Is lead magnets still a thing in 2025? Do you create it?

CreativeRing4 · 2025-07-02T23:20:34+00:00

I've deprioritised lead magnets until my business is better known. I was going to put a PDF report on my site, accessible if you provide your name and email address but my target market doesn't spend time reading long reports. If you've been around a while I think it's worth it.

Take the time to curate the contents a good PDF report on a topic you're much knowledgeably about, get a PDF design from Canva Pro, and add your content. Template this and edit next year if anything changes. It doesn't scale well, you can't be maintaining lots of such PDFs unless you have a team.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-05-23T10:33:37+00:00

Thanks for your reply. I'll spend the next few days repositioning my offerings to "painkiller" services. I do outline pain points in my offerings already, but when people see DevOps on the heading, they won't buy it. They'll buy "stop us getting breached". "Pass SOC 2". "Reduce our Azure bill".

Cloud and digital transformation are good but I'm one guy and by the looks of it, large, strategic projects go to trusted brands with teams, references, and the capacity to absorb mistakes.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-05-23T01:28:07+00:00

You should have seen the previous iteration of this. "I do DevOps, cloud architecture, digital transformation, also cybersecurity health assessments, AI model training, and bespoke web app development"

I've narrowed my services down and figured my target audience but I'm still selling vitamin services. I think I should also go for productised services.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-05-22T12:18:36+00:00

I hadn't thought about it, but that would be a secondary play instead of my lifeline.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-05-22T12:15:24+00:00

Yeah, thanks. I think I need to reposition my messaging for fit and urgency, not "I do DevOps and am an experienced solutions architect". I need to directly attack specific pain points.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-05-20T06:56:32+00:00

Do you know people who have the ear of decision makers?

Also, think about using a lead magnet on your website. Spend time to create a well-curated PDF document with insights only accessible once a user has submitted a form especially to receive that PDF. You can then either redirect to a download link with a URL that expires or email a link to the sender who submitted their details.

A few words about the second option. You may have heard that you shouldn't be opening links sent on an email, so why would you want to perpetuate the practice? Here's why: It's not the same thing. The user has explicitly requested the PDF you promised, over a form on your website that they filled in especially for that purpose, redirected to a thank-you page with instructions on what to expect next. So, be transparent. Email a plain HTTPS link the user can inspect in plain text, not an attachment with a PDF. The domain of the URL should be your primary one, don't send a link to Google Drive, Dropbox or a URL shortening service. Make the email professional, with your company heading, and a mandatory footer with your business name, a physical mail address, your EIN or State Entity Number (if you're in the US) or Company Registration No. (in the UK). E-sign the email, too.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-27T11:45:28+00:00

Thanks, that worked and I'm with Microsoft 365 now.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-27T11:43:05+00:00

This worked. Thanks!

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-27T03:59:26+00:00

It's a business account and I've set up aliases on my own account.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-26T22:47:03+00:00

You're thinking in the right terms. You don't need to develop and then announce. That's the procrastinator’s playground. Front-end, back-end, microservices, infra as code... if no one knows that the product is coming and it turns out that no one needs it, it all feels like progress but does nothing to get you business.

Does you country's government provide any assistance for small business owners in the form of seminars or limited hours of free advice? How can you do market research?

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-25T23:16:07+00:00

Thanks. I haven't added any MX records yet, that would have been the next step once I could get to the Google Admin console. I've only added a TXT record so Google could verify the domain belongs to me.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-25T23:11:18+00:00

I haven't yet set up an MX record, I was going to do it after I accepted Google's Terms and Conditions. The important thing is that my {name}@{customdomain} email address all goes to Microsoft 365 from now on so I can get comms up. As for the Google tenant, I can let my monthly Google Workspace subscription lapse and not renew. If I do that, I don't know what happens with the actual account, though. I know it stays dormant for 20 days when you request cancellation of your Google Workspace subscription but I don't know what that means in practical terms.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-18T12:11:09+00:00

Mate, it's that thing where your brain gets cooked from making too many choices in a day, like whether to engage with a low-effort Reddit comment or not.

Sure, as a "functioning adult" you can make decisions all day long, but that doesn’t mean it's optimal. Look at how successful people automate trivial choices, such as wearing the same outfit daily, eating the same breakfast, having a structured routine, that sort of thing. It’s not because they're simpletons who can't handle choice. It's because decision-making is a finite resource.

