Yesterday I was asked to explain more about proxies by an unnamed commenter; as I’m bored, I’ll give you a short guide on what they are, how they work and most importantly how you can earn with them. Now, I don’t make as much as some of the high earners with proxies, but make a moderate amount; right now I’m earning anywhere between $10-$25 a day for about five minutes of work a week, and that’s off one site. Imagine if you could replicate this success with say 5, or even 15 proxy websites? Yepp, add that up… you’ll realise how profitable proxy websites can be.
There are people on Digital Point that earn $1000s a month with their proxy networks; that make seem a long way off, but look at mine- at $10 a day, I’ll take in $300 a month, and all you have to do is repeat that with three others and you will be able to pull in close to $1000.
What is a proxy, and what does it do?
I’d be willing to bet that all of you have come across Facebook, Myspace, Orkut and similar such websites at least once in your internet lives; well, those of you at school and work probably would be able to guess that your administrators might not like you using them instead of doing the 1000 word essay you’re supposed to be working on. Well, due to this such websites, as well as other time wasting websites like arcades may be blocked by your workplace’s filters, and thus you’ll be unable to visit them and have to work. Sound fun? Well, proxies change all that; you can use a proxy to bypass those filters and visit the websites of your choice. How do they work? I’m not going to go into intricate details, but basically they send you through an unblocked website to reach the one that’s blocked.
How do I create my own proxy?
Now, if I can create one, you all can. I’m a person who is rubbish at coding, rubbish at graphics and rubbish at nearly anything tech related, so me being able to do it proves how easy it is. There are a few proxy scripts out there, but I’d suggest you use PhProxy; I’ve found it the easiest to modify and thus haven’t bothered with the others. Before you setup your proxy you will of course need a domain name; I’d suggest that you buy a .COM from Godaddy, using the coupon code OYH3 to take the price down to $7.15. Now, picking a domain for a proxy website is often hard; the key point is to make sure that the domain does NOT have ‘proxy’ in it. Why? Well, a lot, if not most filters block out common words, like ‘casino’, ‘porn’, ‘gambling’… proxy is one of the words on that list. You can always use something related- play around with combinations of ‘unblock’, ‘cloak’, ‘hide’, ’surf’, ‘browse’… you get the drill.
You will need hosting with your proxy; check out the Digital Point Web Hosting section and you will often find cheap (not necessary good though!) hosting. My dedicated server should be up in the next couple of days; once that is ready, I’ll be able to offer you guys hosting at a total ripoff completely affordable rate. For a single proxy, hosting should not cost more than $7 a month.
Web hosting and a domain name is pretty decent; if you want advice on a domain name, feel free to ask; as for web hosting, wait a couple of days and I’ll get you some from my server. After you have that, what do you do?
Souping Up Your Proxy
Now, you will need to install a theme on your proxy; generally people aim for themes with a large Adsense block, which naturally leads to more clicks, and thus more revenue. The best website that I’ve seen for proxy templates is Free Proxy Templates; PhProxy Script Number Six is the one I use for Cloakus.com and that has done pretty well with regards to the click through ratio. Feel free to choose any of the ones you think look good; remember to look for ones that have Adsense ads in a good place, preferably blended so they’re more likely to bring you revenue. Now, Adsense is only allowed on the homepage of a proxy website; do NOT put it on the proxified pages or else Google will ban you, simple as. Whether you like it or not, a lot of people will be using your proxy to visit pornographic websites; now, Adsense of course isn’t allowed on them.
To put in your Adsense code, all you will have to do is edit the config.php file (through your cPanel or an FTP program) and replace your Adsense pub ID. It will look something like pub-xxxxxxxxxxx. That’s it, nothing else; all clicks on ads after you save the file will be credited to your account. Pretty simple, eh?
So, we’ve spoken about proxies; a few small details about setting them up, and how they work. But, what are the use of proxies without visitors? The most important thing for a proxy is visitors, because without them, you don’t get clicks, and without clicks, you don’t get revenue.
Driving Traffic to a Proxy Website
How do you drive traffic? One of the best ways, and the way I started out with was by using Stumble Upon; it brought me 5,000 visitors in a week and is of course free to use. To use Stumble Upon, you will have to have their toolbar installed; to ’stumble’ something, all you have to do is click the thumbs up, or ‘I like it!’ button. Do a couple (hundred) Stumble exchanges in the Digital Point Freebies section and it will slowly add up, bringing you visitors and eventually traffic.
