About This Blog
“I want this blog to be a trusted source for high-quality pest control guides that are completely unbiased, easy to read, and entirely accurate.” – Natasha Anderson
Hello, I’m Natasha 🙂
I am the mother of two beautiful kids, and the wife of a very lucky husband (don’t worry, he agrees 😉 ). Ever since I was young, I have always loved writing, and even explored a career in journalism before I started my journey in the field of pest control in 2012. Today, I am a full-time blogger and run this website all on my own (and enjoy every minute of it).
As mentioned at the top of this page, my primary goal with this blog is to provide exceptionally high-quality pest control guides that are both actionable and entirely accurate. I don’t think that this is an unrealistic goal, but it certainly is a big commitment. Luckily, I love doing it, and going the extra mile for my readers is part of what makes this the best job ever.
Since all the responsibility falls on my shoulders, I definitely cannot churn out large amounts of content like I have seen some of my competitors’ doing. Although this does make me a little jealous, there are some key benefits in doing it solo, and these are:
Control over research sources: A problem with hiring writers has got less to do with their skill with words, and more to do with where they found their research material. When I explore a topic, not only can I make sure that trustworthy, non-tertiary sources are used, but I can also rely on my industry experience and get feedback from other exterminators. This ensures that my content is based on facts and never misleading.
Quality assurance for content: I have full control over the content creation process, which includes things like writing, editing, designing the layout, adding images, including references, doing a final review, and handling any future updates. Since I don’t hire anyone to help me (besides getting each new article verified for accuracy), it lets me dedicate sufficient time to each part so that I ensure the final result is stellar.
Single point of communication: With the above in mind, I am well equipped to provide accurate answers to questions from my readers in the comments section, via email and on social media (and I do, click here to learn more). If someone has content suggestions, wants to report a technical issue, or perhaps find out when I will cover a particular pest, these will come directly to me, and I handle them personally.
How I make sure that content is of the highest quality:
I want my articles to deliver real value to my readers. While this involves many aspects of copywriting, such as making them easy to read, having a consistent layout and the effective use of visuals, creating accurate and actionable content is close to my heart. In addition to getting all my posts fact-checked by another expert, being unbiased and covering the topic in detail, this is how I make sure that I achieve this goal:
Extensive Research
Each of my articles takes between 15 to 25 hours (on average), and a large part of that time is spent doing research. While I have extensive pest control knowledge, I always aim to validate the effectiveness and safety of various methods, especially since many are written for the “DIY” crowd.
Industry Experience
Since 2012, I have worked with many pest control companies, and have personally helped thousands overcome infestations. Despite this, all the solutions that I outline in my guides have been tested by myself. Although this often delays my guides, it also means they can be fully trusted.
Bi-Annual Reviews
In addition to creating new posts, I review my existing articles every six months for improvements (based on questions and feedback) and accuracy (based on latest research). Inevitably, changes often need to be made, and I make the time because having up-to-date content is essential.
All my new articles get reviewed by another expert:
As mentioned above, I spend a significant amount of time researching and fact-checking my content to ensure that it is accurate and helpful to my readers. However, nothing beats another set of eyes, especially from someone who is either an exterminator or runs a pest control business. By asking another expert to review my articles, not only does it eliminate the possibility of small errors, but it also helps with the following:
Nothing has been overlooked: When you are writing a guide, it is essential to get into the head of your target audience and understand what they need from it. Although Google helps with this, it is possible to overlook a critical section, answer a question but lack sufficient details, or provide instructions that are a little unclear to the reader. Feedback from an expert usually prevents these issues.
Build more trust in my domain: I feel that just knowing that another set of experienced eyes has vetted anything you read builds even more trust for the entire website. I know the pain of having to hop between multiple resources to make sure that what I am reading is accurate, and it’s my goal to provide content that someone can read, understand and take action, without having to do that.
Stay up to date with changes: There have been times when I have requested a review from an expert, only to receive feedback that a treatment process (or product) has been replaced or changed recently. Even if the older approach was not incorrect, I enjoy sharing the latest and the best solutions with my readers, and this only possible with this kind of feedback from experts in the field.
