Forem: alex

I built a LinkedIn job scraper that sends daily digests to Discord (no login, no code)

alex — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 21:13:58 +0000

I got tired of manually checking LinkedIn every day, so I automated it.

Built a Make.com scenario that:

Scrapes LinkedIn jobs via Apify (no login required)
Filters for Easy Apply + remote + entry level
Sends a clean daily digest to Discord

Example output:
🔷 Automation Engineer — Acme Ltd
📍 United Kingdom | 💼 Full-time | ⏰ 2 hours ago
🔗 https://linkedin.com/jobs/view/...
－－－

How it works

HTTP POST → Start Apify actor (worldunboxer/rapid-linkedin-scraper)
Sleep 90s → Wait for scrape to finish
HTTP GET → Fetch results from Apify dataset
Iterator → Loop through jobs
Filter → Easy Apply only
Set Variable → Format each job entry
Text Aggregator → Combine into one message
HTTP POST → Send to Discord webhook

Key lessons learned

The JSON escaping problem — Line breaks in aggregated text break Discord's JSON. Fix: use Make.com's "Data structure" input method instead of raw JSON string. It escapes everything automatically.

Apify actor quirks — The actor sometimes ignores keyword parameters and returns random jobs. Workaround: add a local filter on job_title contains "keyword" after the iterator.

Running cost — Apify charges $0.001 per result. Daily runs with 5 results = ~$0.15/month. But you get 5 dollars a month for free to use however you want from apify.

The template

Packaged it as a Gumroad product with the blueprint + setup guide.
link

Happy to answer questions about the build in the comments.

Instagram Hashtag Research Bot with Make.com + Apify

alex — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:30:06 +0000

Today's build: automated Instagram hashtag research that delivers to Discord.

The Stack
Make.com — workflow orchestration
Apify (Instagram Hashtag Analytics actor) — scraping engine
Discord — delivery channel

The Flow
HTTP POST (start Apify run)
→ Sleep 30s
→ HTTP GET (fetch results)
→ Set Variables (format hashtag lists)
→ HTTP POST (Discord webhook)

Key Make.com snippet
To extract all hashtags from the Apify response array and join them line by line:

map() pulls the hash field from each object in the array. join() puts them on separate lines.
Simple but took me a minute to figure out.

What it returns
Three hashtag groups per niche: Related, Related Frequent, and Niche.

This is hashtag research based on Instagram's public graph — useful for content planning, not real-time trending.

*Get the blueprint
*
Gumroad → includes JSON blueprint + setup guide.
Full writeup on Hashnode → alexkraft.hashnode.dev

Real-time Gumroad sales tracker with Make.com + Google Sheets + Discord

alex — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 15:07:25 +0000

The problem:

Selling on Gumroad. Refreshing the dashboard too often. Classic. Automated it.

The flow:

Gumroad webhook
→ Log sale to Google Sheets
→ Update dashboard timestamp
→ Read total sales count
→ Discord: sale notification (always)
→ [Filter: milestone + not a test sale]
→ Discord: milestone alert (conditional)

Test vs real sales

Gumroad sends a test flag on every webhook. Both flow through the same scenario — just labelled differently in the sheet and in Discord.

Milestone alerts are filtered to real sales only.

What's in the package
Blueprint (JSON), setup guide, README. $9 on Gumroad.

→ Get it here

Built by Alex Kraft — automation developer. Follow the journey: alexkraft.hashnode.dev | linkedin.com/in/alexandru-bobo | dev.to/alexkraft

Automated Cold Outreach with Make.com + Apify + Google Sheets (No Code)

alex — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 11:46:14 +0000

Built a no-code automation that handles the full cold outreach pipeline for local businesses.

The flow:
Google Maps scrape → filter leads with emails → deduplicate → add to sheet → send personalised email → mark as sent

Tools used:
Make.com (workflow automation)
Apify (Google Maps scraper)
Google Sheets (lead database)
Gmail (email sending)

The interesting part is the duplicate check — before adding any lead, it searches column B of the sheet for that email. If it already exists, the whole branch is skipped. Keeps the sheet clean across multiple runs.
The email is personalised with the scraped business name using {{32.title}} from the Iterator module output.

I released it as a ready-to-import blueprint with docs.

