Running a small business is about the day-to-day operations, living in the moment and finding ways to stay above surface level. No matter what type of business you are running, chances are a huge chunk of it is carried online. And most probably your go-to browser is Chrome! With the evolution of technology, now more than ever, small businesses need to leverage the readily available tools to their advantage to enhance both productivity and revenue. Chrome extension is one such tool that I will talk about today.
Being the most dominant web browser, Chrome web store has endless extensions to cover your business operations end-to-end. The right Chrome extension can revolutionize the way you work and maximize results while minimizing time.
And exactly there lies a huge business opportunity for you as the owner of a popular chrome extension. Figure out what are the biggest pain points of a small business owner, think of a solution for it and get a chrome extension developed to solve that problem.
Once you build and publish a chrome extension, if it's a decent one, very soon you will see thousands of small businesses are using it and can generate a steady state of income for you in no time. So the ROI in very quick and significant, when it comes to Chrome Extensions.
For example, this chrome extension that keeps track of your working times right from your to-do list made several hundred thousand dollars in a very short time. Before we delve deep into monetization of Chrome extensions, we will first in this article explore what are the advantages of using chrome extensions and why small businesses are better off using chrome extensions at work.
[1] Chrome Extensions And Productivity
Get things done. Be efficient. Stay busy. Achieve success! Easier said than done. Someday we walk away from work at the end of the day knowing that we had been so productive that we accomplished everything we wanted to get done that day. Someday we hit the end of the day slumped behind a desk stacked with unfinished projects, so tired you can barely drag yourself away. The chrome web store is overcrowded with chrome extensions to help enhance productivity for both employees and owners.
The advantage of Chrome extensions is it helps drown down the background noises in your open office or maintain a to-do list so that you can get a compact view of all the things you need to get over with. A time tracker chrome extension helps optimize the work capacity and set clear objectives on how to allocate time to increase performance. You can also use Chrome extensions to keep all your data neatly organized, schedule emails to be replied later, for reading things later etc. Use these and other thousands of Chrome extensions to help finish more things!
(P.S. - You should check out our blog on Facebook extension to find out how it can benefit your business and boost your productivity!)
[2] Chrome Extensions And Multi-Device Support
Workplaces in today’s time are constantly evolving. The traditional nine to five cubicle working hours don’t work anymore, especially if you are eyeing growth in your career. We all have our work Email ID synced with all our devices, I’m sure. But, syncing chrome extensions across all your personal devices has an inherent advantage and can give you access to all the data that you saved at the office in a second, so, no need of being chained to your office desktop.
So, now if you are stuck in boring conferences or traveling, it is so much easier to have all your work done as you almost have full access to the office desktop. It also works wonders for your reading plan. You can always save the links to your chrome extensions and then access them across any device, whenever and wherever you want.
[3] Chrome Extensions And Help With Keeping Oneself Organized
When at the office, our mind is cluttered with to-do’s and projects and action items, but, our document drive doesn’t need to. Disorganization can cost a lot of time. Organizational skill also reduces stress as if you are asked to pull out a deprecated document from 5 years ago, you don’t have to hover through all your folders to locate it.
Utilize Chrome extensions to help organize files at work in the most efficient and effective way so that employees don’t waste time hunting through thousands of files to find what you’re looking for. I’ll just assume that you have several projects to work and many potential clients to meet with.
Avoid being late or double-booked by organizing the date and time with the help of a calendar extension for Chrome. This might not seem like a big deal, but it can be a huge time-saver.
[4] Chrome Extension And Marketing
At the heart of all successful businesses is strong and ongoing marketing. Let’s face it - The primary aim of every business is to make profit and drive sales. Practically, both of these depends on your ability to market your products or services.
Without marketing, your potential customers will have no idea that you even exist and without conversions and sales, companies simply crash and burn. Why do all the work manually when you can get an extension to do that for you!
You can use a chrome extension to collect all the contact details of your leads and pre-fill forms based on the info that you can later access. Or if you are into content marketing, make sure you have a grammar check chrome extension tool that can review your writing for hundreds of different types of errors ( Unless you consider yourself a grammar nazi :D )
Read our blog on LinkedIn extension to discover functionalities marketers will find useful in their chrome extension.
[5] Effective Project Management
Running projects without project managers? Thought it would be cost-effective and EASY? Turned out to be a false economy situation, ain’t it? Great project management is beyond delivering on time, budget, and scope; it is about facilitating collaboration and a vision for success among clients and the team so that everyone on the same page for the success of the project.
With the help of Chrome extensions, collaboration is made simple and you can see what are the tasks your team is working on and its progress, all in real time. Use chrome extensions to customize and rearrange tasks according to your needs, set due dates for tasks and view them in a calendar format, receive daily reminders, have a chat session over each task and all other fundamentals of managing a project from start to finish.
