On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog...

Or that you're a 17 year-old, not a 40 year-old doing great things on your website. And making loads of cash.
Of course I'm talking about Ashley Qualls, the teen who transformed her hobby of designing MySpace layouts into a boomingly lucrative online business.
I mean, what did it take her? US$8, to be precise.
Yeah, $8 to buy a dot.com and she is a millionnaire to boot.

You see. These days you don't need to have dreams. When Ashley set up her Whateverlife website, she was not thinking about being rich. Nor did she go out of her way to be a millionnaire.
It just happened.
Her cool, hip and hugely popular website attracted an online marketing guy.
And the rest ---- was, of course, history.

But it helped that Ashley is an Internet professional. Within two years of creating Whateverlife, she dropped out of high school.
She bought a house. And yes, she was the one who helped launch the pop career of British singer Lily Allen to fame and fortune.

Yep, Ashley bears testimony to meritocracy on the Internet where greeenhorns can run money-spinning companies irrespective of funding, location, size, or experience.
And oh, doesn't she remind you that "ingenuity is ageless".

She's recruited her mum to be her manager and a few close friends to work for her after-school hours.

According to an article on Ashley:
"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.

And one more, which Ashley can't quite believe herself: "I'm ahead of Oprah!" (Oprah.com: No. 469.) Sure, Ashley is a long way from having Oprah's clout, but she is establishing a platform of her own. "I have this audience of so many people, I can say anything I want to," she says. "I can say, "Check out this movie or this artist.' It's, like, a rush. I never thought I'd be an influencer."

Well. All I can say is...YOU GO GIRL!

And now... how do I make an online fortune out of my passion for Harleys...

Go Nurin Alert!

I am thoroughly impressed with what a band of bloggers are doing in spearheading Nurin Alert, inspired undoubtedly by AMBER Alert in the United States.
Their move had arisen from the abduction and brutal murder last month of 8 year-old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin.
I am with them.
Eleven years ago, 8 year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted while she was cycling near her grandparents' home in Arlington, Texas.
She was found brutally murdered 4 days later.
AMBER Alert came out of the entire community's anger at what had happened. They pressured the local broadcasting station to help them. They got the police.
They got everyone to help under this plan.
With AMBER Alert, the police, the community, the local broadcasting station and the private sector work hand-in-hand to save a missing child.
Time is crucial so the entire community helps in the search for the child.

Time was what was wasted in Nurin Jazlin's case.
Poor child.
I wept knowing that it was her little lifeless body that was stuffed in the sports bag.

Congratulations to Rocky, Nuraina Samad, Jasni Jalil (Nurin's uncle), Tembam and Nik Farez for wanting to make a difference.

Nurin Alert -- now, this is something nobody should say "no" to.

My Good Ole Malaysian Pals

Had some friends from Malaysia over this past week and I can tell you one thing about Malaysians -- they love talking politics.
Ok. Let me be brutally frank -- they love to gossip about just anyone or anything.
I mean, do they know the Prime Minister, his wife and his SIL?
Yeah, they told me that that is how everyone refers to h i m. I know that. They call h i m SIL as though SIL are the three most obnoxious alphabets.

My pals asked me how come I know so much. And these are my pals, y'hear.

"I read the blogs and on-line news, dumbo!", I snapped.

"Malaysian blogs?", Susie asked me.

"Yeah, you dimwit," I snapped back, again.

What is wrong with these people? Don't they read blogs, I asked.
Of course, they do. But they're Malaysians and they HAVE to read blogs to know what's really going on in the country.

What's wrong with your newspapers, I asked, feigning ignorance.

"Eva, honey, You read the notorious Malaysian blogs and you don't know why we don't read the newspapers?"

They're no fools, my pals.

Back to gossipy Malaysians.
They gave details of the Prime Minister as though they are living under the same roof with the man.

"And did you know that SIL named his newborn after the angel, Gabriel....Jibreil or something, which is the Muslim version?", Sam asked.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"Dunno. Don't seem right. That's what my Muslim friends tell me," she replied.

But, if that's forbidden, wouldn't SIL and wife know that? Hmmmmm.

So, tell me, when's the elections, I asked.

"Whenever the PM's people feel that it's a good time. That means when the people have forgotten what a lousy PM he is," reasoned Susie.

That's a good one. I wonder when that will be.

Told you, Malaysians think they know everyone intimately!