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