WSI Internet - Franchising Internet Consulting

[KrazyK]

WSI Internet (formerly known as Worldsites)
jumped the ranks of entrepreneur magazine's 500 top franchises this year to #53.

Curiously I could not find a single mention of them on webmasterworld. Apparently you pay $50k + 10%, then you are setup to do Internet Consulting for small and medium sized businesses from your home.

As someone who is always looking for ways to profit from the Internet I would love to know more about what kind of game they are playing.

[entrepreneur.com...]

[edited by: lorax at 6:43 pm (utc) on Aug. 30, 2005]
[edit reason] my mistake [/edit]

[bcolflesh]

Curiously I could not find a single mention of them on webmasterworld.

Yep - spam isn't allowed here.

[KrazyK]

I take it you know something about them. Why must they be spam? If they have 1k clients, they have taken in 50m in franchise fees alone. Tough to spam your way into those kind of results.

They provide their consultants with cheap design, ecommerce, seo etc. Take a look at all of the client sites linking to wsicorporoate.

IMO no one here is above spamming. We can't be mad because someone else is making millions franchising what we do.

[jsinger]

There have been all sorts of web "franchises" over the years. Some franchisors even last a year or two before going out of business.

entrepreneur magazine's 500 top franchises

What a joke. Compare their top 500 (!) from a few years ago and see how many are still around.

[jsinger]

Apparently you pay $50k + 10%, then you are setup to do Internet Consulting for small and medium sized businesses from your home.

Hey, if you have a phone you are already set up to do consulting from your home. (I may wet my pants thinking about this one!) Is their address in Lagos?

[KrazyK]

jsinger,

Yes, not exactly an authoritative list. But I am impressed that they acquired 1,000+ "Internet Consultants" at 50k a piece. With many international ICs.

It appears they have been around since 1995.

Laugh or criticize as you'd like - it seems their business model is doing them well. Corey Rudl was a bit before my Internet time, but I was reminded of him. Take a good recipe and franchise it (affiliates).

I wonder how many WSI or Rudl tactics are now defunct in light of tougher seo, ppc etc. competition.

According to an interview with the WSI president, a big part of what their consultants peddle is eLearning materials.

[lorax]

*ahem* so to get this thread back on track

Is there a question in there about efranchising or is the original question about why WSI isn't mentioned here at WebmasterWorld?

[jsinger]

Don't know about others here, but I hang up on one or two Internet "consultants" every day (one. an hour ago).

I suppose their reported numbers are going up because you are counted as one of their consultants forever, once you pay the money. And most likely many paid far, far less than $50K.