Solo extension devs who care about SEO — how are you actually building backlinks without it feeling spammy? Who want to share backlink but smartly?

I've been building browser extensions solo for a while, and I've done my homework on SEO — technical setup, content, the on-page stuff. The one piece I never properly tackled is backlinks. And it's starting to feel like the ceiling: my pages are clean, but with almost nothing pointing to them, Google barely crawls half of them.

So I'm finally trying to fix that — and I don't think it's something you crack alone. This post is really for the devs who also care about SEO and are trying to grow their backlink profile, because I think we can help each other.

The idea I keep coming back to: genuinely recommending another dev whose extension solves a different problem for a similar user. Not a spammy "link swap" (reciprocal-link schemes get devalued, and it feels gross anyway) — more like a real "works great alongside this" mention where it actually helps the user. Your tool + mine side by side = both of us get a legit contextual link, and the reader gets a better recommendation.

What I mean by complementary, not competing: I make dual-subtitle / subtitle tools for language learners on Netflix & YouTube. Someone building a flashcard/SRS extension, a YouTube speed/loop tool, or a dictionary popup — same user, zero overlap. Natural pairing. Two subtitle downloaders linking each other = pointless and spammy. That's the line.

So, two honest questions:

  1. Devs in adjacent (not competing) niches — language learning, video/YouTube tools, reading/productivity, privacy/local-AI, extension for Whatsapp/discord/reddit (I have extension translator for them) — if your users overlap mine, I'd love to see what you built. Drop what you make + who it's for.
  2. Anyone who's actually grown their backlinks — what moved the needle? Mutual "recommended tools" pages? A shared post? Getting into round-ups? Or was most of it noise? Genuinely want to hear what paid off vs. what wasted your time.

To put my money where my mouth is: I already run an article, "Best Netflix Chrome extensions," and I'm happy to add a genuinely useful tool that fits — a real editorial link, not a hidden footer swap (google detect that and don't like them). I'd rather give first.

I'll drop the full list of what I build in a comment (keeping it out of the post so this stays a discussion, not an ad). Free keys for anyone who wants to actually try something before recommending it — no strings.

A few of us building real links together beats all of us staying invisible alone. Who's in?

reddit.com
u/AlimFr — 1 day ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 21.8k r/tanzania+2 crossposts

Training crows to pick up trash is a creative way to make your city cleaner.

u/AlimFr — 3 days ago

what do you guys do with this kind of reviews?

I don't get it, why some people jsut post useless review instead of reach the developer or support and try to solve the issue... You can write this review if you try to reach the support and nobody help you...

u/AlimFr — 13 days ago

The constant mismatch between official subtitles and spoken audio is my biggest frustration right now. What about yours?

I’ve been learning Spanish (TL) (currently around a B1++ level) mostly by watching shows for comprehensible input. But there is one massive frustration that completely breaks my immersion: the official subtitles almost never match exactly what the actors are saying.
And yes, I know learning with subtitle is not the best way but I don't always want to watch peppa pig and watch a serie with subtitle in my case still help me to improve my skill!

I looked into this recently, and I actually get why it happens. Subtitlers have to follow strict rules for character limits and average reading speeds. These industry standards are great for a lot of people, but they are just not adapted for everyone. I even read that some hard-of-hearing people (who can still hear parts of the audio) find this mismatch between spoken words and text super disturbing and frustrating too.

For a language learner, this mismatch is just terrible. When an actor uses a great idiomatic phrase or some slang, the subtitle often just summarizes the meaning into a simpler sentence. It makes shadowing or sentence mining almost impossible. You end up hearing one thing, reading another, and wondering which version you are actually supposed to learn.

The main argument I see is always that people can't read as fast as actors speak. But as a learner, I don't need to read every single word anyway. I try to rely on my listening first. I only glance at the subtitles to catch that one specific word I missed. Because of this, a 100% exact transcript wouldn't be too fast to read, it would actually be exactly what I need.

(And yes I know about CC, but even CC tracks are sometimes summarized, and a lot of shows simply don't have them).

