Student Question:
Hello Master Chi. I’ve been part of the community for nearly two months now. I’m currently a female college student with some free time on my hands. I want to become a beauty blogger, but I feel my life experience and financial situation aren’t quite there yet. I want to build a personal IP to monetize through influence. But for an ordinary person — what kind of IP is actually suitable? I’m not very clear on how to operate one. I’d love your guidance.
Master Chi’s Response:
First — a personal IP is simply the label others associate with you. It’s what people think of the moment your name comes up: which field are you the expert in? Mention Jackie Chan and people think kung fu star. Mention Stephen Chow and people think comedy.
Some people worry they’re too ordinary to ever become an IP. But think about it this way: if a paratrooper never jumps out of the plane, he’ll never cure his fear of heights.
The path to your ideals is prepared for those who believe in themselves.
As long as you haven’t lost your capacity to keep learning, every niche and every industry is worth entering — and worth building a personal IP around.
Second — if you don’t yet feel you have a standout advantage in any particular area, you can build a resource-integration IP.
Yes, you’re a college student. Your life experience and finances may be limited. But that doesn’t stop you from becoming a beauty blogger.
Start by searching domestic beauty brands across Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Baidu, and similar platforms. Record their pros and cons one by one in a spreadsheet. Then go on camera and deliver a straightforward comparison — which products perform well, which fall short. Once you’ve built a following, brands will start sending you samples to review. Your content becomes more authentic, your results more credible. This approach already works for many bloggers on Douyin and Xiaohongshu.
The same logic applies to anyone who doesn’t yet know their strengths: focus on saving people time. Help them identify good products and avoid bad ones. “Avoid getting scammed” style content performs extremely well.
Third — the underlying logic here is actually quite simple. Two words: inventory (盘点). The internet runs on openness and the spirit of sharing. Many people feel lost about certain topics — not because the information is hidden, but because they don’t know how to find it. You can do that work for them. Compile the information. Create the inventory. Post it. Build a following on social media.
Whether or not you start with industry expertise, you can become an industry expert through consistent learning. The top performers are extreme altruists — they’re always thinking about how to give, not how to take. They create value for others, and in return, people willingly share a portion of that value back: a follow, a like, a share. That’s how an IP is born — and how income follows naturally.
Fourth — the fastest way to grow a new account is to model yourself after low-follower accounts.
Whether you’re doing image posts or videos, you can study all the growth strategies in the world and still fail to crack the algorithm. Here’s a method that actually works.
Find recently rising accounts — ideally ones with around 10,000–20,000 followers. These are fresh accounts. Their followers aren’t deeply loyal, their videos don’t have massive view counts, and their production is simple. Yet they gained tens of thousands of followers from just one or a handful of posts. Jump on the same topic or trend they rode, and you’ll likely trigger a similar spike — earning your account a content tag and a steady flow of traffic.
Find your benchmark accounts in the field you want to enter. This is an ongoing process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing. Follow three peers every day. Study how they handle traffic, products, and conversions. What can you actually borrow from them? One lesson per day. In about three months, you’ll have a much deeper understanding of this field.
In the beginning, imitate. Then gradually begin creating your own value. Carve out your differentiation. Find the positioning where your influence comes most naturally.