10% more from “boring” work
Hey—it’s Matt.
Most of this week went into making Jasin more discoverable—and for the first time, I worked with programmatic pages to do it. If you’ve never used them, think of it like this: you build one template, feed it structured data (in my case, JSON), and it spins up new pages automatically. Way faster than hand-coding each one.
I built two paths:
Alternatives pages: Eight comparison pages that line Jasin up against tools like AAWP, Lasso, and Pretty Links. Each one has pricing breakdowns, feature notes, and comparison guides so people researching affiliate tools can see how we stack up.
Free tools: Two utilities anyone can use:
- An ASIN Extractor that cleans messy Amazon links and pulls out the product IDs (great for spreadsheets).
- A Commission Calculator (my favorite) that shows how much you’d earn from Amazon sales.
The goal is simple: when someone types “AAWP alternative” or “Amazon affiliate calculator” into Google, Jasin should be what they find.
Have a great weekend!
MOST INTERESTING
Are we in a bubble?
Dror Poleg argues you can’t actually know if we’re in a bubble anymore. When most valuations are built on intangibles—brand, software, networks—the only real proof is the pop. Markets aren’t mirrors, they’re guesses, and AI is making the guesses wilder.
TOOLS + RESOURCES
OpenCode
An IDE where AI isn’t bolted on, it’s baked in. Coding, debugging, and deployment all live in one place. Less “tool switching,” more “get to done.”
Interface Syntax Documentation
A sharp little reference guide for defining contracts in code. If you’re building with others—or future-you—it’s a reminder that clean syntax is collaboration.
Anthropic raises $1.3B at $18B valuation
Investor conviction in AI isn’t cooling. But the question isn’t whether AI companies get funded—it’s whether they build tools people actually keep using once the hype cycle dips.
ADVERTISING + DESIGN
IKEA Catalogue Archive
Every IKEA catalogue from 1950 to 2021. A living case study in how design evolves with culture. Flip through the 70s and you’ll see more than furniture—you’ll see what people believed “home” should look like.
American adverts of the 1930s
A Guardian gallery of Depression-era ads. The copy, the type, the color—it’s both foreign and familiar. Proof that every “new” marketing trick is usually a remix.
CLOSING THOUGHT
This week’s work was boring but necessary. What “boring” project could you take on next week that nudges your sales, marketing, branding, or SEO up by 10%?
Stay sharp, stay building, and I’ll see you next week.
Cheers,
Matt Downey
digitalnative.news • 𝕏 • Threads
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MY STACK
These are the tools that help me run my business every day. I happily pay for each of them—they’re worth every penny. I hope you find them useful, too.
- Beehiiv → How I send this newsletter every week. 10/10 would recommend.
- Brain.fm → How I kickstart my productivity and find flow-state.
- Mercury → The best business banking I’ve ever used.
- Screen Studio → How I record engaging videos.
- Typefully → How I post content to my socials.
- Kick → My bookkeeping on auto-pilot.