When Ashley Qualls was 14 years old, she borrowed $8 from her mom to create her own web site. She wanted to design web pages on MySpace for girls her age that were more attractive and age-appropriate. Ashley does not charge anything for her designs. The idea has taken off in just a couple of short years. Now 17, Ashley has dropped out of school to concentrate on her thriving business. Ashley’s web site, www.whateverlife.com, draws more than 7 million visitors each month. That makes her site more popular than CBS.com, AmericanIdol.com, and Brittanica.com. About a year ago, the manager of ValueClick Media, Ian Moray, discovered the popular web site and contacted Ashley to allow his clients to advertise on her site. At first she declined. A few weeks later, she changed her mind. That decision has proven to be very lucrative. Whateverlife.com has already earned over $1 million. So far, Ashley has made most of that through Google AdSense. It surprised Moray that Ashley was only 17. Her understanding of the potential of her site is much greater than those twice her age. There are those who think she should actively sell ads to make even more. Teen magazines would probably pay quite a bit to have a banner ad placed on Ashley’s web site, considering the massive traffic she gets. In addition to having dropped out of school, Ashley has hired a few of her friends to work for her when they get out of school. She has also hired her mom to be her manager. When Ashley was approached to sell her site for $1.5 million, she turned it down. That is chump change to how much Ashley will continue to earn through her site. |
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