👉 [Link here]

How I Automated Employee Leave Requests with Make.com (Free Tools Only)

alex — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 23:18:28 +0000

Leave requests are one of those things that seem simple but create endless friction — messages getting lost, statuses unknown, managers forgetting to reply.
Here's an automation I built that handles the entire flow without any paid tools.

The flow

Employee fills Google Form
↓
Request saved to Google Sheet (Status: Pending)
↓
Manager receives email → clicks APPROVE or REJECT
↓
Sheet updates automatically
↓
Employee receives confirmation email

Two Make.com scenarios

The system uses two separate scenarios connected via a webhook.

Scenario A — Registration

Watches Google Forms for new responses → adds a row to Google Sheets → sends the manager an email with approve/reject links.
Scenario B — Approval

Triggered when the manager clicks a link → finds the correct row in the sheet → updates the status → emails the employee with the decision.
The key piece is the webhook URL embedded in the manager's email buttons. Each button passes the employee data as URL parameters (action, email, name, type, start, end), so Scenario B has everything it needs without touching the sheet first.

Why this pattern is useful beyond leave requests
The "submit → approve/reject → notify" loop is everywhere:

Freelance project proposals
Internal budget requests
Content approval workflows
Vendor or supplier onboarding

If you understand how to wire this with a webhook, you can rebuild it for almost any use case in under an hour.

Stack

Google Forms -> for employee input
Google Sheets -> for data storage + status tracking
Gmail -> for notifications
Make.com -> for automation logic + webhook

ALL FREE!

Get the template
I packaged this as a ready-to-import Make.com template with both blueprints, a sheet template, and a setup guide.
[Download on Gumroad →] https://alexkraft.gumroad.com/l/aafvwb

Built by Alex Kraft — automation developer.
Follow the journey: alexkraft.hashnode.dev | linkedin.com/in/alexandru-bobo | dev.to/alexkraft

day 3 : No-code invoice follow-up automation: Make.com + Google Sheets + Gmail

alex — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 12:52:42 +0000

Chasing unpaid invoices is the worst part of freelancing.
Here's a simple automation I built to handle it:

Invoice overdue 7 days → polite reminder
Invoice overdue 14 days → firm follow-up
Invoice overdue 21 days → final notice

How it works:
A Make.com scenario runs daily. It reads a Google Sheet filtered by Status = Pending, calculates days overdue, and routes each invoice through the right branch.
Each branch sends two emails — one to the client, one to you — then updates the Follow Up Level in the sheet so the same email never fires twice.

(Make.com's now returns milliseconds, not seconds — divide by 1000 first or you get results like "20,000 days overdue".)
Stack: Make.com free tier · Google Sheets · Gmail
Setup time: ~20 minutes
I packaged the full thing — blueprint, sheet template, setup guide — for anyone who wants to skip the build: https://alexkraft.gumroad.com/l/ktufg
Or just take the formula and build your own version.

day 2: I Built a Universal Client Onboarding Automation (Works with Gumroad, Stripe, PayPal) — Here's the Complete Architecture

alex — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 14:36:37 +0000

From webhook trigger to 6 automated actions in under 1 second. Platform-agnostic design using Make.com, Google Sheets, Notion, and zero monthly costs.

Every time someone bought my digital product, I had to:

Check my email for the sale notification

Copy their details to a spreadsheet

Write a welcome email

Create a task in Notion

Tell my team on Discord

Set a reminder to follow up

This took 10-15 minutes per client. And I'd forget steps.

So I built an automation that does all 6 actions in under 1 second. No manual work. 100% consistent.

Here's how it works, the architecture decisions I made, and why it's platform-agnostic (works with Gumroad, Stripe, PayPal, or any webhook platform).

The Problem: Manual Onboarding Is Painful

When you're selling digital products — templates, courses, SaaS trials — every sale should be a celebration. Instead, it's a chore:

Check email for Gumroad/Stripe notification

Open spreadsheet, copy customer email, product name, price

Write welcome email with download instructions

Create Notion page to track the client

Post to Discord so your team knows

Set calendar reminder to follow up in 3 days

This is tedious. And when you get 5 sales in a day, it's overwhelming.

