I have been slowly learning how to run a linux VPS for a while now. Since I build websites I'm confident with running and securing a web server like nginx... or at least there haven't been any casualties yet.

However, email scares me.

Almost all websites require email to communicate with users. Most of the time email is only needed on my sites during registration as a means of verification. I hardly ever need to accept incoming mail back. Nevertheless, my lack off understanding of how email servers can be abused is worrying me.

Not only do you need to secure email servers - you also have to prove to the world that your emails are legit and constantly fight against being blacklisted. Insuring my emails 'good name' is not something I want to devote my life too.

What should someone like me do to send emails from my VPS? Should I look for a company to send email through that can worry about this for me? Should I just use google apps until my sites are large enough to worry about? Or is all this just ignorant fear and running your own email server (that actually works) really is easy?