11 Oct 2025 #writing
If you’re afraid of selling, you won’t get a dime.
But to sell with your content, you don’t have to resort to banners, invasive popups, and countdown timers to trick people into buying.
From Mark Thompson, a veteran marketer I followed on Medium, I learned the Article Funnel method to turn every post into a sales funnel.
Here are my takeaways from his method and from following him:
#1. Promote something in every post. That’s what Mark does in every post. At the end of his posts, there’s a CTA to a related offer.
I stopped being afraid of promoting anything in every post when I learned that’s the method famous creators use to make millions online.
#2. Give away something valuable in the post. It’s so annoying when you open a post titled “10 ways/tips/lessons to…” and when you open it, you only find one or two items and you have to buy something to access the rest. That’s how you lose readers.
Don’t be afraid of giving something. That makes you the source of answers. And we always go back to the one who helps us.
#3. Use a natural transition to introduce your offer. I used to put a divider at the end of my post before adding my CTAs. They felt like an appendix, most people ignored.
Instead, the Article Funnel suggests to naturally introduce your offer with a transition paragraph, without sounding salesy or desperate. Something as simple as “if this resonates with you, you’re going to like…where I …”
No tactics or tricks, just helpful content that points to a related offer. That makes your content into a sales representative working 24/7. And that’s the method I’m using from now on to promote my own products.
10 Oct 2025 #mondaylinks
Hey!
Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. A couple of years ago, I challenged myself to learn React. And being a backend developer, I missed the simplicity of the old days: Just some logic inside the script tag to bind forms. It turns out adopting functional principles shaped and twisted the frontend ecosystem (20min). It has made us reinvent the wheel. Again.
#2. LLMs replacing human devs? Well, here are two tasks LLMs are still bad at (2min). Maybe they’re more like “weird, overconfident interns.”
#3. It’s never 5 minutes… when you snooze your alarm, when your manager asks you a quick favor, or when you think you can stretch hours of work right before clocking out. Here’s a productivity tip (4min) to avoid that “5 minutes” turning into working extra hours.
#4. For nostalgia or history, here’s how the Internet looked in 2000 (8min).
And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about how to keep creating when it feels pointless (1min).
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by…
I’m currently putting the final polish on my book, Street-Smart Coding: 30 Ways to Get Better at Coding.” While I finish up, you can preorder your digital copy and read a preview featuring 5 of the 30 tips, just to get you started.
See you next time,
Cesar
Want to receive an email with curated links like these? Get 4 more delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Don’t miss out on next week’s links. Subscribe to my Friday Links here.
09 Oct 2025 #writing
I stole the process of working with beta readers. Borrow it, let’s say.
I’ve been a technical editor for Manning, a publishing company that specializes in coding books. And after going through the process twice, I copy their process to work with beta readers for my next coding book.
Here’s what I did.
#1. Have something decent to share. Beta readers are the first eyeballs that read your draft. You don’t need a polished or finished book, just a decent draft someone can read. It’s OK if there are typos here and there. The goal isn’t to line edit it, but to refine the overall book structure and content.
#2. Create a list of 10 people that can help. I’m a fan of 10-idea lists, so that was an excuse to write another one.
I asked LinkedIn connections and friends for help. I used Google Docs to share the draft. Manning has a custom platform for that. I did it the DIY way.
I shared half of my draft (15 of the 30 chapters I had planned) with half of my beta readers, and the other half to the rest. I didn’t want to overwhelm them with too many pages. They’re busy and helping for free.
#3. Offer something in return. This is a strategy I copied from Manning. I offered a free digital copy, a mention in the Acknowledgments section, and a shout-out in a LinkedIn post on launching day. Well, Manning doesn’t offer a shout out. I did.
#4. Ask for specific feedback. I asked them not to focus too much on typos or grammar issues.
Here’s a list of questions I asked my beta readers to answer after their review.
- What did you like the most? What did you like the least?
