servicies like aweber only good for small lists. For bigger lists it is reasonable to use your own server and software. This will reduce the cost of your campaigns dramatically.
Email marketing is all about having a list. Without a list, you have nobody to send emails to. There are many ways to build a list but they basically all entail: 1. Having a squeeze page 2. Having a FREE offer to promote on your squeeze page to encourage people to opt in and give you their email address. 3. Once they opt-in, preferably have a oto (not too expensive) to get some return on your work. 4. Have an email series that varies between providing free, valuable content and paid offers. 5. Build trust with your list so they get value from you and open your emails. It is often quoted in IM forums, that with a good, responsive list, each person is worth about $1 per month to you. Best wishes. Martin Oz!
Aweber can send help you manage and send out newsletters to up 25,000 subscribers. Although that number is huge and hard to think of if you're starting, it costs you less headache to have a service like Aweber manage this for you. All you'll need to worry about is uploading your content to their servers. Mailchimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers. I think that's great value in there, especially if you are a newbie and have not much technical know-how.
I must admit that I have never used mailchimp.so cannot comment on how easy or useful it is. I use aweber and it does well for all my emails. Once I reach 25,000 I will reconsider.