to later.

[d.healey]

@JulesV Yes this.

Before I used a serial key system I would provide the reseller with coupon codes that provided 100% discount that they sell to their customers, and the customer redeems it on my site.