Hello,
The past 6 months have been amazing.
After launching the Progressive Coder Substack, I have been able to connect with all the wonderful subscribers at a much deeper level.
Also, I have learnt a lot by experimenting with different types of content and seeing the response. Of course, it has also been a struggle to discover the voice and optimal cadence for the content that can provide the maximum value for all of you.
Based on my findings and what I’ve understood from surveys and responses, here’s the vision for Progressive Coder going forward:
The aim of Progressive Coder is to become your #1 learning resource for Cloud & Backend development
Why did I choose this particular direction?
I believe Cloud Infrastructure is going to become extremely important in the coming years. With the growing complexity in this area, Cloud engineers are poised to become the most valuable resources for any organization out there.
I also believe that just knowing about Cloud infrastructure is incomplete. The best utilization of these tools can be found in the field of Backend Development. After all, backend engineers run the world!
More and more organizations are looking to hire Cloud Backend developers that possess a holistic view of how systems work.
I also believe I can add the best value in this particular area.
So, how are we going to achieve these lofty goals?
By following a proper content plan. Here’s how we will go about it.
Free Tier
There will be 1 Free Weekly Post covering a useful and relevant concept in the Cloud Backend space.
Typically, I will be sending this post every Tuesday.
On a monthly level, this means 4 free posts packed with valuable content.
These posts could be technical concept explainers or opinion pieces.
Paid Tier
Paid Tier will consist of the below sections along with everything available in the Free Tier.
👉 Deep Dives
There will be 1 Bi-weekly Deep Dive.
Think of Deep Dives as mini-courses or in-depth discussions on an important topic within the Cloud & Backend space.
For example, check the Deep Dive on Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and AWS.
Overall, my goal is to publish 2 Deep Dives every month. Sneak peeks of these Deep Dives will be published to all members.
In the case of a hands-on topic, I will also be providing code repositories for reference and practice.
👉 Courses
There will be 2 full-fledged courses in the year.
In 2023 it will be NestJS (ongoing) and Kubernetes (upcoming).
The idea is to have one course on Backend Development and one on Cloud.
Courses will be published in the form of individual posts (1 or 2 every week). Usually, these will come closer to or on weekends so that you get the time to learn and practice.
I will be providing sample code repositories for reference and practice.
Occasional sneak peeks will be published to all members.
Common Questions
Here are a few common questions you might have.
1 - How much does the Paid subscription cost?
Around $6 per month (depending on the exchange rate).
Around $60 per year (if you go for a yearly subscription)
However, for the next 3 days, you can get both subscriptions at a 20% discount for the entire year.
So, don’t wait. Just click the link below to claim your discount offer today:
In my opinion, locking in the subscription at today’s yearly price will look like a steal in a few months when you will have a huge amount of content under the paid umbrella.
Also, it would be a great way to support Progressive Coder in the long run. In the end, my ability to keep creating valuable content for you directly depends on the success of the publication.
2 - What kind of topics will be covered in Deep Dives?
The aim of these Deep Dives is to provide real actionable knowledge on building applications that you can apply in your own projects.
Below is a list of a few Deep Dive topics that will be covered in 2023:
Building a secure application using Fastify: This deep-dive will cover Fastify from the basics and how you can build a JWT-secured application using Fastify and Postgres.
Scaling your application on AWS for millions of users: A study on how you can leverage AWS services to scale a web application for millions of users.
Implementing a distributed cache solution using Node.js, Redis and Memcached: This deep-dive will act as a step-by-step guide on building a distributed cache solution using Node.js, Redis and Memcached. Apart from the caching implementation, I will also be showing how you can deploy a distributed cache on AWS using infrastructure-as-code.
Templating in Node.js & Express - This deep-dive will cover the concept of templating in Node.js and Express applications with hands-on examples demonstrating the use of different templating engines such as Handlebars, Pug & EJS with best practices. I will also explain how to deploy these applications on the cloud.
Building a distributed logging system using Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana (ELK stack): This deep-dive will cover topics such as the theory of distributed logging, how to use the ELK stack to build a distributed logging system, how to program services to log to the system and how to deploy the logging infrastructure using IAC tools.
And many more…
Overall, Deep Dives will be a mix of theory and hands-on focused on the Cloud Backend space.
Also, you get to suggest topics and shape them as we progress further.
3 - Are there other courses in the pipeline?
In 2023, I’m planning to focus mainly on NestJS and Kubernetes courses so as to deliver the best possible quality.
However, depending on the success of the publication, I have a lot of amazing plans for more courses in the Cloud and Backend space and to make them more interactive.
Moreover, you can also suggest course topics and help shape the future of what I write.
4 - Any other plans for Progressive Coder?
As I mentioned, my aim is to make Progressive Coder the #1 learning resource for Cloud and Backend development.
Depending on the success of this first step, some of the future initiatives I’m planning are as follows:
Podcast on software engineering trends & interviews with other software engineers and engineering managers
Detailed case studies on how companies are managing their cloud and infra platforms and the real-world challenges
Full-fledged courses on cloud platforms and backend technologies with a special focus on cutting-edge developments
More Deep Dives
Ebooks on various tools and technologies as part of the Paid Subscription.
5 - How to Contact Me?
Apart from dropping comments in the comment section of this post, you can also connect with me via the below platforms:
👉 Email - coder.progressive@gmail.com
👉 Youtube
That was all for this post!
If you’ve found value in this newsletter, or just want to support the work, consider subscribing. It would mean a lot to me.
Also, do share with any friends or colleagues who might benefit from the content.
In case of any queries, please reach out to me and I will try my best to help you out.