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Guys, I need your help. Anyone familiar with WSI Digital Marketing? A dear friend is about to bite into a "franchise opportunity" for the "low sum of $59k plus 10% in royalties". (self.marketing)

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[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (3 children)

What exactly is that $59k buying? Digital marketing is a notoriously low barrier to entry business, and it's not like you are buying a brand or name recognition... since I've never heard of these people, and they have zero Enterprise cachet built up.

Certification? There is no industry-standard certification for "digital marketing" - and your friend's time would be better spend learning from experience rather than a canned and out of date curriculum.

Training? $59k could buy you two years of full-time coding/marketing training, or you could get a job in industry if it's something you really want to do.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

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    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I would put it this way:

    If you don't already work in the industry, what makes you think that you'd suddenly be successful at the helm of a business in that industry? Everything - from client acquisition to planning your hiring - all relies on a knowledge of the industry, marketing lingo, etc.

    Instead of taking such an expensive entrance into digital marketing - he/she could try applying for a marketing associate job at an SEO-heavy agency to see if they truly like the drudgery of the profession. Otherwise, check out courses on sites like Treehouse or even a coding bootcamp if he/she really wants to spend some money.

    [–]kroboz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Here are some good resources you can show your friend:

    [–]camrncrazy 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    If your friend buys into this, then he just lit well over $60,000 on fire. Why over 60k? Because 1. opportunity cost loss - I assume he'd leave his current job and therefor that's income loss. As well you're looking at unexpected costs - business cards, software, whatever bullcrap they try to sell you on (notice their partner list and certification expectations), gas and client maintenance costs, finances, hope you don't F-up and need a lawyer or actually get a contract that is so large that the company has lawyers that review and re-write it so much that you need a lawyer for review.

    Here are the problem: they're a completely shit company. They don't know what they're doing on their own digital marketing; site issues, lacking in social focus, bad seo semrush report: http://www.semrush.com/info/wsidigitalmarketing.com+(by+organic) and not to mention that their ONLY 'client' listed on the site is this http://www.maidincalifornia.com/ which looks like a 1990s thrown to together site.

    The nail in the coffin for me: One of the most lucrative aspects of digital marketing is the utilization of advanced adwords techniques to find the perfect customer. They don't even pay lazily for adwords ads at all.

    So lets assume that they're actually a good company that could teach someone something. Technology and digital marketing changes with every passing day. Something that I say in one of my articles about SEO, social, or whatever could be completely invalid in a couple of weeks. It's why when people mention ideas or I read an article that sparks an idea or gives me some new angle... I take it with an entire jar of salt. I try it with my own twists and understanding and experience to see what type of results it will lead and then apply it as I see fit towards clients and industries that I see fit.

    Digital marketing (at least good marketing that keeps clients) isn't something you can just pull from a template/book... it's learned and it requires a lot of experience both on your own experimenting but also with mentors showing you what they've learned and keeping you even further up to date on things.

    Here's the deal: I REALLY despise this entire thing. I will actually take a call from your friend, talk to him about his experience in this industry see why he wants it. And hell... if he's that determined to be freelancing/consulting in this industry, for far less than 60k I'll teach him everything he needs to know to do digital marketing effectively, keep up to date, experiment, learn, get clients, manage them, build funnels/sales, and even drag him to the conferences that matter.

    One LAST thing: I read some of the notes on the company. If they're true and you don't own clients and such then you completely wasting your time. For $60K you could build a really good foundation, hire out SEO, designers, etc as needed, hire a sales person part time+commission, and actually own everything. (and spend the rest of the money on courses, consultants that will help you understand things (me), conferences, and like I said)

    Edit: added the last paragraph

    [–]FITGuard 4 points5 points  (2 children)

    I would ask him, if this time next year, he did not have $59,000, but instead a failing franchise, how he would feel.

    It's easy for people to get tunnel vision and ignore obvious signs when they should not. Help him see if from a different perspective. Asked him if the roles were reversed, you went to your friend and asked to borrow $60,000 to start this WSI Franchise, if he would loan you the money? Ask him to explain in detail, using the logic that made him come to said decision.

