Inessa Generalova: “I’m happy when they offer to pay, it confirms the honesty of our checks and analyses”

First of all, Ecoraznos® is a project that educates everyone about what conscious consumption, safe goods and environmental preservation are, and why it is possible and easy.

Now the project has already become a kind of security fortress, which helps all my new readers to move, as they say, “on the safe side” – to alternative products, thanks to our objective assessment of what the consumer uses. After all, around us now there are a lot of various toxic substances that every day get on the skin and inside us, and then health problems arise.

More recently, we opened a platform that many subscribers have been waiting and asking for for a long time! We work on it 24/7 with an excellent team of developers. The opening of the platform is a joyful event for both me and my readers – we were all looking forward to it. A lot of resources, effort and time have gone into launching the site. It took about 1.5 years from idea to implementation, we involved 45 experts.

This is a full-fledged site where there is a database of toxic, carcinogenic and allergenic components. Our direction is food, cosmetics, household chemicals, food supplements, vitamin preparations and pet products. We will expand the picture and constantly supplement it. The work continues every day so that the site contains only relevant information!

Now only the Ecoraznos VS Avitaminosis section is open on the platform, in which more than 3,000 vitamin preparations and dietary supplements have been tested. Plus a methodological guide, which we have written on the basis of scientific research. It can be safely distributed in clinics to inform the population. Written in very simple language, and the information is quite serious inside. We are currently working on migrating our database of approved funds, which contains over 30,000 items. All their compositions, we disassembled the experts on the shelves, each separately. Each is manually entered into the site, and there are daily checks and updates. In short, we are not standing idly by (Smiles.)

Previously, Excel and PDF formats were used instead of the platform, tables and documents had to be uploaded separately, and only after that they had to search for the necessary information. It was uncomfortable for people. And now you can just register on the platform and that’s it: access anywhere from any device, and the interface is like that of marketplaces.

Also on the platform there are images, links to stores where you can buy products, ratings and reviews. All for the convenience of users.

As the project grew, people skilled in their field were needed. One head is good, but multiple heads with different formations can create something amazing and as objective as possible. That’s what we did. It was therefore decided to involve specialists from different fields. These are specialized experts from medicine and other sciences, for example: ecology, pharmacology, chemistry and biology. Among our permanent consultants and experts are pharmacists, doctors, cosmetologists, ecologists, technologists and nutritionists. We are constantly recruiting new experts. In addition, specialists often come to the team themselves, because the Ecoraznos® project resonates with many.

When I decided to promote the Ecoraznos column, it was just a blog column. I was pregnant with my second child and realized that if it wasn’t now, later I would put this idea aside forever. And at the very beginning, my only assistant was my student from the Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, where I was then teaching marketing communication. She volunteered to help me collect trains from all over the Internet for a conditional amount of about 500 rubles. I sorted the compositions, and she collected them for me from all over the Internet and took pictures, rewrote store labels.

About a month after the launch of the new section on the blog, I had an assistant. He was my reader. She wanted to work for me for free, but I also paid her a symbolic sum from the first days, because I really respect the work of each of my employees. And now she has already continued to collect compositions instead of a student. Then another reader joined, with her we have already started looking for specialized specialists. The team’s first experts were an ecologist and a pharmacist. The ecologist now heads the expert department. And little by little, as the project grew, my audience and responsibility for the content, new people arrived. Then we started attracting more and more experts who understood compositions, sometimes even better than me. The team continues to grow.

The project is self-sufficient and was only created with the money that we ourselves earned, that is, all money comes exclusively from project income. There are no investors, which protects us from prejudice. For example, when we sell certain collections, we hire new employees and pay salaries to permanent specialists.

There was a lot of negativity from manufacturers. In general, companies are divided into three types. The former immediately run to fight with us, devalue the work of the team and mine. They try to prove that everything is not so bad, they sued me, there were all kinds of threats, even physical violence. But we have already been working under such pressure since the seventh year and, probably, we are already used to it. The second type, on the contrary, rejoices if at least one remedy has passed Ecoraznos®. They are proud that at least something has passed, they present it as a benefit of the product. And the third type, those who ask for advice, seek to change for the better, to improve their compositions.

There is a lot of negativity from bloggers advertising products that have not passed Ecoraznos®. In this regard, I am like a white crow, because such a community of bloggers practically does not exist for me. Many bloggers take everything for publicity, despite the queues. We have very different views on this. There have even been instances where they bought ads from various influencers in order to devalue me and say that the analytics are complete nonsense. Moreover, such advertisements are always sold and these are not isolated cases.

Yes, there have been attempts to pay for posts in the “Buy” format. But, as a rule, I immediately tell about it in the blog. It even makes me happy when they offer to pay, because it is the best content, which confirms for the thousandth time the honesty of our verifications and reviews.

And there was a pharmaceutical brand that tried for several months to buy analysis of the composition of three products by hook or by crook. We refused him, despite the fact that it was possible to make a small post about these vitamin preparations. But it is a matter of principle.

We have very ambitious projects! But we won’t reveal all the cards. I can only say that the project has already begun to work on creating a practical application when choosing cosmetics, dietary supplements and other products. We are also constantly striving to complete the platform with new sections in order to cover more and more areas of life.

Like I said, I’m going to expire and go on a two week retreat just after the whole platform launches, but until then we smile and plow! (Laughs.)

Yes, there were those who tried to copy the format, and there were many of them. There have been instances where people have simply taken my posts, passing them off as their own. And they didn’t even rewrite them! There were also those who simply borrowed the format. Moreover, these were both big millionaire bloggers and large-scale business ventures.

However, it is thanks to this that we try to work and move forward! We create new formats with original content and don’t stop to think about what’s copying us. Because of this, our project always stays ahead of everyone, and the copy is the best recognition.