And among all the information, the hottest topic was:

　　“To be blunt, let me ask on behalf of everyone: has anyone managed to meet up with 玩偶姐姐? Was it good?”

Chapter 14: Nearly Ten Thousand a Month

　　Let’s rewind a few days. Brian Clark was feeling utterly hopeless.

　　The website launched on the 12th. That night, he went around posting ads on major BBS forums and chatrooms. If he got kicked out, he’d just go back in and keep posting, relentless and undeterred.

　　He checked the backend himself—on the first day, there were 669 unique IP visits. He was anxious, worried that no one would pay.

　　And his fears were confirmed. The next day, he received the reports from TOM and NetEase: only two people subscribed, earning a total of 5.1 yuan.

　　Web novel authors know this feeling well: 100,000 bookmarks, but once it goes paid—

　　Only 1,000 initial subscriptions!

　　It’s a flop!

　　The staff in charge of the SMS alliance tried to comfort him, saying it’s normal, the beginning is always tough, things will get better.

　　But Brian Clark couldn’t listen. The website’s costs were far higher than expected. Besides the requirements William Clark had mentioned, they’d already pushed server and bandwidth costs to the absolute minimum.

　　William Clark went out to do some fieldwork, printed small cards and big poster ads, spending a thousand yuan. After setting aside a few hundred as backup, all the rest was invested.

　　Among all the small, struggling sites, theirs was considered pretty extravagant.

　　Brian Clark was a pure techie and didn’t really understand William Clark’s moves—like getting friends and family with cell phones to pad the site’s numbers, writing up lots of copy for 玩偶姐姐, setting up a “close friends” feature, or faking some of the data.

　　He thought for sure they were going to lose money.

　　But then the second day’s numbers came in: 3,280 visits, 31 subscriptions, 79 yuan earned.

　　On the third day: 5,574 visits, 52 subscriptions, 132 yuan earned.

　　On the fourth day! 96 subscriptions, 244 yuan earned!

　　Today was the fifth day.

　　Brian Clark sat in front of the computer early, waiting for the TOM staff to send him the report. NetEase had already sent theirs, but their staff was colder—TOM’s was more enthusiastic.

　　The wait was agonizing for Brian Clark, his heart pounding.

　　Four days, 460 yuan earned—already enough to surprise him. The growth rate was even more shocking. This was 2001—most people’s monthly salary was only a few hundred yuan, and they’d made 460 in just four days!

　　Honestly, even if it stopped here, Brian Clark already felt pretty awesome.

　　He just couldn’t figure it out—was it really this easy to make money on the internet? Or rather, was it really this easy to get money out of the “chives’” pockets?

　　“Beep beep beep!”

　　The message alert sounded, his QQ icon started flashing. Brian Clark suddenly got nervous. He had a feeling today’s numbers would go up again, but there was a sliver of worry—what if they dropped?

　　“……”

　　He swallowed hard and clicked open the QQ message window. In the rough, primitive chat box, yesterday’s income data was clearly written:

　　“66 subscriptions, income 168.3.”

　　168 plus NetEase’s 153, for a total of 321!

　　“321 yuan!?”

　　“321 yuan in a single day???”

　　Brian Clark quickly did the math and got the answer: that’s 9,639 yuan a month! Almost ten thousand!

　　His fingers trembled as he typed, asking, “Is this data correct?”

　　“No problem!”

　　The TOM staff was also surprised, saying, “You guys have real potential. We’re working with over 40 small sites right now. One of them took more than 20 days to reach this level—you guys are almost there in just five days.”

　　“What are they all doing?”

　　“Personal sites, you know, posting some racy novels or pictures, trying to trick whoever they can. But your site is interesting—it keeps people coming back.”

　　The staff’s attitude was clearly different now, a bit more friendly, as if afraid they’d be poached by someone else. “By the way, what was your traffic yesterday? Did you break ten thousand?”

　　“Just over ten thousand.”

　　“For small sites, ten thousand is usually a threshold. After that, it’s hard to keep growing, but the income will gradually stabilize. Keep it up!”

　　“Thanks!”

　　Even if it doesn’t grow, I’m not worried anymore!

　　Brian Clark let out a long breath. Earning over 9,000 yuan a month—I can walk with my head held high!

　　He logged off, feeling light as air, his heels practically floating. He’d planned to wait until the agreed time in the evening to talk to William Clark, but then he thought, I’m this rich now!

　　Screw it, I’m making a long-distance call!

　　He found an IC card phone booth and called his cousin, who was a thousand miles away. On the other end, William Clark was slacking off and yawning, cursing, “You’re getting rich, huh? Long-distance calls are free now?”

　　“Bro! We’re making money!”

　　“Huh?”

　　“The latest report just came in—we made 321 yesterday. We’ve made over 700 yuan in total!”

　　What’s there to shout about for just over 700 yuan?

　　William Clark couldn’t be bothered. In 2001, the SMS alliance was just starting out, so the earnings were still low. The real peak would be in the next year or two, when the top players could make a hundred thousand a month—and that was just the leftovers.

　　The big players in SP could make tens of millions a month!

　　Brian Clark rambled on emotionally, then asked, “Bro, I just don’t get it—why are people willing to pay?”

　　“I don’t want to waste phone money.”

　　“Aiya~”

　　Brian Clark, a big, burly guy, actually made that kind of sound. William Clark couldn’t take it, saying, “Alright, alright, I’ll make it simple. First, let’s not even talk about the novelty of the internet—everyone’s curious. The main thing is product value.

　　When you’re selling a product to users, you have to make them feel like they’re getting a bargain.”