Thread: Is the Proxy Business Profitable?

I was reading the thread (located somewhere around here) where everyone posted their monthly earnings, and I realized that a lot of them were extremely low - if you dedicate a few hours worth of your time, you can beat almost everyone in terms of profit by creating an advanced network of proxies. That is what's great about this niche... you typically do get a nice return on your time and money.

Originally Posted by Kovich

I was reading the thread (located somewhere around here) where everyone posted their monthly earnings, and I realized that a lot of them were extremely low - if you dedicate a few hours worth of your time, you can beat almost everyone in terms of profit by creating an advanced network of proxies. That is what's great about this niche... you typically do get a nice return on your time and money.

I've wasted many hours doing proxies, if I could use all those wasted hours to build quality websites I'm sure I'd earned at least double the amount of money I've earned through proxies

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

I've wasted many hours doing proxies, if I could use all those wasted hours to build quality websites I'm sure I'd earned at least double the amount of money I've earned through proxies

Well for me, I like proxies because:

a) I set them up in a day or so, and then just advertise them in toplists the next day.
b) The only time I spend on them is the hour/week that I advertise on Yahoo! Answers.
c) My proxies instantly pay for my domains, 2 VPSs, and leave me with enough money to waste on my other random Internet experiments.

I have yet to see that happen with any other website. I can start earning money instantly, which is impossible with forums and blogs. For example, I released Unblock Facebook at the beginning of October. Checking now, it's earned $58 since its opening. UnblockBook.biz has more than funded my web host's costs for a month.

Plus, I have to mention that I didn't start advertising on Yahoo Answers again until about two weeks ago, since I got annoyed with all of my accounts getting suspended. I have restarted though. So half of those earnings came from NO work at all.


And then there's GuardTunnel.com, which of course has been around longer and I have done more work on it, which has earned $106 in October. So that technically has already payed for both of my VPSs and the domains that I payed to make those two proxies - leaving me with $58 on whatever (Plus of course the earnings from all of my other websites. This extra $58 is for just two proxies).

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

I've wasted many hours doing proxies, if I could use all those wasted hours to build quality websites I'm sure I'd earned at least double the amount of money I've earned through proxies

Bang, exactly.

Proxies are ok for an intro and to get the ball rolling, but wen you look at the time invested and the amount you make, its not really worth it. In my opinion.

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

I've wasted many hours doing proxies, if I could use all those wasted hours to build quality websites I'm sure I'd earned at least double the amount of money I've earned through proxies

The only thing in favor of making proxies is that it is simple, mostly formulaic and takes little skill or brainwork. You don't have to use your brain to write new stuff everyday like a good blog or content website or such.

Originally Posted by Stylosa

Bang, exactly.

Proxies are ok for an intro and to get the ball rolling, but wen you look at the time invested and the amount you make, its not really worth it. In my opinion.

You also need to put up with extreme competition and the loads of co.cc proxies submitted to all the major proxy lists every day. Most of the earnings you make, need to be spent to pay for hosting (Which is generally more expensive) and promotion. And then there is the time you need to spend to make proxies and submit them to lists. So not the best returns for your time and money.

By comparison, I get to keep almost every dollar of the money I earn from normal websites (Hosting doesn't cost that much) and freelance writing.

So generally profitable (Given other online earning options and the time) for only experts, experienced webmasters, people with very little skill in any other area or extremely lazy people who prefer doing things that are mechanical and automated even though there is little profit to be made (Me, at most times ).

Originally Posted by Kovich

I was reading the thread (located somewhere around here) where everyone posted their monthly earnings, and I realized that a lot of them were extremely low - if you dedicate a few hours worth of your time, you can beat almost everyone in terms of profit by creating an advanced network of proxies. That is what's great about this niche... you typically do get a nice return on your time and money.

I bet you could make much more if you spend that time doing something else which you have skills at (if you have any) like flipping sites, freelance writing/designing/coding, affiliate marketing and so on.

Originally Posted by Glypus

You also need to put up with extreme competition and the loads of co.cc proxies submitted to all the major proxy lists every day.

If you work hard on your proxy, then you don't need to rely on these proxy lists and get repeat visitors. Over 60% of my visitors come direct, meaning they already know about my proxy and may have bookmarked it or been told by a friend.

You could also compare the thousands of blogs made daily as competition. Regardless, since I don't even use toplists to advertise my proxies (except maybe as a startup), I don't worry about these co.cz and co.cc proxies.

Originally Posted by Glypus

Most of the earnings you make, need to be spent to pay for hosting (Which is generally more expensive) and promotion.

Only about 10% of my earnings go to hosting. Well, if you read my above post, it contradicts that since I spend a lot of my proxy earnings on my VPS. However, I only use about 10% of my earnings to pay for my proxy's hosting. If I wanted to, I could downgrade my hosting and pay a fraction of what I do, but I use the same VPS for loads of other sites.

Originally Posted by Glypus

And then there is the time you need to spend to make proxies and submit them to lists. So not the best returns for your time and money.

I narrowed down my submissions to proxy lists to about 5. That takes me ten seconds to submit. Advertising on Yahoo! Answers takes me an hour/week at most. I think $30/week for an hour of work is pretty decent exchange.

And I don't spend any money on advertising. On the rare occasion, it's more experimental and to see whether or not it's worth it. I find that generally it isn't.

kind of promotion and amount of traffic is decisive whether ur own proxy business is profitable or not

Originally Posted by geeknb

Proxy niche is still profitable for me
You just need a good promotion to make money

Good sound to me..
How to a good promote web proxy?
Promo in proxy.org is good or not ?

I start web proxy from May 2009, but i am not yet profit from it.
My Adsense is to less.

I don't know about this.
From may 2009 - End October 2009 ( six month!?) , my adsense is $103 (too low for 2-3 web proxy), and may be this month My Adsense Payment Isued.

Thanks

I was speaking with the image of an average proxy webmaster in mind. To me, he solely/mostly focuses on proxies for earnings.

Originally Posted by Zash

If you work hard on your proxy, then you don't need to rely on these proxy lists and get repeat visitors. Over 60% of my visitors come direct, meaning they already know about my proxy and may have bookmarked it or been told by a friend.

You could also compare the thousands of blogs made daily as competition. Regardless, since I don't even use toplists to advertise my proxies (except maybe as a startup), I don't worry about these co.cz and co.cc proxies.

Well, if a proxy goes viral or it's Google loved or if it's hidemyass/vtunnel and so on, then great. But that's the less likely scenario. More likely you (Average proxy webmaster) will be making/promoting new proxies after traffic (and earnings) drops off on older proxies (proxy gets blocked by filters) - which will happen quite quickly (Few days).

Only about 10% of my earnings go to hosting. Well, if you read my above post, it contradicts that since I spend a lot of my proxy earnings on my VPS. However, I only use about 10% of my earnings to pay for my proxy's hosting. If I wanted to, I could downgrade my hosting and pay a fraction of what I do, but I use the same VPS for loads of other sites.

In my calculations, proxies must pay for themselves.

A basic dedicated server with a good hosting company fit to host proxies costs 100-150$, which will take a good chunk of your monthly earnings. Shared hosting is much cheaper but your earnings have a ceiling depending on bandwidth offered by your host. If hosting is slow and unreliable (the cheaper hosts), you can say goodbye to most of your traffic/direct traffic/earnings.

I do not think there is actually not much demand for anonymous surfing. Certainly not enough to fill in the supply of available proxy related sites that exist.A majority of the traffic for people looking to get threw filters. You will be forever stuck having to create new proxy sites constantly unless you can grab the attention of the users who are using hidemyass and convince them to use yours for anonymous surfing.