Eighteen-year-old John Waugh of McCandless is a typical male college student: He hates laundry, likes money and loves T-shirts.

Those are the driving forces behind Mr. Waugh's new Web site, www.shirtonmyback.com, through which he will earn money for wearing different shirts with company logos every day for a year. If his business venture works, Mr. Waugh will make $60,000 by next summer.

But that's a big "if."

Mr. Waugh, a graduate of North Allegheny Senior High School and a sophomore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, will increase his T-shirt advertising fees by $1 each day his Web site is online. The customer on the first day, Sept. 1, will pay $1, while the customer on the last day will pay $365.

"When I first ran the numbers in Excel, I thought, 'Whoa, this might be worth a try,' " Mr. Waugh said. If he is able to attract enough customers, he will make $66,795 by the end of next summer.

Mr. Waugh plans to blog on his Web site about his day-to-day experiences while wearing the T-shirt as well as show daily videocasts in which he will talk about the companies for which he is advertising.

He said the inspiration for "Shirt On My Back" came from another almost identical business venture, "I Wear Your Shirt," launched by 27-year-old Jason Sadler of Jacksonville, Fla. Since Jan. 1, Mr. Sadler has been selling the rights to the T-shirt he wears through his Web site, www.iwearyourshirt.com, where he also adds blog posts and live videocasts.

Mr. Sadler said he's pretty ticked off about "Shirt On My Back."

"I saw that he pretty much ripped off my site completely, so I'm not excited," Mr. Sadler said. "I just don't think there's room for another person to just crop up and start wearing T-shirts and do it in the exact same way."

Mr. Waugh's response: "There's room for competition -- just look at search engines. There's Google and there's Yahoo, and they both make money."

Besides, Mr. Waugh said, he gained the copyrights to his Web site in June.

Mr. Sadler's "I Wear Your Shirt" has been wildly successful since its launch. Seven months into the year, Mr. Sadler has not yet reached a day without a T-shirt booking. He sold 5 1/2 months of bookings before the calendar year even started. And currently, there are only nine days in December for which he has not yet found an advertiser.

Mr. Waugh has not yet reached that level of success. Right now, he has nine days of the calendar year booked with companies paying to advertise with him. But his mom, Jill Grater, said she is confident her son's business will prosper.

"He's always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and he's always been able to sell himself," Ms. Grater said. "I don't know why he wouldn't be able to sell the shirt on his back. It makes sense for a college student -- it's all they wear."

And most importantly, if the business succeeds, that will mean lighter laundry loads for mom to clean when her son drives home from school on weekends.

Mr. Waugh is double-majoring in finance and accounting, and he said he thinks he will go into wealth and asset management after graduation. He hopes to save or invest his earnings -- if "Shirt On My Back" works -- so he can graduate with a "nice little nest-egg of money stashed away," he said. But, he said, it will be difficult to resist the temptation to buy the BMW M3 sports car he has his eye on.

The potential benefits Mr. Waugh will reap from this business venture -- tons of cash and lighter loads of laundry -- do not come without sacrifice. He will need to wear a T-shirt to every formal occasion in the next year, including his brother's high school graduation next June. He said that won't be a problem.

"If I have to go to anything formal -- and that's like a sighting of a rare white elk -- I'll still wear a T-shirt underneath my suit jacket," Mr. Waugh said. "Everyone around me might not like that, but I'll be completely fine with it."