
Ask HN: How would you monetize a Chrome extension with 85 000 users? - mindshifted
We built a Chrome extension http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sideplayer.com for $500 and  and got 85k users so far thanks to free marketing.<p>How would you monetize it?<p>Some of the ways we&#x27;ve thought about:<p>1) Donate button.
2) Paid PRO version.
3) Ads.
4) Affiliate offers.
5) Creating a new paid extension and promoting it through Sideplayer.<p>Any suggestions? Thanks!
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lsiebert
1, 2 and 4 are much more consumer focused. That's honestly a better way to go
in terms of user/product alignment. Ads or Affiliate offers are things
customers don't want, and they make it more likely people will pick a
different app.

Whatever you do, you'll have an easier time getting people to pay small
amounts if you compare the amounts to something people buy everyday, like a
vending machine candy bar, a 6 pack of soda, or a large pizza. People won't
give you 20 bucks normally, but if they feel like they are paying for a pizza,
they are much more likely to do so.

Do the Donate button now and then consider a paid PRO version. Keep track of
who donated so you can give them a free key to the pro version.

If you do do donations, offer access to a special donation mailing list with
voting for features, and prioritize them for bug reporting.

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kbenson
I think #1 or #2 are probably good ways forward (but I don't exactly have
experience in this area). I think putting video ads in something that's meant
to play Youtube with it's own ads (or not, if you paid to remove them from
Youtube) is likely to run afoul of some odd clause in how Youtube is allowed
to be embedded. If they are image ads, it's garish and uses valuable screen
space, so people won't like it,

The real question is whether you have interesting enough features to support a
Pro version that aren't trivial enough to implement that someone will come by
and offer the same thing for free. If the original app was $500 and is
technically as simple as it seems, I wouldn't rely on it being hard to create
a competitor to keep people from offering a free version that has all the
features of your paid version. That is, unless you can secure a contract with
some paid service that you can integrate with that others can't. Contracts are
probably the best way to raise the bar for competitors, especially if you can
secure an exclusive contract in some manner. I'm not sure what this would be,
so it may not be feasible.

In the end, I personally would probably go with a Donate or Patreon link
(Patreon if you want to create more cool stuff (maybe for for free) and see if
people will subsidize your projects. The alternative is to either get
pressured from free offerings because your solution isn't hard enough to keep
them away, or from paid competitors because the market warrants it, or _maybe_
you sit right between them and it's hard enough that a free offering isn't as
good or available, but it's too much pain for too little money for a
competitor to compete. If you hit that sweet spot, it's probably easy money,
but it might not be a _lot_ of money (otherwise the competitors would still be
trying).

~~~
mindshifted
Thanks, good stuff. Going for contracts is definitely an option.

I really like the Patreon idea though. I've never thought about software as a
content people can sponsor you for on Patreon. That's a really interesting
concept and the reason I asked this question here. Long live HN.

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x775
Assuming you have cleared things with Google / YouTube accordingly, what would
a PRO version include? A donate button is nice, sure, but I seriously doubt
you will see much traction through that - if any at all. Advertisement in
addition to what I imagine is served through YouTube would personally make me
want to avoid utilising your extension.

~~~
mindshifted
Good points. For a PRO version, these are the most requested features so far:

Twitch support. Netflix support. Vimeo support. Youtube search & comments
inside Sideplayer.

~~~
sharemywin
you might want to add some kind of music options.

~~~
mindshifted
Good one.

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sharemywin
Why not try to keep it growing. are the server costs getting to high?

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mindshifted
We are growing it, but also starting to think about monetization. Luckily
there are no server costs with Chrome Extensions. At the moment our only costs
are the website and domain.

~~~
sharemywin
I thought the chrome extension rendered a website with an embedded youtube
player.

~~~
jrowley
The chrome extension contains all necessary assets locally, which then has the
embedded video player in it. So no web host necessary, except for initial
signups/explaining the product.

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umen
kaspersky antivirus do not allow this extension to run

complains about :

\Extensions\nicokganngdkmjiejngaacdlllkdpikn\0.1.1_0\bg.js

what you have there ?

