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I have a chrome extension that I think is fairly useful. It's already been posted and is free. How can I start charging for it with the Chrome webstore? $.99 or some such.

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    Somebody will take your idea, implement it, and make it available for free. Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 22:41
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    I'm not sure why, but everyone is "answering" this question as if it were "Should I?" instead of "How can I?". It's offtopic! Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 0:05
  • @Matthew Read: Usually there's a very fine line between the two. To blow it out of proportion, here's an example: If someone were to ask you "Can I jump off a cliff?" would you answer "Sure!" or would you caution them against such an action? Sometimes people don't think of valid and relevant alternatives (ie, a donation button in this case) that may do even better at what they are trying to achieve (in this case, presumably turn a profit). Personally, I see a donation button as being a better option than charging .99c to whoever will pay. Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 1:07
  • @Matthew Scharley: I don't think that's relevant to whether StackExchange answers are actually answers, personally. I understand your point, but advice itself doesn't constitute an answer. Were anyone to answer this question well it would be an objective answer; that indicates to me that the question is offtopic. Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 1:19
  • @MS: But you're right that Mark may just not have thought of alternatives; my preferred method of helping him expand his question a little would be to comment here and suggest it, rather than answer the possible future question. Maybe I'm just too accustomed to the "objective" SEs, so I withdraw my complaint. Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 1:23

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If the extension is already free and you didn't note that there is a "free period" when it was originally posted then you might be better off updating it to be donation-ware and providing some sort of link to a "tip jar" that people can donate a buck or two towards. Likewise, if there is an improvement you could make to the extension that would be a major difference, you could release it separately as a "pro" version and charge for that one, but only if there is a significant usefulness to the newer version and you are still supporting the free version.

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I don't think that would work out very well. There are just too many extensions that look like they'll be awesome, but later prove to be not so awesome. I wouldn't pay for something I couldn't try for a while first.

If an extension does make my job easier, I'm happy to donate far more than your suggested price of $0.99, I usually send someone $5 - $10 and a nice e-mail. I've sent people cash for useful greasemonkey scripts in the past.

Just let people know that you're much more enthused about making improvements if the extension buys you a nice lunch a few days a week.

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It's yours!! If you feel like charging for it, then Charge for it!

What's the worst that could happen? The people who weren't paying for it will decide to not buy it?

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Don't do it bro! Chrome webstore is pretty much free right now. Plus...who is really going to buy something from the chrome webstore...

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  • That sounds like a catch-22! (But indeed, I have a hard time imagining what I might even consider paying for on the webstore.) Commented Mar 9, 2011 at 15:21

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