Worse: you'll forget steps. You'll send the welcome email but forget the Notion page. You'll log the spreadsheet but forget to tell your team.

Solution: Automate everything.

The Goal: Zero Manual Work

I wanted every sale to trigger:

✅ Google Sheets log (my client database)

✅ Welcome email to customer

✅ Notification email to me

✅ Notion page creation (CRM)

✅ Discord team notification

✅ Calendar follow-up reminder

The Architecture: 7 Modules, 1 Second

I built this with Make.com (formerly Integromat), a no-code automation platform similar to Zapier but more powerful.

Here's the flow:

[Webhook] → [Google Sheets] → [Gmail x2] → [Notion] → [Discord] → [Calendar]

Template + setup guide available: https://alexkraft.gumroad.com/l/jtrmot

# Day 1: I Built My First Automation Template — And Almost Gave Up Three Times

alex — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:03:11 +0000

This is Day 1 of my 30 templates in 30 days challenge. I'm an automation developer building a library of plug-and-play Make.com, n8n, and Zapier templates. Today I shipped the first one.*

I almost didn't post this.

The template broke four times. The error messages were cryptic. I spent two hours on something that should have taken thirty minutes. And at one point I genuinely considered just going to bed.

But it works now. And I think the messy story is more useful than a polished tutorial.

What I Built

A simple invoice automation in Make.com:

Google Form submission → Auto-generate invoice number → Send HTML invoice email to client

That's it. Client fills a form, they get a professional invoice in their inbox. No manual work.

Sounds simple. Here's what actually happened.

The First Problem: Module IDs

Make.com uses module IDs to reference data between steps. My first blueprint referenced {{1.FieldName}} throughout — but the Google Forms trigger was Module 2, not Module 1.

Every single data reference was broken.

Fix: Find and replace every {{1. with {{2. in the blueprint JSON. Obvious in hindsight. Took me longer than I'd like to admit.

The Second Problem: The Form ID

The Google Forms module needs a Form ID. I pasted the full URL.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf.../viewform

Make threw a 404. The field wants just the ID — the string between /d/e/ and /viewform:

1FAIpQLSf...

Again: obvious once you know. Zero indication of this in the UI.

The Third Problem: Nested Data

This one took the longest.

Google Forms returns data in a nested structure. I was trying to access {{2.Client Email}} directly. That doesn't exist.

The actual path is:

{{2.answers.`30b18069`.textAnswers.answers[1].value}}

Where 30b18069 is the question ID Google assigns internally. You have to find that ID from the module's output structure, map it to your field name, then build the path manually.

Once I understood this, the email started populating correctly.

What the Final Workflow Looks Like

Module 2: Google Forms (Watch Responses)
   ↓
Module 5: Set Variable (Invoice Number = INV-{{date}}-{{timestamp}})
   ↓
Module 8: Gmail (Send HTML invoice email)

Three modules. The email arrives within 30 seconds of form submission with a properly formatted invoice table, unique invoice number, and all client details filled in correctly.

What I Learned Today

1. Make's error messages don't tell you what's wrong. "Module references non-existing module '1'" sounds scary. It just means your data path is wrong.

2. Read the actual data structure, don't guess. After connecting Google Forms, run the module once to see what it actually outputs. The panel shows you the full nested structure — use it.

3. Start with a hardcoded test. I wasted an hour debugging dynamic email mapping when I should have first confirmed the workflow ran at all by hardcoding my own email in the TO field. Test the pipeline first, then add dynamic data.

4. Shipping something imperfect beats perfecting something unshipped. This template will have a v2 with Google Sheets logging and better invoice numbers. But v1 works and it's out today.

The Template

I've packaged this up as a ready-to-import Make.com blueprint with a setup guide and FAQ.

If you spend more than 10 minutes per invoice, this gets you back ~10 hours a year. At minimum.

→ Get the Invoice Generator template on Gumroad (£20)

Tomorrow

Day 2. Building a lead capture automation — contact form submission → save to Airtable → send welcome email sequence. More modules, similar principles.

Following along? Subscribe to the newsletter (top of page) — I send one update per week, not per day.

Alex Kraft is an automation developer based in the UK, building 30 Make.com/n8n templates in 30 days and documenting the process publicly. Find the full template library at alexkraft.gumroad.com