Hi [NICKNAME GOES HERE],

I hope you had a good week. I’ve been slowly progressing through clearning my inboxes and backlogs. I will cover how to deal with those next week. For this week I want to give directions to where to get into online or cloud automation.

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Incantation

Online cloud automation has a huge advantage over local automation. The main advantage is that it will run 24/7 without you needing to have any device on or even an internet connection. These things run on their own servers, i.e. the cloud. The other advantage is they can usually connect to other cloud services easier than you could connect to them from local automation. The disadvantage is cost, while all these services have a free plan, the restrictions mean you will probably want to use the paid, more advanced plans. Even if you didn’t then those restrictions becomes a disadvantage compared to setting up automations on your own devices. So lets get into the different automation services out there.

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IFTTT

​https://ifttt.com/

If This Then That, one of the original automation services. Very simple to use and I’d urge anyone to start with this one first. The free plan isn’t as good as it used to be, but that’s before they even had a paid plan. The price is very low compared to other services even for the top tier. This service is aimed more at the consumer and first time automators.

Zapier

​https://zapier.com/

The other “big” automation service and growing hugely in popularity. I’m not sure what market share is for all these but I suspect Zapier will be on top. The pricing can be expensive as soon as you start paying (the cheapest paid plan is 4 times as much as the most expensive IFTTT plan). But this service is aimed more at businesses and prosumers. Stick with the free plan for hobby and personal automation until you can justify paid plans. It could have a good return on investment for work or business uses.

Automate.io

​https://automate.io/

Between IFTTT and Zapier in terms of target market and pricing. I’d advise again using the free tier for personal automating and anything else dependent on whether they have integrations and automations that IFTTT and Zapier don’t.

Make

​https://www.make.com/

Formerly called Integromat, again this is aimed between IFTTT and Zapier. The design of automations in this online tool is more of a graphical visual programming interface connecting different things together rather than the more linear design of the other services. Same with Automate.io I’d advise using for any services or automation possibilities that the others don’t have.

Microsoft Power Automate

​https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/

Microsoft’s own automation tool, available as both online service and a local app, so covering both bases. As with it being Microsoft this really shines when you’re a heavy user of Microsoft products, if you’re an MS Office power user then this automation service is a must. It’s not limited to only Microsoft services but it’s where it’s advantage lies.

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Tool of The Week

Coffee Maker

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If you drink coffee, your own coffee maker is essential. No specific recommendations. I bought a cheapish discounted cappuccino machine here by Oster. I’m thinking about one of those Nespresso capsule machines though as I tend to drink espressos/black coffee anyway. I have definitely been making use of my machine getting through my backlog of tasks!

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Marvel Moment

Coffee is good enough for Thor...

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Until next time, have a great week,

Andrew

By the way if you want to join in with the programme I started with for daily writing the next cohort of Ship 30 for 30 will be in August, link here with $100 off https://bit.ly/ship30enrolldiscount/​