MRR update: $22/month from Chrome extensions
Not where I want to be, but the machine is starting to work.
What changed this week:
- ZenRead v1.2.0 shipped — the #1 issue was silent trial expiration. Zero notifications = zero upgrades. Fixed with chrome.alarms (4 reminders) + post-trial popup.
- CookieJar hitting 2.1% free→paid conversion on paywall (96 shown → 2 paid)
- ReadMark at 5.3% (38 shown → 2 paid)
What's broken:
- Revenue pipeline stopped syncing April 14 — flying blind on actual May transactions
- ZenRead got 200 installs in 4 days, GA4 shows -57% WAU. Ghost installs from CWS algo.
30-day target: $40. Need 1-2 more paying users.
12-month target: $670/month (34x current). Ambitious but I have 17 extensions and finally understand the conversion math.
Building solo, no co-founder. Happy to compare notes with anyone in similar territory.
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The useful signal here is that you are no longer guessing. You are starting to see the machine at the conversion level: installs, trial expiry, paywall views, paid conversions, reminders, and broken revenue tracking.
That is probably the real product-building lesson. With Chrome extensions, small UX leaks quietly kill revenue. A silent trial expiration is not just a bug, it is a missing conversion moment.
The bigger question I’d watch is whether ZenRead, CookieJar, ReadMark, and the other extensions stay as separate tiny products, or whether they eventually become one browser productivity/workflow company.
If they stay separate, the individual names are fine. But if you are building a system around browser actions, reading, saving, conversion moments, and lightweight productivity utilities, a cleaner umbrella brand like Xevoa .com would make the whole thing feel more durable than a collection of small extensions.
You already understand the conversion math now. The next leverage point may be making the product family easier to remember and trust as one coherent system.