SSL Certs:
I got all my SSL certs from http://www.startssl.com/
They offer FREE SSL certs (just requires a simple email verification). Name-verified SSL certs cost $59 for 2 years, EV certs go for $199 for 2 years. I'm very happy with their service.
DNS:
Like you, I switched to Amazon Route 53. Now that it's available in the Web Management Console, it's a no-brainer, especially if you use other AWS services.
Registrar: I finally got my ass in motion and just bulk-moved all my domains to Namecheap. I wanted to do that for quite a while, and their SOPA support was the final nail in the coffin.
My only problem with Route 53 is the cost. Just about any web host offers their own DNS servers as a free service. I can fully manage zone records at SoftLayer or Linode with unlimited queries at no extra cost.
10 million monthly queries on 20 domains would cost me $15/month at Amazon.
It'd only be $5 per month at DNSMadeEasy, a company with a far longer record of reliable DNS service than Amazon.
The advantage with Route 53 is really when you are already using AWS stuff. At that point sure it costs a bit more (but still less than the amount of change that I lose in my sofa in the same period of time), but it's the same place as everything else. Same bill and stuff.
Exactly. Using just AWS Route 53 'standalone' probably doesn't make much sense, but when used in combination with EC2 and their Elastic Load Balancer it starts to make a lot of sense. And the fact that you can use their APIs to make programmatic changes (say quickly change a A or CNAME record to point elsewhere) is fantastic.
DNS: Like you, I switched to Amazon Route 53. Now that it's available in the Web Management Console, it's a no-brainer, especially if you use other AWS services.
Registrar: I finally got my ass in motion and just bulk-moved all my domains to Namecheap. I wanted to do that for quite a while, and their SOPA support was the final nail in the coffin.