Not a really fair reply. I was pointing out that there's nothing inherently hard about monetizing extensions and you definitely don't have to "go down some shady rabbithole" to do it. The services to charge for extensions exist and all that really matters is providing value, which as you're pointing out, can be hard.
> there's nothing inherently hard about monetizing extensions
Over 95% of Chrome extensions are completely free, as in no form of payment whatsoever. This makes extensions one of the worst of all software markets. Users just expect extensions to be free.
Also, the browsers vendors themselves can make it difficult to monetize extensions. Firefox eliminated its extension store several years ago, and Google is eliminating Chrome Web Store payments next month. If anything, the Mac App Store is now the easiest place to monetize extensions IMO.
> Over 95% of Chrome extensions are completely free, as in no form of payment whatsoever. This makes extensions one of the worst of all software markets. Users just expect extensions to be free.
Most Chrome extensions are low quality, too! But to me that just means there's a lot of opportunity. I've seen enough paid extensions succeeding (I can send more links if you're interested) that I'm readily convinced the market isn't that bad at all, and it will only get better as people encounter more quality extensions that provide enough value to pay for.
> Also, the browsers vendors themselves can make it difficult to monetize extensions. Firefox eliminated its extension store several years ago, and Google is eliminating Chrome Web Store payments next month. If anything, the Mac App Store is now the easiest place to monetize extensions IMO.
Yeah, it's annoying that neither Google of Firefox stores have easy payments — it makes taking payments less accessible for developers. But obviously it's still possible to roll your own payments or using things like my own https://extensionpay.com
> Yeah, it's annoying that neither Google of Firefox stores have easy payments — it makes taking payments less accessible for developers. But obviously it's still possible to roll your own payments or using things like my own https://extensionpay.com
That's cool. I may look into this. Do you have a list of extensions using the service?
It's actually not that hard to become a billionaire [points at some billionaires]
By the way, here are some stats on Chrome extensions: https://www.debugbear.com/blog/counting-chrome-extensions