#19 - How to build a successful Shopify App 🚀

$33,000 MRR for WideBundle. Here we are!

You know what's funny? We were stuck for a few months at $25,000 MRR.

Then, we began to grow again when I understood the problem and started working on it.

I don't know when we'll stop growing again, but we will one day. It's part of the journey.

Now, if you're stuck for a long time it means 2 things:

• You're not working on your business

• What you used to do doesn't work anymore

For the 1st reason, well, you'll need to start working.

For the 2nd one, you'll need to read this sentence:

To get results you don't have, you have to do things you don't do.

And remember that the next time you'll be stuck.

We're on our way to $41,600. And hopefully we'll reach it at the end of 2022. This is what I want.

The new Shopify App Store 🔥

I have to talk about it. On November, 1st, Shopify will release a new App Store.

It will look like that 👇

My first impression is positive. I like the new design. The design is easier to understand and well structured.

Let's talk about the important changes:

1) The description is being removed

And it's not a bad thing. The description was at the end of the page with a button "Read more" so it was the last thing people checked.

And to replace the description they created 3 new blocs (title, sub-title and features. Numbers 4, 5, and 7 on the screenshot).

It will make the description of the app easier to understand. Important to nice, we will have way fewer characters for the description. So it will be complicated for complex apps.

I just want to know what the impact will be on the SEO, we remove 1 bloc and create a new one. The description was the least important in SEO for the App Store but it was still important. And now that we have 3 blocs I want to know how it will work.

2) They are moving the screenshots next to the featured image

The app's screenshots are now next to the featured image (or video). So now they will become even more important.

In my opinion, people will now read the app's name, the title (Number 4) and then check the main image and the screenshots.

Optimizing the images was important but now it will become necessary.

It will be a great business for freelancers in design by the way 😁

3) They are changing the guidelines for the tagline

The tagline is the text below the app's name when we search for an app on the App Store.

On the current dashboard, the tagline appears on the listing. But they will remove it on the new dashboard.

And I think it will stay when we search for an app.

But what's important here is that Shopify said they will force people to write a "real" tagline and not just put keywords. Which is a good thing for merchants.

4) They are removing other fields

They also remove the key benefits. They were not as important as before when we used to have images for key benefits.

I'm just wondering what the impact will be on the ranking!

5) They are changing categories

We had some categories on the App Store. They were automatically fixed by Shopify's theme when you submitted your app.

And you could change them by filling out a form.

Now it's over. The categories change and you'll be able to change your categories yourself.

We could have 3 categories, now we'll need to choose only 2. And if you change your categories, it will automatically trigger a review of your app by Shopify's team.

Again, I'm not against this change, I just need to know what the impact will be on the ranking.

If you read my previous emails/tweets you know I talked about the importance of the categories. If you wanted to rank on some keywords, you HAD to be in a specific category. Otherwise the algorithm would penalize you.

Now let's see how it will work!

Someone already asked me: Are you going to A/B test the categories?

I will. But not during the first month. Look, in November, everyone will choose the new categories, some people will do it 1 week later, and some others 2 weeks later. So you can't really A/B test if the ranking changes a lot.

I will pick 2 categories that suit my app and I'll wait.

Ultimate Quiz 😈

I created a Quiz on Twitter today. It's simple: You have 20 questions. If you answer "YES" to one question, you add +1 to your score.

And then we check in the end what's your score.

If your score is not high, you have many things to improve on your Shopify App!

It's a great way to know if you're on the right path! And I know for sure that if you have a high score on this quiz, you'll grow.

So answer each question and let me know your score!

1) You added Mixpanel to your app and you are tracking events

2) You have a Helpdesk for your app

3) You have a live chat in your App dashboard

4) You added Google Analytics to your App listing

5) You know what your Activation Rate, your Conversion Rate, and your Churn are

6) You are tracking your App position on at least 10 keywords

7) You are doing App Partnerships (with other Shopify Apps)

8) You reply in less than 1 hour when someone contacts support

9) You created internal documentation for recurring questions and problems

10) You have an onboarding in your App dashboard

11) You already have at least 10 paying users

12) You built/are building an app in a language that you master (or that your dev masters)

13) At least 50% of your features were requested by your users (not you)

14) You send emails when someone installs your app and when someone uninstalls it

15) You built a community for your users

16) Do you go where merchants are? Or are you following merchants? Events, communities, forums, Twitter, etc

17) You have a clear goal for 2022 and a plan to reach it

18) You already changed your price at least once since you started

19) You know it's not a 1-month game but a 2-year game and you're still dedicated

20) BONUS: You are following @DsMatie on Twitter

Let me know your score!

I hope you enjoyed this email!

See you next week

Mat 😁