Shopify’s Biggest Ever API Update, How to Double Your Business Valuation in a Year, LinkedIn Events: Newsletter October 18, 2019

Shopify has announced the release of its largest API update to date, releasing many of the features originally announced at Shopify Unite 2019. As part of this update, requesting data from Shopify will be a faster process, the function for storing data without allowing other apps access by way of private metadata scoping will be introduced, themes will be able to natively support international translations and the Revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) will be implemented across countries in the European Economic Area.

In entrepreneurial news this week, Founder Thomas Smale introduced a new lesson at Innovation Expo this past week: How to Grow Your Business Valuation in 1 Year. In the talk, Thomas covers lessons from hundreds of acquisitions to help online business owners improve operations, increase revenue and plan for an exit with the highest valuation possible. Follow the link above to watch the full talk. 

Elsewhere, LinkedIn is launching an events platform to allow users to facilitate business and networking meetups initially in English speaking countries. The new feature will be an option in the LinkedIn menu on both desktop and the mobile app, with the aim of serving as users’ main hub for off-site meetups. Currently free and limited in its scope of functionality, the tool does not yet allow users to promote events.

New in FE exclusive listings this week we have an Affiliate business in the Automobile & Motorcycle Accessory Reviews niche. Listed at $193,000, this business brings with it growing traffic, with over 427,000 visitors in the LTM, and a strong SEO presence with 32,000 keywords ranking. With a strong content library of long form content with an average article length of over 4,600 words, this business has a lean cost structure driving high net margins. If you are interested in this business, please follow the link above to request a prospectus.

In events news, FE International had a great time sponsoring SaaStock Dublin where the newest issue of SaaS Mag, including exclusive interviews with VimeoAsanaTomasz Tunguz, Basecamp and other executives in the SaaS world, made its global debut. Next week, the FE team will be bringing SaaS Mag to MicroConf Europe to join bootstrapped SaaS founders for two days of learning and networking. Make sure to reach out and set up a meeting if you will be in the area and want to be featured in the magazine! Thomas will also be at Rhodium Weekend in Las Vegas starting on Thursday 24 October so let us know if you would like to schedule a meet.

Continue reading below for more on Shopify, LinkedIn and a bonus story!

Listings

New

Affiliate – Automobile & Motorcycle Accessory Reviews – $4.4K gross/mo

  • Growing traffic profile with over 427,000 visitors over the L12M
  • Dominant SEO presence with keyword rankings for c.32,000 keywords
  • Strong content library of long-form content with an average article length of over 4,600 words
  • Lean cost structure driving high net margins

Yearly net profit: $51,000
Asking price: $193,000

Featured

Affiliate/Display Advertising – Freight Transportation Technology Reviews – $14K gross/mo

  • Reputable brand with an early presence in a growing, evergreen niche
  • Strong traffic with over 140,000 visitors in the LTM
  • Dominant organic search presence with keyword rankings for thousands of keywords
  • Steady revenue growth with earnings rising at a c.117.9% CAGR over 2017 to (e)2019
  • Simple operations allowing for plenty of time to invest in growth

Yearly net profit: $174,000
Asking price: $450,000

Sold

App – Astrology & Psychic Services PaaS – $417K gross/mo

Lead Generation – Transport Technology System Reviews – $6.3K gross/mo

In the News…

Shopify Releases Biggest Ever API Update

On Wednesday, Shopify Partners released their first ever API features roundup. The October 2019 edition breaks down different application changes to help users better understand updates made to the platform, many of which were released at Shopify Unite. The new October release has made advancements focusing on enhancing performance by replacing page-based pagination with cursor-based pagination with REST, significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to page through results. Other new features include reducing the number of calls users need to make with bulk operations, more efficient management of translated content for resources and the introduction of private metafields to store private data about Shopify resources. The new features roundup will help users adopt these new changes easily so they can improve the performance of their apps.

LinkedIn Launches Free Events Tool

LinkedIn launches “Events” a new feature on the social network site for the professional world that will bring online networking to a physical space. LinkedIn users can use the free tool to coordinate, announce and invite people to face-to-face networking events and meetups. Made officially available on October 17th, the Events feature is the first tool made by the engineers in the Bangalore, India R&D office to be launched globally, a major achievement for the team also responsible for creating LinkedIn Lite. The tool is currently limited to basic abilities such as announcements and invites but will expand to provide more features such as ticketing and venue booking if the free feature sees success which it likely will. According to Tech Crunch, LinkedIn India Head of Product Marketing, Ajay Datta, made a statement saying, “I think there is a massive whitespace for events today… people don’t have a single place to organize [work-related] offline meetups specific to an industry or a neighborhood. People want to find other people.” The new tool will likely set up the company to become a competitor against public companies like Eventbrite and WeWork’s company, Meetup.com.

Social Media Ad Spend Outperforms Print

With over 140 million businesses using Facebook’s portfolio of apps, it’s no surprise 13% of worldwide ad spend will be owned by social media reported by a Zenith forecast. The report claims social media ad spend will surpass $84 billion with a 20% increase in growth this year, outperforming print ad spend. Social ad spend places third in the ranking of ad channels behind paid search and TV which is still ranked at number one and accounts for 29% of ad spend globally but is reported to be losing momentum and is expected to decline by $2 billion over the next three years. Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg made a statement earlier this year reporting, “Facebook’s top 100 advertisers accounted for less than 20% of the company’s ad revenue.” She went on to say, “Our advertiser base is more diverse compared to the same period over last year.” Zenith attributes the diversification to the increase in social media ad spend by SMEs leveraging the targeting and localization abilities of ads on social platforms. Regardless of social media ad success, paid search continues to outperform social with an expected $107 billion to be generated this year holding 17% of global ad spend.

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