About Totally Home Improvement

Owner of Totally Home Improvement

I'm Jason Horton and I'm the Owner and Editor of this website.

That's a picture of me on the right after a short afternoon hike.

Brief History

This all began as a home improvement Twitter feed back in June 2012 and by October of that year I was also sending the feed out via a Facebook Page.

Then in February 2013 I set this website up as a place where experts could offer advice and ideas about everything related to home life and improvement.

Who Pays for the Content?

Definition: on this website, Content can be written material, video, animated images or still images.

Authors Do Not Pay to be Published on Totally Home Improvement.
This website does not currently accept any fees whatsoever for the publication of content provided by experts or other third parties. For the record, I did sell sponsored content several years ago, both here and on social media. If this current policy changes at any time, I will announce it here and all such content will be clearly and distinctively labeled as advertising or sponsored.

Writers Usually Get Paid, But Not Always.
Contributing experts are frequently compensated by businesses, or third party representatives of businesses, whose products or services they mention in an article.

Sometimes articles are written by business owners, or senior employees of a business, who's products or services are mentioned in the article. I try to source as much of this type of content as possible because these are usually the most knowledgeable experts on the topic they're writing about. I don't ask business owners, their employees or subcontractors, about their compensation because there is no hidden conflict of interest when someone openly says good things about their business when that relationship has been properly declared to readers.

Sometimes the writer is paid directly by Totally Home Improvement, and when this happens the declaration will say that they were commissioned either by Totally Home Improvement or by me.

Many Photographers/Graphic Designers Do Get Paid by Totally Home Improvement.
Usually I pay an agency who represents the photographer or graphic designer, the agency charges a management fee and then passes a royalty payment on to the creator. Sometimes, but infrequently, I pay a creator directly for use or ownership of their images, and sometimes I do the work myself.

There are also many cases where I do not pay for images because they've been provided free of charge by the author or their sponsor, they're available free under a Creative Commons licence or because they're in the public domain.

Video Creators Can be Compensated.
I don't usually pay for video content because I primarily use videos that have been licensed for embedding on commercial websites. This usually comes in the form of a Standard YouTube license or a Creative Commons license.

YouTube and AdSense, both owned by Google, have compensation schemes available to YouTubers. Some of them also sell additional advertising where they recommend products and services in their videos - these producers are usually quite eager to get their videos distributed as widely as possible to increase their advertising revenue.

All Relevant Relationships and Licenses are Openly Declared in the 'Author Box' at the Top of Each Article

There is an Author Box at or near the top of each article which has one of the following titles in upper case letters:

  1. AUTHOR & DECLARATIONS
    This provides the name of the writer and the name(s) of any brands or businesses they have been compensated by, or any other entity mentioned from which the writer could potentially benefit by mentioning. For example the writer could mention a company they own shares in, and are required to declare that relationship even if not directly compensated for it. It also usually names the creators of any images that have been licensed and used to illustrate and/or promote the article - occasionally this declaration is positioned adjacent the relevant image.
  2. BY TOTALLY HOME IMPROVEMENT
    This serves the same purpose and includes the same information as the other author box, but is named differently to make it easy for readers to know that the article has been produced and paid for in-house.

Note that there are a small number of old articles on this website that don't say who the writer was working for. This is because mentions of the relevant business have been removed due to the business having closed down.

Contributing Experts

If you work in a home related field, or you're an experienced enthusiast, and you'd like to share your expertise by contributing an article, please contact me via this email form.

Do My Other Interests Interest You?

My hobbies and interests include making music, camping and poker tournaments.

If you're a musician or music student then you might like to take a look at a website I co-founded in 2015 with aim of it becoming a leader in music equipment & pro audio advice and recommendations, and it is certainly well on its way to achieving that: Gearank.com. NB: Gearank.com does not accept unsolicited contributions.

If you're interested in getting into outdoor activities like camping and hiking, then head on over to Polyphonical, a website I'm working on to provide really useful advice as I rebuild my physical fitness and reconnect with nature. And if you're an enthusiastic and experienced outdoors person with above average writing talents looking for some part-time work, then check out the Polyphonical Gigs page. NB: Polyphonical.com does not accept unsolicited contributions.

If you're into hosting poker home games then check out my guide to folding poker table tops.

Privacy

I recommend you read this site's Privacy Policy.

Advertising & Affiliations

Totally Home Improvement is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. I try to ensure all advertising links to Amazon are properly declared and the link usually contains the word 'Amazon' to avoid confusion. If you see any unclear links, please let me know and I'll make any necessary adjustments.

This website also carries Google AdSense advertising and all these advertisements have a symbol in the top right corner to indicate that they are advertisements - you can click that link for more information. If any of these advertisements appear in a section of the site that contains potentially confusingly similar non-advertising content, then I place the word 'ADVERTISEMENT' above it - you can see this in the right hand column on many pages of this website.

I am not currently providing any other forms of advertising on this site, and I will change this notice if it becomes necessary.

Questions or Comments about Totally Home Improvement

The best way to talk to me about this website and related Twitter and Pinterest accounts is via the contact page - I'm often quite busy so using the email form will usually result in a quicker response than using the phone.

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