Web scraping allows everyone: from a casual web surfer to a massive tech corporation, to enjoy the incredibly efficient data transmission and communication guaranteed by telecommunications and the internet. With so much public data available online, modern internet users need external help to get the most value from easily accessible information.
The data on the internet keeps expanding, and utilizing every bit of accessible knowledge becomes impossible. While anyone can access useful pages through search engines, it has become a standard practice to use automation and compare all information to find the most useful results. How can you be sure that the first option on the search engine results page will guarantee you the best available choice? Sure, the presented data is relevant and sits on the top of the page for a reason, but that is the result of clever manipulation of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – a successful result of a modern marketing strategy, but the web still has many options and potentially better alternatives that go unnoticed.
To make sure we look at all great choices and find the best product or source of information, tech-savvy internet users use web scrapers – automated data extraction bots that improve the browsing experience. Even better, the best data scientist knows how to get the most from automated bots and use web scraping to earn money. In this article, we will discuss automated data extraction as a potential side hustle or even a future profession for interested readers. To help you start working on web scraping skills and avoid the most common disruptions, we will also explain why a residential proxy network is a key to getting as much data as possible. The proxy market is thriving due to modern businesses depending on web scraping and the efficiency of other company tasks that need a different IP address. There are plenty of sources to find the best intermediary servers and proxy servers. For beginners, we recommend Smartproxy – a successful provider and a jack of all trades, offering affordable deals for clients of all levels of expertise. Check them out to find their proxy prices, or find your choice amongst the many residential proxy lists online. While they offer a bit slower initial speeds, an IP address supplied by a real internet service provider offers more protection, a higher data access rate, and perfect access for local data. Residential proxies can be located anywhere, so connecting through one makes location-restricted data available. Now that you know the benefits of residential proxies we can focus on web scraping and what role these servers play in the process.
Scrape products for reselling
If you have an above-average understanding of the market that trades in specific goods, you can utilize web scraping skills to quickly find discounts, limited edition deals, and advertisements of goods that you may resell for a greater price in the future. Most popular choices include, but are not limited to limited edition sneakers, designer clothing, new gaming consoles, video game code discounts, mobile phones, domain names, and even vehicles. The possibilities are endless, and using one or multiple web scrapers will help you create continuous parallel sources of information, laser-focused on automated extraction and analysis of data you want to see.
Web scrapers can be combined with automated checkout tools to help you purchase more products than the average customer, while residential proxies grant you access to locations all around the world granting you unlimited access to potential sources of valuable goods.
Research for sale
On the web, you will encounter many modern businesses looking for a data analyst for scraping. While some companies create data science teams to ensure a consistent influx of valuable data, you will encounter smaller businesses that seldom need data sets. However, when they do, you can find them, and your help will be greatly appreciated. While freelancing and cooperating with up-and-coming companies, you will have great opportunities to challenge yourself, utilize all the necessary tools for automated extraction, and sell the acquired data sets for money.
Work on a data aggregator
Great data analysts often team up to build data aggregator websites, where web scraping is at the center of an entire business model. You can find and organize the best deals for travel tickets, real estate, video games, sneakers, and other products. Successful aggregators capture the attention of included companies, which can pay commissions or order ads to improve their visibility and make the website profitable.
Aggregating such information can also be done quietly to assist your company. For example, if you work for a company in a competitive market, gathering price intelligence into an organized, continuously updated data set will help your business understand the price sensitivity of other players in the market, which help make correct adjustments in the future.
Create your projects to build a resume
You can use the suggestions mentioned above or combine the process of web scraping with one of your hobbies to create unique personal projects. Profitable or not, they will help you build a resume if you aim for a career in data science. Once you start web scraping serious targets, do not forget about residential proxies. Rotating IP addresses will help your scraper avoid blacklisting. With a good provider, you can hide many bots at the same time to scale up your data aggregation machine, protected by IPs from internet service providers. Any task that encourages you to work on a skill can be transformed into a profitable profession in the future!
