Just launched my chrome extension - a glorified dev tools
Hey IH Community,
I'm super excited because I finally managed to launch my extension after at least one year of development. It should not have taken so long, but I had to take some breaks in-between for either work or life related reasons.
Anyways, let me introduce TurboStyle, a chrome extension that let's you visually edit any element on a page. To add some value to this post instead of just blatant self promo, I'd like to guide you through my journey and share some learnings.
Idea
I just sold my previous SaaS and I was looking for something to build. I had good experiences with AppSumo, so I was looking through their products, and I was looking at the reviews. I was searching for products with high purchase numbers but low review stars. My idea was that this way I'll find something that people actually want to buy, but are somewhat unsatisfied. On AppSumo you can also write detailed reviews, so often times you can even read what is the problem of the audience, so you can go ahead and create a new product that solves their issue.
That is how I found a similar product to TurboStyle, but people were complaining that it was a bit clunky, was not supporting enough CSS properties, and so on and so on. So I decided to give it a shot.
Development
I cloned the first chrome extension boilerplate I found on github and started coding. In retrospect I would have been better off with using https://wxt.dev/ , which seems like an awesome tool for developing chrome extensions. It has built-in shadow dom support, built-in manifest handling, and even supports Firefox out of the box.
Since almost the whole thing runs on the client, coding wise I did not encounter any major bottlenecks. I did however had to think about how I was gonna implement a "free trial". I did not want the extension to have any login system in place, I feel like there is a huge signup fatigue going on, at least I personally hate when I need to log in before I can try anything.
So I am using chrome profile IDs to see if the user already installed this extension, and appropriately send the trial end date to the client, and that's pretty much all the backend I have.
Marketing
Yes. My arch-enemy. First I would like to get some initial traction, by posting on typical subreddits like r/sideproject and the likes. Also want to post on ProductHunt but without an existing audience I don't expect too many visitors from there.
I will also try to find relevant discussions on Youtube, reddit, quora, hackernews, and so on and so on and comment something useful with maybe a link pointing to TurboStyle.
I might also look for a partner helping out in the marketing part, or maybe I will again post my product to AppSumo and let them take care of it.
Time will tell, I am usually pretty flexible when it comes to marketing, trying to grab every opportunity I get.
Pricing
To avoid subscription fatigue I decided to opt for a one time payment. Since my costs are minimal I don't see a reason why users should pay me monthly for this extension.
The price will be $49 but I launched it with a kick-off sale, to gather some initial users and feedback.
I did not want to undersell it, I think this extension provides value to a lot of people, and I think this is a fair price.
Target audience
I am thinking that this extension benefits people who workin in a design/development/product area. It is perfect for quick prototyping, idea iteration, and generally speeds up FE development. These are my initial thoughts, time will tell if I need to pivot or not.
Thank you for reading through all of it, and I am super eager to hear your feedback.
Cheers,
Daniel
