Podbean logo
  • Discover
  • Podcast Features
    • Podcast Hosting

      Start your podcast with all the features you need.

    • Podbean AI Podbean AI

      AI-Enhanced Audio Quality and Content Generation.

    • Blog to Podcast

      Repurpose your blog into an engaging podcast.

    • Video to Podcast

      Convert YouTube playlists to podcasts, videos to audios.

  • Monetization
    • Ads Marketplace

      Join Ads Marketplace to earn through podcast sponsorships.

    • PodAds

      Manage your ads with dynamic ad insertion capability.

    • Apple Podcasts Subscriptions Integration

      Monetize with Apple Podcasts Subscriptions via Podbean.

    • Live Streaming

      Earn rewards and recurring income from Fan Club membership.

  • Podbean App
    • Podcast Studio

      Easy-to-use audio recorder app.

    • Podcast App

      The best podcast player & podcast app.

  • Help and Support
    • Help Center

      Get the answers and support you need.

    • Podbean Academy

      Resources and guides to launch, grow, and monetize podcast.

    • Podbean Blog

      Stay updated with the latest podcasting tips and trends.

    • What’s New

      Check out our newest and recently released features!

    • Podcasting Smarter

      Podcast interviews, best practices, and helpful tips.

  • Popular Topics
    • How to Start a Podcast

      The step-by-step guide to start your own podcast.

    • How to Start a Live Podcast

      Create the best live podcast and engage your audience.

    • How to Monetize a Podcast

      Tips on making the decision to monetize your podcast.

    • How to Promote Your Podcast

      The best ways to get more eyes and ears on your podcast.

    • Podcast Advertising 101

      Everything you need to know about podcast advertising.

    • Mobile Podcast Recording Guide

      The ultimate guide to recording a podcast on your phone.

    • How to Use Group Recording

      Steps to set up and use group recording in the Podbean app.

  • All Arts Business Comedy Education
  • Fiction Government Health & Fitness History Kids & Family
  • Leisure Music News Religion & Spirituality Science
  • Society & Culture Sports Technology True Crime TV & Film
  • Live
  • How to Start a Podcast
  • How to Start a Live Podcast
  • How to Monetize a podcast
  • How to Promote Your Podcast
  • How to Use Group Recording
  • Log in
  • Start your podcast for free
  • Podcasting
    • Podcast Features
      • Podcast Hosting

        Start your podcast with all the features you need.

      • Podbean AI Podbean AI

        AI-Enhanced Audio Quality and Content Generation.

      • Blog to Podcast

        Repurpose your blog into an engaging podcast.

      • Video to Podcast

        Convert YouTube playlists to podcasts, videos to audios.

    • Monetization
      • Ads Marketplace

        Join Ads Marketplace to earn through podcast sponsorships.

      • PodAds

        Manage your ads with dynamic ad insertion capability.

      • Apple Podcasts Subscriptions Integration

        Monetize with Apple Podcasts Subscriptions via Podbean.

      • Live Streaming

        Earn rewards and recurring income from Fan Club membership.

    • Podbean App
      • Podcast Studio

        Easy-to-use audio recorder app.

      • Podcast App

        The best podcast player & podcast app.

  • Advertisers
  • Enterprise
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Help and Support
      • Help Center

        Get the answers and support you need.

      • Podbean Academy

        Resources and guides to launch, grow, and monetize podcast.

      • Podbean Blog

        Stay updated with the latest podcasting tips and trends.

      • What’s New

        Check out our newest and recently released features!

      • Podcasting Smarter

        Podcast interviews, best practices, and helpful tips.

    • Popular Topics
      • How to Start a Podcast

        The step-by-step guide to start your own podcast.

      • How to Start a Live Podcast

        Create the best live podcast and engage your audience.

      • How to Monetize a Podcast

        Tips on making the decision to monetize your podcast.

      • How to Promote Your Podcast

        The best ways to get more eyes and ears on your podcast.

      • Podcast Advertising 101

        Everything you need to know about podcast advertising.

      • Mobile Podcast Recording Guide

        The ultimate guide to recording a podcast on your phone.

      • How to Use Group Recording

        Steps to set up and use group recording in the Podbean app.

  • Discover
  • Log in
    Sign up free
Running in Production

Running in Production

Technology:Software How-To

Buttondown Lets You Build, Grow and Launch Your Email Newsletter

Buttondown Lets You Build, Grow and Launch Your Email Newsletter

2021-02-15
Download Right click and do "save link as"

In this episode of Running in Production, Justin Duke goes over building an email newsletter service. It’s mostly hosted on Heroku and has has been up and running since late 2016.

Justin talks about how he handles sending out 100k+ emails, having a mix of Django templates and DRF + Vue, using rq to schedule emails, scaling with Heroku, balancing out what events to keep track of, how to figure out which features to develop and so much more.

