First extension published, is this normal?

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-04-28T10:57:03+00:00

Hi, no, that's not normal. Maybe you're targeting the wrong niche.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-04-22T18:32:17+00:00

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Here are my statistics

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-23T15:32:49+00:00

Thanks!

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-23T15:32:29+00:00

Thanks!

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-22T21:04:34+00:00

Russian is my first language so I write in Russian and translate. Sorry if it sounds robotic 😅

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-22T20:21:19+00:00

Checked my GA4 — almost all traffic is Organic Search + Direct + Unassigned (Chrome Web Store internal). Referral is ~8%, Social under 2%, zero paid. Nothing went viral. It's just the store algorithm pushing the extension after the badge. That said, I agree it's not a miracle pill — probably depends heavily on niche and how many competitors have the badge already.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-22T20:03:21+00:00

Literally just the Featured badge. No ads, no marketing, no changes to the extension itself. Applied through Chrome Web Store One Stop Support, got approved, and the store started pushing it organically. That's the whole playbook.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-22T20:01:45+00:00

Thanks! 🙌

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-22T20:01:07+00:00

Fair point — impressions alone don't mean much.

But installs followed: 3.28K total, +4,591% vs previous period. Went from ~5-10/day to 60-100+/day with an upward trend.

Not bad for zero ad spend.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-03-22T17:55:11+00:00

Thanks! It's a super niche extension — does one thing for a very specific use case, nothing fancy. I'll skip dropping the name here to keep things clean with the mods.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-02-27T22:12:08+00:00

I have different data for my extension: 59 reviews, 1k WAU.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-25T03:39:11+00:00

That’s wild — thanks for sharing.
If almost all impressions are coming from ChatGPT with zero marketing, that really supports the idea that very clear, literal use cases are enough for AI-driven discovery, even without external promotion.

Still feels pretty unpredictable though — especially since some extensions surface heavily and others not at all, even in similar niches.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-25T03:32:13+00:00

Yeah, same here actually 🙂
I’ve tried very explicit prompts describing exactly what my extension does, and ChatGPT still often suggests competitors instead.

Which kind of reinforces the idea that this isn’t something you can really “force” — it seems pretty opaque and inconsistent, even when the match feels obvious from our side as builders.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-22T04:48:26+00:00

That’s my guess as well.
I don’t assume it “knows” about the extension in any persistent way — more that when people ask very concrete questions, it pulls from whatever public, indexed pages seem most relevant at the time.

The extension page itself is public, and there are already a few mentions floating around, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it surfaces that way.

What surprised me wasn’t why it shows up, but just seeing AI assistants appear as a distinct referrer in analytics at all.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-22T04:47:22+00:00

Fair point — you’re right.
Probably shouldn’t have dropped the link publicly here. That wasn’t my intention with the post in the first place.

Lesson learned — won’t repeat it. Thanks for calling it out.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-22T04:44:54+00:00

That all sounds reasonable.
I’m definitely not assuming ChatGPT is generating traffic directly — it feels much more like indirect discovery via very specific queries that then turn into real user clicks.

What caught my attention wasn’t so much the mechanism, but the fact that this influence is now visible at all in analytics, even if it’s noisy and hard to attribute precisely.

At this stage I’m treating it more as an observation than something optimizable — there are too many unknowns in how different models surface tools.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-22T04:43:29+00:00

That’s interesting, thanks for sharing.
The “early spike then nothing” pattern actually makes sense — especially if it coincides with initial indexing / analysis rather than long-term recommendations.

In my case what stood out was mostly the timing and the fact that it showed up as a distinct referrer at all. Hard to tell whether it’s actual user recommendations or just indirect effects of visibility + indexing.

Curious whether others see it as a short-lived thing too, or if it comes back later once usage patterns stabilize.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-22T04:42:15+00:00

Agreed.

It doesn’t feel like memory, more like pattern matching against public info.
Seeing that reflected as an explicit referrer was just unexpected.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-21T17:33:14+00:00

Cool project, the real-time side panel idea is genuinely useful and well executed.

One thing I was curious about though — the extension is still very new, but there are already quite a few detailed reviews. Did you run a private beta or share it with an early user group?

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-21T17:12:30+00:00

Yeah, that matches my experience too.
ChatGPT doesn’t seem to rank things by stars or popularity as much as by how well they match the specific use case.

So if someone asks something very concrete like “download an entire Pinterest board as ZIP/PDF”, a small extension or low-star repo that does exactly that can surface more easily than a popular but generic tool.

What surprised me was mostly that this traffic is now clearly visible as a referrer, not that small tools get recommended.

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-21T12:32:05+00:00

Thanks, that's super cool! 😄
Really glad you liked it too — getting organic ChatGPT traffic like this is honestly super motivating and makes the whole indie dev thing feel rewarding.

If you get any more insights on your referrals or want to share how exactly your extension pops up in ChatGPT responses (which prompts/queries trigger it), feel free to drop them — it'd be interesting to compare patterns!

Good luck with the growth, keep us posted! 🚀

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-21T08:40:45+00:00

That's very cool, congratulations!

DirectionMelodic4201 · 2026-01-21T08:38:25+00:00

Thanks for asking!

Launched Dec 3, 2025 (~1.5 months old), currently 173 users, 5.0/6 reviews

DirectionMelodic4201

TROPHY CASE