Lead magnet ideas for software developers
A developer’s lead magnet should save another developer a bad afternoon or help a non-technical buyer make a decision: an upgrade runbook, a code review checklist, a founder’s guide to hiring a freelancer. Here are ten briefs that open in Chapbook as starting points. Chapbook doesn’t run code, so test every example yourself before anyone copies it.
A brief to start from
A runbook for upgrading a production Postgres database to a new major version with little downtime: checking extensions, logical replication versus pg_upgrade, testing on a copy, the cutover, and rolling back, with commands from the notes I supply and no invented timings. Reader: a backend developer at a small company who is also the accidental DBA. Voice: terse and precise, a checklist with a one-line reason per step. I will test every command.
Start from this brief10 ideas, each a brief to start from
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The upgrade runbook
A major version upgrade is a high-stakes job, done rarely and searched for carefully. A clear runbook shows your judgment to the very people who might hire you, or buy your tool, to help.
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What to know before you hire a developer
A founder hiring their first freelancer can’t judge the work and knows it. A fair guide meets them where they are stuck, and it filters out the clients who only want the cheapest quote.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: What to know before you hire a developer
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A code review checklist for your team
Teams argue about reviews because nobody wrote down what they’re for. A short, opinionated checklist gets passed around a team, and carries your name into a group you’d never reach otherwise.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: A code review checklist for your team
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A thirty-day on-call workbook
Being put on call for the first time is frightening, and preparation is often thin. A workbook that builds it up gives engineering leads something to hand to new hires, with your name on it.
Workbook Start from this brief: A thirty-day on-call workbook
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How HTTPS works, in pictures
Plenty of working developers have only a rough idea what happens in a TLS handshake. An illustrated guide to one such topic gets shared widely, and shows you can explain hard things simply.
Illustrated guide Start from this brief: How HTTPS works, in pictures
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Git recoveries, in one repeating shape
Everyone has broken a branch and searched in a panic. A reference in one repeating shape is what developers keep open in a tab, and it’s easy to pass on to the new person on the team.
Collection Start from this brief: Git recoveries, in one repeating shape
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A booklet on your freelance practice
Your clients often have to explain you to someone holding the budget. A short booklet on how you work and what you’ve specialized in does that better than a link to your GitHub profile.
Brochure Start from this brief: A booklet on your freelance practice
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A quarterly changelog for your users
A changelog page is easy to ignore. A designed issue that explains what changed and why gives your users a reason to read it and stay subscribed, and gives prospects a view of how you build.
Newsletter Start from this brief: A quarterly changelog for your users
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A pattern guide for your tool’s problem
A tool’s buyers often need the concept before the product. A vendor-neutral guide to the problem you solve teaches them the job, and it’s something a reader can share with their team.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: A pattern guide for your tool’s problem
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The book on running a small software business
Developers thinking of going out alone look for honest accounts. A book that covers the unglamorous parts gives you authority far beyond one framework, and it stays useful through stack changes.
Nonfiction book Start from this brief: The book on running a small software business
How to choose one
Decide who is meant to read it. If you freelance, your buyer may not be technical, so write the hiring guide or the booklet on how you work. If you make a developer tool, your reader is a developer who distrusts marketing, so write something useful with your product barely mentioned. If you want a following, explain one hard thing well.
Be specific about versions and stacks. A runbook for one database’s upgrade path is more use than “database best practices,” and you can test it. Chapbook doesn’t run anything, and a draft can invent a flag that doesn’t exist, so run every command and code sample, note the version you tested it against, and keep customer data, credentials and private code out of your sources.
Every brief here opens in Chapbook
Each idea comes with the paragraph Chapbook needs to start: the topic, the reader and the voice. The brief at the top of this page is a starting point, not a book we have already made from it. Open it, change Postgres to the system you know best, and add your own notes and commands as sources. Chapbook then proposes titles and an outline for you to approve before anything is drafted.
Questions people ask
Can Chapbook write about code?
It can draft explanations and short code examples, and Markdown code blocks carry through to the book. It doesn’t run or test anything, so a draft can include a command that fails or does damage. Test every example yourself before you publish.
What makes a good lead magnet for developers?
A specific problem and a working fix. Developers quickly spot a guide that’s selling something, so a runbook, checklist or reference that helps without your product is more useful than a feature tour.
Can I use my docs or blog posts as sources?
Yes. Add up to 10 sources, up to 5 of them web pages, and chapters can cite them inline. To keep your posts word for word, “I have a draft” reads up to 20 links into chapters for free. Keep secrets, customer data and private code out.
Read a chapter of your own book before you pay for it.
The outline, one sample chapter up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free: 60 Book Credits on sign-up, no card.