I'm really curious to know how you guys deal with this frustration. What language are you learning right now and have you faced this exact same problem on specific shows or movies? Do you agree that a perfectly accurate transcription would be much better for learning (for you)?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

reddit.com
u/AlimFr — 14 days ago

Vietnamese heritage speaker moving to Saigon in September, looking for affordable vietnamese group classes

Hi everyone,

I’ll be in Saigon this September for around 3 months, and I’m looking for Vietnamese classes that would fit my situation.

I’m originally Vietnamese and I spoke Vietnamese at home when I was young, but since growing up in France my vocabulary has become quite limited and a bit outdated. I’d really like to use this opportunity to rebuild my Vietnamese, especially for everyday conversation and natural speaking. (I can speak English and French). I don' t know how to write and read vietnamese at all but I can speak and understand at my level.

What I’m looking for is:

  • group classes rather than private lessons, since they are more affordable and I also like the social aspect;
  • a class with regular sessions, maybe a few hours per week, but not full-time intensive study;
  • a group with people around my age if possible, ideally in the 20–30 age range;
  • a setting that helps me make steady progress without being too academic or too beginner-oriented.

I was wondering whether it would be better to look for centers with a lot of Việt kiều or heritage speakers, people who learned Vietnamese as children, rather than classes mainly for foreign learners. Since my level is not zero, I think a heritage-speaker-friendly group might be a better fit.

If you know any good schools, centers, or group classes in Saigon that would match this, I’d really appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks a lot!

reddit.com
u/AlimFr — 15 days ago

[Urgent - J-4] Recours France Travail (IPR) : Différence Tribunal Administratif (2 mois) vs Judiciaire (2 ans)

Bonjour à tous,

Je suis face à un mur administratif avec France Travail et il ne me reste que 4 jours avant l'expiration d'un délai légal. J'ai besoin de vos lumières pour ne pas faire de bêtise.

Ma question juridique principale : La lettre de refus final de France Travail (suite à une médiation) indique deux voies de recours contradictoires :

  1. "Vous pouvez saisir le tribunal judiciaire compétent dans un délai de 2 ans"
  2. "Vous pouvez saisir le tribunal administratif compétent dans un délai de 2 mois [...] via Télérecours."

Quelle est la différence concrète dans mon cas (contestation d'une décision de l'Instance Paritaire Régionale concernant mes ARE) ? Dois-je déposer une requête sur Télérecours en urgence ce week-end pour "geler" le délai de 2 mois, ou suis-je couvert par le délai de 2 ans ?

Le contexte de mon dossier (l'absurdité totale) :

  • Août 2025 : Perte d'emploi et ouverture de mes droits ARE.
  • Le piège : J'avais créé mon auto-entreprise un peu avant (avril 2025). Du coup, je suis soumis à la règle du cumul limité à 60 % de mes droits.
  • Décembre 2025 : J'atteins le plafond des 60 %. L'agence suspend mes ARE et m'envoie devant l'Instance Paritaire Régionale (IPR) pour demander la poursuite de mes droits.
  • L'activité : Je développe un SaaS (logiciel). Cela demande des mois de R&D. À l'époque de la commission, mon CA était logiquement de 0 € (au bout de 3 mois a bosser dessus, ayant que 6 mois de chomage, les 60% sont arrivé vite). J'ai demandé de l'aide à mon conseiller pour monter le dossier IPR : silence radio. On m'a juste demandé d'envoyer une lettre de demande pour continuer a toucher l'ARE
  • Décision IPR : Refus. Motif : "Votre activité non salariée doit générer une activité réelle et régulière (factures, etc.)."

Aujourd'hui : Mon produit est lancé et je génère environ 500 €/mois de MRR (une belle traction initiale, mais pas assez pour en vivre donc je comptais sur mon DROIT au chomage !). J'ai donc fait une réclamation puis saisi la Médiatrice Régionale avec mes factures Stripe/URSSAF pour demander un réexamen avec ces "éléments nouveaux".

La réponse de la Médiatrice (le fameux "Non") : Elle refuse de rouvrir le dossier. Son argument : l'IPR statue sur la situation au moment de la suspension (décembre 2025). Que je fasse du CA aujourd'hui n'est pas considéré comme un élément nouveau. La boucle est bouclée.

