Automation Series Part One: What are macros and what macro software to use for automation.

Feb 28, 2010

I will be doing a how to tutorial series over the next couple days with video and screens detailing how to use a macro program and what they could be used for and how I sometimes use them. Now onto part one of this series.

I use alot of automation in some of the affiliate marketing I do on a constant basis. I like having control over what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. I don’t feel the need to contract out work for simple tasks to a 3rd world country or a bunch of Indians over in India and paying them pennies on the dollar to get simple stuff done. Some of you might be asking what a “Macro” is and by Wikipedia’s definition a Macro is “Keyboard macros and mouse macros allow short sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions to be transformed into other, usually more time-consuming, sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions. In this way, frequently-used or repetitive sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements can be automated. Separate programs for creating these macros are called macro recorders.”

Now alot of people have seen pics of my office. If you go to the Office Progression link above you can see my office in its current state and whats its looked like over the years. Those who have seen it on wickedfire and other places around the net have often wondered what all the monitors were for and now you know, though they weren’t always used for macros. With having every rack server hooked up to a monitor I found it was easier to take a quick glance at a screen to see if a macro has messed up instead of flipping through a kvm switch, remember time is money and a quick glance was all I needed.

The main program I use for creating and running my macros is called Automate and it is located at www.networkautomation.com and I would quote the current price (it is over $1000 dollars) of the software but it seems the website is down currently. The other one I use is called Jitbit Macro Recorder located at http://www.jitbit.com/macrorecorder.aspx and only costs $40.00 and a little bit more economical for peopel just starting to use macros.

This is part one in my series and next part will be an over view of the macro software and things it can do which you can automate. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to get updates for the next installment.