Detroit teen turns MySpace passion into $1 million business

A Detroit teenager has turned her passion for designing MySpace layouts into a business that has generated more than $1 million in revenue.

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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