13岁的儿子开始在网上赚钱了 - (13-Year-Old Makes Money on Internet)

13岁的Andrew上8年级。像很多的父母一样, 我们从小就为他设计了一条金光大道。在美国, 华人从政不现实, 学医太多。从Tiger Woods 身上得到启示, 美国是一个崇拜英雄的国家, 只要你在体育上有所建树, 他们就对你顶礼膜拜。

(13-Year-Old Andrew goes to 8th Grade. Like many parents, we have designed a golden life path for him. In US, very few Chinese are interested in politics. Too many people study medical schools. Inspired from Tiger woods, U.S. is a national that worships heroes. As long as you accomplish something in sports, they pay homage to you.）

美国最有名的是三大球: 篮球, 橄榄球,和棒球。篮球吗, 华人身高不占优势, 身体素质也不如黑人。13亿人才出了个姚明,大治和巴特尔。橄榄球吗, 华人更是不能跟黑人撞, 整个NFL里, 亚裔都没几个。达拉斯牛仔队 (Cowboys) 前些年有一个越裔的, 叫Dat Nguyen, 红过一阵, 现也伤病退休了。棒球吗, 虽然没有篮球和橄榄球的冲撞性, 但对身体力度和强度的要求也是很高。算来算去, 华人能和黑人，白人站在同一起跑线上的, 就数高尔夫球了。

那时我们的房子正好在德州Coppell 的Riverchase高尔夫球场旁边, 我们就给小Andrew请了个老师,一星期学两次。刚开始时, 他还很感兴趣。6,7 月的德克萨斯的热浪下也照样练。

(The most popular sports in US are basketball, football, and baseball. But Chinese people don’t fit well in these three sports. If a Chinese wants to be good at a sport, you have to select golf. At that time, we live in a house next to the Riverchase Golf Course in Coppell. We hired a teacher to teach him. Andrew showed a strong interested in playing golf at the beginning. He kept practicing almost every day, even during hot Texas summer.）

那几年的Byron Nelson Golf Tournament,每年都要去, 主要是去看Tiger Woods。但不到两年, 小子就打退堂鼓了。后来，我硬是又让他穿上了棒球制服。但打完一个赛季, 就再也不干了。

(In those years, I always took Andrew to the Byron Nelson Golf Tournament. The main purpose was to see Tiger Woods. After two years, Andrew started to lose interest in golf. I encouraged him to try out baseball with his brother. But he gave up after one season.）

他老爸我还是不甘心, 我本人就是一个体育爱好者,尤其是篮球打得比较好。那时每星期六开车到位于Arlington的UTA大学打篮球,每次都带上小Andrew。他实际上可以说是在篮球场边上长大的。几次拖他试试篮球,他就是不感兴趣, 投了几次球,就喊着要走。几番下来,面对事实,不得不低下头,彻底死了体育明星这颗心。

(But I didn't want to give it up. I am a sport enthusiast myself and especially play well in basketball. Every Saturday, I always took Andrew with me to play basketball at UTA. I can say that Andrew grows up in the basketball sidelines. But somehow he didn't show any interest in basketball. At the end, I have to face the facts and totally forgot the dream of having a son as a sport star.)

Andrew从小动手能力就强，三岁时就把家里的柜门拆下, 杆锥是他最喜欢的玩具.

(Andrew is very handy. When he was little, his favorite tool was a screw driver. He de-assembled the cabinets in the kitchen several times when he was 3.)

Andrew 每看到一样新的东西,都喜欢琢磨,总想研究出个为什么,小到房间的门锁,大到车库的遥控。家里每买一件电器,都是让Andrew去安装。一次在朋友家聚会,几个小朋友把一房反锁上,不知在里干什么,把女主人急得团团转。Andrew知道后,马上用一个回形针扭了几下,一下就把门打开了。还有一次邻居家的热水器火灭了,大冷天没了热水可咋办。我过去研究了半天,火就是打不着。没办法,只好请大师Andrew出马。Andrew仔细看了看说明书,再试了试, 火就着了,一家人在旁边喝彩欢呼。

