I have to respectfully disagree with your point re: Mailchimp. They are a company that makes it easier to make email newsletters. Nothing knock your socks off amazing there. But that chimp and the subsequent marketing around it has played a major role in customer loyalty. They recently hit 1M customers and, to celebrate, they gave away plushies, hats, and t-shirts all with the mailchimp theme. And they gave them away quickly. Really says something about customer love and loyalty imo.

http://blog.mailchimp.com/one-meeeellion-users/

Also, they do give you the "non-cheeky" option, so there's that.

Completely agree re: Feedburner. :)