- Any repetitive parts? Boring parts? Confusing parts?
- Any factual errors?
- Does the content deliver on the book promise?
- What can I do better? What should I include or remove?
I put those questions on page one of the Google Doc.
#5. Share a deadline. I forgot to tell my beta readers my launch date. Some of them gave feedback after a couple of days. Others never shared anything. I guess they were busy and I didn’t set a deadline. My bad!
And here’s the best piece of advice I’ve found: Listen to what beta readers say is wrong, but don’t rely on them for how to fix it. That’s your job as the writer.
08 Oct 2025 #writing
The first days of writing or creating anything online are the hardest.
Nothing seems to work. Nobody seems to care. You feel like what you’re doing is pointless.
I know that feeling. Just a couple of my coworkers read my first blog posts. And when I started on LinkedIn, two likes and one comment felt like going viral.
But to endure that phase of obscurity, Jeet Mehta shared three points. The second one really resonated,
“Your audience is just you, pushed outwards.”
You are your own audience. Create for your past self. Write a book for who you used to be. Write the tutorial or guide you wish you had found. Create to help one person. And that one could be your past self.
07 Oct 2025 #writing
You don’t need a publisher and 100,000 words to write a book that matters.
Chris Stanley was the one who finally debunked my ideas about writing books. He’s the author of 20 Amazon best-sellers. He lives off his books, traveling around the U.S. in a boat. He’s the “Mini Book” guy and now he teaches how to write them.
Today I attended a workshop with Chris, where he showed a glimpse of his method. Here are 10 lessons I learned:
#1. Don’t think of funnels, think of a flywheel. Think of an ecosystem of content, with mini-books at its core, that changes people’s beliefs and turns them into fans.
#2. Forget about writing the next New York Times best seller. When Chris started publishing his books, he noticed his shorter books did better. It’s not a coincidence. 75% of people don’t finish the books they buy.
The solution? Write mini-books. Just the good parts of a traditional book.
#3. A mini-book offers one solution to one problem for one person. Your solution should be something you’ve tried and proven yourself. The more specific your person, the better.
#4. A mini-book should be SMART:
- Structured: It should be well structured and easy to follow.
- Mini: A word count isn’t the goal, but a mini-book usually has between 10-15K words. Write a book readers can finish in one or two hours.
- Actionable: It should offer a solution your readers can apply immediately.
- Repeatable: It should present a message easy to remember and share.
- Transformational: It shouldn’t only teach something, but should change beliefs.
For example, Chris’ Mini Book Model has only 129 pages and he breaks down his model so you can write a book in days, not months.
#5. There are only 3 people to write a book for:
- Who you were: That’s your past self. Maybe that’s a first-time business owner or a junior coder.
- Who you are: That’s your current self, your identity, and what you do now.
- Who you love: That’s someone you care about and want to help. Chris once wrote a book for his wife. And we could write a book for our future generations.
#6. Write a clever title and a clear subtitle. Once you have a problem and solution, your title should create a hook and your subtitle should create a promise. For example, Mini Book Model: How to Write Your Big Ideas in Small Books
#7. There are three ways to outline a book:
- W’s: That’s the what, when, where, why, and how. Write a chapter to answer each question. For a book about mini-books, the first chapter could be what a mini-book is. The next chapter, why write a mini-book.
- Step by step: Write one step of your solution per chapter.
- Problem/solution: Each chapter presents a problem and offers a solution.
Again, in Mini Book Model, Chris used the W’s technique to present his mini-book concept.
#8. Make your solution memorable. If you’re using the step-by-step outline technique, use an acronym or a visual metaphor to guide your readers and help them remember your solution.
#9. As a bonus, use chapters of your next book as preview. It makes your book thick enough to display your name and title on the spine.
#10. Not only write books, but create a whole identity and brand around them. After 20 books or more, Chris is the “Mini Book” guy. His emails, tagline, and even book titles use the same concept. Mini-books everywhere. That’s how he stands out.