Large forums can bring you a boatload of traffic to your proxies. Most of the readers of this blog are regulars at Digital Point; have the link to your proxy in your signature and start a thread asking for a review of your website, and there’s a good chance you’ll get a decent number of visitors. If you start a thread solely asking for a review of your website, it’s more than likely that 95% of all those who view the thread will check out your website; hardly a bad thing considering most threads on highly popular forums get at least 100 views.
Other blogs. Now, I generally use this way to get some traffic to the University Kid, but feel free to use it with your proxies. Being one of the first commenters on large blogs like John Chow/Cow, Shoemoney, ProBlogger (and this one, of course 
) can gain you visitors, especially if you post an interesting or controversial comment. Don’t be a jackass though, and try to add something to the conversation otherwise all you’re going to do is get flamed.
Create a Facebook/Myspace Group. Which people use proxies most? Teenagers, and younger people at the work place. Since proxies are generally used to access social networking websites (and porn, but let’s forget that for this post 
) it’s quite likely that a large percentage of Facebook/Myspace users need proxies, and what better way to do that then by creating a group (or sending out a Myspace bulletin) and then spamming inviting your friends to visit it? Social networking websites can send thousands of visitors, if used the right way; if you have a network of friends, building up a membership of about 500 to a Facebook group is not hard at all to achieve.
Google and Yahoo Groups can help you bring a decent amount of traffic. What are you going to do? Well, sadly… most of the ways to drive traffic on this list relate to polite spamming, and that’s what you’re going to do to these groups with the URLs of your proxy website. Here’s a few you can go to:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/free-proxy-lists/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free-proxy-server
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/khorramdin
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mygmproxy/
http://groups.google.com/group/proxy-rank
http://groups.google.com/group/Proxy-Web
http://groups.google.com/group/proxy-group
Feel free to utilise those URLs how you like; make good use of them though! 
Other than that, you could always do a few link exchanges, submit to proxy topsites (I consider it a waste of time, but it may work for you) and even pay for advertising on a popular website like Proxy.org. Once you get yours up to $1.00 a day, just do more of whatever you’re doing and you should see the traffic (and thus revenue) rise. Good luck!
A small question about proxies from me…
I’ve hopefully answered all of your questions; I have own of my own (a rhetorical one) that I’ve been thinking about quite a bit these past few days. Do the ‘big guns’ in the industry, the likes of John Chow, Shoe Money, ProBlogger John Cow, etc use, or ever have made proxies of their their own? If yes, it would be interesting to hear how well they did; if no, why not? . With upwards of 10,000 RSS Subscribers for the first three, and an ardent following for the last, think just how much a proxy of theirs would benefit from a 100 word post on the home page? Perhaps a bit of shameless begging for one of mine could do well, eh?
Hope all of this benefitted y’all. Will submit it to a couple social networking websites later in the day; feel free to stumble it and comment if you found it interesting. Just did a small word count in MS Word and this is 1600 words! Y’all better comment now…
November 25th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Just one question – Why am I not on your moneymakers list? coz:
1. I make money.
2. All of ‘em except Shoe are dumbarses.
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November 25th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Hey, Great post you have here!!!
You’ve covered pretty much most of the topics for a newcomer to get started. Although you could’ve possibly shed some light on driving (organic) search engine traffic / doing some SEO as a long term project… I still like this article (I think I will bookmark it and re-read it ever once in a while). One other thing, maybe you should warn new starters about smart pricing, it can really make a difference (i.e. earning $3-4 a day instead of $30-40)!
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November 25th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Great post there mate. pretty much everything the readers wanted to know.
If you want some tips and strategies please see my eBook (shameless promoting)
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November 25th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
We’ve got one, http://www.reezi.com
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November 25th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
This was a quality post. One that is sure to gain you a couple more subscribers! keep up the good work.
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November 25th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Great post. Here’s a post that I wrote on starting with proxies that your readers will hopefully find useful: http://kiloserve.com/blog/2007/10/10/starting-up-in-the-proxy-business/
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November 25th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
[...] who want to receive new proxies in the inbox every day. The University Kid wrote a simple guide for starting with proxies which I believe complements the one I wrote. In there he includes some groups you can use to submit [...]
November 26th, 2007 at 3:59 am
Nice proxy post there
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November 26th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Good article. Should be useful for newbies.
But getting a 503 error when accessing myspace forums etc.,
any reason for that ??
