How to make money with parsing?

Parsing (or scraping) is not just a technology, but the art of collecting and interpreting information. Companies are willing to pay money for collecting information about competitors. In this article we will tell you how to make money on parsing.

What is parsing?

If you've ever wondered how to get data from a website without months of negotiations with resource owners - welcome to the world of scraping - automated extraction of information from websites.

75% of professional developers working with big data use scraping to create analytical systems and forecasts. And this is not a fashion trend, but a necessity.

Why use Python for data collection?

Python is one of the most used programming languages. Its popularity is confirmed by the fact that more than 70% of backend developers solve various tasks with it. Platforms like Reddit and Spotify are built using Python. 

However, its main strength in scraping is libraries like BeautifulSoup, Scrapy or Selenium. They are used to create scripts to collect data from thousands of pages.

Why is parsing a gold mine?

The important data is “oil.” For all its value, oil needs to be processed. Parsing is used to “mine” data from any website: e-commerce, social networks, or stock exchanges. 

Based on the data, companies build marketing strategies, develop forecasts, and analysts look for insights. Here is an example: McKinsey, one of the largest consulting companies in the world, uses scraping to analyze competitive markets.

How does it bring in the money?

There are three main areas where scraping can become a mainstay of earning money:

1. Market research and analytics. Collect data on products and prices from online stores and sell analytics to companies that are eager to know how competitors form their prices. One successful project can bring you up to $10,000 a month. Example: a price monitoring script on Amazon can process tens of thousands of items per day, providing data to build predictions.
2. Creating your own data-driven products. This is a path for those who have already realized that data is an asset. You can create entire databases that will be useful to different industries. For example, a database of all online stores in Europe with their assortments and prices is an invaluable resource for startups and big market players. Sell access to this data on a subscription basis - on average, such services bring from 5 to 50 thousand dollars monthly.
3. Parsing for financial markets. You can collect data on stock quotes, cryptocurrencies, news and social trends. This data can be used to develop trading strategies and forecasts. Just imagine: you create a robot that analyzes Elon Musk's tweets and instantly reacts to Tesla price fluctuations - what could be more profitable?

Is that legal?

Many companies struggle with automatic data collection from their platforms. At the same time, large corporations Google or Amazon also use parsing to analyze competitors. It's important to strike a balance: if you don't break laws and limit to publicly available data, scraping remains in the legal zone. According to a recent study by the Jones Day law firm, about 60% of legal cases on scraping in the United States end up in favor of developers.

What tools to use?

Now for the main point: if you want to make money from scraping, you need to own the right tools. Python is the perfect choice because it has all the tools:

• BeautifulSoup is a library for parsing HTML and XML documents. It is the foundation for quickly extracting data from web pages.
• Scrapy is an advanced library for building a crawler. If you have a task in the spirit of “collect data from 1000 sites in an hour” - Scrapy is what you need.
• Selenium is necessary when you need to bypass complex dynamic pages that are rendered with JavaScript. For such tasks you can't do without Selenium.

Of course, you need proxies for parsing

A proxy is an intermediate server that hides the real IP. Why is this important? Because sites limit the frequency of requests from a single IP. By using a proxy, you can distribute requests across different IPs.

Benefits of using Proxys.io for parsing

1. Large selection of proxies. Server, mobile and residential proxies for rent.
2. 88 countries to choose from. Choose IP from any part of the world.
3. High speed. Server and residential proxies work at 7-10 Mbps, mobile proxies - up to 30 Mbps, which is important for fast scraping.
4. Convenience and security. The Proxys.io interface is simple and straightforward.

How do I rent a proxy on Proxys.io?

• Go to the Proxys.io website and click on the “Buy Proxy” button.

• Select the type of proxy and the country from which to connect.

• Enter your email and promo code, if available.

• Pay for the purchase by card or cryptocurrency.
• After payment, proxies will be available in your personal cabinet.

You can also place an order via a bot in Telegram - @proxys_bot, which simplifies the purchase process.

How to get started?

Scraping is a serious business. Start small: create a project for a local business. Collect data on competitors' prices. Or find a startup that needs data for market research. Eventually, every script can turn into a stable source of income if you put in the effort and understand how to use the data.

Scraping is a tool for those who are used to earning with their heads and saving time.