Answers to frequently asked questions from the r/chrome_extensions community
After my last posts about earning my first money with a Chrome extension, quite a few people started messaging me with similar questions. So I decided to answer the most common ones in one place. Maybe it will help someone who is just starting.
Question
Did you do market research before building your extension?
Answer
No. My original goal was simply to solve my own problem. I constantly lost my browser tabs and needed a way to save them in one click as sessions and store them safely so they would not disappear. That is how Locker was born.
Question
How do you accept payments from different countries? Do you need to open a company?
Answer
No. You do not necessarily need to open a company in the beginning. You can use services like Lemon Squeezy that handle payments, taxes and payouts for you.
Question
I'm just learning programming. What tech stack should I use?
Answer
My stack is pretty simple. Frontend — TypeScript, React, TailwindCSS. Backend — Deno edge functions. Supabase for auth, storage and database. Lemon Squeezy for payments. There are many ways to build extensions though. This is just what works for me.
Question
What motivates you to keep building extensions?
Answer
Honestly I just enjoy building products. Time is the hardest part. I work full time helping international companies enter the Central Asian market — it is consulting work and it is exhausting. But I still try to spend about 90 minutes a day on my own products. I do not wait for the perfect moment. I just do what I can.
Question
How do you promote a Chrome extension?
Answer
If there is a formula it probably looks like this: experiments + time = results. Just keep trying things and see what works.
Question
How do you find ideas for extensions?
Answer
My personal rule is simple — solve one of your own browser problems. It might sound naive, but there are 8 billion people on this planet. If something annoys you, chances are many others have the same problem.