How to make money building a chrome extension
In this guide, we'll look at how to make money from Google Chrome
extensions, how to sell extensions, how to monetize your Google Chrome
extension, how Chrome extensions make money, and how to create a Google Chrome
extension.
How Chrome Extensions Make Money
At first, I thought Google would pay you for downloads because you've
created something that will keep people busy on their platform. However, there
is no such thing. And you should be thankful that Google doesn't control
monetization. If Google has control over monetization, it keeps a big piece of
the pie.
Here are ways to make money from Chrome extensions:
Paid Features: This is one of the best ways to earn money from
extensions. You can offer a free version with limited features and unlock all
the features that the full version has to purchase. Many successful Chrome
extensions follow this business model.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is
basically selling other people's products. In return, you get a percentage of
sales from the company. The Chrome extension was monetized by affiliate
marketing. They basically provide coupon codes for products. It sells another
company's product through a coupon code.
Advertising: Ads are the easiest way to monetize Chrome
extensions. Basically serving ads when a user interacts with your Chrome
extension. If you are just starting out and testing Chrome extensions, you can
use this method. It's simple and you don't have to deal with customer support.
Donate: If you use a lot of Chrome extensions, then
you've noticed a donate button on some extensions when interacting with them.
You can't make much money with it. However, there are some types of extensions
that cannot be monetized either with ads or paid offers. In this scenario, you
can monetize through donations. Obviously you will make less money, but
something is better than nothing.
Bring it all together: You don't have to rely on
one way to make money. You can offer a free version with ads and exchange money
for more features and ad removal.
Promote the main product: Some Chrome extensions
like ubbersuggest are designed to promote the main product. A Chrome extension
is available as one of their features.
How to monetize browser extensions
If you've done your homework, you'll already know what browser you should
use for your extension. Let's explore some ideas for monetizing extensions:
1. Sale of advertising
This is one of the most common ways to monetize extensions. It includes
serving ads when the user uses the extension. You can sell space on your extension.
Instead of selling static ad space, you can also rotate ads to maximize your
revenue potential. This also allows them to reach out to more potential
customers.
Display advertising is one of the most common methods of integrating ads
into extensions. It includes serving different types of ads such as interactive
ads, pop-up ads, video ads, and interstitial ads.
If you want to add ads to your extension, you have two options: you can
search for advertisers yourself, or you can sign up for the service. Finding
your own advertisers requires a lot of marketing effort, negotiating rates and
ad types.
A monetization platform like CodeFuel is much easier because it gives you
access to a wide variety of ad networks. The service displays relevant ads
based on user intent and maximizes the chances of conversions. This also
increases your opportunity to sell more ads and gain access to high paying
advertisers
2. Extension Fee
Your browser can be a source of income in itself. Charging a small fee for
this can generate a lot of income by selling many copies of your extension.
While most extensions in the Chrome Store are free, don't let that put you off.
You can use freemium instead.
Freemium is a monetization method where you encourage downloads by offering
extensions for free for a period of time. If you want to go this route, you
have several options. Offer a free trial of the entire extension for a month or
two weeks.
Offer a free version with limited features Keep in mind that Google is
discontinuing paid extensions for Chrome. This means that developers can no
longer charge for extensions through Chrome Web Store payments.
3. Subscription Offer
Instead of a one-time renewal fee, you can offer a monthly fee. For this to
work, you'll need to offer more value. For example, the VPN extension I use has
a basic free package, but if you want the full service, you paid for a
subscription. Other examples are productivity extensions like Grammarly, which
offers a basic free service and a premium paid option.
Don't forget to include the best premium features in the paid package and
gradually improve the extension. This will help justify the cost of the
subscription to users.
4. In-App Payments
With this method, you offer the extension for free, but there are certain
features that you pay for. In this case, the user can choose which feature to
add. This is very common with game extensions that offer in-app purchases.
5. Affiliate marketing
This method is very popular and involves earning commissions by promoting
other companies' products. Extensions can display banners or ads that direct
users to the advertiser's product or landing page. When a user completes a
purchase using the link displayed in your extension, you will receive a
commission.
Although this method is popular, it can turn users off if the banners are
not related to the extension's features. Showing contextual ads can solve this
problem. As they blend in with the extension, they enhance the user experience
rather than break it.
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