peterc-devxcon-talk-notes.txt

notes.txt

INTRO
- royal wedding, michael curry
- move fast, take notes
- i am..
- send newsletters 410k
- spammer?
- 2 letters (un)solicited vs solicited
- things in common to get emails delivered
- ton of data of what devs engage with
- experience of what doesn't matter

WHAT WORKS
best practices
- standard stuff, gdpr, quick unsub
- double opt in
- ensure they wanted to get the specific thing
- good "from" field, no excuse seen as spam
- address validation
- increaingly ip reputation of signups
-- mailchimp, etc, will deal with this for you
- mobile friendly
-- %age is lower in devs but still significant
deliverability
- basics, use good provider, warm up, etc.
- SPF, domain keys, DMARC.. avoid joe jobbing
- it's possible to get out of promo folder
-- set up a raw gmail account for testing
-- unsub->leave
-- remove links 1 by 1
-- numbers and biz names in subject bad
-- bit.ly/weird shorteners
-- too much HTML code
-- domains that are too new, weird TLDs
-- URIBL
-- words used.. scoring, FREE!$50!!
-- 0x domains, emojis..
what content clicks
- remember i said we had data
- 7 types of content really stand out
-- roundups/best practices
--- google's 12 best practices for user account authentication
--- heroku's habits of a happy node hacker 2017.. 2018..
--- numerous js style guides, etc.
-- new features
--- new features in ruby 2.5, 21% CTR
-- releases
--- postgres 10, mongodb 4 beta
-- versus comparisons
--- sitepen.. web frameworks conclusions (14000 clicks)
---- also a roundup AND an opinion!
-- opinion
--- you need sre skills to thrive in a serverless world
--- what is async/await and why should you care
--- the hidden costs of serverless
-- guides
--- google's guide to building your next serverless app
--- modern javascript cheatsheet - 11342 clicks
--- 4 postgres tips (also a roundup)
-- survey results
- quick things that make content more popular
-- 'with diagrams'
-- 'and why'
-- 'with examples'
-- people want comparisons drawn and concepts related and explained
- you don't need to be buzzfeed, but sell in the titles
follow kathy sierra's "Badass" on how to make your readers be more awesome
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
- subject lines, marginal
- date/time, consistency good tho
- worrying about haters
-- 1% psychopathic, 5% sociopathic, you'll encounter them
-- drunk emailers