Scrape public data from LinkedIn or any other website with ZeroWork

Introduction

In this tutorial, you will learn how to scrape public data from LinkedIn using ZeroWork. This guide will show you how to save a list of profiles to a Google Sheet or a data table. The techniques covered can be applied to other data scraping tasks, such as saving company pages or posts.

Step 1: Set Up the Search Link

• Open ZeroWork and create a new task.
• Instead of using the standard LinkedIn homepage, paste the specific search results link that already contains your desired filters. This ensures that the taskbot lands directly on the search results page.

Step 2: Configure the Loop

• Set up a loop for your taskbot to iterate through the profiles.
• Choose the standard loop type that does not iterate over existing rows, as you are creating new data.
• Set the number of repetitions to 10, which corresponds to the number of profiles displayed per page.

Step 3: Create a Data Table

• Click on the plus icon to create a new data table.
• Name your data table (e.g., "LinkedIn Profiles").
• You can either add a Google Sheet link or create a custom data table with your own columns.
• Create two columns: one for "Profile Link" and another for "Name".

Step 4: Save Web Elements

• Add the web element save block to your taskbot.
• First, save the profile link:
  • Ensure you select the option to save it as a link, not just text.
  • Enter the appropriate selector for the profile link. If you are unfamiliar with selectors, refer to the introductory video on selectors provided in the description.
• Next, save the profile name:
  • Use the selector you prepared for the name field, which should include the correct elements to capture the profile name.

Step 5: Run the Taskbot

• Execute the taskbot.
• It will open LinkedIn and navigate directly to the search results page.
• The taskbot will iterate through the 10 profiles, saving the specified information to your data table.

Conclusion

You have successfully set up a taskbot to scrape LinkedIn profiles and save the data to a Google Sheet or data table. This process can be adapted for various types of data scraping tasks. To enhance your skills, consider exploring advanced topics on selectors and more complex data extraction techniques.