The ever changing interests of teenagers aren't usually on my radar, so it took me a while to discover Ashley Qualls and the multi-million dollar website she created.
What started as a hobby with $8 borrowed from her mother for domain registration quickly ballooned into a teen friendly business grossing $70,000 a month from AdSense and paid ad placements.
Ms. Qualls, 17, operates her business from a home in suburban working class Detroit with the help of friends and a business consultant.
At the ripe old age of 9, she was already spending hours at the kitchen table playing computer games and learning basic web design. In 2004 she applied her knowledge of HTML to building Whateverlife.com.
Ashley's original purpose for Whateverlife was to exhibit her web designs. It was well received but didn't start gaining momentum until she worked out a way to customize MySpace pages. Soon her friends were clamoring for personalized pages of their own and Ashley started posting free MySpace layouts and graphics on her site to meet the demand.
With a little help from viral marketing magic, Whateverlife.com now receives 7 million visitors and 60 million page views a month. That's more traffic than AmericanIdol.com and Oprah.com!
So, what are the lessons to be learned from this down to earth teenage entrepreneur?
1. The internet is the ultimate equal opportunity employer. Your age, race and gender aren't obstacles, they're opportunities.
2. Base your internet business on something you love to do. If you're having fun, the money will come.
3. Be selfless. When Ashley started her website it was all freebies all the time – and still is.
4. Keep at it. Most really successful online start ups like Whateverlife.com are offshoots of something you're already working on.
5. You don't need tons of money. Starting an online business is a true "sweat equity" opportunity. Everything you need to get started is available on the web for free if you have the time to look.
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