Detroit teen on track to become MySpace millionaire
By John Pospisil
A Detroit teenager is well on the way to becoming a millionaire as a result of her passion for designing MySpace layouts.
Just 17 years old, Ashley Qualls, started her web site whateverlife.com two years ago with an initial investment of $8 from her mother, which she used to buy the domain name.
Whateverlife.com targets teenage girls and offers MySpace layouts, as well as a magazine section. Her site ranks well above other websites produced by large corporations that target teenage girls, such as Seventeen and Cosmo Girl, as you can see in this Alexa chart.
?Teenagers who go to the site want to stay connected. They look at me and think, she's my age, she must know what I like," Qualls told Crains Detroit Business.
Ashley's interest in MySpace layouts started in 2004 when she was 14, designing layouts for her friends. She then started posting her layouts on her web site.
By 2005 her traffic had gotten to the point where she needed a dedicated server. In order to finance the server, she decided to incorporate Google Adsense into her site. The first check she received was for $2,790.
In January 2006, she withdrew from school to focus on her website full time. In September 2006 she bought a two-story four-bedroom home for $250,000.
Qualls says the site now brings in between $40,000 to $70,000 per month, and up to 7 million unique visitors a month. She's even received an offer of $1.5 million for the site from someone acting on behalf of Internet entrpreneur Brad Greenspan. After she refused the offer, Greenspan's representative returned three months later with another offer of $700,000, a $100,000 car and an Internet show with a $2 million budget.
Qualls turned this offer down as well.
"I created this from nothing, and I want to see how far I can take it," Qualls told Fast Company.
"If I wanted to do an Internet show, I could do it on my own. I have the audience."
With an amazing business track record under her belt at the tender age of 17, and confidence to boot, I'm willing to bet that Qualls will be a name to watch — for at least the next few decades.
Qualls' MySpace profile can be found here.
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September 25th, 2007
Hi Ashley I seen you on the news about your space layout's. I seen you on September 24th. And I was wondering if you can help me out and let me know how I can do the same thing you are doing.
You can e mail me at arkansas_momof3@yahoo.com
Look forward to hearing from you really soon I would like to get started if you are willing to help me out as to how you got started. I have a family and would like to be able to make money since I am a stay at home mom I have the time for something like this. As long as it doesn't take a lot of up front money to get started. And by the way My Name is Gail.
Thank you Ashley and God Bless.