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Rocafella |
 Posted - 09/13/2007 : 16:54:58
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[url>http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/girl-power.html
Kinda a long article, but 17 yr old Ashley Qualls is a high school dropout, home owner and millionaire.
She makes 70k a month in google adsense revenue with her website that has over 2600 free myspace layouts for download.
Her sites targets teenage females that surfs Myspace.
These stories inspire me more to start my own internet imperium.
My plan is to sell a high quality ebook and treat it as a business.
Got it all planned out plus its already in the making!
People should stop hanging arround forums for hours a day and start putting in some decent work!
[url> |
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Josh Anderson |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 17:01:42
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I too am a high school drop out (never passed the 9th grade) but I took my first college classes, while I was homeless, when I was her age. I later attended 1 other college and a couple universities graduating after 6 years of additional study and I am still to this day a voracious learner.
Not knowing more I would recommend that she use some of her money to hire soeone else to manage her business and go back to school, or at least attend college, to fill in some of the blanks she might be missing that would be a benefit to her.
I am not a fan of traditional education but I do feel that there are many things to be learned in school that can increase your ability to earn, communicate, manage relationships etc. even if you are a millionaire. |
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Hrvoje Livnjak |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 17:07:01
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It's not really cool to publicly say that she is drop out :-). This only passes on line. In real world at least in my country, you didn't finished school? Are you kidding me?
Well said Josh and good point. Man what would she said when she would introduce herself to someone:"Hey I'm a BUSINESS WOMAN and I DIDN'T FINISH SCHOOL :-). C'mon...
Hrvoje |
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Rocafella |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 17:11:13
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Im a College dropout......I mainly dropped out cause I knew there was more money to be made on the net then I would ever make with a bachelors degree.
So basically I felt like I was WASTING my time at school, and the feeling of doing something which doesnt earn me anything is horrible.
Im not in the IM niche but in the healthniche and business is GOOD.
For 2008 my business will hopefully run automatically, hopefully I dont fail cause if so, its back to school for me:( and I would rather cut my hands of then go back to school.....im 18 years old and already sick of the stress college throws you lol. |
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Charmer |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 17:22:25
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Wow, definitely something amazing! Great story and it should motivate us all on coming up with new ideas and monetizing from them! She started the website without making money on her mind, my praises go to her! Credibility and millionaire at 17!
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Daniel Soulsby |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 17:47:44
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That really is quite amazing.
It just goes to show that if you have a good idea and work hard on it the the money you can make on the internet is literally UNLIMITED, well done to her.
Daniel |
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jay68 |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 17:52:15
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| Thanks for sharing. This is great news and very encouraging. You 're right about taking action. Some may be quick learners and some takes a little longer but it feels good to take action... We 'll eventually get there someday. |
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JasonParker |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 17:55:23
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Trying not to be jealous...
That really is pretty neat. I heard a story the other day about a 16-year-old who runs a website making around 50k per year with AdSense.
In her interview, she said stuff like, "Like like all I do is like use SEO and like... write about what I like and like... people like it." |
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TiffanyDow |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 18:00:35
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Jason, I'm with you...feeling green with envy here in Texas. Looked at my son, who was reading it with me, and said, "Why don't YOU build a MySpace layout site?" LOL! We just laughed (I won't let him have a MySpace page).
I think part of what makes this such a great thing is that she's doing what she loved doing. I just felt bad for parent situation. |
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ExRat |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 18:03:34
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Hi,
Be careful, because the inspiring stories about people making fortunes can actually become uninspiring when your perfect idea only makes a few shilling.
My point - focus on the first step first, which is to make enough money to fund the 'internet/entrepreneur lifestyle' before thinking about fortunes. Only a very small percentage make fortunes first shot and if you read too much of that stuff you may make yourself feel like a failure when in fact you have moved mountains.
I noted this line from 'charmer' above -
quote : She started the website without making money on her mind
Even though it may not be clear right now, there's so much to be gained from that statement - many of us spend years chasing things then only realise success when we give up the chasing and do what she did above. |
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Rien |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 18:05:48
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| This is a great story. There are times when I am at work and think that I went to school all that time to barely make a living? If I could do things over I WOULD not skip College. The friendships, connections and general College life has helped form the person I am today. Will my College Education help my IM business - NOPE. But the experiences I had in College are priceless. The only thing I would have done differently would have started in IM while I was in College instead of waiting until later in life. This is the life I want for myself now though, and I will make a big push to make my IM business replace my JOB, |
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JasonParker |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 18:05:55
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"I won't let him have a MySpace page."
