1. Speed up your load times

There are hundreds of proxy websites around and they are all competiting for the same users. One of the first things that a visitor will notice is how fast your proxy homepage loads. If your homepage loads slowly or not at all, you may never get that visitor back as they move on to the next proxy. You should seek to remove any unnecessary HTML or text that adds to the loading time.

2. Write some unique content

This isn’t just for aesthetics, I’ve found it’s very important to the overall success of your website. I’ve heard many horror stories of people getting removed from Adsense and then when I visit their site I see a clone template that they’ve used across 200 other proxy sites. I have very little sympathy as it drag’s down the overall quality of the Adsense program and has a negative effect for all proxy webmasters that use it. Anyone can buy a hundred domains and stick up an identical site on all of them - you don’t create any true value and leech off advertising programs.

3. Don’t overload it with adverts

Proxy websites are a dime a dozen,  so don’t push away your visitors by overloading it with adverts. I’ve always found having two ad boxes and one ad links on my homepage is the most effective earning combination. I may add the occasional 468×60 or 120×600 banner in if it works within the template. You can also earn less in the long term if you place your adverts poorly. Remember that the first one or two blocks of ads will always be the  highest paying so make sure they are placed in the best position - centered and above the fold.

4. Make sure it’s functional

One of the simplest and commonly often overlooked mistakes can be setting up a broken website.  I’ve updated websites in my network before and managed to delete a form tag which stopped visitors from browsing through the proxy. This will quickly kill a proxy website and it may be hard to get those visitors back.

5. Include unique features like a Bookmark & Social Network Link

This is more of a bonus addition that could make your proxy site stand out from the crowd. It show’s your visitors that you have put that little bit of extra effort in and may even help to grow your site. It may also be worth adding  a social bookmarking feature to introduce a viral marketing effect with your site.

6. Use a custom or unique template

If you are looking to grow your network you need to step away from the standard Glype or PHProxy template.  This isn’t totally necessary in every case and the it’s fine to use the standard template for a few websites. It helps to add a bit of variety though and there are so many free templates out there to try.

7. Make sure the URL box is easy to find.

Your visitors are usually very focused and have one thing in mind when they visit your proxy website. You should make sure the URL box is easily found and accessible to visitors. I’ve seen several webmasters in my time that like to hide the URL box, sneak in an Adsense search or add an extra page that visitors have to find. There are many variations to these tricks but none of them work in the long term and only serve to alienate your visitors.

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Proxy List Script

This script offers unparalleled features, functionality and flexibility. I believe the code will be well written due to the overall professional and high quality feeling you get from the homepage. It does come with a steep price tag but if you put a bit of effort into making your proxy list stand out, this can be recouped in months to come. I do believe the script is unencrypted which is excellent for people who want to modify bits.

Price Tag: $199

Automatic Proxy Submitter

This is a quirky little script that I purchased a couple weeks back, although the owner has struggled with a couple updates not working. It will basically give you some HTML links to add to your web proxy and then submit it to numerous proxy list websites.

I have to say it brings in a reasonable amount of traffic, it peaked on the first day with a few hundred uniques and has trailed off to provide about 50 visitors a day to each submitted proxy. The only problem with it is the mass of ugly proxy links you have to include. That said, it may be worth trimming it down to about 5 or 10 good ones.

Price Tag: $14.99

Proxy Promo

If you liked the idea of Proxy List Script but couldn’t afford the price tag, this may be for you. It has all the basic feature’s you’d want in a proxy listing script but doesnt excel in any of them. I have to say the demo looks quite blandand doesn’t do itself any favors. I also saw that it uses ionCube encoding which I try to avoid at all costs, it just adds too many restrictions on how you can expand your website. The price tag is ok, although there are three “add-ons” that you can purchase seperately. The link checker ($10.79), Yearly script updates ($14.99) and copyright removal ($5.59). I personally feel these should be included as standard, but they add a hefty $31.37 to the price tag.

Price Tag: $32.99 ($64.36 fully featured)

If done well, a proxy listing site can grow to get search engine rankings and earn money by itself. They can provide a source of free traffic to boost new proxy sites that you make. Websites like these also tend to rank well in the search engines if you include some unique and well researched content.

Now if you haven’t yet got a mailing list set up then you are missing out on a powerful way to get free traffic. It can be hard waiting around to see the result’s but as your proxy site network grows it can be an invaluable tool when launching new sites. I set Proxy Emailer up about 6 months ago and it’s just reaching 1,000 subscribers!

Anyway, that’s enough rambling from me, you want to hear about the new money making method right? Proxy Announcer pay’s you each time someone subscribe’s to their mailing list. You receive $0.20 for each person that join’s and it can build up to quite a nice sum if you’ve got the traffic. They pay out via Paypal on the 15th of each month.

If you haven’t yet set up a mailing list you should definitely be taking advantage of this service. The great thing is it can compliment all your other advertising and it takes up a tiny amount of space. You can put it on your homepage and proxy browsing pages for maximum results. I have my own list which I actively promote but I’m putting Proxy Announcer into rotation with the other ads to top up my earnings.

You should take note that most mainstream hosting providers, like GoDaddy, will not allow any form of proxy on their service. These hosting services were primarily designed to support static content or very low intensity scripts. This is explicitly stated in the often over-looked terms of service agreement you agree to when you join. They quite rightly look after their wider client base and that means stopping the proxy scripts that can drain CPU resources from other sites.

Fortunately for us a few companies have taken on the challenge of providing hosting specifically made for proxy websites. Read on for an overview and please leave a comment if you have any personal recommendations.
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