I was browsing around the Digital Point forums the other day and ran across this thread titled Girl Make $70,000 Month With Free Myspace Layouts. Catchy title, I must say. The thread then pointed to an article on Fast Company titled Girl Power. After reading through half of the article, I had to stop and email it to some friends and join in on the forum discussion. How is it possible that a 17 year old girl could be making so much moola? I’ve been working on the web for over 10 years and haven’t even come close to this level of success.
The girl who makes this obscene amount of cash is Ashley Qualls, and her site is Whateverlife.com. Apparantly she has been obsessed with computers/web design since she was 9 years old. So we have our first clue to the secret of her success - passion and a true love for what she was doing. But, what else contributed to her success? Or…was it all just dumb luck?
I took a look at her site and used one of her layouts on my Myspace account that I never use. The key thing I noticed is she links and/or plugs Whateverlife.com on each of the free layouts she gives away. During the time frame that Myspace was peaking, this probably created a viral effect for her site. More than likely her layouts got featured on an army of Myspace profiles and that number must have grown at an exponential rate.
She eventually ran into problems and couldn’t afford her web hosting bill. Luckily for Ashley, her host suggested she put Google Adsense ads on her site. Amazingly, her first check was $2,790. This must have provided a nice motivator to make even more layouts and further grow her empire. She now makes as much as $70,000/month and was recently offered $1.5 million, which she turned down. I think this was a mistake as it is quite obvious that Myspace is going down the tubes. I think she should have taken the money and started a new venture with a fresh, clean slate.
Anyway, I’m very fascinated by this story and had to write about it to hopefully gain some insight as to why her site is so successful. What have I learned so far? First thing is that maybe it is a good idea to capitalize on an existing success. Myspace was hugely successful, but is now fading fast as everyone moves to Facebook. What is hugely successful right now that you can create a product or service for? Hmm…perhaps the iPhone? Facebook?
Since she included her web site URL in her layouts, this created a viral effect allowing her traffic to grow exponentially. So it’s probably a good idea to add some kind of viral component to whatever product or service you are trying to sell. Of course, if you are giving away something for free this definitely helps. Everyone loves a free product. Let’s throw that in as an ingredient to her success.
Overall it seems that if you can provide something to the public for free and include some kind of viral component you can eventually build an audience that will hopefully grow at an exponential rate. If you can get enough traffic to your site you should have no problem converting that into advertising dollars.
Sound simple? Murphy’s Law will ensure that if you TRY to become successful using some kind of formula, you will probably fail. So, you’re probably better off just following your passions and hope for the best. I’m sure if Ashley reads this, she must be laughing. So, Ashley… or anyone else out there that has a clue - please leave a comment and tell us what the secret is! I’m outta here….
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Some people really do hit it lucky. xD
That said, compared to the horrible myspace layouts you normally find, she’s definitely doing her site well.
DUDE, stop ragging on Ashley,
how much do you make in a month?
JELOUS MUCH…?
Just wait…
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