(When seeing something new, Andrew always tries to figure it out how it’s working, from a lock to the remote control of garage door. When we bought electronic staffs, like TV, or printer, Andrew will automatically put everything together. One day, we attended a party at a friend’s house. A group of kids locked themselves in a room. Their moms couldn’t open the lock and started to worry about it. Andrew immediately asked for a paper clip. He twisted it a little bit and put it into the lock. And the door was opened. On a winter morning, our neighbor didn’t have any hot water. Both I and my neighbor worked on the water heater for hours and the fire just couldn’t be turn on. So we have to ask Master Andrew to try. He carefully looked at the manual and punched some buttons and then the fire was turn on. The whole family was cheering for him.)

小Andrew最喜欢的玩具还是电脑。他喜欢电脑是从玩火车Thomas开始的。爸爸淘汰下来的一部Compaq 成了他心爱。

(When he went to elementary, Andrew’s favorite toy is computer. An old Compaq computer became his favorite toy.)

到了11岁时,　一部Sony Vaio 手提电脑已经满足不了他的需要。他要自己组装一部super computer。他在newegg.com 看到一个很好的deal, 包括cpu, dpu, memory, hard drive, case, fans, cables, and etc. 我就给他买了下来，也是算是Andrew11岁的生日礼物。

(By the age of 11, a Sony Vaio laptop has failed to meet his needs. He wanted to assemble a super computer. One day Andrew saw a good deal on computer components from www.newegg.com, including CPU, DPU, memory, hard drive, case, fans, cables, and etc. I bought it as his 11-year-old birthday gift.)

UPS把包裹送到后，小Andrew 就开始组装，不到半天的功夫，一台super computer就组装成功，开始运转了。还真是，video rendering 效果真是很好。过了几天，邻居家小孩来玩这台super computer，直喊过瘾，回到家后吵着爸爸，要跟Andrew一样的组装一台。

(When UPS delivered the parcel, Andrew began assembly. For less than half a day, Andrew successfully assembled a super computer. It’s a really a super faster, especially in the video rendering. After a few days, our neighbor kid came to play. He liked it so much that he asked his parent to give him the same birthday gift.)

Andrew很有经商的意识，每天都要浏览那些post good deals的网站，比如说 www.slickdeals.net, www.edealinfo.com. 看到好的deals，他都要和爸爸分享。很好的deal，他就马上购买，然后再到ebay上赚钱。一次他看到一个网站出售一种mini 蓝牙keyboard，只有$10, Andrew马上买了2个，然后很快在ebay上以$50出手，一个纯利$40.

(Andrew has a sense of doing business. He always browses those websites that post good deals, such as www.slickdeals.net and www.edealinfo.com. When he sees good deals, Andrew always shares with me. For some good deals, he made purchases immediately. One day, he saw a website to sell a mini Bluetooth keyboard for only $10. Andrew immediately bought two, and then posted it on EBay for sale. He sold one for $50 the second day.)

前一阵，Microsoft的搜索引擎bing.com大作广告，推出高达20%的cash back。一天，小Andrew告诉爸爸，hp.com有20%的bing.com cash back。我马上行动，买下一台HP新出炉的i7desktop，cash back拿到$200。

(Microsoft’s search engine bing.com was running a big promotion at that time and offered 20% cash back. One day, Andrew told me that HP.com offer 20% cash back from bing.com. I acted immediately and bought a HP desktop with Intel 7i CPU for $1000 before the $200 cash back.)

当然，小Andrew做生意并不是每次都成功。几个月前，Wal-Mart 出售eMachine 的15‘6“ Dual Core laptop，$299.00 + tax。这是我们看到的Intel Dual Core laptop 最低价。这个价钱是星期天开始生效，我和小Andrew半夜11:45跑到Plano的一家 Wal-Mart，把3台laptop全部买下。第二天，小Andrew就post到ebay。一星期后，以$360卖掉一台，去掉tax，邮寄费，ebay费，paypal费，纯利只有$15。看到只挣到$15，小Andrew的情绪就不高了，剩下的2台也不管了。好在暑假回国了一趟，剩下的2台都带回国去了。

(Of course, Andrew was not always successful. A few months ago, Wal-Mart had eMachine 15’6 DualCore laptop for $299.00 + tax. This is the lowest price we had ever seen for any Intel DualCore laptops. This deal started on Sunday. Andrew and I went to a Wal-Mart store at 11:45 pm Saturday night and bought all three laptop this store had. The next day, Andrew posted it to EBay.com. One week later, he sold one for $360. Deducting tax, shipping, EBay fee, PayPal fee, the net return was only $15. After seeing the small margin, Andrew was not that motivated. For the rest two laptops, I had to bring to China and gave them to my relatives.)

