Internet Millionaires Success Stories

If you’re a Facebook user, you may have heard of a game called Farmville. A repetitive simulation game that involved planting and raising crops, Farmville was nonetheless Zynga’s most popular game. While other people were content merely to play the game, local entrepreneur Chan Peng Joon  earned over USD$1.2 million by selling guides to it. “The way I look at it, it’s a gold rush. There will be a small minority who strike gold, while the rest lose out,” says the 27 year old, describing his philosophy behind online marketing.

At 15, Catherine Cook and her brother Dave, 17, were flipping through their high school yearbook and came up with the idea to develop a free interactive version online. In 2005, the two convinced their older brother Geoff, a budding Web entrepreneur himself, to invest $250,000 and his time to help them launch MyYearbook.com, a social-networking site, based in Skillman, N.J.

In 2004, at age 14, Detroit native Qualls launched Whateverlife.com, conceived as a personal portfolio with pictures and graphics she created. Later, she offered free MySpace layouts and tutorials for teens who wanted to learn how to do their own graphic designs and coding.

Elon Bomani says she was trying to make “a way out of no way.” After a separation from her husband, Bomani and her newborn son moved to a women’s shelter. While living in the facility in 2001, Bomani knew she had to regain control of her life. “I found myself homeless because I had given up my power. I bought into the idea that men were better at math than women, even though I had graduated with these degrees that let me know that I was capable,” says Bomani, 42, of Missouri City, TX, who has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in natural health.