When the annual online shopping craze pushed the total sales volume of Alibaba's business-to-customer marketplace Tmall to a record high of 268.4 billion yuan ($38.27 billion) on November 11, Zong Ning posted his total earnings for the day at 199,000 yuan ($28,375) on his WeChat Moments, the app's news feed feature.

It represented income from memberships for his online course, which covers how to earn money from independently operated social media accounts, known as self-media or We Media in China. Subscribers pay 1,800 yuan ($257) to join Zong's WeChat group, where he gives instruction on running self-media accounts on social media platforms Weibo and WeChat, news aggregators Baidu and Toutiao and video-streaming app Kuaishou, among others, something he has been doing since 2014.

Born in 1982, Zong moved to Beijing after graduating from university in Shandong Province in east China. Although he maintained a job, he started to share his ideas on doing business on the Internet on Weibo. Gradually, he accumulated followers and gained some fame. He continued to post articles and later set up a business model, joining the first group of young people who seized the opportunity to profit from the self-media trend.

Easy money 

In January 2011, Tencent rolled out its instant messaging service WeChat that soon became a must-have app for smartphone users in China. Zong saw the opportunities it could bring for people who wanted to run a low-cost business and encouraged his followers to promote their products on its Moments section.

In late 2013, WeChat launched its public account feature which allows individuals to push feeds to subscribers and provide them with services. Zong started his training course immediately. At the time, the number of people running public accounts was limited and it was easy to amass followers.

Some of the early birds could easily earn over 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) a year. But this prime window didn't last long, as millions more swarmed into the business, especially young people.

In 2015, WeChat allowed subscribers to give public account owners monetary rewards if they like the content. This has become a crucial source of income for self-media bloggers, along with revenue from advertisement.

Luo Ziwen, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, lists self-media as a sunrise industry. "Many young people are not satisfied with sitting in an office and earning a fixed salary," Luo said. "Self-media can motivate them to use their skills and professional knowledge in a modern way."

For the young, self-media is a low-threshold business. Media reports add to its allure as they highlight role models who brag about making a fortune in a short time and achieving their life goals at a young age.

In early November, China Youth Daily conducted a survey of 1,870 people between 18 and 35 years. Among the respondents, 72 percent said they have friends working as self-media bloggers, while 45.6 percent said they have tried or are engaged in self-media themselves, and 52.8 percent said they have plans to develop their career via self-media.

Yang Zhilin, a student from Beijing-based Tsinghua University, said many of his classmates tried to run a public account on WeChat or open subscription accounts on other social media platforms, but only a few have persisted since it is very time- and energy-consuming.

Yang himself ran a WeChat public account to help followers increase their English vocabulary by reading English newspapers to them every day. In preparation, he had to review over 20 articles a day and choose one or two from the pile.

"I had to confirm the meaning of the words from the dictionary and find examples where they are frequently used by English speakers and pictures to go with the story," he said. "I spent about two hours a day editing the file, but had only about 200 followers after a month. It was really disappointing. I finally quit."

This is common among many self-media bloggers. They start with a big ambition but quickly lose hope and quit. Luo mentioned three qualities that a person needs to be successful in self-media.

First, professional knowledge in one field, which will be the foundation of the content. Second, skills to create the content, which may include writing and creating videos, and the ability to promote it. The last one is persistence.

Zong echoed Luo's views in one of his articles. "You can't expect to be popular and make money overnight. There are no shortcuts in this business," he said. "Be patient and diligent. Find something you are good at and work hard to become an expert in that field. Only in this way will people pay for what you provide."

Most people overestimate what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in three years, Zong said. Three years are the time frame he recommends self-media bloggers take to work hard without caring about results.

Gaining fame 

Guan Xiaodong, born in 1991, is a licensed veterinarian from Liaoning Province in northeast China. After graduation from college, he found a job in a small pet hospital with a monthly salary of just 1,500 yuan ($214).

In 2014, Guan registered on Kuaishou and uploaded a short video of his dog. Surprisingly, the film got over 30,000 likes and he quickly became popular on the platform.

"Every time I uploaded a short video of my dog, I easily got over 400,000 views, but when I tried to share veterinary tips, I would hardly get 1,000 views," Guan said. But this didn't deter him from sharing his professional knowledge. To attract more followers, he started to answer questions on pet health for free and has offered this service for three years.

Every day, Guan received hundreds of questions from all over the country and sometimes he didn't even have time to eat, he recalled. Meanwhile, he also uploaded two or three short videos on Kuaishou a day.

"At first, like many video makers, I thought I could upload a clip only if I had a good camera, nice sound and good lighting equipment," Guan said. "Now, I don't care about that anymore since it is not what my followers really pay attention to."

All these efforts proved effective in expanding the base of his followers. Currently, Guan charges 18.8 yuan ($2.68) per question, but the questioner can refuse to pay if he or she is not satisfied with the answer. He makes about 800 yuan ($114) per day from this part of his business and has gained online fame.

Guan has become the first choice of consultant for many netizens when their pets have a problem. He has even opened an online shop selling pet-related merchandise. His income from various sources totals 1.8 million yuan ($256,680) each year.

"Without self-media platforms, I might still be working as a regular veterinarian in a pet hospital with a monthly salary of no more than 4,000 yuan ($570)," Guan said. "The magic of the self-media era has opened up a new world with many opportunities for all of us."

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo 

Comments to yuanyuan@bjreview.com