Monetize Your Chrome Extension
Now that we know how important these extensions are for survival in this hi-tech world, let’s see how custom developing chrome extensions can actually earn businesses a constant revenue. How do you start?
[1] Find a niche and see what features and functionalities people working in the niche needs and then brainstorm on what functionalities you want your Chrome Extension to offer. Keep in mind, there will be ample available extensions in the chrome store. Figure out a unique point that will SELL your chrome extension.
[2] Carry out a detailed feasibility analysis - both cost and market.
[3] Then jot down all the features in a doc and the way you want your chrome extension to behave.
[4] Find a software development firm to design, and develop your chrome extension. Then, Optimize your Chrome extension for the Chrome Web Store.
BOOM! Almost done. Keep a few days to research on the stats of your extension and see how its growing and which market its covering. Take a look at the reviews and when time’s right, monetize. See, additional revenue. Thank me later!
Keep A Few Things In Mind While Monetizing Chrome Extensions
[1] When monetizing chrome extension, the best approach is monetizing the chrome extension features. You can either place all your features behind a paywall or you can make the model freemium. If you started with a free version of the chrome extension, don’t just make it paid from the next version release. Provide them with an intimation and then go with your plan. This will prevent unnecessary negative surprises for your users and keep you out of negative PR and sudden drop in ratings in the web store.
[2] If you think your user base is unlikely to be receptive to paid features, ads may be a viable option for revenue generation. Again, make it clear to your users that your chrome extension is ad-funded. And lastly, ask for donations. Link a “Contribute” button to features users are likely to use on a regular basis and something that gives them value.
[3] Once monetization is a success, expand your user base and maximize income by submitting your extension to Firefox and Safari.
Discuss Monetizing Opportunities For Your Chrome Extension !
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With the advent in technology, businesses are more about making informed decisions and trial & error are a thing of the past. As an entrepreneur and custom software development company owner, we find it next to impossible to get through the day without using at least a handful of Chrome extensions. You’ve got absolutely nothing to lose by giving Chrome extensions a try.
At work, extensions are now available for any job you can think of. Whether you are in development, sales, marketing, design or support, there are literally hundreds of chrome extensions in each category. Chrome extensions, if used effectively, can help you focus on your work, increase productivity and eventually save costs. And when all these can add to revenue generation, there’s nothing better than that, right?
Overall, we have seen creating a chrome extension either to magnify productivity or to make money are really viable options and return at par results. What do you think?
FAQs
Can I monetize Chrome extensions?
Yes, there are multiple ways to monetize Chrome extensions -
- 1. Paid Extensions: Instead of building a free application you can build a premium app. The users will have to pay a certain amount upfront before using it.
- 2. Freemium Model: Even if you choose the free route for your extensions, you can add extra quality-of-life features and monetize it. This is a very popular method these days.
- 3. Advertising: You can run ads along with your extensions and generate revenue with it. However, make sure that it is a subtle addition, and does not interfere with the user experience.
How much do Google Chrome extensions make?
The exact amount that you are going to earn can largely vary depending on the popularity and the kind of services you offer. With proper monetizing strategies and a loyal user base, you can make a fortune out of your extensions. However, you need to keep in mind that Google takes a 5% cut per transaction made, which means if there is something you are going to sell for $1.99 you are going to get $1.89 for it. It may not seem a lot but in the grand scheme of things, this is something you need to factor in.
How to do marketing for Chrome extension?
Finding the right customers to showcase your Chrome extensions to can be boiled down to the following steps -
- 1. Identify your target audience and reach out to the thought leaders of that market and introduce them to your extension, if they like it they may ask their followers to try it out.
- 2. Make a landing page or website around your extension and showcase the USPs, also practice the appropriate SEO metrics to rank higher on Google’s SERP.
- 3. Practice content marketing or other paid advertisement practices to spread the word about your solution.
Where do I publish Chrome extensions?
Here’s a step-by-step guide about how to publish your Chrome Extension to the web store -
- 1. Create a Developer Account: go to the web store’s devconsole/register page and register yourself as a developer. You will have to pay a one-time registration fee of $5 for this.
- 2. Package and Submit Your Extension: aggregate all of your necessary packages and assets and compile them into a .zip file, go to create a new extension, fill in the necessary fields, and hit submit for review.
- 3. Wait for Approval: Google usually takes a couple of days to approve the Chrome extension, but in some cases, it can take up to a week.
Is it free to publish a Chrome extension?
Yes, the process of publishing the Chrome extension itself is free. However, in order to do that you need access to the developers' dashboard which is only available with a developer account. And signing up for a developer account costs a one-time fee of $5.