Topics Include
  • 3:50 – It’s a weeknights / weekend project and dealing with 100k+ email spikes
  • 11:42 – Motivation for using Django, choosing “boring tech” and email validation
  • 20:08 – It’s a monolithic app in a mono repo but broken up into ~8 Django apps
  • 27:48 – It used to be mostly a DRF API back-end with Vue on the front-end
  • 30:04 – Storybook is a tool for developing UI components
  • 32:06 – Useful Python / Django libraries that were helpful for this project
  • 35:39 – Spending an innovation token on using websockets for link checking
  • 41:10 – rq is a powerhouse for scheduling and sending emails in the background
  • 47:35 – Dealing with issues and errors when sending emails out at scale
  • 50:43 – Sentry and Datadog make for a great duo of services
  • 54:19 – Using Stripe and avoiding dark patterns around subscription pausing
  • 59:35 – A few strategies to prevent bad actors from sending email spam
  • 1:03:09 – Reasons for going with Heroku to host most things (roughly 12 dynos)
  • 1:12:13 – A few Heroku add-ons and plugins that are being used
  • 1:16:37 – The deployment process from development to production
  • 1:21:26 – Dealing with database and front-end changes with zero down time deploys
  • 1:28:10 – Performing database backups and backing up other user uploads
  • 1:34:45 – Getting notified of errors if something goes wrong
  • 1:37:53 – Best tips? Framing out when and where to record things (ie. events, etc.)
  • 1:43:19 – Using Notion to track bugs, roadmaps and collect user feature requests
  • 1:47:23 – Justin has a personal site and check out Buttondown
Links 📄 References
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click-through_rate (CTR)
  • https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
  • https://storybook.js.org/
  • https://tailwindcss.com/
  • https://github.com/heroku/heroku-pg-extras
  • https://github.com/nickjj/flask-pg-extras
  • https://12factor.net/
⚙️ Tech Stack
  • django →
  • python →
  • vue →
  • datadog →
  • fathom →
  • github-actions →
  • heroku →
  • mailgun →
  • notion →
  • postgres →
  • postmark →
  • rds →
view more

More Episodes

Meteor Cloud Is a Full Service Hosting Solution for Meteor Apps
2021-12-20
CompanyCam Helps Contractors Document Their Job
2021-11-22
TinyPilotKVM Lets You Remote Control Your Server from Your Browser
2021-10-18
uscreen Is a Platform That Helps Content Creators Build a Business
2021-10-11
Great Question Makes It Easy for Teams to Perform Customer Research
2021-10-04
Robot Accounts AI Provides a System to Let You Categorize Invoices
2021-09-27
Fundraze Is a Flexible Fund Raising and Campaign Management Service
2021-09-20
Running in Production Is a Podcast Where Devs Chat about Tech Stacks
2021-09-13
A Custom Electronic Medical Record System for an Ophthalmology Clinic
2021-09-06
Games Directory Lets You Sync Your Games and Achievements in 1 Place
2021-08-30
School Bus Hero Helps School Bus Drivers and Aides Find a Job
2021-08-23
Hitobito Helps You Manage Communities with Complex Group Hierarchies
2021-08-16
Submotion Helps You Manage Access Control for Your SAAS Subscriptions
2021-08-09
HorseRecords Lets You Record Everything about Your Horses
2021-08-02
Politico Europe Is a Business to Business News and Data Service
2021-07-26
Couchmate Is a Social Chat Platform for Viewers of Live TV
2021-07-19
Managing 40+ Servers in a Data Center at a Medical University
2021-07-12
Avo Is a Framework for Creating Ruby on Rails Admin Panels
2021-07-05
Optidash Is an Image Processing and Optimization API
2021-06-28
CourseMaker Is an Online Course Builder for Technical Makers
2021-06-21
  • ←
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • →
012345678910111213141516171819

Get this podcast on your
phone, FREE

Download Podbean app on App Store Download Podbean app on Google Play

Create your
podcast in
minutes

  • Full-featured podcast site
  • Unlimited storage and bandwidth
  • Comprehensive podcast stats
  • Distribute to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more
  • Make money with your podcast
Get started

It is Free

  • Podcast Services

    • Podcast Features
    • Pricing
    • Enterprise Solution
    • Private Podcast
    • The Podcast App
    • Live Stream
    • Audio Recorder
    • Remote Recording
    • Podbean AI
  •  
    • Create a Podcast
    • Video Podcast
    • Start Podcasting
    • Start Radio Talk Show
    • Education Podcast
    • Church Podcast
    • Nonprofit Podcast
    • Get Sermons Online
    • Free Audiobooks
  • MONETIZATION & MORE

    • Podcast Advertising
    • Dynamic Ads Insertion
    • Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
    • Switch to Podbean
    • YouTube to Podcast
    • Blog to Podcast
    • Submit Your Podcast
    • Podbean Plugins
    • Developers
  • KNOWLEDGE BASE

    • How to Start a Podcast
    • How to Start a Live Podcast
    • How to Monetize a Podcast
    • How to Promote Your Podcast
    • Mobile Podcast Recording Guide
    • How to Use Group Recording
    • Podcast Advertising 101
  • Support

    • Support Center
    • What’s New
    • Free Webinars
    • Podcast Events
    • Podbean Academy
    • Podbean Amplified Podcast
    • Badges
    • Resources
  • Podbean

    • About Us
    • Podbean Blog
    • Careers
    • Press and Media
    • Green Initiative
    • Affiliate Program
    • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Consent Preferences
  • Copyright © 2015-2025 Podbean.com