Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

"A piece of paper?" Boss Zhou blinked. "What kind of paper?"

"Handwritten sales records," Han Fei said. "Just tell them how well this magazine sells in the city, how many copies each bookstore sold in a day, and how many times each newsstand restocked. You don't need official data, just verbal statements will suffice. Those old men have been in business their whole lives; they'll understand immediately. Then tell them they don't need to stock up; they can just leave a few copies with them, and they'll settle the payment once they're sold. If they don't sell, it's on you. They don't need to pay a penny upfront, and they don't have to bear any risk. Tell me, wouldn't they be willing to give it a try?"

"Of course I'd be willing! Who wouldn't do something with zero risk? President Han, if you want to do it this way, then things will be much easier."

"Well, there's one more thing, Mr. Zhou. Don't you know so many owners of rural branch offices? Those owners probably know the old man at the newsstand too, right?"

Boss Zhou's eyes widened, and he laughed: "That's right, how come I didn't think of that? Some of those service centers are just across the street from the newsstands, they see each other all the time. I could ask them to help introduce us, and that would be..."

"That makes perfect sense," Han Fei said. "It's much easier to talk to someone through an acquaintance than for a complete stranger to show up at your door."

"President Han, you're right." Boss Zhou slapped his forehead. "How could I not have thought of that?"

"Boss Zhou, remember this: building distribution channels is like fighting a war. You can't get rich overnight; you have to take down one stronghold after another. First, secure the towns you know best and set up a few outlets in each town. Once these outlets are running smoothly, you'll have sales and a good reputation, and then it will be easier to expand further."

Boss Zhou nodded, and then nodded repeatedly.

"Moreover," Han Fei slowly exhaled smoke toward the ceiling, "every time you set up a kiosk, you're earning extra money for yourself. You make a profit on the price of each magazine you sell. If a kiosk sells well, it'll come to you for stock every month. That's long-term income, much more stable than that one-off deal of collecting phone numbers."

"Don't worry, President Han, I understand," Boss Zhou said with a smile. "And what about third place?"

Han Fei leaned back in his chair: "Third, help me promote that SMS service with you."

"SMS? You mean... Bluebird Reading? You can read novels by sending SMS messages?"

"Yes," Han Fei said. "Because we have many numbers that haven't received our push notifications, it's impossible for everyone who comes to your branch to open a card or pay their bill to have received our push notifications. So whenever someone comes in, you just need to casually mention it and ask if they want to try it out. They can read fun stories by sending a text message, and it only costs ten yuan a month. If they're interested, you teach them how to reply and how to subscribe. I'll give you a Qingniao Reading SP service number. Just send 'Y' to this number, and regardless of whether the user has received our push notifications, it will trigger the secondary confirmation process in the SP service. The system will send a text message to the user to confirm whether they want to subscribe. As long as the user replies 'Y' again, they will successfully subscribe. Then you record the number they used to subscribe and the subscription time, and submit it to us for verification at the end of the month. For each successful subscription, I'll give you a one-yuan commission."

Boss Zhou nodded thoughtfully: "I understand. What you're talking about is called active subscription."

"Well, do the math. If you can recruit a hundred people a month, that's a hundred yuan. If you can recruit five hundred, that's five hundred yuan. This money is pure profit. You don't need to put up a single penny of cost; you only need to talk to people."

Boss Zhou put his hands behind his head, leaned back in his chair, and made a satisfied grumbling.

"But you have to be careful about one thing," Han Fei said. "You must get the user's consent before subscribing. You can't secretly subscribe for them. Otherwise, if they complain to the mobile company, we'll all be in big trouble."

Boss Zhou patted his chest and said, "President Han, don't worry about that. Although I, Fatty Zhou, love money, I never do anything to cheat people. I will definitely make things clear to them. Even if they don't know how to operate it, I will make sure they agree before I help them."

Han Fei looked at Boss Zhou and thought to himself that although the fat man was shrewd, he still had his bottom line, otherwise he wouldn't have continued to cooperate with him.

"Also," Han Fei said, "you can try to gather some information. For example, find out what kind of stories people around here prefer—family dramas or those rural tales with a touch of the wild? You don't need to write a report; just leverage your local advantage. Take notes while drinking, playing cards, or chatting, and call me every ten days or so to give me some simple feedback, providing the most authentic user opinions and creative ideas. I'll have the editorial department write articles tailored to those needs. That way, the conversion rate will be higher, your magazine will sell better, and it'll benefit us both."

"Okay, that's easy."

"Alright. Let's put the number thing behind us. I'll go back and draft a 'Bluebird Publishing House-Township Liaison Station Cooperation Framework Agreement.' In addition to what we just discussed, the agreement will also specify the detailed settlement process and authorization boundaries. For example, it's strictly forbidden to sign any agreements or promise any unauthorized activities in the name of Bluebird Publishing House. Once you agree to and sign everything, you'll be a formal partner of Bluebird Publishing House. I'll have someone send over the contract and promotional materials as soon as possible—posters, magazines, SP service account, and detailed subscription instructions. You can test it out in the store first, and then expand it to other stores."

Boss Zhou's face was beaming with smiles: "President Han treats me like one of his own, so I'll definitely do my best. I'll handle magazine distribution, business promotion, and information feedback to the best of my ability."

Han Fei glanced at his watch and stood up. "It's settled then. Call me anytime if you have any questions."

"Take care, President Han."

Han Fei stepped out of the shop, lit a cigarette, stretched, and turned to look at the crowded street. He knew that a larger network was quietly spreading across this rural area he had never explored before.

On the way back, Wen Jie called to report that the system was ready. The three databases—user database, subscription database, and content database—were running independently. The implementation of the caching strategy had significantly reduced the pressure on the databases.

Lin Feng helped set up a simple load balancing architecture, which can be horizontally scaled by adding servers if traffic surges later. Furthermore, he helped refactor the cross-database query aggregation layer, resulting in a response time that is now over 40% faster than before. Wang Zhe's user profiling system interfaces have also been configured, with various filters available based on district/county, age group, and consumption habits. The backend can now directly retrieve user profile data.

Han Fei hung up the phone and immediately called Zhang Qiming. The mobile number pool was ready for connection.