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November 26th, 2007 at 6:31 am
@ Shypy, a) because you never update your blog, and b) cos you’re a United fan. Discrimination always feels nice
@ Vahsi, well… I don’t tend to look at proxies as long term projects as they inevitably get blocked by schools/work places, and then like it or not, traffic will decrease. My aim is to build one up to say $300-$400 a month, and then flip after 2-3 months for 1/2x a month’s revenue. Rinse and repeat.
@ John, that’s pretty cool, but how come it hasn’t been Cow’d up, and I’ve never (well, I’m a new reader, but still) seen it advertised on your site
?
@ All the well wishers, cheers. I’m trying to get up to 100 RSS subscribers before the year ends; we’ll see how that goes. Well, hopefully! :p
@ Chenzhen, mine is the PhProxy script which doesn’t work with Myspace I think; not too sure though as if you might know, I’m a total tech newb. I think ones with the Happy Proxy script will work…
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November 26th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Nice article. I will be trying these steps on my new proxy site. Stumbled!
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November 26th, 2007 at 7:45 am
very interesting article. i must look into proxy sites. did you redesign your theme? looks different and looks good.
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November 26th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Very good article, although it did seem more details than the actual e-book for some reason >_>
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November 27th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Great post, if you ever wanna share a lil more secrets on advertising on MSN, let me know
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November 27th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Hi
I found your blog via Stumbleupon, I’m going to set up a proxy as you suggest in this post, thanks for the great tips.
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November 28th, 2007 at 1:41 am
I am interested in your proxy hosting. Please shoot me an email with info when its available.
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November 28th, 2007 at 7:55 am
I’m interested too.
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November 28th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Was that really John Cow who commented?
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November 28th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
@ singularity, glad to see SU is working. Good luck!
@ both of you sure, will post on the blog about it when ready
@ Tech Narf, I believe it was…
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November 29th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Yep, in less than 24 hours my proxy is online and working, thanks again for the tips!The site is: http://dissimul.us
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November 29th, 2007 at 10:04 am
@ singularity, nice looking website… you need to put some Adsense ads on the homepage to make any money..
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November 29th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Uh! Really?
Sure, I’m workin on it
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December 1st, 2007 at 6:31 pm
The proxy traffic is growing up! I’m surprised how much traffic comes from stumble and reviews exchange in forum
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December 1st, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Congrats!
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December 6th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Thanks for the great info jason,
it surely helped me make my first proxy (though the banner says your website)
Cheers,
montsa
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December 8th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Hi there Jason,
Could you suggest me, by your experience, an affordable proxy hosting? Now I’ve 5 proxy domains and I’m not very happy with my actual proxy host :/
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December 8th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Heya,
When my server hosts finally get the damned thing working, I’ll hook you up with hosting free of charge
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December 12th, 2007 at 10:07 am
That’s great Jason
Well, I will ship you a present from Italy 
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January 29th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Well, I just stumbled this page from kiloserve which I found on google. Actually, I’m looking around to see any info related of proxy income. For now, I build a small proxy network with a listing site. So far, after building the network, my income from adsense alone tripled and thats make me happy. Even with doing nothing, the income keep on coming. Surely advertising is the key to be success in proxy field but once I got decent traffic and returning users, it will be a success. Proxy tends not to be alive for long due to the fact that it will be blocked at anytime. So, the best way is to get a server with a good amount of additional IPs so that you can change your site IPs at anytime after it was blocked. A good domain is also crucial. Say, a domain which has double meaning. So, if it was blocked, you can still use it for other site/niche.
You guys with proxies are welcomed to list your site at my listing site http://www.proxywhereabouts.com but be sure to keep a link back to my site as this is the main thing to do before you get accepted.
By the way, thanks for sharing the info.
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January 31st, 2008 at 10:14 am
i just made my first proxy site. thanks for all our tips jason!
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February 10th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Nice post, really2 thanks for your tips. I’ve stumbled and add this as my fave on my browser. I get around 10$ a day from my blog, it’s not a proxy site but some of my post is proxy list. Now I really interested to make one proxy site. Thanks dude.
unblocker’s last blog post..Ultimate Freak Proxy List
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February 16th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Thanks for the great tips. I actually started on my first proxy about 2 days ago – made $2.43 thus far. Just wondering, though, do you still work with proxies?
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March 12th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Stumbleupon worked perfectly on my new proxy. No other promotion, but stumbleupon, and I’m registering 500 uniques, about 4k views, and lots of ad money
I’ll try out the list promotion next
George’s last blog post..My (MacBook) Air! It’s Gone!