L'absurdité de la situation :

  1. On m'a dit de faire appel si je n'étais pas d'accord, mais cet appel ne sert à rien puisqu'ils figent le temps à décembre 2025.
  2. Si j'avais passé 6 mois à envoyer des CV dans le vide au lieu de bosser a fond sur mon SaaS, j'aurais touché 100 % de mes ARE.
  3. Le pire : si je ferme mon auto-entreprise demain matin sur l'URSSAF, France Travail sera obligé de me reverser la totalité de mon reliquat d'ARE. Mais je refuse de tuer ma boîte qui commence à marcher juste pour satisfaire une case administrative !

J'ai saisi le Défenseur des Droits récemment pour dénoncer le défaut de conseil initial, mais ça traîne et le délai des 2 mois expire dans 4 jours.

Que me conseillez-vous de faire sur Télérecours pour me protéger juridiquement ce week-end, même sans avocat ? Que dois-je écrire dans ma requête introductive d'instance pour que ma plainte soit recevable ? Pensez vous que j'ai des chances de succès? Honnetement, je n'y comprend rien je ne vois que l'absurdité de la situation, deja de la décision prise sans que je puisse appuyer mon dossier et ensuite sur ce droit de recours mais apparemment juste sur la forme car malgré mes tentatives on me al refuse on me rétorquons que la comission a "pouvoir d'appréciation". mais justement, je veux faire un recours...

Merci infiniment pour votre aide !

u/AlimFr — 21 days ago

Do you have a web site for your extension? How about your SEO?

For example I've reach almsot 700 clicks last month, but I don't know if it is bad or good. SO let compare our number!

u/AlimFr — 21 days ago

[Milestone/Journey] Crossed €1,000 in 2 months with my Chrome extensions. My "Multi-App" strategy & an idea for the community.

I’ve been developing web extensions for a few months now, and on April 1st, I finally took the monetization leap by adding premium paywalls via Stripe. Two months later, the results have been incredible: I’ve crossed the €1,000 revenue mark, several of my extensions have passed 1,000 active users, and quite a few have generated over €100 individually.

I often see advice on this sub telling people to focus strictly on one single product to bring it to its full potential. I totally respect that approach, but I actually went with the exact opposite strategy. I wanted to share why this works for me, my pricing learnings, and get your thoughts on an idea I have.

My Strategy: The "Multi-App" Approach & Russian Roulette

To me, the Chrome Web Store feels a bit like Russian roulette. You can "buy" extra luck with marketing (Reddit posts, etc.) or even more by making a lot of extensions, but there is always an element of chance regarding what will take off and what won't.

My solution? Launch more projects. I just love building, so this aligns perfectly with my personality. Having a constant pipeline of ideas actually makes me more creative.

How I ship fast without breaking the bank:

  • Centralized Infrastructure: A single domain name, a single Vercel project, and one Supabase database. My monthly fixed costs are practically zero.
  • Optimized Architecture: All my extensions communicate with this single infrastructure. I use Cloudflare Workers when I need to make API calls (to keep API keys secure).
  • Mutual Growth: Having multiple extensions allows me to cross-promote. I also built a reusable referral system across all my apps, creating a nice little viral loop between users.

What I Learned About Pricing

Don't hesitate to experiment early on! I played around with a lot of pricing models on my Stripe dashboard until I saw where users naturally gravitated. At the beginning I don't have a lot of yearly subscription but a lot of lifetime plan because of my pricing

For my most mature app, Subtitle downloader extension, I found the perfect sweet spot:

  • Monthly: €4.99
  • Annual: €29.99 (~50% discount to push them toward this tier)
  • Lifetime: €74.99

There are so many apps out there that you have to offer a Lifetime deal because people could hate subscription, but do not underprice it. The main goal is still to push users toward the annual subscription. However, Lifetime users are incredibly valuable: because they've invested a decent chunk of money upfront, they are much more likely to report bugs and give feedback, unlike a monthly subscriber who will just churn at the slightest friction. Today, this extension runs smoothly and requires very little maintenance, freeing me up to build new ones.

The product: Build a great product with a nice customer support is important

You could market your extension and have new traffic and users, but the most important is the retention and the fact that people will trust you to take longterm subscription or lifetime deal. So you need to have a nice customer support, listen to your users and people will trust you.

