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http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2007/09/03/ashley-qualls-17-year-old-dot-com-millionaire/ -
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I advocate university for the broad background it can give a person and for the organizational and study habits ... but as preparation to make money? Not so sure.
As has been pointed out, what Ashley is doing is not 'earth shaking" nor is it something she would have ever learned at Uni anyway. Most good money-making ideas are much less "revolutionary" than "evolutionary" The formula for making money is the same regardless of education ... find a need and fill it ... innovation is strictly optional.
The grand thing about ebusiness is that the service is infinitely scalable if you're selling info. Next to zero COGS!
Now how many other ventures, desperate for the next sale could restructure themselves to make money by giving away and capitaizing on the traffic/relationships?
Thanks updated. Side question - have you passed 1k subs yet? you haven't added your count to your site yet. Given your technorati rank, I'm assuming you have
Almost everyday I meet a new internet millionaire!
Anyway, always a good motivation when young people run past you in revenue.
run past you? I think earning over $1m counts as 'blazing past you at light speed', unless you're keeping something from us Adam!
I have to agree about there being no rush and also life isn't just about making money. The years I spent doing my A-levels and at Uni were some of the best of my life. In fact, I think my upper sixth year was the best ever.
The leverage of internet is massive and your post shows this too. It's actually the 4th post this week about Ashley and she is now getting even more exposure and links to keep her on top of search engines.
Making a million dollars these days, while nice.. can be taken away from you in quick order, and certainly won't last you a lifetime.
With this pending legal battle, etc, she could find herself with no supportive family, no money, and fuck all for lifelong skillset.
Real bright kid. Not like you couldn't attend school *and* continue your side projects at the same time.
A) If she has managed to penetrate what is called Social Media Optimisation to this extent, congratulations to her.
B) I treat this story with extreme suspicion.
My main issue is that by everyone writing articles on the net that say 'hey, wow, a 17 year old internet millionaire' you are creating back-links to her site. The result of this is that you are driving her traffic up (both through your articles and google). Therefore, the (dare I say it) implausible nature of this story is what is getting it high rankings on social network sites including MySpace and Technorati, because it is a heartwarming story and we would all like to side with her.
If you think I am being a little bit too skeptical, try googling "MySpace skins". Her competition is experienced and brutal, and I don't think what she is doing is really that unique.
But, that's just my opinion, and for what its worth I have been posting backlinks to the site and I hope that she have every future success.
You're a very tough one mate. Yes, the competition for myspace themes is most definitely hard and she doesn't seem to rank very well on Google. But, don't forget that it's possible to build successful businesses without being #1 on Google. She could be successful just based on word of mouth, or because of promotion on Myspace, other search engines or other Myspace resources.
Looking at her site, her adsense units are well positioned, plus she has a very focussed site...about myspace themes so she gets highly targetted ads and hence a high CTR, so I can believe that she's making a killing with adsense.
I would like to put something to everyone here. Part of her success (aside from her talent) IS THE FACT that she is 17 years old. Why? The answer is right hear on this blog.
People are astounded by this fact so they write blogs like this one, generating links back to her site. Then it gets recycled and recycled through social media sites making her ste more popular.
I am not saying that she is not extremely talented. What I am saying is the fact that she is young and successful is something people want to write about, and this process of commenting about her and her business in these types of blogs is what makes her more popular then other similar sites in my eyes.
Everyone reading this story can do the same, just do what you love and make a business out of it.
She outsources most of it to india. Even the youth of tomorrow don't care about the mass export of jobs and its potential effect on yadda yadda yadda. I honestly don't care about outsourcing one way or the other.. the market will take care of itself, but it is amusing.
I agree with the above comments that this site just got some new life breathed into it by all the big news sites and blogs backlinking to her site. Good marketing strategy. I bet by now she's really just a puppethead of the site as before she got that big it says she was approached by some media conglomerate, who by now controls 90% of it and lets her think the pretty doodles she does with her friends and the 'promotion' she does for it are what made this thing the beast it is today.
Its like myspace. Tom didn't create myspace in his basement. He is a puppethead so the media can talk about this success as if it is some 'overnight garage' thing. Pure promotional BS used to get people talking about it. He is and always was just a puppet, if articles online about the history of myspace are to be believed (theres enough of them out there with specific facts and dates that it seems plausble enough)
As far as "The youth of today", Ashley's story gives me a lot of hope. Why, indeed should today's youth be concerned about where, physically a service provider is located? This "preserve our jobs" claptrap is such antiquated thinking it defies reality. Google the "Mercantile Theory" and learn why the UK and the US (as just one example) aren't the same country any more. 200+ years of history taught catch as catch can by football coaches and driver's ed teachers has handicapped the USA badly in today's global economy.
