How to Monetize a Chrome Extension?
Hi there!
A few months ago I published a chrome extension called "Download and Edit All Images". As the name suggests, it allows users to download images on a website, either individually or in form of a .zip. Alternatively, users can edit them in an online editor (apply simple transformations, adjustments, filters, etc) before downloading.
Editing is limited to 10 images, otherwise the user needs to purchase a plan (something small like $0.59/month).
I'm doing zero advertising or promotional activity but the number of installations is increasing a little bit each day (new installations > uninstallations on most days). Current number of installs is just under 700. Soon it is likely to be above 1,000...
The only thing is that very few people purchase the paid plan, so maybe editing is not something that most people are interested in. I could just keep this going as it doesn't really cost me anything, but I was wondering if anyone has ideas on how one could monetize this better? Maybe getting users to pay for Chrome extensions is just really hard.. not sure.
Btw, the link to the extension is here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/download-edit-all-images/dgichcjohmoeadceadnhjhcpmkcfhklc
Thanks!
Markus
Hey! You can monetize your chrome extension through CPA model, I work with adgoal.de, they have access to 45K of worldwide advertisers, so it means that they give an opportunity to monetize organic search results in Google, Bing and Yahoo. They will pay a commission from every purchase. I have 56 thousand of users in my extension and I earned 6000$ for last month, without doing anything. They provide API for integration
This doesn't really matter if nobody is upgrading to the paid plan, but payment processing fees would eat up almost all of your revenue at $0.59/mo. Stripe's default pricing is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, so the processing fees would be over 50% of revenue.
If you stick with the paid plan route, you could offer an annual plan only. At $7/year, the processing fees would be closer to 7%.
You can also use ExtensionPay to monetize your extension! It's a service that lets you take payments in your browser extensions without running your own backend server. Its JavaScript library is open-source and works cross-browser so you can easily release your extension for all browsers.
Are there competitors? I recall seeing a couple which might give you a ballpark on pricing.
But more importantly - your customers can probably help dictate this a fair bit. $0.59 is way too low, unless that's for a small package of images? To me the main value in that is that it shows you people are willing to enter their billing details. Does chrome have a billing api for browswer based payments methods now?
+1 to the other users point. If this is mostly used for once offs, maybe let people download 1,000 images for free, or for a fixed cost. If it's something they use repeatedly (eg for amazon listings) then maybe. it makes sense as a monthly payment . If the editor really adds value it could be more
Monetising is possible if you can build a useful workflow for people. I work with a company that started as a chrome extension and now has 10M+users and a profitable business.
First, figure out the purpose people have behind downloading these images. You can maybe look at which websites are people downloading from to get an idea.
Second, talk to your user if there's a next step involved in their workflow. Maybe it is editing, maybe it is something else.
Let me know if you need any help!
That's really good advice. Thank you.
I’ve seen people add special offers in their extensions. “10% off on X” etc. you could also do a premium version with better features