A 17-year-old millionaire??? C'mon,now really! (sales, payment, work, companies)

[askme]

Unbelievable, but true. I watched her interview on The View. Did anyone else get to see it a couple weeks ago? She's a millionaire at 17! She's into web designing and has been at it since she was 9. She's quit school to work her business when it exploded after putting it on Myspace and using Google AdSense. She plans to finish and go to college. Her website is called WhateverLife.com. Your source for hot layouts, free website builder, cute graphics, and more. and it gets 1,000's of hits each month.
Isn't it amazing?

[GreenMachine]

Originally Posted by askme

Unbelievable, but true. I watched her interview on The View. She's a millionaire at 17! She's into web designing and has been at it since she was 9. She's even quit school since the business exploded so suddenly after putting it on Myspace and using Google AdSense. She plans to finish and go to college. Her website is called WhateverLife.com. Your source for hot layouts, free website builder, cute graphics, and more. and it gets 1,000's of hits each month. She's a real intelligent and mature girl. More like 27 instead of 17.

Isn't it truly amazing what the internet has created as far as possibilities go??? I'd appreciate any feedback on this thread. I'd like to know what others have to say.

What's the big deal about her website?

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by askme

Unbelievable, but true. I watched her interview on The View. Did anyone else get to see it a couple weeks ago? She's a millionaire at 17! She's into web designing and has been at it since she was 9. She's quit school to work her business when it exploded after putting it on Myspace and using Google AdSense. She plans to finish and go to college. Her website is called WhateverLife.com. Your source for hot layouts, free website builder, cute graphics, and more. and it gets 1,000's of hits each month.
Isn't it amazing?

I'd seriously doubt if she is a millionaire, she made it off of "whateverLife".. More then lickely its from affiliate sales from her other sites such as snazzyboot.com etc.

I base this thought, simply based upon the fact that WhateverLife.com isnt even complete...

[ProLogic]

I am 17, and into Web design as well. The thing that I face most is discrimination. I've heard countless stories about adults having bad experience when doing business with teenagers and am quite appalled. Over the summer I made around $400.. but my partner do everything 50/50 so I got around $200. You know, the hard thing about it is getting customers. I've found that looking for the customers rather than having them come to you use the most effective strategy there is.

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by ProLogic

I am 17, and into Web design as well. The thing that I face most is discrimination. I've heard countless stories about adults having bad experience when doing business with teenagers and am quite appalled. Over the summer I made around $400.. but my partner do everything 50/50 so I got around $200. You know, the hard thing about it is getting customers. I've found that looking for the customers rather than having them come to you use the most effective strategy there is.

There are tons of websites where you can bid on projects.. I've used elance, and scriptlance heavily to find programmers.. When I hire, age doesnt even come into question. I've even hired a 12 year old once to do something that I needed done once. (didnt find out his age till it was all done, but I was very happy with the results)

[debbee]

I didn't see anything spectacular about her website either although it is true that the internet is making many wealthy young entreprenuers these days with all the social networking sites popping up and all the web savvy kids that put their heads together to come up with the next best thing. Take a look at business magazine or Entrepreneuer magazine sometime just to get a briefing on what some of these kids are up to and making big bucks.

Some of the ideas are good while others are rediculous and you wonder how it brings in so much money for them but then it goes to show what a tech junkie, push button society we've become.

For i.e. one young man started an internet co. where friends can track each other using their mobile phones (I think) so they can actually see where in the city they are. Whatever happened to privacy? The guy's making money so obviously there is a target market that loves that.

In this technology age so many people want convenience at their finger tips that most of the new internet companies popping up creating wealth is catering to this.

The guys that started myspace and facebook are probably early 30's or 20's and their sites are pretty new-about 2 yrs or less? Of course the downside is that it's becoming a breeding ground pediophiles lately...shows the internet can be a blessing and a curse. Sorry I'm rambling...

[ProLogic]

Originally Posted by pghquest

There are tons of websites where you can bid on projects.. I've used elance, and scriptlance heavily to find programmers.. When I hire, age doesnt even come into question. I've even hired a 12 year old once to do something that I needed done once. (didnt find out his age till it was all done, but I was very happy with the results)

Over the years I believe people have lost faith in bid project websites. Why? The lame Indian web design companies are full of scammers. This is why you shouldn't use websites like getacoder, oh lord how have there been stories regarding this.

Also, the social networking websites are played out. Its really easy for someone to get into it. All you need is a ripped version of a myspace clone software and a good domain and there you go.

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by ProLogic

Over the years I believe people have lost faith in bid project websites. Why? The lame Indian web design companies are full of scammers. This is why you shouldn't use websites like getacoder, oh lord how have there been stories regarding this.

Also, the social networking websites are played out. Its really easy for someone to get into it. All you need is a ripped version of a myspace clone software and a good domain and there you go.

I've never once been ripped off on these websites.. That being said, I dont pay until the project is completed, and I've received all of the codes. I have 100% positive ratings on those websites, and I make my payment terms up front with people before they bid.

I also dont hire people for projects where they can use cookie cutter designs and just copy/paste them from 1 website to another either though. All of the projects I post, I withhold information from the programmers on purpose like what the ultimate final project will be used for. Last thing I need is to hire someone to write code for me, and then find out they are selling my code to 100 other people to compete against me.

[8 SNAKE]

Originally Posted by GreenMachine

What's the big deal about her website?

The number of hits it gets every month.

[8 SNAKE]

Originally Posted by pghquest

I'd seriously doubt if she is a millionaire, she made it off of "whateverLife".. More then lickely its from affiliate sales from her other sites such as snazzyboot.com etc.

I base this thought, simply based upon the fact that WhateverLife.com isnt even complete...

I've read about her, and from what I've seen she did make her money from her Whateverlife web page. She started designing layouts for Myspace pages and her business took off. Here's a good article about her.

Girl Power - Whateverlife.com - Ashley Qualls - Nabbr