I don't blame you.
"Why don't YOU build a MySpace layout site?"
Wouldn't it be great if we were actually capable of thinking of a simple profitable idea before a lot of others do? |
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ExRat |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 18:14:12
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Hi Rien,
I think you're correct. And I think that the investment you made in college for the reasons you gave, will benefit you. Even in IM. What the non existent life instruction manual doesn't tell you is that when you are young, (for most people, except the exceptions) you are better spending your time sowing the seeds for the future than you are trying to rule the world.
Once the decades start flying by, it's the seed planters who reap the happy harvest 
Stories of youngsters (or anyone) hitting the big time can be inspiring but in equal or greater measures they can be dangerous because the majority can't relate to the exceptions - and may feel inadequate if they don't earn $70k PM (for EG).
To earn enough to get by on the internet as a self employed person is enough to put you in the 10% (guessing percentages) in the world who are likely to rise to the top and prosper during rapidly changing times.
Applaud the young girl who is the exception but also keep it real and remember that a decent income is goal 1, goal 2 can be richness and margueritas...goal 1 can be heaven for 80% (guessing percentages again) of us. |
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Rocafella |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 18:19:04
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EXrat has a very good point!
I started out myspace marketing lol...it aint even real marketing but I made a whole lotta money.
I made so much money that I started to think further to invest in bigger projects.
Well, in a month or 2 my project will hopefully be finished and pulling in some big money which will then be invested yet again in some higher cost ventures(which obviously pay the most!).
If everything goes as planned, I might get back to college to experience it....I dont know at this point, cause if you make a good income why go back to school!
lots of thinking to do:)
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milan |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 18:47:40
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I've seen that article two days ago.
Altough I agree that it can happen that your perfect idea can make a few cents tops, I find this a good lesson. She did what she loved which was a motivating thing for her. But she wouldn't have started the site until more and more of her friends asked her to create a template for them.
That was a sort of research, confirmation that people need something that she can supply. It's just like you would test something using Adwords. On smaller scale, but you get some valuable feedback. I doubt she did some serious campaigns. She won people with her good content.
I tried to make sites in niches I don't know much about. At the end it turned out I did always better in niches I know a lot about. At first it seemed the competition was high, but during the time I figured out a way to provide some high quality products which are needed and not covered by others. I could never do that I figure out that in niches I'm not passionate about or don't know much about. I guess that it pays off in life to do what you love. |
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Magic Mel |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 19:03:37
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| Nice article to bookmark and shall be a good read later on! |
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Steve Porcaro |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 19:11:24
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Where does she get the pictures to make here sites? or layouts? Is there copyright infringement there somewhere?
Great success story though! |
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hawgwash |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 19:42:59
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Hey, I'm happy for her, I wish her well.
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Craig Jones |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 19:48:12
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Great story.
I put it in the 'Making Money' section of my website.
Thanks |
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Dylan Jones |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 20:08:12
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I am proud of her :)
I hope she becomes a warrior! |
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phoenix.corp |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 20:35:10
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| Another proof that with innovative ideas is fairly easy to make money online (though it still is hard work). |
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Steve Porcaro |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 21:25:19
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Think about this,,this is no guru...this is not someone that wants to sell you their secrets...this is a person that served others, that is all they did was serve others
They were almost ready to lose their hosting until some hosting tech guy said hey put adsense on your account
Just think about the lessons here stop spending money and do what you love take action..it does not need to be perfect |
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NoBoss |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 21:35:36
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This thread includes more than one marketer
making big bucks via Adsense.
And yet others loudly proclaim:
"The Death of Adsense." 
...Doug |
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ProfessorLUMP |
Posted - 09/13/2007 : 23:02:50
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quote : Originally posted by Rocafella
17 yr old Ashley Qualls is a high school dropout, home owner and millionaire. She makes 70k a month in google adsense revenue with her website that has over 2600 free myspace layouts for download.
Her sites targets teenage females that surfs Myspace.
MORAL OF THE STORY: When you've got it, you've got it! |
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Courtney Ramirez |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 00:43:16
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Second moral of the story: When you do something that you enjoy, and help other people while you do it, you make the big bucks!
edited to add: I just realized I use her layouts all the time...small world! |
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ProfessorLUMP |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 00:52:49
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quote : Originally posted by Courtney Ramirez
Second moral of the story: When you do something that you enjoy, and help other people while you do it, you make the big bucks!