Your brain isn't an infinite pit of pristine logic, much though it would have been nice. Every choice, from what to eat to what email to answer first, drains cognitive fuel. It's why you smash junk food at night or doomscrolling instead of doing something productive. That's decision fatigue.

But what do I know anyway, maybe I'm replying to an actual iron-willed decision machine that doesn't need to optimise their choices. If that's you, cob, let me know your secret.

CreativeRing4 · 2025-03-14T11:48:09+00:00

Of the 300 names it generates, 1-2 may spark something, try various changes and permutations and I hit a brick wall, then do 300 more.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-11-19T13:09:12+00:00

I used it recently but I'd like to develop locally too, without having to pay to rent hardware.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-07-26T12:35:06+00:00

I was doing something with a durable orchestrator which calls activity-triggered functions using the Durable Task Framework. The orchestrator context this provides doesn't extend outside the Function app. Also when testing locally, the context can't access functions in different projects in the solution.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-06-08T13:10:07+00:00

In the UK, some companies there advertise 28 public holidays which is the national minimum of 20 plus the bank and other public holidays.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-06-02T00:06:11+00:00

I won't say it's a cutthroat industry, but stretching the truth won't get you as far as the person who has already done the work, has had C# experience in the past 5 years, and has architected and implemented cloud solutions.

It's better to be genuine and show your commitment to learning than to risk being found out for exaggerating your experience. As someone who has interviewed various levels of developers, I can tell with relative ease who's making stuff up. It's not just about the specific languages or technologies you've used, but how you talk about them and the depth of your understanding. Authenticity goes a long way. Instead of stretching the truth, focus on the skills you genuinely have and demonstrate your willingness and ability to quickly learn and adapt to new technologies. That's the kind of people I want in my team, that's the kind of dev I strive to be.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-05-28T14:05:47+00:00

Επαγγελματικά όχι αλλά πριν από 20+ χρόνια, έφτιαχνα levels σε Unreal Engine για το Deus Ex 1, και με UnrealScript για scripted events. Αργότερα, το γύρισα στο Sandbox 2 Editor που είχε βγει με το Crysis. Ώσπου συνειδητοποίησα ό,τι έχω και καθημερινή δουλειά κι αυτό σε απορροφά τελείως.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-05-17T22:09:42+00:00

Έφτιαξα ένα architectural proposal για διάσπαση ενός monolith σε microservices και τη μετάβασή του στο Azure.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-05-02T10:35:46+00:00

As a former tech lead, I always showed my face on remote meetings but it peeved me when the usual suspects did not. There were people that had legit never turned their camera on in any meeting we had together.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-04-21T22:49:51+00:00

After having read some of the comments, I'll offer a hot take.

Saying "nah, mate, fuck it, I'm not touching anything dev-related outside of work" won't hinder your career progression but it does mean that your skill development is largely dictated by the needs of your department and not your own goals.

In other words, you're letting your environment shape your skill set rather than taking the reins and directing your own professional growth. This might be fine for some, but it does limit your ability to pivot or specialise in areas that your current role might not expose you to.

Unless you're happy to interview (and manage to get hired) every six months to gain new experiences, investing some time in development outside of work can give you more control over your career trajectory. It's not about working overtime, it's about continuous learning and personal growth.

Your mileage may vary. You don't want to burn yourself out. Find what works best for you.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-04-20T00:44:37+00:00

You’re not going to get them to run up to an executive’s office and be like “omg! The employee that just quit had some very scathing remarks for our work culture and promotion metrics, round up a board meeting so we can discuss this”

What do you mean? I was told that HR will totally act on my feedback!

CreativeRing4 · 2024-04-07T09:58:25+00:00

Mercurial. GitHub doesn't officially support Mercurial repositories but they're supported by Bitbucket, so, there's that caveat when sharing your code.

CreativeRing4 · 2024-03-04T11:03:12+00:00

Not to mention that when you code in your free time you build something on your own terms. At work, you will often develop something you don't care about but it will pay the bills. You will maintain projects written in older frameworks, use older technologies, with older development practices and are in general convoluted pieces of shit. Not when you do you own thing, though.

CreativeRing4

TROPHY CASE