Young Millionaire Club: Catherine Cook

By Elizabeth Guo

The co-founder of Myyearbook.com. Myyearbook.com is a social-networking site for teens similar to Facebook. In 2011, myYearbook was acquired by Latino social networking site Quepasa for $100 Million and the website was renamed to MeetMe.com. Please see David Cook and Geoff Cook.

 

In 2005, David Cook (16 years old) and Catherine Cook (15 years old), both were high school students, had the idea to create a free version of their yearbook on line, MyYearbook, when they looked through their high school yearbook.

In the same year, their brother Geoff Cook invested $250,000 and became the CEO of myYearbook.

By mid-2006, myYearbook had one million users.

In 2011, myYearbook was sold to Quepasa for $100M in cash and stock.

 

 

What surprised me:
 

Catherine and her brother could get a business idea just by flipping around their school yearbook.



Website:

www.meetme.com

 

 

If you want to read more:

 

1.  The First Million: Catherine Cook

2.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeetMe

3.  http://www.inc.com/magazine/201205/liz-welch/catherine-cook-and-geoff-cook-myyearbook.html

Young Millionaire Club: Kevin Sproles

By Elizabeth Guo

 

The founder and CEO of Volusion, an online hosted e-commerce solution for the small business market. Kevin Sproles was named Business week’s “Best 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25”.

 

 In 1999, Kevin Sproles started designing web sites at the age of 16 and he founded Volusion in his bedroom.

In 2001, Kevin Sproles developed the first version of Volusion software, which transferred Volusion from web design to e-commerce hosting service.

In 2003, Collusion’s revenue was $131,000.

In 2010, Volusion had 180 employees and its revenue was over $22.5 million.

 

 

What surprised me:

Kevin Sproles started his business when he was 16 years old. He chose to concentrate on his business instead of going to college.
Website:
www.volusion.com

 

 

If you want to read more:

 

1.  Child Entrepreneur Kevin Sproles: CEO Of Volusion

2.  Kevin Sproles

3.  ENTmoney’s Cool Business Ideas: Kevin Sproles’ Volusion

 

 

 

 

Young Millionaire Club: Sean Belnick

By Elizabeth Guo

 

The founder of BizChair.com, an internet company that sells furniture for offices, schools etc. In 2008, BizChair.com was ranked No. 37 in the list of top 100 retail companies and also ranked No. 48 in the top 100 businesses in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA area by Inc. Magazine.

At age 14, 2001, Sean Belnick noticed an opportunity to sell office furniture on line. The buyers need not come to stores and the seller can lower the prices. So he created BizChair.com with just a $500 investment.

In May 2009, Sean Belnick graduated from Emory University and started to work
fulltime as the CEO of BizChair.com.

In 2005 BizChair.com reported that it was currently having $13.6 million in sales.

In 2011, the sales of BizChair.com rose to over $70 million.

 

 

What surprised me:
 

Sean Belnick started his business when he was only 14 years old with a $500 investment, yet the business was so successful.

Website:  www.bizchair.com

If you want to read more:

1.   BizChair.com
2.  CNN - Young & Rich: Sean Belnick, owner of BizChair.com

My Recent Piano Recital

Young Millionaire Club: Ashley Qualls

By Elizabeth Guo

The creator of WhatEverLife.com, a website designed to provide free MySpace  layouts and HTML tutorials for teens who wanted to learn how to do their own graphic designs and coding.

website: www.whateverlife.com

Ashley Qualls was born on June 4, 1990 in Detroit, Michigan.

In 2004(age 14) she started to design Myspace layouts and many of her friends liked them. Thus, she created WhatEverLife.com with an investment of $8 from her mother to provide free Myspace layouts to teens.

By 2005 the site’s traffic had gotten to the point where she needed a dedicated server.

In January 2006, she dropped out the school to work fulltime on the website.

In March 2006, she turned down an offer to buy her website for $1.5 million plus a $100,000 car.

In September 2006, she bought a four-bedroom home for $250,000 with cash.


What surprised me:

Ashley Qualls can transfer a hobby into a business and make her business grow so fast when she was only 14!

If you want to read more:

1. Ashley Qualls
2. Ashley Qualls: 17-Year Old Success Story
3. I Made $1 Million From Adsense--ashley Qualls 17 Year Old American

 

My New Book & My New Video

By Elizabeth Guo


Recently, I published a kindle book: "Young Millionaire Club: How Can A Teen Become A Millionaire?"

