Online advertising makes rags to ritches stories believable.

Ashley Qualls, a 17 year old from the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, has created a multi-million dollar website that targets teenage girls and provides customizeable layouts for their Myspace profiles. WhateverLife was born just a few years ago, but thanks to online advertising programs such as Google Adsense and ValueClick, it has become an extremely profitable business venture. Read the full article here.

Programs such as Google Adsense and ValueClick, allow individuals such as Ashley to place text-based advertisements on their websites in exchange for payment. Publishers of the ads are able to sign up for free, and then select the categories they feel best represent their website. Advertisers go to these online brokers, and tell them how much they are willing to pay for each click, and what categories of websites they would like their advertisements to appear on. In an instant, an Internet entrepreneur has sponsorship for their website and a legitimate income source. Website owners are able to check their stats and how much they have earned in realtime on the brokers website, and are then paid monthly.

As a future advertising professional, I must be willing to famiarize myself with new methods of buying and selling advertising space such as these. Many students that are studying advertising now will eventually be hired at companies such as Google, ValueClick, or Microsoft. I believe that online advertising is not only here, but it is here to stay. As technology advances, more and more business will be "online only" businesses, businesses who are supported fully by advertisers. More and more jobs are opening up in the online advertising field daily as it continues to grow by leaps and bounds.