The East Preston young entrepreneur left Worthing's Our Lady of Sion School with no qualifications, but is about to launch his latest in a string of money-making websites, and claims to be earning between £1,000 and £1,500 a week.

"I saw one of my old teachers, told her and she was amazed," he said, "I suffer badly from dyslexia, and failed everything at school!"

The new website, www.incomediary.com is live but will officially launch in the next couple of weeks, and will join Michael's portfolio of www.webdesigndev.com, a guide to building your own website, and www.retireat21.com, a forum for young internet entrepreneurs which has earned him a place in internet stardom, and has more than 3,000 members.

According to a Brazilian newspaper, the trinity of sites, which are currently getting between 3,000 and 4,000 hits a day, could be worth as much as US$10m in five years, when Michael is 25.

"Yeah, that would be nice, of course, but I am enjoying working on them at the moment, so we will see," he said.

His first internet adventure was when he was just 15, and he created a forum for graphic designers. Before long, the pocket money wages from his part-time job at Somerfield were eclipsed by the £200 to £300 a week web earnings.

"My dad made me stay at Somerfield though, he said it would be good experience!"

The new site is more along the same theme as retire@21, aiming to give advice on, and inspire people to, make money from the internet. It features interviews with the world's top internet players, such as iStockphoto founder Bruce Livingstone, and Kieran O'Neill, who at 19 sold his first website for US$1.25m, as well as in-depth guides to following in their footsteps.

* For the full story, see this week's Littlehampton Gazette, on sale today (Thursday March 19)

-----------------------------
Click here to return to Gazette news.

Where are you? Add your pin to the Gazette's international readers' map by clicking here.

Email the Gazette: roger.green@littlehamptongazette.co.uk