Not exactly. There have to be fish in the pond. And when you know how to identify the ponds richest in fish...then you've got IT. |
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Lucy Weber |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 01:09:48
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| Zig Ziglar says "Give enough people what they want, and you'll get what you want." This is very good proof of that. She gave millions of people what they wanted, and the money came to her. She just saw a need that wasn't being met very well (because of her friends who kept asking her to make designs for them) and she filled it. The money took care of itself. Smart girl! Congrats to her for becoming an accidental millionaire! :) |
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JasonKing |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 01:31:10
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Enjoyed your link, thanks for sharing!
Just for the record, I am not a high school or college dropout.
So there.
-JasonKing |
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Courtney Ramirez |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 01:36:12
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quote : Originally posted by ProfessorLUMPquote : Originally posted by Courtney Ramirez
Second moral of the story: When you do something that you enjoy, and help other people while you do it, you make the big bucks!
Not exactly. There have to be fish in the pond. And when you know how to identify the ponds richest in fish...then you've got IT.
That's where the "helping others" comes in.  |
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Rod Cortez |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 01:46:43
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quote : Originally posted by Rocafella[url> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/girl-power.htmlKinda a long article, but 17 yr old Ashley Qualls is a high school dropout, home owner and millionaire. She makes 70k a month in google adsense revenue with her website that has over 2600 free myspace layouts for download. Her sites targets teenage females that surfs Myspace. These stories inspire me more to start my own internet imperium. My plan is to sell a high quality ebook and treat it as a business. Got it all planned out plus its already in the making! People should stop hanging arround forums for hours a day and start putting in some decent work! [url>
Awesome friggen post. This should inspire others. Sure, I have a college degree, but I've learned more about business from having mentors / coaches and by just DOING IT. I'm glad I went to college and would do it again in a heart beat, but really....it's what's inside you that really counts. Which is why when I talk to Warriors on the phone I like to ask them "how bad do you want it?" and "are you willing to pay the price?".
If you can succinctly answer those two questions, then half the battle has been won.
Thanx for sharing,
Rod
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Rod Cortez |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 01:51:52
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I think this part of the article speaks volumes:
"When our director of marketing told me why Fast Company was calling," says Moray, now ValueClick's director of media development. "I assumed she was a seasoned Internet professional. She knows so much about what her site does, more than people three times her age."
Ashley is evidence of the meritocracy on the Internet that allows even companies run by neophyte entrepreneurs to compete, regardless of funding, location, size, or experience--and she's a reminder that ingenuity is ageless. She has taken in more than $1 million, thanks to a now-familiar Web-friendly business model. Her MySpace page layouts are available for the bargain price of...nothing. They're free for the taking. Her only significant source of revenue so far is advertising.
According to Google Analytics, Whateverlife attracts more than 7 million individuals and 60 million page views a month. That's a larger audience than the circulations of Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl! magazines combined. Although Web-site rankings vary with the methodology, Quantcast, a popular source among advertisers, ranked Whateverlife.com a staggering No. 349 in mid-July out of more than 20 million sites. Among the sites in its rearview mirror: Britannica.com, AmericanIdol.com, FDA .gov, and CBS.com
The Internet is a "meritocracy"......if you can truly grasp that then you can duplicate what she did. Now, like JR says "get to work!".
Rod "I'm-Beyond-Coffee-Now!" Cortez
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verygoodtips |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 02:14:11
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I just read Josh Anderson up there and you get my respect!
It must have been tough... but as they say...
as in internet marketing...
when the going gets tough,...the warrior gets... |
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Rocafella |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 06:43:01
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Hmm I dont quite agree on doing what you love and then the rest will come.
I believe that you dont need to reinvent the wheel, but you gotta love IM.
For me...I absolutely LOVE Internet Marketing since I was 14....3 years long I have been learning and learning.
It took me till I was 18 to be confident enough to start and now I keep getting closer.
So basically if you love Internet Marketing, I dont see why you cant turn your passion into a booming business!
Ill probably never enter the IM or money making niche, but other niches out there pay off far better!