Please check the following link if interested:

Young Millionaire Club: How Can A Teen Become A Millionaire?

 

Also,  I just created a video on my Youtube Channel :

 

These Two Children Made Over $150,000 On A 57-second Youtube Video

By Elizabeth Guo

 

How much money can a 57-second video make? You may believe that the video wouldn't make any money. But this video: “Chalie Bit My Finger – Again” hits big, and the two boys in the video made their parents over $150,000.

Can you believe it? It is true.

“Harry finds this funny, so places his finger in Charlie’s mouth again. He obligingly bites down a second time — but hard.

Harry’s face is a picture as the pain slowly registers, and indignant howls follow. He then announces crossly: ‘Charlie bit me!’

As for Charlie — he just giggles.

It’s the kind of off-guard clip any family would treasure privately. And in the past, that’s precisely what it would have remained.

Except that Mr Davies-Carr’s decision to upload the 57-second film onto YouTube not only propelled the children into the international spotlight, but also earned the family more than £100,000.

The video, entitled Charlie Bit My Finger — Again! went viral (an Internet term for spreading like wildfire) and to date has been watched nearly 400 million times worldwide — the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Britain viewing it six times. It remains the most viewed YouTube video that is not a professional music video.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of people upload their videos on to the their YouTube, but not many people know that they can actually make money off their videos. It could be big money if it the video were to circulate the Internet. 

 

Now, there are over  500 million views on this video. Charlie's parents probably should have made more than $150,000. These figures were based on previous estimations. The best part of making money off of videos is that the money can keep coming and even after 10 years, they can still receive payments for this video. 

 

If people are coming to see it, they get paid! It is that simple. 

 

If you want to read the whole story, click the following link:

The boys who made £100,000 from a 57-second YouTube clip

 

 

Young Millionaire Club: Cameron Johnson

By Elizabeth Guo

Author, businessman, entrepreneur, and internationally recognized public speaker, Cameron Johnson is the President and CEO of the Cameron Johnson Inc., and serves as consultant to many Fortune 500 companies. Cameron Johnson has been named as one of the 2009 Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the United States Junior Chamber.  
 

Websit: www.cameronjohnson.com

1. Cameron Johnson was born in Roanoke, Virginia.
2. Cameron started to do business as early as 7. He sold vegetables to his neighbors from door to door.
3.  When he was only 9 years old, he got a computer from his parents and started to print greeting cards and sold them.
4.  Before he was 15, he launched over ten successful websites, and those websites were generating $15,000 per day in revenue.
5.  Before he graduated from high school, he had already become a self-made millionaire.

What surprised me:

Cameron Johnson surprised me in different aspects. He started to do business when he was only 7 years old! That is amazing. It looks to me he never stopped after that; he just made money like crazy. 

If you are interested, you can read or listen more:

 

1.  Cameron Johnson

2.  The First Million: Cameron Johnson

3.  Portfolio Portrait: Cameron Johnson
 

Next Plans

By Elizabeth Guo

1. I'd like to make more videos this few months and publish them on YouTube.
2. When my sister Stephanie comes home for Christmas (she is an undergraduate student in Cornell University), I 'd like to build a music-related website with her together. We may change this plan after our deep discussions and perhaps some research.
3. As you may expect, I will continue with my blog. I will try hard to be consistent with my posts. Please visit my blog regularly to check for new posts.

Matthew

This photo of Matthew was taken when he was 4 years old, now he is 5. He was so cute! I don't know what happened to him though. He used to be that cute.

What Is The Best Way For Kids To Make Money Online?

By Elizabeth Guo

 

Nowadays, everyone talks about making money online. Is it possible for kids? Can kids make money online? If they can,then what is the best way for kids to make money online?

When I pondered upon this question, I decided to research and learn more about this subject myself. I found that out of all the ways to make money online, writing a blog is the best option for kids to make money off the internet.

Perhaps you do not have the same opinion as me. Even if people do disagree with me, I can still list several ways to why writing a blog would be the best option to make money online.

 

Writing a Blog is Free

 

There is no need to spend money on writing a blog. It's free! Currently, I am using Google’s platform. Besides Google, you may find other free blog platforms. It is especially awesome to be able to use free stuff to make money. It's basically making money from nothing, except regular posts. .