Why would someone outsource to another country? Better product for less, perhaps? What is the single most important goal of an owner/CEO? Better product for less, perhaps? If you are a UK or US web services provider why aren't you competing with outsourced employee then, instead of complaining about someone whose obviously success ful making a smart business decision?
Jobs are not national resources that deserve "protection". Every employee is a liability that an ideal business should strive to reduce to zero if possible.
I think you will find the rest of my post to be the main bulk of my message. I should have split them into two posts. It is a common thing now for larger entities to fabricate 'homegrown startups' or take a lemonaid stand and turn it into a starbucks but pretend that it was all the original person's doing. A site for 16 year old girls will certainly have more appeal if it seems that a 16 year old girl is the one doing the work.
And, again, it has been said, oh who needs university, but in a technological world, can the same seriously be said about 'who needs a highschool diploma'? Unless this girl plans to work for herself forever, she will have a tough time getting a job at any technical position ever. I would honestly hazard to say that if you want to be a webdeveloper,etc that even a college degree is required here in the US. There was a time where you could get a start in the industry without one. And even now, if you dont have one, but you have 15 years experience it no longer matters.. but someone with no work experience besides this and no college degree and no HS degree, do you *really* think she is going to be ready/attractive to the industry? She can always go back and do it later, but it will have to be done at s ome point.
While that is true, the strength of her network in MySpace doesn't seem that strong either. I guess what I am trying to say is she gets ALOT of attention from the old media (TV, newsprint etc.) and then there are social blogs like this one. There are also alot of templating sites on MySpace itself that have a very strong presence, and on the web (excluding everything else) I just don't see how this one is superior.
In terms of the AdSense success, I would go as far to say that this is a borderline MFA site too, my reason being is there seems to be more AdSense links then real links on the site. My conclusion is that 17 year old girls land on the page and see a bunch of links for glitter text (the AdSense links), and assume these are just tools on the site.
Why do I say the focus is on the AdSense links? Because the templates themselves are three clicks deep into the site on barely visible links on pages where the entire top half of the site is buried in ads. And since most of the ads look like content, how likely do you think 17 year old girls are to actually find the templates (this doesn't make any sense until you realise that by clicking the ads, you will be directed away from the page, so you will never see it).
The ironic thing is my web tutors (I'm a web author) have always taught me that these sorts of sites (that say one thing and do another) are bad, and had she attended college first there is a good chance that this mentality would have prevented her from making the site in the first place. Alternately, this was a once useful resource that, under some sort of corporate influence, has become a spam magnet. There are also casalemedia banners on the page, which are notorius for spreading trackers and spywear.
I guess my posts are pretty pessimistic. However I will try and put a positive spin -
- She is 17 and she has managed to infiltrate the mass media (impressive by anyones standards)
- The site is very effective in getting you to click on the ads
- Even if she is outsourcing / the site is co-owned, this team is managing to achieve the first two very well
- The combination of her online and mass media presence are fueling one another
None of the income is in her name as she's a minor
Cheers
Abhishek
Again, this isn't just about college, it is about High School as well. You claim she is in fact still working on classes, but all I have to go on is the article claiming she dropped out. So, lets say she didnt drop out and will get a diploma.
A portfolio is good, but she doesn't do her own site, she outsources it, so she cannot even really add it to her portfolio. She might have done the design and outsourced the HTML, so if she were out for a pure design job, she might get it depending on the person hiring. If I were hiring for design, I would look at a portfolio certainly, but she only has one site, maybe 2 now, which is not enough of a portfolio to even warrant a phone screen. How do you know she is versatile enough to design for anything other than cutesy teenage girl look? Look at the site on the waybackmachine. The earlier versions of the site (before she got 'financed' and possibly taken over) shows a more accurate view of this girls web design skills. She likely hired a firm to do the design for the current site in all honesty. I know I would if this kind of money was going around and I was soon going to be in magazines. Its a smart business move.
So, the job she would be looking for would be as a project lead or manager or some business role I would be guessing. Her technical skills are fairly poor.
Do you think someone would hire anyone in the business realm without an MBA or other degree? Honestly here folks. It does all depend on what she wants to do after this, but artist she may not be and super HTML guru she is not. Smart and in the right place and the right time more than likely, but for all jobs I could see her *wanting*, she isn't qualified for.
lol 'Everton' is my middle name (honest), so it is kind of my real name. Blair is my mother's maiden name so I'm kind of allowed to use it.