最让Andrew心醉神迷的还是网站的建立和网名的收藏。不知从何时起，小Andrew就开始自学php，java script，mysql，自己建起了网站。Andrew的第一个网站是 www.pyrohawk.com。 Andrew建这个网站是因为受到另一个网站的启发。Andrew自己最喜欢的网站之一是 www.roblox.com。这是个面向青少年的游戏网站，basic feature是免费的，但是假如你想玩好的features，你就得交钱。这个网站2009年的收入是$2 million。Andrew 也想建一个类似的网站，他从www.godaddy.com 注册了www.pyrohawk.com 域名, 又联系dreamhost.com 来host这个网站。他一度和网上认识的朋友商量这个项目，但最终由于种种原因而搁浅。

(The most enjoyable thing for Andrew is to build his website. I don’t know since when Andrew learned PHP, Java script and MySQL by himself, and started to build his website. Andrew’s first website is www.pyrohawk.com. One of his favorite websites is www.roblox.com. This website targets youths on online games. The basic feature is free, but you have to pay for advanced features. This website’s revenue in 2009 is $2 million. Andrew planned to build a similar website. He registered the www.pyrohawk.com domain name from www.godaddy.com. He then contacted www.dreamhost.com to host this website. He even discussed this project with some online friends. But eventually this project was not completed for various reasons.)

2010年5月，他在网上看到一个新的用于网上的graphic的技术，就开始建立他的第二个网站：www.likingspree.com。Andrew巧妙地应用这种技术，用到facebook的主页。当你想从facebook login时，你会看到一些很annoying的graphic，当你点击button想去掉这些graphic时，你就会被带到Andrew的www.likingspree.com. 在这个网站上，Andrew建立了广告links，每1000的点击会给Andrew带来$0.25的收入。但没过几天，facebook 堵上了这个漏洞。Andrew就通过其他途径来吸引顾客。

(In May 2010, inspired by a new technology for online graphic, he began to build another website www.likingspree.com. He ingeniously plugged this new technology to Facebook homepage. When Facebook users try to login to their Facebook accounts, they may jump to Andrew’s www.likingspree.com. He had established some advertising links and the rate is $0.25 for every 1000 clicks.)

这个网站刚开始的时候，traffic很高，一星期最高达到100万。Andrew一天可收入$150-$190.

(The traffic on Andrew’s website was so high and it hit one million per week. Andrew can receive $150 - $190 every single day.)

那时我们正好回国探亲，Andrew问起他在中国的小姐姐一个月挣多少，没想到小Andrew两天的收入就当别人的一个月的工资。

那些天我们一家人都很hype, 为小Andrew的成绩感到骄傲。这样看来，Andrew以后上大学的费用我们不用操心了。

(We were so proud for little Andrew’s achievement. To be honest, we were also hype at that time. One thing is for sure, if he could make money with this rate, we don’t need to worry his college tuition.)

自从开学后，这个网站的traffic 大大下降，小Andrew的收入也大大减少。不知是不是facebook堵住了到他网站的连锁，他也不愿花太多功夫去debug。但整个暑假下来，小Andrew一共收入近3千美元，比他爸爸当年在纽约一暑假骑单车送外卖，挣得还要多。

(Unfortunately after the school started, the traffic greatly came down dramatically. But little Andrew made almost $3000 for the whole summer.)

小Andrew下一个project是什么？他正在忙着建他的下一个网站：www.spoofmsg.com.

假如你想了解小Andrew ，请上他的profile 网站：http://www.insanecookie.com/