 

Writing a Blog Has Big Potential

I have studied many young millionaires in the past, and many of them became millionaires by writing blogs. Thus, blogging has been proven to have more potential than other means to make money online for kids.

 

Blogs Can Be Started Easily

 

You can start your blog right away. Of course, it would be rare to be making any money right away. But if you write good articles, have a little patience, you money will come  to you eventually.

 

Blogs Can Make Money, Anytime, Anywhere

A blog is a passive money making model. What that sophisticated phrase means is that a blog is able to make money even when you are sleeping, and not on the blog all day. As long as there are people viewing your blog, you are able to make money off the blog.

 

Blogs Can be Made Anywhere, at Anytime According to Your Schedule

 

You can write a blog anywhere. Though if you need the wifi, then you have to make sure that you are writing the blog at a place with wifi connection.

Also, you can schedule when you would like to publish your blog. For example, if you started writing a blog, but you want to add more information on it before you publish it. You can schedule a time for it to be published automatically. Why would you want to do that? You may have a fantastic idea for a Christmas story, but let's say it's November and you don't want to post it yet. You can save it as a draft and publish it in December when it's near Christmas. The other reason is that you may have a few ideas for articles. However, you can't think of anymore ideas to write! A nice solution would be to schedule the times when you publish your posts. Perhaps you can choose to post something every week, and that way, your posts would be consistent. You want the public to see you publish your articles regularly.


Writing a Blog Could Be an Interest

When writing your own blog, you are able to choose what you want to write about, and it can be fun for you if it is something that you enjoy to do. You are simply doing what you like, and you're getting paid for doing it!


The Only Downside of Blogging

If there had to be a downside to blogging, it would be that it is hard to make money at first. Don't expect to make money right when you start, because there are others who are doing the exact same thing. But, this could also be a plus. It can strengthen your persevearance and build up some patience.

 

Young Millionaire Club: Andrew Sutherland

By Elizabeth Guo



The founder and president of Quizlet.com, an online vocabulary learning tool that is really fun and efficient. As of April 2011, Quizlet has over 8.7 million user-generated flashcard sets and more than 2.8 million registered users.

 

 

 

1. Andrew Sutherland started Quizlet in October 2005, when he was only 15.
2. The idea was inspired by his French class; he wanted to learn the vocabulary in a fast and fun way, so he wrote a computer program similar to flashcards to help him to memorize the words.  
3. In 2009 he partnered with Dave Margulius to form Old School Industries LLC, which now runs Quizlet and another website, CollectorsWeekly.com.  He is the president and CTO of Old School.
4. In May 2011 he left the Computer Science program at MIT to go full-time on Quizlet.

 

What surprised me:

Andrew Sutherland received his business idea from his French class in high school. And … and, he was able to create a computer program to learn French vocabulary at the age of 15. 

If you are interested, you can read or listen more:

1.  Andrew Sutherland

2.  You Can Learn a Great Deal from a 17-Year-Old
3.  Quizlet's Andrew Sutherland on The Morning Show

 

 

Young Millionaire Club: Juliette Brindak

By Elizabeth Guo

The founder and CEO of Miss O & Friends (www.missoandfriends.com), a social networking website for girls. In November 2010, Juliette Brindak was elected by the Self-made Magazine as one of the top 50 women who are an inspiration to others.

1. Juliette Brindak had the idea for Miss O & Friends when she was 10.It was said that her mother was a graphic designer and she drew some figures for Juliette’s sister’s birthday; those figures were called Miss O and friends. Everyone loved those figures. Thus, Juliette decided to create a website about “Miss O and Friends”.
2. In 2005, Juliette Brindak launched the Miss O & Friends website with her parents. This website is for girls only and the girls can play games, listen to music, find new friends etc.
3. In May 2011, she earned her B.A. degree in Washington University in St. Louis.
4. By 2011, it was estimated that Miss O & Friends was worth over $15M and the website was ranked the third largest girls-only web site worldwide.

What surprised me:

Juliette Brindak had that idea when she was only 10, when most of us don’t even start to think up ideas for business.

If you are interested, you can read or listen more:

1. What A Tween Startup Founder Learned When She Went To College
2. Juliette Brindak Worth $15 Million at 21 Years Old
3. WCOO Interview with Juliette Brindak 

Steve & Matthew

Steve Guo and Matthew Guo, my two brothers. Steve is 8 years old, and Matthew is 5.