    How would your friendship be jeopardized if you lost that $60,000? How would his significant other feel?

    You get the point. Make him think out of the context of himself, from a third person perspective. Almost like a case-study about himself.

    [–]kroboz 5 points6 points  (1 child)

    ^ This.

    WSI sounds like an expensive MLM for digital marketers, based on what you've said. That means they use strong internal rhetoric to bend logic and protect the "opportunity" from outside scrutiny using normal evaluation methods.

    Does your friend know any business owners (especially those who do digital marketing)? If so, I would highly advise that he speak to those owners and simply walk though the process. Most people don't make $60k investments (which is due every five years, btw) on a whim, and neither should your friend.

    I found the following articles that might help:

    I do have to say, their internal SEO team knows what they're doing because it's almost impossible to find info on the "opportunity" that isn't from WSI. If their training is really that good, your friend can feasibly make money on his own after. My guess is they have a designed flaw in their system that makes franchisees dependent on WSI for some vital part of internet marketing, and thus more likely to pay the $60k fee every few years.

    Edit: some additional sites I found:

    After additional investigation, I told them thanks, but no thanks. The more I investigated it, the more I realised that you really can find contractors globally, with a little effort and networking. Plus, since there still isn't any brand equity associated with WSI (that is, nobody has ever heard of them), then what value are they providing for that kind of money?

    I think WSI makes sense financially if it were more of an at-risk model, but to ask us to fork over this much money without their sharing the risk is unreasonable. That's not a partnership. Plus, their marketing this inappropriately. I can't imagine how many people are buying into this thinking their job will be to sell web sites from their bedrooms. That's not what this business is about! This makes it difficult to develop brand equity when there are a lot of unsuccessful internet consultants out there waving the WSI banner around.

    That's from http://www.whydowork.com/forums/wsi-internet-franchise-t313-15.html#p13536 (which gives the stories of some people who have done this). A lot of obvious posts by the company in that thread, but some good insights.

    Like this one:

    I have a WSI franchise and it really sucks. It might be that i'm doing something wrong, so I cannot say that will happen if you buy it, but there are some things that you should be aware of (that they don't tell you until you buy that) 1) There is a 300 U$ mininum fee on monthly basis even if you didn't make any sell in that month. 2) All the clients, contacts, and data you gather in your business are theirs, it means that if you decide to quit in the franchisee you can`t call them, visit them or do bussiness with them (is in the contract) 3) The franchisee is not delimited by territory, that means (and it happened in my case) that if today WSI thinks that with 4 consultants in your city is enough, they only sell 4 franchisees, but if tomorrow they decide that is better 7, they will sell the other 3 (not counting with regional and national francisees). In my case all the time they swore that there was only 4 franchisees allowed for my territory, and last month we ralized that there are 7 franchisees already operating and they want to sell more. 4) The prices is something you have to be vary carefull, yes some solutions are cheap but if you want to do a something custom made it will be very expensive and most of the cases (and it heppens with us) those prices leave you out fo the market. 5) If you have financial problems and cannot pay something they will kick you out of the marketplace even if you have ongoing projects and because of that you will be late for your clients and it will make your financial situation worse. 6) There is a 10% royalty, for everything you sell, in a solution can be somethin like this: Cost of the solution U$ 900 + Hosting U$ 100 = U$ 1000, Price for sell : 2000 U$, so to your cost you have to add 200 U$, that is not considering your time or work, financial costs, operational costs, etc. the royalty cost the 20% of your gross profit.

    I'm trying to make this work because I had a loan over my house and if I don't pay I will loose it. Feel free to contact me

    From the first page of the thread: http://www.whydowork.com/forums/wsi-internet-franchise-t313.html?sid=c7a88258a0d4bddf21683b389eb4d6e1

    [–]RallyFlipCap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    i used to work for one of them. Do not drop that cash, they're pretty much just reachlocal resellers

    [–]underrealized 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I'm in this niche (franchising), and yes, WSI is a glorified MLM (without the levels.). PM me if your want more details.