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March 17th, 2008 at 9:45 am
If anyone here is after quality free glype proxy templates then check out my site – http://www.glypethemer.com
HB’s last blog post..Green Monster v1.0 released
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March 19th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Any legal problem with proxy sites ?
meethere’s last blog post..Steps For a Successful Web Conference
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March 22nd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Very good idea.. might have to give this a shot for sure.
Mike’s last blog post..Tip: Synchronize Your Office Docs With Google
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April 4th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I see lot of proxies coming up everyday, but none are effective in opening some sites like orkut.
Do you know a reliable proxy site ?
Tech blog’s last blog post..Technology and Travel
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April 27th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Very nice guide! Thanks!
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April 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am
thanks for the article, it helps me..thank you
bagus’s last blog post..Next Movie : Iron Man
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April 28th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
[...] be in the whole online websites thing. You can read more about promotion and stuff in my slightly long guide here. As .INFOs only cost $1.19 at GoDaddy now (note, you have to buy five at a time) your proxy pays [...]
April 28th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Got any good tips for getting accepted for an Adsense account?
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April 28th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
What a great guide (I’ll get to reading it a little later)
.
Remember to always monitor your proxy sites to prevent issues with AdSense!
Sammy Ashouri’s last blog post..LH.com Forcefully Taken Away From Owner
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April 28th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I never commented on this before? :O
I have a stumblebot somewhere, if anyone needs it, then find me on BP (George), we can sort something out. No accounts though :S
-> I like the thought about John Chow and suchlike using it, maybe we should ask them?
George’s last blog post..Gallery Messing
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April 28th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Excellent Post!
Usman’s last blog post..Contest Ending Soon!
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April 29th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Last time i owned a proxy didn’t do that well, maybe because i was at a lost on how to promote it.. maybe ill try again soon.
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April 29th, 2008 at 11:20 am
helluva nice article jason!!! im glad u linked this on your recent post about proxies coz it sulrely opened my eyes. thanks so much & i’ll give u a cut when i earn off this. hehe!
issa’s last blog post..cancer + scorpio = perfect!
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April 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Great article. I have everything needed to go ahead and set this up!
Erica’s last blog post..Love while you can
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April 29th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I have bought the domain for a future proxy website, but have yet to setup the proxy. Thanks for the clarification and discussion on proxies and how they work.
http://www.abigarcade.com
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April 30th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Hi, great post…a lot of information. I clicked on the link to your proxy site, but it says the the site is not available. I also tried StumbleUpon, and it said the same thing.
Please check.
Syed Kazim’s last blog post..Success Formula
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April 30th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Hey Syed,
That’s an old site, I’ll replace the link when I get something up.
Not sure why SU isn’t working, works fine here :S
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April 30th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I meant…
I tried going to your link from StumbleUpon too…and it said that the site was not reachable. SU is working fine here also
Sorry for the confusion
Syed Kazim’s last blog post..Success Formula
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May 2nd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Hey Jason! Excellent work and excellent article, i have a question 4 u.
What do u think about .info extensions 4 proxy sites??
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July 14th, 2008 at 9:35 am
nice tutorials…i was searchig for proxy templates… this surely will help… thanks a lot.
regards
thinkjayant @ smartblogtips
TJ @ Smartblogtips’s last blog post..TinyURL gets a makeup, adds custom alias
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July 14th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Like the idea here. I like the link juice too! I will have to give this a shot, but I wanted to know if you have had a lot of success promoting it on social networks or not?
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July 17th, 2008 at 6:55 am
WOW this is a really cool idea. I have never even thought of this. Does it take a long time to implement in the beginning? It is great though that you can make around $300/month for less than 1 hours work.
I will definately look into it.
Do you think it is unethical though?
Ryan McLean’s last blog post..5 Great Ways To Get Money Fast
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July 31st, 2008 at 10:24 am
hey mate thanks for the info, its really helped me.
just wondring if theirs any other ways to get more trafic to the site? also what/where would i go about buying email newsleter adds?
cheers, Phil
http://www.researchtoppicks.com
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August 4th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Thanks for the awesome guide to setting up proxies. Setting up a proxy site really does only take a few minutes – I can’t believe I didn’t try this sooner! Thanks again!
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August 5th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Nice guide. Proxies are easy and yet not that easy to run. Hosting, promotion and stuff ……
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August 5th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
[...] written about different types of websites you can flip, like proxies and image hosts – those two are pretty easy to get running and sell for a few hundred with [...]