Marketing: Do Not Neglect It

Having the best code means nothing if nobody sees it. Lately, I force myself to do at least 1 Reddit post per day in target subreddits and reply to existing posts. The perk of the multi-app strategy? Since I have different target audiences, I never spam the same communities.

Cross-app SEO (having one domain hosting all the landing pages) should theoretically boost all my apps at once. But to be 100% honest, I haven't managed to crack the SEO code on this yet! (~300 monthly click on my website)

My Idea: A "Multi-Extension" Boilerplate

Today, my codebase perfectly handles browser edge cases and has reached maturity. I’ve been wondering if a Multi-App Web Extension Boilerplate would be something people here would actually want.

The pitch: 1 landing page + infrastructure ready to host new extensions instantly + DB connection + Cloudflare Workers setup + integrated referral system + stripe and subscription connexion between the DB, the website and your extension

Even in the AI era, generating the same boilerplate code over and over wastes a massive amount of tokens and context window. Plus, AI doesn't know all the weird browser edge cases and obscure Web Store rejection reasons. With a battle-tested setup, you could focus only on the core use case of your extension. What I’d be selling isn't just code; it's the exact system that allowed me to generate my first thousands of euros, allowing you to ship fast with zero monthly infra costs.

My biggest hesitation? Imposter syndrome. I'm a bit scared of other devs judging my codebase if I make it public. But at the end of the day, the tool has proven its real-world value.

Let me know what you think!

Does this multi-app strategy resonate with you? Would you be interested in a system to ship extensions fast with zero monthly infra costs?

I put together a quick Tally form to test the waters. Your feedback will help me beat my imposter syndrome and actually package this thing! 👉 Tally form

I will take me a lot of tiem to polish my code base and extract a valuable boilerplate even if AI will help me a lot! So let me know if it is something you could be into it!

Thanks for reading, and keep building!

You can find my website with all my extensions here (each extensions have its own landing page) Extensions web page

Stripe proof : https://profile.stripe.com/alim/WGNnNuzs

If you have any valuable question about my web extension developer journey, I will be of course happy to answer you in the comment 😄

u/AlimFr — 26 days ago

Does it drive anyone else crazy when Vietnamese subtitles don't match the audio on serie/movie/show?

Hey everyone,

A few weeks ago, I posted here about a little extension I made (Easy Dual Sub). It's been incredibly helpful for my own immersion, especially as I'm preparing to head over there for a few months soon to test out the nomad lifestyle and check out some universities. It works great on YouTube channels that provide high-quality, exact captions.

But as my listening practice has shifted towards movies and series, I hit a massive wall: the official subtitles almost never match what the actors are actually saying. They constantly summarize or skip words. Easy Dual Sub relies on existing subtitles, so when the official subs are wrong, the tool is useless.

I tried using live AI-transcription tools, but they always have a 1-2 second delay, which makes watching a show extremely frustrating.

Since I couldn't find a solution, I went back to coding and built a new prototype for myself. It uses a tabCapture method to grab the audio on a hidden background tab, plays it accelerated, and transcribes it ahead of time. By the time I hear the dialogue, the exact verbatim Vietnamese text is already on screen with absolutely zero delay.

It's working perfectly for my current setup, but before I consider making this a public tool like my last one, I wanted to get some opinions from other learners here:

1. Translation vs. Verbatim: Right now, I just want the exact Vietnamese text. But would beginners prefer having both the verbatim Vietnamese AND an English translation simultaneously?

2. AI "Repair": Sometimes actors mumble or speak incredibly fast, and the AI misses a word. I’m thinking of tweaking the script so it compares the raw AI transcript with the (summarized) official subtitles to "repair" and guess missing words based on context. Is this level of 100% exactness necessary, or is getting most of the spoken dialogue enough for immersion?

Would love to hear how you guys deal with the subtitle mismatch on Vietnamese shows!

reddit.com
u/AlimFr — 26 days ago
▲ 73 r/French

Does anyone else get incredibly frustrated when French subtitles are completely summarized and don't match the audio?

I’ve been learning French (currently around an intermediate/B1+ level) mostly by watching shows for comprehensible input. But there is one massive frustration that completely breaks my immersion: the official subtitles almost never match exactly what the actors are saying.

