Uncle Chai SEO: New SEO practitioners feel lost and don’t know how to expand their thinking!
Newcomers should study and observe more. Focus on the area you’re in charge of. If it’s a corporate website, understanding the products and analyzing the market are key. For beginners, start with external links and soft article editing, then improve your analytical ability. Thinking comes from practice. Hehe, keep it up!

Other reply: Keep updating regularly. If it’s a new site, it takes long-term effort.

Other reply: The split method for pseudo-original soft articles: cut a complete article into 2, 3 or more sections evenly, or rearrange the order of paragraphs.

Other reply: Learn about the industry first, otherwise you won’t even be able to write articles.

Other reply: It’s easy with resources:
1. Content resources – create content useful to your target audience
2. External link resources – regular links, news links, site groups, etc.
3. Network resources – with good connections, the above problems are mostly solved.

Other reply: I think to do SEO well, you must be able to code the front-end or at least read the code. That’s basic. You should also know what helps with future optimization when building a site. Basic skills in PS and DW are also necessary.

Other reply: Well… it takes great perseverance when you’re just starting out. Stay steady.

Other reply: Personally, focus on on-site SEO first, then expand to more off-site platforms, and finally do marketing. That’s good for performance.

Other reply: Oh I see. Just keep updating. For a new site, you need…

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Uncle Chai SEO: There are several classic examples in SEO. Please share the details. You know what I mean.

It was more than 10 years ago, I was still young and hadn’t even seen a computer, let alone the Internet. It was 2005, and spring came earlier than usual. Shanda acquired shares of Sina, and Tencent bought Boda Foxmail, indicating a new round of development opportunities for the Internet.

At the end of February, Yang Tao, webmaster of 9flash living in a small alley in Shanghai, received millions of yuan in investment from a Chinese-funded enterprise in Japan.

Back in late 1999, when Nasdaq sneezed, countless Chinese personal websites fell.

Carboy’s Complete Internet Guide, Rabbit’s Fisherman’s Wharf, and Echo Info by Biancheng Langzi became nostalgic memories for veteran netizens. Huajun Download Station and Golden Book Library were taken over by big companies. The split of Hot Boy and Flying Bird, and Gao Chunhui’s short tenure at Kingsoft Joyo, made personal webmasters feel a chill. If even the seniors struggled, what hope was there for small fries?

Now, webmasters who survived the harsh winter welcomed their spring.

Sites like Hao123, IT Writing Community, Huajun Download Station, Gao Chunhui’s Mobile Home (www.imobile.com.cn), Blog China, and 9flash either obtained investment, began large-scale profitability, or expanded their businesses. These role models gave motivation to webmasters still struggling for traffic and rankings.

Earlier, Alexa, a well-known website ranking organization, cleaned its database, causing considerable panic among webmasters. A friend commented: Now Alexa is like Nasdaq back then, a barometer for personal websites.

### The Alternative Success of Hao123
On August 31, 2004, Hao123, known as China’s top personal website, was sold to Baidu.

Baidu reportedly paid 50 million yuan plus some Baidu shares. After the acquisition, Baidu integrated Hao123’s resources. Except for retaining the technical team, Hao123’s management exited after cashing out.

Also known as Home of Websites, Hao123 had been a gateway for many new Internet users to find information since its launch in 1999. Many users unfamiliar with Chinese URLs relied heavily on it. Baidu had long provided servers and bandwidth for hao123.com, while Hao123 promoted Baidu. According to Alexa, hao123.com ranked around 25th globally in traffic.

265.com had traveled to Guangdong to negotiate an acquisition, and IDG had also visited to discuss investment. Baidu saw the danger: if it didn’t act quickly, millions might end up in US dollars. So it made up its mind and bought it.

Hao123 seemed to consist of nothing but extremely simple HTML pages, which amazed many peers. Years earlier, Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, said: “Alibaba developed so well mainly because its CEO doesn’t understand technology.”

Hao123 was such a “magic boy”. It required little updating; even left untouched for months, it still brought its webmaster about one million yuan in income monthly. So hao123.com was the webmaster’s “cash cow”. Selling it meant giving up his steady cash flow and retiring young.

Baidu’s offer was roughly five times annual profit — a reasonable price. Compared with similar-traffic sites, Hao123’s income was relatively low. Now sold to Baidu, it had fulfilled its historical mission.

In summary, Hao123 succeeded for two reasons: being first to market, and being simple and clear.

9flash was founded later than Flash Empire and had less content, yet its traffic far surpassed it. The reason was also simplicity and clarity.

### The Transformation of 9flash
Yang Tao was 22 when he founded 9flash in June 2002. In a short time, he built traffic to over 10 million without spending a penny. Expelled from a geological survey major at a college in Anhui, he started with his favorite Flash music videos and accidentally built China’s most visited Flash site.

In 2003, 9flash outranked Flash Empire, Flash Bar, and Flash World in international domain rankings.

After receiving investment, 9flash changed significantly. It added sections including a Flash forum, Flash videos, SMS, MMS, and Flash games.

A site should start small and focused for easier growth. Once reaching scale, it can expand content around its core theme. At that stage, attracting attention is no longer difficult; more content draws wider audiences for better commercialization.

Yet transformation is a double-edged sword. A misstep may cause loyal users to leave and the site’s unique character to fade. For 9flash, 2005 was a crucial year.

How should personal websites represented by 9flash seize current opportunities to reach a new level?

1. Strengthen Management
As Internet companies move from startup to growth, improving internal management is essential infrastructure. It supports external expansion and business development.

However, many sites fail to balance expansion and management, leaving “black holes” in operations. Common issues include unplanned spending, random advertising, and unnecessary office competition. Weak management shows not only in talent shortages but also in unbalanced talent structures and poor resource allocation. Many sites lack operational talent. This one-sided resource setup, without timely adjustment, creates management black holes and hinders corporate restructuring, capital attraction, and market expansion.

2. Build Core Strength and Pursue Win-Win Cooperation
From the success of Flash brands like Agui, ShowGood, and Xiaoxiao Series, 9flash must greatly improve the quantity and quality of its original themed animations — key to boosting social influence. Building an in-house Flash production team is essential.

On the other hand, website-centered upstream and downstream business models were once popular. But due to rough integration and disharmonious combinations in the industry chain…

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