Okay folks, I know I’ve been slacking a bit on the delivery time for the article, I’m sorry but not sorry, because “whiskey gets better with age”. I’m bad at writing joke haha. ?

The Problem

Business has been good since IG updated their algorithm and affected many agencies’ performance. Since most agencies are using mainstream bots (JV, FL, NP, etc.)*, API blocks and many other issues arise. I’ve been quite busy with an onslaught of managed client accounts (mainly outsourced accounts from agencies, where they manage the clients while we manage those client accounts). There aren’t really any complaints … except for these two things! ?

That is,

(1) the overhead costs to just use mobile proxy is ridiculously high, and
(2) that most agencies are only willing to use the bot they are accustomed to (for example, JV)!

Can you imagine the overhead cost: take the amount of accounts multiplied by the number of proxies. ? How the eff is anyone able to turn a profit if the mobile proxy is eating at most of the revenue?

Ever since they announced that their API doesn’t work, I knew everyone would be eff’d and stuck with using the EB with a Tier 1 mobile proxy such as a mobile proxy from the United States. I mean, what other options are there? Them rebuilding the emulation from scratch would take a long time; are folks going to hold out that long? Probably not.

The Study

So I took several weeks of testing (yes, the old fashion way of testing – trials and errors) to figure out a way to use mainstream bots such as JV effectively. ? I knew there’s no way I can manipulate their API without messing corrupting JV. This includes several other bots. But what I do have control over is, my proxy networks and servers! A proxy server is an intermediary machine that receives, requests, and sends data from the client computer to the target server (in this case, it’s IG) and vice versa. So, it got me thinking that maybe this is how I can manipulate the outcome. My mind started racing with these questions like:

  • So what if I can manipulate the proxy server?
  • What if I can have the proxy server manipulate the requests, so IG sees the data and actions a bit differently?
  • Will this reduce blocks significantly?
  • Can I make it work with the API again?
  • Will it break the 200 action “daily limit” barrier?
  • Effective and cheaper than a US mobile proxy?

The Result

After the several weeks of development to this point in time where I’m writing this article. I ended up creating a “BulletProof” proxy networks tailored to these issues. How? To be honest, it’s just using “out of the box” thinking and some advanced coding skills. It works:

  • Blocks would go away as if it was on a mobile proxy.
  • API in JV started to work again.
  • Blocks are significantly reduced.
  • Daily limit actions became a joke.
  • And more. ?

Please note that I’m not saying it fully resolve all the issues, but it does significantly reduce many issues comparable to using a dedicated US mobile proxy.

This BulletProof proxy actually reduced my overhead cost for the managed client accounts quite dramatically and even provide a higher success ratio. I plan to continue tweaking it to see if I can make it 100% effective. BulletProof 2.0?!

Here are some results a client of mine has from the past week (see photos**). In the photos, the number left of the slash is the daily action. The right is the overall total. ???

Initial Actions #1
Initial Actions #2
Results After Few Days #1
Results After Few Days #2
Results After Few Days #3
Some Settings Adjusted

Til next time,

Tony

UPDATE #1: There was a request for more details on the interworking; I’ll explain what I can exposed at this moment. ?

Don’t think of it as a “proxy server”, but something in between – hence why it’s called a “BulletProof”. It understands the requests between the bots and IG; it processes the requests a bit differently than what the bots would assign the proxy server to do. Most proxy server would just repeat the command to the end user (this case, it would be IG); this “BulletProof” proxy server takes the command and perform the requested actions, but differently, causing IG to accept the actions more often. This even works on API. There are more variables involved such as a mobile interface, etc. Hope that make sense.

* Acronyms are used to protect the innocents!
** Sorry about the image quality, but they are quick snapshots from a phone.

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