If you have any questions, I support all my articles:
When you are doing research on the internet and have a question about something in an article, I have always found it frustrating when a website doesn’t allow you to reach out to the person who wrote it. With that in mind, since I started this blog, I have made myself available to anyone who needs my assistance with their pest control issues.
The image that contains my blog statistics (it is updated each year, and contains the data from the previous period) is not for boasting purposes; it is merely to prove that I take this responsibility seriously and it’s not just an “empty promise”. In addition to this helping my readers, I really enjoy interacting with the community.
If you contact me via the comments section, via my contact form or social media (Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin), I will get back to you. This applies to my old articles as well (even if it was published years ago), so please don’t hesitate to reach out. All legitimate questions should receive feedback within about 48 hours of posting them.
I only link to websites that show enough expertise:
The point of adding external links to my articles is to either provide additional reading that will benefit my readers, or to back up statements that may need further proof. However, I have stringent rules when it comes to linking out to other websites, as this is essentially giving them a “vote of confidence” and I don’t want to mislead anyone who visits them. With that in mind, here is what I look for when referring to resources:
The content must be free of errors: Before linking to any reference material, I always read it to find potential errors in the content. This process is especially important if it is not a .edu or .gov domain, as I want to make sure that I don’t recommend something that will provide incorrect information to my readers. I accept that this is ultimately my responsibility, so I make 100% sure it’s accurate.
The domain must be an authority: Further to the above, if the reference material (that I am considering linking to) is being hosted on a domain that is not on my verified list, the accuracy checks go beyond just the article. I spend some time looking at their overall quality, which includes things like their authors, the user experience, the type of content they produce, and their editorial process.
The article must not show any bias: This is a slightly trickier one, but if I see that the primary purpose of the article is to promote an affiliate product (or to recommend their own), I usually look for another resource for my readers. There are definitely exceptions, but I generally prefer to link to resources that are not potentially biased towards which is the best solution for getting rid of a pest.
It must offer value to my readers: Last but not least, there must be a clear purpose for linking to the external resource in my article. I am not just doing it because an “expert” said it’s good practice, or because Google likes it, but rather it should benefit my readers by providing them with either useful information, or to back up a statement that requires additional evidence to prove that it’s correct.
How I earn an income from blogging on this site:
Since this blog is my full-time job, it is necessary to generate an income from it. My goal from the start was to avoid the use of affiliate links, as I feel it’s difficult to be unbiased when one product is paying out more than another. It would also influence my new content ideas, as I would naturally deviate towards subjects that could be solved with commercial products. Instead, this is my monetization strategy:
Advert Revenue
Adverts are my main revenue generator for this blog. Since they have the potential to be somewhat distracting, I manually place them in my posts to minimize their impact on user experience. I work closely with my ad provider to make sure that ads are not misleading, low quality, or harmful.
Published Books
I have a self-published ebook that I sell to my readers, but I am not pushy with it and make it quite clear that they can find all the information for free on my blog. I also offer a “no questions asked” refund if someone feels that the book didn’t help with solving their problem, even though it’s unlikely.
Online Donations
Due to a reasonable amount of questions from readers (who were asking how they could support my work), this was included in my monetization strategy. However, my default response is to ask them to share my blog on social media, and only if they want to do more, I tell them about this.
Thanks for reading, I would love to hear from you:
This page was actually rather enjoyable to create and helped me refocus on what I am trying to achieve with this blog, namely to provide the best damn pest control guides on the internet. With that in mind, I have started the process of overhauling my older articles to improve their quality. Although they are factually correct, I want them to stand up against my newer design processes. This should be complete by the end of 2019.
To those that have read up to this point, you are an absolute rockstar and thanks for taking the time to learn about my goals for this blog. If you have any suggestions, corrections, or would just like to talk to me, please use my contact form or ping me on social media. As mentioned, it is my goal to stay on top of my blog communications, so rest assured that I will get back to you. Have a good one and stay pest-free!