E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World

Previously, when working on BBS, there were breaks during holidays, and even before holidays, everyone was in a leisurely state.

However, since we started working on the microblog, everyone began to dread the holidays because we had to create content for the entire holiday and be on call to post advertisements. Everyone was feeling the strain. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Moreover, the company’s performance in 2012 was mediocre, and the bonuses and thirteenth-month pay were not as substantial as before. If it weren’t for the pleasant work environment, many people might have considered switching jobs.

After the New Year, Zhou Xueyin discussed the possibility of collaboration with Chang Hua from Yibo Microblog.

The other party was very happy and even promised that we wouldn’t need to sign any special agreement—just binding the company account would suffice.

At Yibo Microblog, settlements were made monthly, and there was a reward and penalty system based on order acceptance and rejection rates.

Hearing that no special agreement was needed, Zhou Xueyin felt somewhat relieved, as it would be troublesome if there were any discrepancies on her part when it came to enforcement.

"S, Wanwan, Hehe, come over. Let’s do a little training!" At the very least, they had to learn how to use the order-dispatching platform.

Zhou Xueyin decided to manage the posting of orders herself, while letting them handle the acceptance of orders.

"Every day at 10 a.m., various types of advertisement orders appear in the dispatch square—just choose the fashion-related ones," Zhou Xueyin explained while she operated the system.

"You must click ’accept order’ for the advertisement to appear on our order interface. Then, based on the requirements, forward it directly or after modification, and finally input the Weibo address in the backend and click ’complete.’ Then, we consider the money ours."

"That sounds pretty simple! But what if I accept an order and can’t complete it on time?" Liu He asked curiously.

"Then it counts as a missed order. I think there are like ten or five opportunities each month for rejected or missed orders that don’t get penalized. Exceeding this number could lead to accusations of malicious order grabbing, and there would be some penalties," Zhou Xueyin continued to explain.

"Got it... So what’s this platform assignment all about?" Liu He continued to inquire.

"Platform assignment distributes expiring orders randomly to active accounts to protect the merchants’ interests. However, rejected and missed orders also count towards the free quota, so be careful!" Zhou Xueyin cautioned earnestly.

"Seems like there are some pitfalls with this platform assignment..." Song Yantong commented, pursing her lips.

"However, each account has a maximum of ten orders per day. Once you reach the limit, the platform won’t assign orders automatically. So, we still hold the reins," Zhou Xueyin assured.

"That’s still manageable. I was worried about being randomly assigned non-fashion orders. If we post them, it’s awkward; if we don’t post, it still counts against our free quota..." Song Yantong was slightly relieved.

"So, at 10 a.m. every day, go straight to the dispatch square and grab orders... The fashion ones pay more, and from what I’ve seen, they go fast. So we must be quick!" Zhou Xueyin admonished, "Currently, our platform account is still not set to accept orders. Tomorrow morning, I’ll change the status, and then we grab orders!"

"Ok! No problem!" Everyone nodded in agreement.

Initially, everyone was quite comfortable using this platform, logging on at 10 a.m. sharp every day to grab orders. However, as more people started using it, the orders became harder to secure...

It still showed fashion orders available, but as soon as someone clicked on ’accept order,’ it would indicate that the order had already been taken.

"Strange... It clearly shows the order is still there on the dispatch square, but as soon as I click on ’accept,’ it says it has been grabbed. What’s the issue?" Song Yantong frowned and clicked her mouse.

"Hold on, I’ll ask Chang Hua what’s going on..." Zhou Xueyin was also puzzled. They had only been using it for half a month, and this didn’t seem right.

"Hello? Mr. Xiaozhou?" Zhou Xueyin called Chang Hua, "It’s like this, is our account restricted from grabbing orders?"

"Ah? No, why do you ask?" Chang Hua was also baffled.

"Our colleague responsible for grabbing orders said that today, even though there were fashion orders available, whenever she clicked on ’accept,’ it would indicate the order had been taken. But no matter how we refresh, it still shows the order is there?" Zhou Xueyin explained the situation.

"Just a moment, let me check quickly..." Chang Hua seemed never to have encountered such an issue and was just as puzzled.

While holding the phone, Zhou Xueyin watched everyone with a look of helplessness, waiting for Chang Hua’s reply.

"Hello? Mr. Xiaozhou? Still there?"

"Still here, still here!" Zhou Xueyin hurriedly responded.

"Sorry about this. Recently, the number of users has surged, and the servers are somewhat struggling. We just restarted them. Could you try again now?" Chang Hua was very apologetic.

"That explains it. I was wondering why it kept indicating that the orders had been taken..." Zhou Xueyin refreshed the Yibo Microblog page, and the order Song Yantong had been trying to grab now appeared in the backend under ’pending completion.’ "Ah! I see it now, we did grab them... Sorry for the trouble!"

"No worries, it seems we also need to beef up our server capacity! Haha..." Chang Hua laughed heartily.

After hanging up, Zhou Xueyin breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out they weren’t restricted from grabbing the fashion orders...

"S, the orders are all in the backend now, just hurry and complete the submissions," Zhou Xueyin relayed the findings to them.

"I was wondering why it kept indicating they had been taken. Turns out, we grabbed them ourselves, haha..." Everyone laughed it off as no big deal and continued working.

You know, ever since using the Yibo Microblog platform, Zhou Xueyin’s clients have also been full of praise for this system, as it diversified the accounts used for forwarding advertisements, greatly improving the effects compared to before.

And the Xueshan Jiying Company, in the first quarter of 2013, saw an increase in revenue compared to the first quarter of 2012.

However, nothing is as changeable as the weather, and fashion orders were not available every day. And even when they were, it wasn’t just a simple forwarding job.

"Yinyin, should we accept this one?" Liu He sent Zhou Xueyin a screenshot showing an image of an electronic product coating and an unclear descriptive phrase.

Completely unclear about what the merchant was trying to convey...

"Don’t accept it, leave it be..." Zhou Xueyin decisively refused.

"Yinyin, it has a Taobao link. Should we accept it?" Song Yantong sent Zhou Xueyin a screenshot.

"How much does it pay?"

"1000..."

"Accept it..."

"But..."

"But what?"

"But not only do we have to include the Taobao link in the post itself, but we also have to get other accounts to share it, generating volume..." Song Yantong said hesitantly.

"If it’s not counterfeit goods, let’s accept it. Otherwise, where will the money for food come from?" Zhou Xueyin was really pushing the boundaries to make money.