Methodology
How Afftera researches
Afftera Picks is run like an engineering project: claims need evidence, evidence needs dates, and the things we have not verified are stated plainly.
What we verify today
The merchant's real terms
We read the controlling affiliate and sales terms in their original language, not summaries. If terms pages are broken or empty, we treat that as unresolved, never as a green light.
Company identity
We confirm the legal entity behind a brand (registered name, imprint, jurisdiction) before we send anyone there.
Live catalog and price bands
Lineups and price bands come from the merchant's own catalog on a stated research date. We publish bands with dates, not live prices that go stale.
Market context
Traffic and demand signals come from third-party research tools and are labeled with their source and period.
What we have not done yet
Hands-on lab testing has not started. Current content is research-based: terms, catalogs, company records and market data. When hands-on testing begins, those sections will be explicitly labeled as hands-on, with the test protocol published. We will not imply physical testing that did not happen.
House rules
- We never sell verdicts. Merchants cannot pay for placement or scores.
- No scraped star ratings. If marketplace data ever appears here, it will come from official APIs and be labeled.
- No live price or availability claims. Price bands are dated editorial context.
- Every affiliate link is marked rel="sponsored" and points directly at the merchant. No cloaking.
- Claims carry evidence; unverified statements are labeled as such.
- Corrections are made fast and dated on the page.
Conflicts of interest
We earn affiliate commissions when readers buy through our links; that is how this property is funded. The mitigation is structural: research happens before monetization, disclosure sits on every page with affiliate links, and the only products listed are ones that passed screening we would route our own budget to. Details in the affiliate disclosure.