Yesterday, many readers were curious about how I made money by writing back then. I've talked about it in bits and pieces before, but today I'll give you a more complete version.
First of all, I should say that my Chinese language skills in high school were average, at least not among the top in the humanities class of our key high school. If I were to say what was special about me, it would probably be that I had a strong desire to express myself, talked a lot, and loved to chatter.
I first encountered the internet in 1999. Initially, I awkwardly chatted in chat rooms for teenage boys and girls. After seeing a few photos sent by female netizens, my illusions shattered, and I felt that chatting about that was a waste of time, so I went to explore new things. At that time, I often read a newspaper that listed a website forum, which I wrote down and would log in to whenever I went online.
Old-fashioned BBS forums had tens of thousands of registered users, with 200-300 people online during the day. If the number of users increased slightly, the server would freeze or crash. In those days, the internet infrastructure was extremely rudimentary, and it would take 20-30 seconds to load a 100k image.
I tried posting on BBS to participate in discussions and make friends. A month later, something big happened that changed my life—I became a super moderator.
Moderators are administrators of individual sections, with the power to delete posts, ban users, and pin posts. They are usually highly respected among the users. Super moderators, on the other hand, are higher-level administrators who can select and appoint moderators for their respective sections. Apart from the website administrator, super moderators have the most power.
You're probably wondering how I got the position, and honestly, I still don't know. I was just posting and chatting on the forum every day when suddenly one day a super moderator messaged me and added me on QQ. I was a little flattered because, in my eyes, he was a big shot on the forum.
He was a college student studying in the US. We chatted for about a week, and then he suddenly said he was resigning and had recommended me to the site administrator to succeed him, asking me to report to the internal section. I was stunned and asked him why he chose me. He said he thought I was capable and wanted me to give it a try. If I didn't do it, he would find someone else.
I was just a high school sophomore at the time. The highest position I had ever held was two stripes when I was in elementary school. Now, I had suddenly become a super moderator on an online forum, overseeing eight or nine sections and having tens of thousands of active users. This was a completely new experience for me.
Although being a moderator didn't pay, you were valued and respected in the community, a bit like a sect elder in a cultivation world—it was an amazing experience. Back then, my biggest fear was people finding out I was just a high school student, because many of the moderators I interacted with and appointed were adults, and I didn't want them to look down on me.
The year I became a super moderator, I was very active. I reorganized the forum administration, changed moderators, formulated community rules, organized forum activities, formed teams, and so on. These things took a lot of energy. At that time, I was going from my junior year of high school to my senior year, which would definitely affect my studies. I was scolded by my family a lot, but the experience of being a super moderator gradually pushed me in another direction in life.
First, my online savvy improved. As a super moderator, I always had support from netizens no matter what I said. Being in the spotlight for a long time, I gradually learned speaking skills and how to lead conversations. Second, through my work as a moderator, I got to know people from all walks of life, including some media editors who came to the forum looking for content.
Seeing that I was frequently active on the forum, they asked if I would like to try contributing articles, with a payment of 100 yuan per 1000 words. At that time, a high school student's monthly allowance was only a few dozen yuan, and I simply couldn't refuse such an offer.
The first draft was about 3,000 words long. I spent two days drafting and revising it, and then went to an internet cafe to type the article into my email and send it to the editor. Surprisingly, it went smoothly. The editor said he only needed to make a few minor revisions before it was ready to use, and then I was done with that.
Two months later, I received 300 yuan in royalties, which was the first big sum of money I ever earned in my life.
Then began my long writing career, mainly focusing on games and sports, for both newspapers and magazines. Their editors have their own circle, and I have a very good reputation within that circle. I'm the kind of author who can independently come up with topics, and I produce high-quality manuscripts quickly. As a result, more and more people are coming to me for long-term collaborations.
By the time I was a sophomore in college, my monthly writing fees were already 1,500-2,000 yuan. My mother no longer needed to give me living expenses, and she stopped saying that I was addicted to the internet and was wasting my life, because the world I was exposed to at that time was beyond her previous understanding.
Even my first job after graduation, in Beijing, was a continuation of this storyline, and my life trajectory was completely changed.
A few years later, the forum gradually declined due to poor management, but by then I had already built a wide network of internet contacts. I moved to other platforms to develop my career, and with my previous experience, I was always able to make a name for myself in the new community very quickly.
I'm good at starting a new topic to spark discussion, which is called "digging a hole" in forums. The holes I dig always attract more people to join in, which is probably a skill in itself, showing that I have a knack for attracting traffic and an aesthetic sense for content.
Back then, the terms "big V" and "internet celebrity" didn't exist, but in the several online communities I frequented, I was a well-known user with a strong presence. Later, with the advent of Weibo and WeChat official accounts, and the arrival of the self-media era, I faded out of all those communities and focused on writing for my own account.
So sometimes when netizens ask me how to write a successful public account or how to become a big influencer, I don't know how to share my experience. It wasn't a sudden epiphany, but rather the culmination of over 20 years of growth.
If I didn't write about securities and finance, but instead wrote about other topics like games, sports, history, travel, or relationships, I would most likely become a well-known blogger in that field. Do you think I can do it?
The above is a sharing of my past experiences. If you find it inspiring, that's great. If not, just consider it a casual chat.
PS1: The most frustrating thing about writing for magazines and newspapers is not seeing any reader feedback. Even if readers send letters to the editorial department, they never reach me, unlike now where I can see your comments directly in the backend, which is so exciting.
PS2: Because the payment cycle for manuscript fees was usually 2 months at that time, my WeChat official account also collected manuscript fees every 2 months.
PS3: While writing this recollection, I couldn't help but think of some of the songs I liked to listen to most in internet cafes back then. I've chosen one of them to post here to add a bit of the nostalgic atmosphere.
Original Article: View Chinese Version