The issue isn't just actors speaking fast; it's that the official subtitles constantly summarize or completely reword the dialogue. For example, an actor might say a great idiomatic phrase like "Laisse tomber, c'est pas la peine de te casser la tête avec ça", but the subtitle just reads "N'y pense plus". It makes shadowing or sentence mining impossible. (I've learned that it is because subtitle are not made for language learner and need to be short but this little trick is not great for a language learner like me that want the perfect transcription)

I tried a few live-captioning tools to get exact, verbatim transcriptions, but because they listen in real-time, there is always a 1-2 second delay. Having the text pop up after the actor finishes speaking is super distracting.

I'm a software engineering student, so out of pure frustration, I coded a personal script to fix this for myself. It uses a clever tabCapture method to grab the audio on a hidden background tab, plays it accelerated, and transcribes it ahead of time. By the time I hear the dialogue on screen, the exact verbatim French text is already there. Zero delay.

It works perfectly for my daily immersion, but it made me wonder about two things regarding language learning methods, and I'd love your opinions:

Right now, my script only gives me the exact French text (having English translations on screen is counter-productive for my current level). But if you were a beginner, would you prefer having both the exact French AND the English translation at the same time?

Sometimes, during fast action scenes, the AI might miss a word. I’m thinking of tweaking my script so it compares the raw transcript with the heavily summarized official subtitles to "repair" and guess missing words based on context. Do you think that level of exactness is necessary for learning, or is getting 80% of the raw spoken dialogue enough?

Just curious to hear how other French learners deal with the huge gap between spoken audio and completely reworded official subtitles!

reddit.com
u/AlimFr — 26 days ago

The Chrome Web Store algorithm finally blessed my extension! (From 2.5k to 11k daily impressions 🚀). Has anyone experienced a sudden jump like this?

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a recent milestone and see if anyone else has experienced similar CWS (Chrome Web Store) algorithm behavior, because I'm facing a weird situation.

I launched my extension (a Subtitle Downloader) a while ago. For months, it was flatlining at around 2,500 impressions per day. Then, out of nowhere 3 days ago, the impressions just skyrocketed. I'm now hitting between 10k and 11k impressions per day! (See screenshot attached). I hope it is not a bug haha

Here is the catch: According to my Google Analytics, my actual new users/installs haven't jumped at all over these last 3 days. They remained completely flat (still at ~80/90 /day). So my impressions 4x'd, but my conversion rate tanked.

My questions for fellow devs who have been through this:

  • Have you ever experienced a sudden "blessing" from the CWS algorithm like this?
  • Why would impressions spike so hard without ANY bump in installs? Am I ranking for irrelevant keywords now?
  • How do I capitalize on this? Should I push external marketing right now to send positive signals, or focus entirely on A/B testing my store listing to fix the conversion rate?

Would love to hear your experiences and thoughts!

u/AlimFr — 1 month ago
▲ 7 r/learnvietnamese+1 crossposts

[Resource] I built a lightweight Dual-Subtitle tool that merges native translations (Works on Youtube, Netflix, hbo MAX, Disney +, Prime video & Apple Tv ). Offering 1 free unlimited month to this sub! 🎁

Hi everyone! 👋

Full transparency upfront: I am the developer of a browser extension called Easy Dual Sub. I built it because I was frustrated with the current dual-subtitle options, and I wanted to share how it can specifically help you study Vietnamese.

The YouTube Problem It Solves

I am a huge fan of the YouTube channel Actually Understand Vietnamese. The videos are made by native professionals who meticulously craft both the English and Vietnamese subtitles themselves. The content is pure gold (they actually just dropped a new video today! Bonus point: the host is gorgeous and the overall production quality is amazing).

The problem? YouTube doesn’t let you display both of their native subtitle tracks at the exact same time.

That’s where my tool comes in. Instead of forcing a clunky LLM or machine translation on you, my tool has a Merge feature. It simply takes the two existing human-made subtitle tracks provided by the channel and displays them beautifully together. You get 100% accurate, professional dual subs. (you can still use the translation way, but I just offer an alternative better option for you when the youtube channel provide very good subtitle in both languages)

Works on Netflix, HBO, Prime & More

The best part is that it works across almost all major streaming platforms (Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV). For example, on Netflix, I recently watched the movie Song of the South (Đất Rừng Phương Nam) using the dual subs, and it was a fantastic experience. Unlike other tools, there is no heavy interface, no forced flashcards, and no clutter you didn't ask for. It’s just clean, 100% customizable dual subtitles.

