Setting up a proxy server is one of the latest online money making ideas. You will need an initial investment to set up a proxy server. The first investment is to have your own website. You can either go for free web hosting or a more reliable option would be to find a cheap web hosting provider. The next thing is to set up the server now depending how tech savvy you are you may either enlist the help of a techie or do it yourself. The best part is that there is a wealth of information on the topic. However if you terms like routers, Firefox, CGI proxy are all new and confusing too you may want to call up a friend or a professional who knows a few things. Alternatively you also have kits available online that take you through instructional videos to help you set up your proxy. You can set up a proxy server on a Mac or on a PC. You will need to ensure that your web hosting service provider supports php or cgi. You will need to download a copy of phpproxy or cgiproxy depending on what you are using.

  • PHP proxy: Start by downloading phpproxy and unpack it in the local directory of your hard drive. Next you will need to upload the script to your webspace and open the new url to make sure that its working. Many files with the name ‘proxy’ in them are barred so you may want to change the file name to something new. Next you will need to open the script and enter the IP of your clients computer so that only he and you can access the internet through this proxy. Alternatively you can also use a .htaccess file so that users will need to enter a username and password. All the information related to phpproxy is freely available online.
  • CGI proxy: If you are using free web hosting you may not be able to go for a cgiproxy since many of them do not offer cgi. The procedure involves the same steps as above downloading and unpacking the .cgi file. There are many setting which can be used to your advantage here for instance you may only let texts to go through and no images. Again a wealth of information is available online that will help you set up the cgiproxy without too much trouble.

Promoting your proxy site

This will be the most difficult part as whether there is traffic to your proxy site will depend on how you promote it and without traffic, it will not be easy to make money. There are basically a few things you can do:

  • Posting your proxy url in yahoo & google group
  • Submit your proxy url to proxy.org
  • Posting Bulletin with your proxy url
  • Comment on blogs
  • Submit to social bookmarking sites
  • Submit to proxy toplists
  • Ask friends to link to your links

Every of the above steps that you do will help to create a backlink back to your proxy site and at the same time, provide an opportunity for others to click through the link and bring them to your site. The amount of traffic may be minimal at the beginning, but, as times goes on, slowly you will build up more and more backlinks and it will help your site to rank higher in search engine.

Once you have everything in place you can use your site to make money. There are several ways to do so. One is to charge users who log in through your proxy a small fee, and many are more than willing to pay. Or you can offer the services for free and make your riches from Google adsense. This is what most other proxy service providers do. Of course don’t expect your proxy server to stay up and running for long since it will be banned as soon as it is discovered in which case you will just have to change your IP and get back into business. This can easily be achieved with the help of free software.

Making Money out of your Proxy Traffic

The best and most proven method of making a profit out of your traffic is using advertising. The internet generates hundreds of thousands upon hundred of thousands of traffic everyday. Most of them are searching for something. While some are just looking for information there is also a good percentage that is looking for something that they need. The internet has proven to be a very reliable source in finding what was deemed to be a very unsearchable product. The internet has made the world a smaller place; you can advertise a product from the depths of Istanbul and still find a buyer from the center of Philadelphia.

Generating traffic For your Proxy Site is not an easy task. You have to contend with a great number of sites to generate a good number of traffic flow. But if done successfully this could open up a Pandora’s Box of possibilities. One of the benefits is monetizing your traffic flow. So, to get to the core of it the more traffic you generate the more likely you are considered as a desirable, desirable, in a sense that a good traffic flowing site is easily convertible to profit. Basically traffic equals profit. Advertising is the name of the game; with the good advertising scheme you can use your traffic flow to your advantage.

When you have good traffic for your Proxy Site you have a good number of potential customers, customers that are willing to pour money into your coffers. Other than that these are also traffic that can be redirected to sponsored links that are willing to pay you for a sizeable portion of the traffic that you have generated. This scheme is called “pay-per-click”. With every click a visitor of your site makes on an advertised link you will be paid. The more traffic you generate and the more clicks that happens would spell to more profits.

Add Affiliate Programs for Your Proxy Site

Another method of monetizing your traffic are affiliate programs. You can link up with other tried and tested sites and online companies and monetize your traffic by having a percentage of sales generated by traffic coming from your site. The basic idea is, traffic generated from your site will go to another site that can offer a product that you do not carry. Many programs can keep track and make records of transactions that was made possible because of site linkage. When purchases are made by customers that was led by your site to their site you get a percentage of that sale. Affiliate programs would give you the benefit of monetizing your traffic without the actual need of carrying or promoting a certain product.