Post Status Notes ›
# DesktopServer Shutting Down After 12 Years
Sad to hear that DesktopServer is closing its doors. Marc and Gregg were active WP community members for years and I appreciated their work.
Shared in an email to their customers:
“We're a small company that has remained independent of large hosting providers and their influential budgets; this choice had initial market share benefits but longer-term financial constraints.”
“The WordPress development tool landscape has grown and diversified greatly. This has diluted DesktopServer’s overall market share. The time, effort, and costs to bring in new users to DesktopServer’s workflow would be too much overhead for ServerPress to be sustainable.”
# CSS Tricks Sold to Digital Ocean for $4M
Acquired in January, founder Chris Coyier, who was also a member here, ran CSS-Tricks for 15 years before capitalizing on search traffic to sell to Digital Ocean that wanted access to the audience.
In Chris’ roundup from 2021, here are some numbers that stick out:
88 million pageviews
91,000 newsletter subscribers
6,500 articles, videos and guides
# Digital Marketing as the “Edge” in Recession
I asked How Is “Recession” Talk Affecting Your Clients? in our Agency Owners channel because I was curious what those on the frontlines working with clients are hearing and seeing. Hendrik Luehrsen said “clients are actively pushing the envelope to avoid losses … From what we hear it’s the effort to gain an edge over the competition.”
In her Recession Proof Marketing talk this week, Lindsey Miller (our Post Status CEO, who started her agency during the pandemic) echoed that, offering stories from 5 clients who leaned into digital marketing, when others pulled back, and got way ahead despite world-wide financial fears.
# Networking Done Right
Extendify’s Chris Lubkert and Artur Grabowski unpack how WordPress founders can build a network of potential buyers early on to enhance the sellability of their product for a future exit.
I’ve had many conversations with Chris and Artur over the past couple of years and their approach and values continue to impress me. It’s highly relational and builds my trust, particularly if you’re talking about an acquisition. And it signals to me they are in it for the long term.
# Nice Weather They’re Having
GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY) posted some bullish numbers for their second quarter with revenue up 9% year-over-year, and net Income up 93% year-over-year.
GoDaddy drove continued strength in adoption of GoDaddy Payments [where ApplePay is an option] for eCommerce solutions during the second quarter with 80% of Websites + Marketing commerce customers and 30% of Managed WordPress customers in the WooCommerce tier selecting GoDaddy Payments. (emphasis added)
In the second quarter, they launched a beta WooSaas online store, offering a solution targeted to larger merchants. This offering simplifies user experience with exclusive functionality as well as premium extensions and features. (emphasis added)
The WooSaas project is composed of “Integrated acquired technologies from Pagely, SkyVerge, Sellbrite, and Poynt, to offer an all-in-one experience.”