🎁 The Free Offer for this Sub

To be completely honest, this tool operates on a freemium model with a usage quota.

However, I want to help out this community! If you want to try the fully unlimited version to binge-watch and study, here is what you do:

  • Drop a comment under this post saying you are interested.
  • Create a free account on the extension (no credit card required at all!).
  • Send me your user ID.

I will manually grant you 1 full month of unlimited premium access for free.

Let me know what you think of the tool and happy learning! 🇻🇳🎬

Link on the comment

u/AlimFr — 1 month ago

Has anyone ever been targeted by a 1-star review bomber? (And a small plea for help to save my new extension 🙏)

I build a few Chrome extensions, and I recently received a lot of email for store user review in a row. One specific user went on a spree and left 1-star reviews across several of my extensions with zero constructive feedback or bug reports. It honestly feels like a personal vendetta at this point. So i don't understand... Do you think it is a competitor or? ...

Has this kind of targeted review bombing ever happened to you? How do you deal with it since the Chrome Web Store support rarely intervenes?

To be honest, I don’t really care about the 1-star reviews on my older extensions. They have enough positive ratings to drown out the noise, so it doesn't affect my average much.

However, the real issue is my brand-new extension.

I just launched it, and this troll’s 1-star rating is the very first and only review. As fellow devs, you know that a 1-star average on a new launch is an absolute death sentence. It completely tanks the algorithm and scares away any potential users.

I'm feeling pretty gutted about it, so I wanted to ask this community for a huge favor.

Would anyone be willing to test out my new extension? It’s a tool that allow you to have dual subtitle on main stream streaming platform like Netflix, Disney +, Hbo max, Apple tv, prime vidoe & Youtube.

If you try it and genuinely like it, leaving an honest, positive review would mean the world to me. I just need a couple of real reviews to balance out this unfair 1-star so my extension actually has a fighting chance to survive its launch.

Here is the link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/easydualsub-dual-subtitle/onppmeaeeccnhhheakdhebalcfbbnoch

Thanks a lot for reading, and I'd love to hear your stories if you've dealt with crazy users like this!

u/AlimFr — 2 months ago

A simpler, distraction-free alternative to Language Reactor for passive watching. Learn without energy

I feel like the language learning community can be pretty intense with Anki reps and shadowing. But honestly, between a full-time job and family stuff, a lot of us just want to crash on the couch and watch a show in the evening.

Using dual subtitles gets a lot of hate because it’s not "active", but for me, it’s a great way to pick up vocab and sentence structures without needing intense focus.

I used to use Language Reactor for this. It’s an amazing tool, but it has too many features, sidebars, and popups that feel like studying. Plus, I was frustrated that it only works on Netflix and YouTube.

I just wanted something stupidly simple: two clean subtitle tracks, no distractions, that I could use on other platforms like Prime Video or Disney+.

Since I couldn't find a lightweight alternative, I built a browser extension called EasyDualSub. There’s no heavy UI, just the subtitles perfectly synced. It works on Prime, Max, Disney+, etc., alongside Netflix and YouTube.

The main thing that separates it from other extensions I tried is how it actually generates the subtitles**.** First, it can natively merge two official tracks if the platform provides them (I'm tweaking the syncing algorithm for this daily). But if your language is missing, you can translate the subs on the fly using standard Google Translate or an LLM. The cool part about the LLM option is that it uses the original human-translated track as a reference context. This means it preserves the actual jokes, idioms, and cultural nuances way better than standard word-for-word machine translation.

I'm running a beta right now, so it’s completely free and unlimited until May 18th. After that, I’ll switch to a freemium model (free version with a generous monthly quota, no paywalled features).

If you prefer "passive" watching to relax, give it a try. I'd appreciate any feedback on the UI or bugs.

[Chrome Store Esy Dual Sub Link]

[Firefox Easy Dual Sub Link]

u/AlimFr — 2 months ago