Xacti Corporation

Has anyone ever done copywriting for Xacti Corporation? They advertised for a freelance copywriting position awhile back, and the woman who responded to my resume quoted rates that seemed extremely low:

"I will tell you that generally our copywriters make between 1 – 2.5 cents/word which equals about $6 or 7/webpage ($60-70/file – each file has about 10 pages). Take a look at the RFQ and let me know if you’re able to comply with these rates."

Their RFQ was a 9-page document with procedures on how to rewrite content. Here's an excerpt from it:

[FONT=&quot]"Xacti is creating a large number of websites that requires new and rewritten content. Each site is unique and unassociated with the other sites. The websites cover a broad range of topics appealing to specific audiences. This Request for Quotation (RFQ) seeks offers for copywriting services that will support Xacti’s goals for these websites.

The RFQ presents a lucrative opportunity to copywriters who are awarded contracts. Xacti has a continual workload for the production of content for websites. This includes both new content in the form of articles, tips and information and the rewriting of content that Xacti will provide in Word documents. Each website is divided into sections with varying amounts of web pages and word count. Vendors can contract to work on multiple sections, each section being completed on schedule before starting another. "

[/FONT]


I'm confused. 1 - 2.5 cents per word is a "lucrative opportunity"??? Thanks for any help....

Michelle Lopez
Writing & Editorial Services
www.sugarlit.com

JulieB,

Yes, that's the job. Everything sounds legit except for the pay. I agree, they're asking for a lot of qualifications for that small amount of pay. I was just curious if anyone from this board had ever written copy for them.

Maybe the company just needs to be educated on what good writers are worth

Michelle Lopez
Writing & Editorial Services
www.sugarlit.com

> Naomi Mannino wrote:

> I wanted to reply to the thread on Absolute Write but I couldn't log in for some reason.

> I have worked that job (when I was desperate for a few months). It's extremely low-paying: The price per file of 10 pages is about accurate. I even got a little more than that because I improved the files and upped the word count.
But at .02/word, you can't make any money no matter how long you sit there. They do pay well through pay pal and it is easy work. It still took me about 4 hours to complete each file because I spent time making them useful, so that comes out to about $15 per hour, which I think is extremely low-paying for an experienced writer
(see my web page ).

> HOWEVER, the reason I quit is because they would never tell me where my work would end up and where the original writing came from. I wrote a 200-page pet website and I want to see it! They also wouldn't tell me where the original work came from:

> "The original is a resource tool so that our copywriters can write text that is distinctly unique from and different than the original, and why mere editing is not acceptable."

> That sound like stealing too me, but that's what my editor told me. In my opinion, you either hire someone to write original text or you edit something someone has written. You don't totally re-write the whole thing but include the same facts...The whole thing just felt wrong. And, I complained many times about the original files not containing enough useful information for me to re-write something "good" out of it so I always spent way to much time researching. I want to write articles that teach and help people that are looking for info on the web! Don't you?

> ANYWAY, the last straw was when they sent me files that were cut and pasted from company websites I was supposed to be writing about. So when I went to look up more information I found exactly where the original text came from, and they pasted the wrong type of info so I still couldn't write the pages without totally researching and re-writing. It was so bogus! Total ASS, as the "craigslist curmudgeon" would say!

> So, that's my story. If you want to paste it into the thread and reply, feel free. I'll try to log in later. Oh, yeah and that stupid RFQ is ASS, too, plus they'll ask you to write a free sample. If you want to read more about low-paying writing jobs, check out this week's discussion on freelancewritingjobs.com. It had more than 50 comments attached to it!

> Good Luck,
> Naomi Mannino
> freelance writer


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Thanks Naomi! Sounds like Xacti Corp. is a waste of time. I will stay clear of them. You can probably find the articles you wrote by doing a Google search with an exact phrase in quotation marks. (For example, do a Google search for the phrase "[SIZE=-1]I’m an artistic mathematician of sorts"[/SIZE] with the quotation marks, and you'll find the site where it appears on.) Just take a clip from one of the articles you wrote for Xacti, do a search, and I'll bet you'll find something.