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🍐 #28: Monetizing open-source, dev t-shirt idea, and an awesome Linkedin post format

Author

Jakub Czakon
July 15, 2023

Hey,

Did you know that pearwood 🍐 can be used to produce musical instruments? Recorders and flutes seem to be the most common.

This week on the agenda:

  • Learnings on open-source monetization from Kelsey Hightower

  • Classic copy idea for developer t-shirts

  • Linkedin post format from 87k followers dev influencer

  • + a few bonus links at the end

Let’s go!

Developer marketing insights

1. Learnings on open-source monetization from Kelsey Hightower

Kelsey Hightower is the devrel legend. And in this video, he shared his learnings on monetizing open-source projects (among other stuff).

Here is what I got from it.

Packaging tips:

  • Putting GUI and login box (via open directory) is not a packaging strategy

  • What is a priceable pain: what features do people need AND are willing to pay for?

  • Put things that the community users find boring and Enterprise customers find valuable. That Cobol integration may just be the thing.

  • When looking, devs need a solution right now. Talk to sales is the only CTA >and they are out.

  • Puttin plugins ecosystem in the Enterprise is bad. nginx did it and people hated it. You want people to extend and make your platform more useful.

  • Monetizing based on professional services is great but small. Nothing wrong with building a small high-margin business. It is just really hard to scale and doesn’t really work in VC-backed companies.

2. "Did X and all I got is this lousy t-shirt"

This is a solid swag copy template that resonates with devs.

"I did X and all I got was this lousy Y"

Why this works imho is:

  • it is snarky

  • it is a little self-deprecating

  • it brags a bit about the work/expertise

Very solid start if you run out of ideas.

3. Code + Viz Linkedin post format

A great example of a dev-focused Linkedin post format from Khuyen Tran (87k followers on Linkedin).

What I like about this:

  • It stands out in the feed with a pink background

  • It is helpful and visual. Shows the code and result of the code in one view.

  • I know right away what the post is about and why I should "... see more"

  • It is a format that can be reused for many scenarios

Just great job!

How can I make this better?

I hope you learned something new. Did you, though?

What would you like to read more about?
Reply to this and let me know.

Talk to you next week,
Pears!

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3. Bonus links to check out

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