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 What’s a Blog?
I’m often asked at work (by my much younger counterparts) , “What do you do on your days off?”. I tell them I blog. Some look at me like I’m some sort of alien. You’re like, old, and you blog? I first remind them that 46 years young, is NOT old - thank you very much, and yes, I am a blogger. Others ask me, “What’s a blog? You make money from your blog? How is that working?” I tell them to go look up Ashley Qualls. Just 4 years ago, Ashley became interested in graphic design. This was the time when social networking was becoming very popular. Ashley noticed her friends were customizing their myspace layouts, so she began designing her own. She used bright colors, lots of hearts, and quotes from her favorite songs. Her layouts were so popular among her friends, she borrowed eight dollars from her mother and created a website, whateverlife.com, so she could give them away to anyone. She was 14. Whateverlife.com Thanks to Ashley’s strong work ethic and marketing savvy, Whateverlife began pulling in more teenage girls than a Justin Timberlake concert - about a million hits a day. With that big of an audience, the site started to attract advertisers, lots of them. Ashley’s first check was for $2,700. The next was for $5,000, the third for $10,000. Today, just 4 years later, her website receives more web traffic than the circulations for Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl! magazines………….combined. The one bedroom apartment she shared with her mother and younger sister has now been replaced by a brand new 4 bedroom house. The website is reported to bring in over $70,000 - per month, and she turned down a purchase offer for $1.5 million. All before she turned 18. When asked what she does with all her money, Ashley replied, “I don’t even know how to put this, but it’s just kind of like the shiny feeling that when you have this money, it kind of goes away after a while. It gets old, you know. (uh, no - I don’t know  ) Yeah, I can go out and buy you know something really cool. But at the same time I mean I don’t really need too much. I like to invest it back into the business.” With that kind of money smarts, Ashlee will go far. I posted this under blogging, but also under inspirational. Because this young lady is inspirational, to me. If a 14 yr old girl can create a million dollar website, then anyone should be able to. All it takes is hard work, focus, and belief. Good luck Ashley, and thanks for the inspiration. Lessons Learned - Follow your passion - do something you love to do.
- Become an expert at what you do.
- Recognize opportunities to turn your passion into profit, and follow through on them.
- Choose good advisors, and take their advice.
- Be yourself.
- Always, always believe in yourself.
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