August 6th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I have been looking over the phproxy code and thinking about making my own proxy script using php and ajax. I was thinking about making it easy to add advertisements in the middle of the top bar you see when surfing via the proxy. Kind of like the MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad does. That way you can try and up the revenue stream.
Already have a name and domain for it!
CreatingRevenueOnline.com’s last blog post..For Sale: Two Web Designs
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August 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
The best ways to make money are usually taking existing ideas and adding to them with your own.
That’s a pretty decent thought, I could see an email submit (for an iPod…) doing well. Let us know how it goes mate!
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August 8th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Great stuff about setting up proxies. I guess the hosting part is the most problematic.
jeflin’s last blog post..Why Stocks Rise On Bad News?
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August 19th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Very usefull info helped me starting out my own proxy-www.unblockem.info -hopefully i’ll succeed .Thanks!
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August 20th, 2008 at 4:29 am
[...] Proxies For Dummies: The Condensed Guide [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 2:18 am
[...] Proxies For Dummies: The Condensed Guide [...]
September 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
This one i wil of course try it other then blogging
Harish’s last blog post..A Few Reasons Why I Keep Saying You Should Subscribe To My Feed
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Hey thanx for the post.I gonna try it.And make some money.
Harish’s last blog post..The Contest At Net Strife-800$ worth prizes
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September 16th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Nice post but I thing you gotta update the traffic methods again as they need some customisation
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September 18th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
[...] http://theuniversitykid.com/proxies-for-dummies-the-condensed-guide/ [...]
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:26 am
Very useful article. Thanks for the information.
Eva White’s last blog post..Amazing Home Theaters
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September 24th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Hey Jason using this post I successfully created my own proxy.And successfully running it.thanx for it.
Harish’s last blog post..The Contest At Net Strife-800$ worth prizes
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September 25th, 2008 at 11:40 am
thanks for this. i just hope this wont be congested sometime in the future. i started with some sites and these tips are very useful.
cheers
hinlalato’s last blog post..Permalink Structure for SEO
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October 11th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
[...] subscribed to and let me know which ones you think have helped you the best. A couple, like my proxies post and the one about starting a new blog will definitely be on the front page… but the others [...]
October 11th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Hey Jason…are you still doing proxy hosting? I’d like to try my hand at a site or two. Let me know your pricing if you have room….thanks!
Ava’s last blog post..The Art of the Art * O * Mat
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October 16th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Very nice but it’s hard work for newb ((( I should study again and again and againe… thx
Beauty’s last blog post..A Quick Hand Treatment
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January 15th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Your content is somewhat like the Ultimate Proxy Guide. Handy thou
TutorialCompiler’s last blog post..Color Overlay
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February 4th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Great, interesting post. I’ve used proxies in the past, but I never thought about creating one myself or hosting it to make money. Thanks for the tips.
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February 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
[...] Proxies For Dummies: The Condensed Guide [...]
March 14th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hey thanks for this, starting out with proxys going to buy a few domains so yer thanks!
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March 14th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Thanks Im starting out with proxys so thanks for the templates
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March 15th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
[...] – Free Themes Glype Forums – Themes Proxy Information/Guides The Best Proxy Guide Ever Proxies For Dummies Optimize Your Proxy Business The Platinum Proxy Guide The Ultimate Proxy [...]
March 27th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Great, I will try this one. I have a directory already but doesn’t have proxy sites yet. I will give this a shot. Thanks kid!
Felix’s last blog post..Sulumits Retsambew Competition
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April 2nd, 2009 at 7:28 am
aaah, I see, is the proxy based on ths info ?
1000’s of Proxies’s last blog post..GGYI.com
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July 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
hmmm It is really very important message to get and analysis the proxy sites for newbies like me..
you have given us to a lots of great ideas and advantages with your great brief explanation way.. Let me follow your ideas to find the way to earning money in easy way..
Thanks for your brief explanation.. keep up your great work
Thanks
Phil
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September 27th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Hey Jason, that’s a very helpful article that you wrote mate.
It’s really gonna help newbies to start up, organize them selves and get a general idea of how proxies work and make money.
Keep up the good work
Cheers
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January 7th, 2010 at 11:30 am
You did good job there. i just hope this wont be congested sometime in the future. i started with some sites and these tips are very useful. The best ways to make money are usually taking existing ideas and adding to them with your own.
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