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Facebook ads brought to you by SIUC student

By Codell Rodriguez, The Southern

Monday, May 12, 2008 10:15 AM CDT

CARBONDALE - William Kasel has no problem admitting he doesn't have the best grades in the world.

But grades don't necessarily reflect the student. While education is important, the Southern Illinois University Carbondale sophomore from Chester is also spending a great deal of time working on his advertising application for the social networking Web site, Facebook.

AdDollars pays people to put advertisements on their profile pages and advertisers pay Kasel's company, JumpFox. Kasel has partnered with Max Custom Media out of New York City, an advertising company for companies such as Showtime, Viacom and Heineken. He said there have been talks with Showtime to use the application for advertising.

While the payment to the person with the profile would only be from $5 to $7 a month, Kasel said he is trying to present the option of receiving iTunes credit, which would add up to five or seven songs a month. Kasel said he is very pleased with how far he has come. He created the application in about a week while he was in between finding a place to live.

"It's kind of a long ways from a kid whose parents are electricians," Kasel said.

Though he's proud of what he has accomplished, Kasel remembers his roots. His father, Tom Durkee, said he knew his son was a bright kid from the beginning. When Kasel was 8, Tom taught him the basics of parallel circuits. Kasel used the idea on his toy mechanical set and found a way to increase propeller speed to a degree that it flew off and hit him in the eye, Tom said.

"He has such a talent for it, it's amazing to me," Tom said. "He has such an imagination. He's going to be very successful. I really believe that."

Kasel's mother, Charleene, saw a similar potential.

"I couldn't be more proud," Charleene said. "I always knew from the time he was little that he would do something very important and be very successful."

In addition to his independent work, Kasel has also been a Webmaster for SIUC's campus newspaper, the Daily Egyptian, and is creative director and co-founder of marketing Web site www.dawgcms.com.

Kasel is looking to extend his success by trying his luck in San Francisco this July. He said he will take a semester off from school to focus on the program because he doesn't feel he can give full attention to both at the same time.

"I want to be able to focus on one thing or the other," Kasel said.

Tom said he truly believes his son has a sharp mind and has little doubt that he will find success.

"He's one of a kind," Tom said.

codell.rodriguez@thesouthern.com / 351-5804