I good a even better success story coming up today! |
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TimRobinson |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 07:55:10
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Haha Im 19 years old, been in IM for 6 months reading and trying to apply different things and made a whopping $8. I feel like such a slacker now :p.
What this really shows and is something I've recently discovered is build something that provides value to people and you will get paid in return. For the past 5 months I've been building sites in order to "make money" but they didn't really provide any value to visitors, as such i made hardly anything with them and according to things like analytics average visitor time on my sites is around the 2 minutes mark.
Now I've finally started building a site around something im passionate about (its in my sig) and found that its taken off sooo quickly, with an average view time of well over 10 minutes and far far more visitors than my old sites ever got (and even plenty of repeat visitors too). Simply because im writing in order to teach people and help them grow and learn rather than just write keyword optimized articles in order to get traffic. My articles have little to no SEO and are simply made for people to read and understand and learn from meaning I get plenty of word of mouth referrals and repeat visitors and in turn much more adsense money :) |
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Blogution |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 08:08:51
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It shows how there's tons of money in the web2.0 marketplace supporting the big sites... outside and away from the IM industry
I almost purchased a myspace template site a few months back that was getting tons of traffic... after reading this it feels like I could have lost out now :-(
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bobsstuff |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 10:10:32
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HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUT! YES! BUT.......
From the article: Ashley wonders if she'll be allowed to participate in graduation. By then, she may have already earned an associate's degree in design, at Henry Ford Community College.
This is not some dumb kid who dropped out and happened to get lucky. She is one smart cookie. She is continuing her education.
She has been doing desing since she was 9. She has more interest in being on the computer than "playing", yet she plays.
I am totally impressed and see one thing she does than I don't. That is that she is continually, constantly working at her ONE chosen site. She doen't jump from project to project. She works at one and makes it successful. Now she is expanding but capitalizing on her current business to grow a new branch.
If you did not read the article, you should. Then think about it. |
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Elliot Hanson |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 10:13:49
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This story is a very inspiring. I love stories like that. That article is a great read and her story reminds me a bit of Cameron Johnson.
Passion pays. I once heard a writer say "you do what you love not for the money, but you earn money so you can do what you love." There are others in this world who love what you do. Will it earn you a stable income? That's where research comes into play. If it will, make a plan and take action and stay focused on your goals.
My main money making site is the one I'm the most passionate about. I even made a post on Digg about it not expecting much to happen and the next day I was getting thousands of visitors and media inquiries. That's a story for another time.
Give people what they want and share your passion with like minded individuals. |
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SwingWinger |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 10:50:56
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quote : Originally posted by Rocafella
...I might get back to college to experience it....I dont know at this point, cause if you make a good income why go back to school!
Why, you ask? All one needs to do is look at the communication skills exibited here on the forum. When your IM funding subsides, how are you going to communicate within the real world? The way you do online? While you might learn many things in different catagories, communicaton/expression are the main thing one learns in college. If you can't speak properly, write in intelligent letter (without all the misspellngs), then you're dead in the water. Maybe not today, but it'll bite ya in the rump further down the road.
From now on, don't speak or write your friends or family. Hey, just slip'em a couple of bucks. The absolute best thing money can buy is "Ignorance."
bud |
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Jake Riley |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 10:58:17
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Steve,
She makes them herself, I guess she started out teaching herself
graphic design.. she may be a drop-out, but she didn't stop learning
which is the key here. I was captivated by her story when I first
heard about it a couple of weeks ago, kudos to her.. |
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Mohsin Rasool |
Posted - 09/14/2007 : 11:15:54
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quote : Originally posted by bobsstuff
HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUT! YES! BUT.......
From the article: Ashley wonders if she'll be allowed to participate in graduation. By then, she may have already earned an associate's degree in design, at Henry Ford Community College.
This is not some dumb kid who dropped out and happened to get lucky. She is one smart cookie. She is continuing her education.
She has been doing desing since she was 9. She has more interest in being on the computer than "playing", yet she plays.
I am totally impressed and see one thing she does than I don't. That is that she is continually, constantly working at her ONE chosen site. She doen't jump from project to project. She works at one and makes it successful. Now she is expanding but capitalizing on her current business to grow a new branch.
If you did not read the article, you should. Then think about it.
Hi Bob,
You have very valid points!
Many Newbies who never made a buck need FOCUS,
they need to make first PROJECT success before moving to another!!!
Mohsin |
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17yr old girl makes 70k a month from the internet!