But that's what's happening. A UW grad says panhandlers are an untapped homeless labor. So he's putting them to work and watching his business grow.

Ben Rogovy is a budding entrepreneur with a newly launched Web site, but at 22, he has little money to spend on advertising.

"Oh, hi Teresa how you doing?" Rogovy asks of a woman sitting on a plastic bucket at an I-5 off-ramp. Her signs says she needs money for diapers and food.

Panhandlers like Teresa are Rogovy's way around his tiny marketing budget. Instead of advertising, he told KOMO 4 News he's "bum-vertising." A term he even trademarked.

"It dawned on me this could be inexpensive and effective," he says, adding he's giving panhandlers a job and getting advertising on the cheap.

One of his "regulars" willing holds up a green sign with a web address on it. "Now he's holding my sign and everybody stuck in traffic is looking at it," says an excited Rogovy.

In exchange for food, water and an undisclosed amount of cash, panhandlers agree to hold their please-give-sign and Rogovy's sign advertising his website, Pokerfacebook.com. "Janetta" took less than 10 seconds to say yes.

"Sure why not, anything to help a budding entrepreneur," says Janetta. She told us she has to beg. She has two other jobs, but it doesn't pay the bills. Neighbors told us Janetta begs everyday and doubts whether she really needs help.

Janetta says Rogovy's money is "easy money" - extra cash she doesn't have to beg for. "The one thing people don't know, this is a job this is not easy," says "Janetta". She doesn't want to reveal her last name.

"They're better off advertising for me than not advertising, I wish I could help them more," says Rogovy.

Not so says Nicole Macri, co-chair of the Seattle King County Coalition for the Homeless. She says Rogovy is exploiting the panhandlers.

Rogovy says they're adults and they can make up their own minds. But Macri argues because the panhandlers are poor, homeless and begging, "they've lost their free choice" and have no choice but to agree to Rogovy's request.

"It really reinforces stigmas about people who are homeless that they're not humans, that they're just signposts," says Macri.

She insists the practice and the term "bumvertising" have to go. "Being called 'bumvertising' reinforces the idea people who are poor bring this upon themselves cause they're lazy."

"They claimed the term 'bum' was derogative, I'm sorry it wasn't my intention," says Rogovy.

He told KOMO 4 News he'd consider changing the name, but disagrees that he's exploiting people. He wholeheartedly believes he's doing a good thing, giving them a job.

We asked Janetta, "Do you feel exploited?" "No. No 'cause he's exchanging a service for another, ya know?"

But not everyone says yes. One panhandler turned him down today.

Rogovy's signs have been on street corners in the U-District and Wallingford for a month. Panhandlers will hold his signs for 30 minute shifts at a time up to 8 hours a day.

He says he used to get hundreds of hits a day on his website, now he gets thousands a day. He admits he's not sure and can't prove it, but thinks it's the signs.