Spent a lot of time watching new affiliates fail at the exact same step: they find a "trending" offer, build a page for it, then wonder why conversions are dead.

The order that actually works:

1. Pick the audience pain point first, not the offer. If you don't know the exact frustration your traffic has at 11pm, you can't write copy that lands.

2. Check EPC and refund rate before commission %. A 70% commission on an offer with a 40% refund rate pays you less than a 30% commission with a 5% refund rate. Most people never check this.

3. Cloak and track from day one. If you can't see which creative/channel drove the sale, you're flying blind by week 2 — you'll have no idea what to scale.

4. Automate the boring parts, not the creative parts. Email sequences and link tracking should run themselves. Your hooks and angles should still be human — that's the part that actually converts.

High-ticket affiliate income is a research + tracking game way more than a "post more content" game. Fix the order and the rest gets a lot easier.