The proxy business experiment: Pros, cons and tips of running a proxy site
Author: Nick PapanotasYou visited a few times and I would appreciate your thoughts on this post, why not comment?
A few months ago I was seeing many proxy websites sold at the popular webmaster marketplaces. What made me interested about this business is that a full automated site can earn big sums from $10 - $100 per day with no work at all. So I thought it would be cool to experiment a little and establish a proxy site.
The result was very good as I made a site that earned about $300 per month with no work at all, and I later sold it for $3000 which was really cool. I know that this sum may not seem great to many people, but please have in mind that this site cost me about $30 and about 20 hours of work (including promotion and everything)
Today I feel like I have to share my conclusions about proxy business and maybe some tips for those who are interested to start a proxy web site.
Benefits of having a proxy site
The biggest and most important benefit of running such a site is one, automated money. But before you start being excited on this check the….
Cons of running a proxy web site
I know earning automated money is what every webmaster wants, but in this case there are many problems too. Here I will try to describe the problems I got into while I was running my proxy :
- Proxies create overhead. That means that a proxy site can be easily crash your server if you have enough traffic, so consider that very well
- Bandwidth. I had months where I was using 3 TB (terrabytes) of bandwidth which was more due to…
- Hotlinking. You should be careful that other sites don’t steal your bandwidth in order to hotlink other sites
- Abuse. Hackers and cybercriminals use proxies to do their “job”. So you must be very careful, and be sure that your host allows you to have proxy web sites.
I know the cons are too many, but I have to tell you the truth and know exactly what you may face in the future before you start.
How to establish a proxy website
Now let’s say you want to start a proxy web site(I am sure most of the people will stop reading till now ). Here are the steps you have to follow :
Domain name
The domain name is a very important factor in the proxy business, but not the way it is for other kind of web sites. My experience learned me that a domain with keywords “myspace” or “proxy” is very bad for that kind of site, because these are the keywords that network admins search when they ban sites from their network 
Instead you can use words, like “hide”, “seek”, “surf”, etc.
Proxy script
In general there are a few scripts for proxies but only two are commonly used : phproxy and the CGI proxy. The first one is very easy to install, uses less server resources, but it has a big disadvantage. It can’t be used to visit myspace (login issues).
So as the most of the people will use a proxy site to visit myspace from school or work, CGI proxy is the way to go here. It is a little difficult to install it, but if you can’t you can easily find someone to install it for you (freelance sites, webmaster forums, etc.)
Promoting a proxy web site
The promotion of a proxy is a really easy part. You just need to do 3 things :
- Get a $20 ad at proxy.org. It really worths your money as it can bring many visitors, and if some of them start to promoting your site, the results can be significant.
- Join proxy topsites. It sounds so 90’s technique but it works great with proxies.
- Try to promote at myspace. There are groups about proxies, and you can always send bulettins to get some extra traffic. Another good thing you can do, is link to your myspace profile from your proxy site, so people who like your site can add you as friend.
SEO is not really important in proxies, and a good SEO campaign can harm you as it can help admins find you
Monetizing a proxy site
This is the nice part All you have to do is to put 2 big adsense boxes in your home page (check this proxy) and an adversal popup in your proxified pages (you can read an adversal review here)
Please notice that it is forbidden to use adsense in the proxified pages, so if you want to add there ads from another network along with adversal, use something like CodeAds or adbrite (which is not the best, but still is an option)
Affiliate marketing is probably not something that can work with proxies, but you may try it. I did and haven’t any good result.
Final conclusions
The proxy business is a risky business but still it is nice to run such a site, as it is full automated and after the initial work you will have to do, you wont have to do anything to make money from it. If you want a final piece of advice, please have in mind that proxies got blocked from network admins all the time, so if you got your site to a state that it earns some decent money sell it
Well I think that’s all for this tutorial, I hope you enjoy it
Yohan
2007-04-10 19:27:25
Wow that’s a great tutorial. Thanks for sharing that information
amok
2007-04-11 16:31:26
nusty job mate……And it sounds good to me .
The scripts are not smt too hard to install them . The problem is the security . Did u have any advice for that part?
admin
from Webdigity webmaster forums2007-04-11 19:00:21
Security is a big subject, but in general the only thing you should worry is the hotlinking. You can prevent that by using a script, or set it up in your cpanel (there is an option about hotlinking in most control panels)
AMOK
2007-04-11 22:55:04
thanks a lot …
i ll start work on that idea.
wish me gl !
admin
from Webdigity webmaster forums2007-04-11 22:59:03
Good luck then
Proxies
2007-04-19 00:08:23
Hi, does CodeAds accept their ads on proxified pages?
admin
from Webdigity webmaster forums2007-04-19 11:45:49
This is not specified in their TOS. I think you should ask them first, but I think they allow it.
Proxies
2007-04-19 11:50:21
OK I will try it (an extra banner is not wrong on a proxified page, this way I can corrent the missing Kontera earnings)
Free Proxy Templates | Free Proxy Themes » Articles on how to build a succesful proxy website!
2007-04-21 04:19:54
[...] Payment Blogger - Pros and Cons Great article outlining the Pros and the Cons of making a proxy website. [...]
Maurice V
2007-05-06 01:37:17
Hello
I??m interested in the Proxy idea, hope you can contact me back so we can talk about some business ideas I have thanks!
Maurice V
admin
from Webdigity webmaster forums2007-05-06 14:57:20
Maurice, you can contact me through email : http://paymentblogger.com/about/
Arymaan
from www.webcove.info2007-10-20 19:53:31
Hi,
Thats a great tutorial there. I have noted it as “Must Try”. I am already running a proxy site and must admit that it is the easiest way to make money. Specially when you know the rules
The only thing I want to know is how to run the adversal code. I signed up and added the code to index.inc but never succeeded in showing it up. so any help will be appreciated.
proxy
from proxy2008-01-20 02:41:27
What you didn’t mention is bad traffic.
Your proxy will become swarmed with chinese, Iranian, arab republic and other countires similiar.
Which will get your smart priced or worse…banned.
You must keep your .htaccess or firewall on the server updated and have blocking bad ip traffic sources.
unblock youtube
from unblock youtube2008-02-13 10:44:22
great tutorial! i am new to the proxy business and have been getting very little traffic.. any more suggestions?
SiteNodes
from SiteNodes2008-09-11 12:35:59
Well, what I have figured out is that proxy is the easiest way to earn online. Though admins keeps banning proxies on their networks, one turnaround to it is to get an SSL certificate for your URL and it should be accessible with https:// also, that way it becomes secure and thus hard to block too. Though it would increase the running cost, it would be helpful in long run….. My 2 Cents…..