5 Personal Developer Newsletters that Have Helped Me Grow as a Frontend Developer

14 February, 2021 (3 min read)

As a software developer, you have to build a consistent habit of learning to ensure that you always stay top of your game and keep abreast with the ever-evolving software development ecosystem.

One thing that has helped me maintain a learning habit are newsletters. Checking my mail is part of my early morning routine, so sometimes I get programming tips n’ tricks or insightful articles in my mail from the newsletters I subscribe to. I usually end up spending about ten to twenty minutes reading up and in the process, I learn something new.

I would say I am biased towards personal developer blogs/newsletters as opposed to company blogs/newsletters that feature guest writers. This is because these company blogs sometimes restrain guest writers from ‘adding their voice’ to articles. With personal blogs and newsletters, that 'unique voice' is always present. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from the author’s unique experiments and opinionated views on topics based on their personal experiences — which is sometimes very valuable.

In this article, I’ll like to share with you — in no particular order — five personal developer blogs and their newsletters that I have learned so much from.

1. Kent C.Dodds

If you have been learning React, chances are you’ve probably read an article from Kent’s blog. Kent is a former software engineer at Paypal, teacher and the creator of the popular React Testing Library. On his blog, he shares practical opinionated approaches to React development as well as tips to scale your career as a developer, based off all his years teaching and working with React. Kent runs a weekly newsletter for his blog where he sends newly published articles to subscribed emails. So, if you’re planning to grow as a React developer, you should probably get on his train.

2. Gomakethings

Gomakethings.com is the brainchild of Chris Ferdinandi. Chris is a vanilla Javascript geek, and that's exactly what his blog/newsletter is all about. He publishes daily (weekdays only) Javascript tips and how to’s, and sends it out to his newsletter subscribers. If you want to level up on the core fundamentals of Javascript, then you should definitely check him out. You’ll definitely learn something JavaScriptly cool everyday.

3. Josh Comeau

I love love love Josh’s blog design — it’s an absolute delight. Chances are if you’ve ever googled anything related to React animations, you’ve probably come across his site — that was how I found him. Josh is a former software engineer at Gatsby, now focused on creating content for his course: CSS for JavaScript developers, which I’m very excited about and can’t wait for its release. Josh writes about a variety of topics, which are usually centered on React animations and in-depth CSS. The unique thing about Josh’s articles is that they’re very interactive, experimental and always in-depth as he sometime does months of research on a topic before writing about it. He runs a monthly — sometimes bi-monthly — newsletter for his blog, so if you want to level up on React animations or understand CSS at a deeper level, check him out.

4. Samantha Ming

Samantha is currently a frontend engineer at GitLab and a Google Developer Expert. What I love about Samantha’s blog is that she publishes programming tidbits centered around popular tasks that we have to perform in our everyday jobs as developers. For example: how to deep clone an array, how to merge an array of objects into one object or how to filter an array of objects by another array. No matter what level you’re at as a software engineer, you’ll find her tidbits helpful. She runs a newsletter where she sends a new tidbit to subscribers every week. You should totally check her out. P.S: For a while, she hasn’t been sending any newsletters, but she’s bound to pick up real soon.

5. Monica Lent (Blogging for Devs)

If you’re a developer who also blogs, you’ll find this real useful. Monica is a software engineer and former engineering manager from Sweden, who is now focused on building her own Saas products. Her newsletter has been a game changer for me. As a developer who also blogs and sometimes writes sponsored articles, Monica’s blogging for dev newsletter has been very useful to me. In her weekly newsletter she shares tips on how to build a successful blog as a developer starting from tips on SEO, how to construct article titles, how to build backlinks and so much more. She also runs a forum/community for developers who blog.

And that’s it. I have shared five developer newsletters that I’m currently subscribed to. I hope you find them useful just like I have. If you have other developer newsletters that you’re subscribed to that have been helpful to you, please share them with me in the comment section.

Join My Newsletter

If you've found any of my articles useful, subscribe to be notified of more quality articles as soon as they're published.

I won't send you spam and you can unsubscribe at any time

💖 & Always, From Linda Ikechukwu.

© 2021. Made with Gatsby