Ground Promotion Is a High-Risk Profession

Greedy Blue Moon Legend comes in three versions.

[Slightly Modified Version]: Free to play, no time cards, double Experience, double drop rate, boss spawn time halved. New maps, new equipment, all equipment is obtained through gameplay! Official synchronization!

[Medium Modified Version]: Free to play, no time cards, ten times Experience, ten times drop rate, member map bosses spawn instantly, skill optimization, new maps, new equipment.

[Super Modified Version]: Free to play, no time cards, hundred times Experience, hundred times drop rate, start at level 20; brand new skills, new maps, new equipment.

These three versions were specially created by Chen Hao for different types of players.

Some people like it as extreme as possible, so the super-modified version awaits you.

Others prefer a steady progression, and the micro-change server with the best cost-effectiveness is most suitable.

Whether you like braised pork knuckles or preserved egg and lean pork congee, you'll find satisfaction here!

Everything is ready, only one step remains.

Promotion!

After all, even the best wine needs good advertising.

Promotion can be done in two ways: online and offline!

At this point, Chen Hao remembered the good service of Baidu's bid ranking.

In September 2001, Baidu launched its bid ranking service. You pay, and your search results are displayed with priority. The more you pay, the higher your ranking.

When it was first launched, the concept was too new, and people were still observing. Therefore, by the end of 2001, the total revenue was only 120,000. However, starting from 2002, the effect of bid ranking began to show, and it gradually gained attention. The following year, revenue reached 5.8 million, and later it was measured in hundreds of millions.

It later became one of Baidu's main sources of cash flow. Unfortunately, after the Putian system incident, Baidu became a pariah, its reputation ruined. As the saying goes, "He who builds it can also destroy it."

Regardless, Baidu has made a fortune from bid ranking over the years.

Chen Hao directly contacted Baidu, purchased the bid ranking service, filled in the website's relevant information, and paid a 2,000 yuan prepayment.

The charging method for bid ranking is to bid on search keywords. The higher the price per click, the higher the priority. Each click deducts from the merchant's prepayment.

Chen Hao wanted to bid on the keyword "Legend of Mir." Upon inquiry, he found that only Shanda had purchased the ranking service so far, and the current price was only a few cents per click.

Indeed, it was very cheap at the time. He directly offered 0.1 yuan per click, meaning his current prepayment could support 20,000 clicks.

With the bid ranking settled, Chen Hao didn't start the promotion immediately.

He needed to build hype!

Recalling the game promotion strategies of later years, he drew a flowchart on a notebook: Promotion -> Hype Building -> Pre-registration -> Server Launch!

With the plan clarified, Chen Hao directly added login and registration functions to the website. Users could register through the website and log in directly to Greedy Blue Moon Legend.

Above the golden characters "Beyond Legend Alliance" at the top of the webpage, he added some information.

[March 15th, 10 AM]

Shanda's passionate Open Beta is here! Pre-register for good gifts, highly anticipated! Followed by a real-time countdown: 77:32:41

The third line displayed the pre-registration prizes: [Purgatory, Silver Snake, Magic Staff] to help warriors get a head start, followed by the current number of pre-registrations.

Finally, he optimized the website's SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The purpose of optimizing SEO is to ensure that the website ranks higher than unoptimized websites, even without bid ranking.

With these done.

Only offline promotion remained. This could be done in many ways, such as distributing flyers, holding events, printing logos on T-shirts, sponsoring, etc.

Limited by his finances, Chen Hao could only choose the simplest and most basic method: ground promotion by finding internet cafes to distribute flyers.

Chen Hao pieced together image materials from the website to create a promotional image, with the private server website address in the center.

He directly emailed the image to Xu Pengkun and called him, "You can start now!"

After hanging up, he copied the image to a USB drive, tidied himself up, and went out.

The sun was hiding behind the clouds, and the weather was a bit cold and overcast today.

Tightening his clothes, Chen Hao headed straight to a relatively large graphic printing shop nearby.

"Boss, print two thousand copies!"

Upon hearing about a big order, the printing shop owner's enthusiasm and efficiency soared.

A few dozen minutes later, the three printers in the shop were almost smoking, and the two thousand flyers were finally ready.

Chen Hao asked the shop assistant to help move the cardboard boxes to the roadside.

Conveniently, there was a taxi parked nearby.

Chen Hao walked over.

"Where to, young man?" the driver, an uncle, rolled down the window.

"How much for a full day rental?"

The uncle mentally calculated his daily earnings: "600 during the day, 200 at night."

"400, if it's a deal, come help out!" Chen Hao didn't fall for it. Seeing two other taxis behind him, he directly quoted a price.

"Alright~" The uncle immediately got out and helped load the cardboard boxes into the trunk.

"Where are we going?" the uncle started the engine.

He glanced at the phone in his hand, which was as heavy as a brick. Back then, there were no apps, no Baidu or Gaode Maps. This made him miss the mobile internet era of ten years later immensely. Chen Hao sighed, "Let's just wander around. Today, we're only looking for internet cafes. We'll try to cover all the internet cafes in Ice City."

After half a day, he saw no response from the driver and no movement.

"Driver? Are we driving?"

"Young man, didn't you want to find internet cafes? It's quite a coincidence. My son is useless, always hanging out in internet cafes. He knows most of the internet cafes in Ice City like the back of his hand. I'll ask him. That way, we won't be wandering around like headless chickens."

"Oh, that would be great!"

After speaking, the driver made a phone call.

Soon, text messages flooded the driver's phone, densely packed with internet cafe addresses!

"Young man, buckle up. Let's go!"

The taxi sped off, stopped after two hundred meters.

"First one, Supersonic Internet Cafe, we're here!"

Chen Hao: .

He got out, took out a hundred flyers, and walked in.

Ground promotion meant going from one internet cafe to another to negotiate. He would directly approach the network administrator and ask them to place the Legend private server flyers at the front desk. He'd explain the situation, and if customers saw them while online and were interested, they could take one.

Of course, this wasn't free. Chen Hao paid the internet cafe 100 yuan. Most front desks had phone numbers for food delivery or business cards for hotels and inns. This 100 yuan was just a fee for the space.

If they wanted to put up flyers on a nearby bulletin board, that would be a separate charge.

This was considered good. If he encountered an internet cafe protected by local thugs, he'd have to pay a "protection fee."

As it happened, when Chen Hao came out of the fourth internet cafe, he ran out. Three or four young men followed him, with dyed hair and tattoos, their background obvious.

Leveraging his long legs and his sudden, unexpected escape, he gained a head start, maintaining a dozen meters distance from the group behind him as he sprinted towards the taxi.

Damn it! No wonder he told me to stop a few dozen meters ahead.

The driver had already seen the situation from the rearview mirror and started the car. Without needing a reminder, as soon as Chen Hao got in, he floored the accelerator.

The taxi shot forward. Seeing the red light at the intersection ahead, the driver sharply turned the steering wheel to the right, executing a beautiful drift and speeding away.