Page 06 · Build plan
Build Plan 2-3 week launch · affiliate / authority model
Wirecutter-shape · no SKUs · ~£550-1,500 launch
Sign up to affiliate programs Day 1, buy ~£550-850 of products to actually test, recruit the freelance editorial trio per-page, publish 8-12 review pages in 2-3 weeks. Hybrid path: layer in own-brand on proven-converter funnels at Month 6-12.
The order of operations: (1) brand name + domain + Astro+CF scaffold (Day 1-3) · (2) sign up Amazon Associates + Awin + direct brand programs (Day 1-7) · (3) buy ~£550-850 of products for the first test batch (Day 1-7) · (4) recruit named UK RD + GP + coach for freelance per-page review (Day 7-14) · (5) test products on the 8-dimension rubric + publish 8-12 review pages with affiliate links (Day 14-21) · (6) launch with founder-led PR + Reddit AMA + Stacy-Sims-adjacent influencer seeding · (7) iterate. Launch capital £550-1,500 · live in 2-3 weeks · Y1 affiliate ~£35-75k base · Y2 ~£300-500k mature.
Phase 1 — Days 1-7 · Brand + affiliate signups + product buys
- Day 1-2: Pick brand name + register domain (~£15) + GitHub repo + Cloudflare Pages project + Astro scaffold (fleet standard)
- Day 1-3: Sign up to affiliate programs — all free:
- Amazon Associates UK (3-8% on supplements)
- Awin (single network = H&B + Boots + Wild Nutrition + Form + Innermost + Bulk + MyProtein + Vital Proteins, 5-15%)
- Direct: Ancient + Brave (10-15%), Trinny London, Pure Encapsulations, BetterYou, Solgar
- Backup network: Sovrn / VigLink
- Day 1-7: Buy Tier-1 product test batch ~£550-850 — 20-25 SKUs across 8 categories (creatine · magnesium glycinate · magnesium citrate · marine collagen · bovine collagen · perimenopause multivit · whey protein for women · plant protein). Full list at
iCloud/.../PRODUCT-LIST-TO-TEST.md. Buy via our own affiliate links → earn back ~£30-60 cashback.
- Day 3-7: Brand identity (AI-generated logo + Canva packaging variants, ~£0-200; fleet pattern)
- Day 5-7: Site shell live on dev domain — homepage placeholder + 6 life-stage hub stubs + 6 SKU-category hub stubs + /about/ + /research/ skeleton
Phase 2 — Days 7-14 · Editorial trio recruit + first content
- Day 7-10: Recruit the freelance editorial trio (job posts on AfN + BMS network + LinkedIn):
- UK Registered Nutritionist (AfN-registered, female, mid-40s) — £100-200/page
- UK menopause-specialist GP (BMS-affiliated, NOT Louise Newson) — £200-400/page
- UK Level-4 / BWF strength coach — £100-200/page
- Day 10-14: Test products on the 8-dimension rubric. Output: scored data table per SKU + photographs for review pages.
- Day 10-14: Draft first 8 review pages — AI-assisted using rubric data + EFSA-claim register + PubMed cites for benefits/risks. RD/GP review cycle.
- Day 12-14: Quiz built — 10-question flow + email gate + stack recommendation logic (routing to affiliate-linked SKU picks). Mailchimp or ConvertKit (free tier).
Phase 3 — Days 14-21 · Site live + publish
- Day 14-17: Publish 8-12 priority review pages — schema validated (Article + MedicalWebPage + Person reviewedBy + Product + Offer + Review + Rating)
- Day 14-17: Cloudflare AI Crawl Control (GPTBot/PerplexityBot/ClaudeBot allowed); llms.txt; sitemap; IndexNow; GSC + Bing Webmaster; Clarity
- Day 17-21: Public launch — site live, all affiliate links tested, all schema validated, all named-team /about/ pages live
- Day 17-21: Soft launch — friends & family + 2-3 micro-influencer seeds + Reddit AMAs on r/Menopause / r/xxfitness / r/PerimenopauseFitness
- Day 17-21: Email warmup; quiz promoted as lead magnet
Month 2-3 — Scale content, add lab data
- Ship 6-10 new pages/mo — recipe hub, decision-tree pages, deeper symptom + sub-segment angles
- Send 3-5 SKUs per category to LGC / Eurofins for heavy-metals batch test (~£300-500/quarter) → publish first quarterly report on
/research/heavy-metals-lab-report/q2-2026/
- Tier-2 product buys (£290-440) — stim-free pre-workout, ashwagandha, vit D3+K2, L-theanine, glycine, omega-3
- Commission first UK perimenopause survey (n=500, OnePoll, £3-5k) → publish Month 3-4
- CAP Copy Advice review of the live claims (£200-500)
Month 4-6 — Pregnancy + senior expansion
- Tier-3 product buys (£300-500) — prenatal, postnatal, hair/skin/nails, probiotics, greens
- Ship /pregnancy/ and /postnatal/ pillar (~12-15 pages)
- Begin /senior/ pillar (Month 6+)
- Decide on the first own-brand SKU — if any single bundle page converting hard, white-label "The Perimenopause Stack" via Nutramed (Month 6-8 production, ~£10-15k inventory)
Capital plan (~£550-2,200 over 6 months)
| Line | Cost | When |
|---|
| Domain + Astro + CF Pages | £15-50 | Day 1 |
| Brand identity (AI-gen + Canva) | £0-200 | Day 1-7 |
| Tier-1 product test batch (20-25 SKUs) | £550-850 | Day 1-7 |
| Tier-2 product test batch (13 SKUs) | £290-440 | Month 1-2 |
| First editorial trio review cycle (Y1) | £1,000-3,000 | Ongoing |
| First quarterly heavy-metals lab test | £300-500 | Month 2-3 |
| First UK perimenopause survey | £3,000-5,000 | Month 3-4 |
| CAP Copy Advice review | £200-500 | Month 2-3 |
| Tier-3 product batch | £300-500 | Month 3-4 |
| Email + analytics tools (annual) | £100-300 | Year 1 |
| Quarterly lab tests x3 more (Y1) | £900-1,500 | Q3+Q4 |
| DAY-1 (Phase 1 only) | £550-1,100 | ~Week 1-3 |
| YEAR 1 TOTAL | £6,650-12,890 | spread across 12 mo |
vs original DTC at £59-110k Day 1 + ongoing inventory/manufacturer/3PL. Affiliate = ~10× cheaper to launch · ~3× faster to revenue.
Hybrid path — when to add own-brand (Month 6-12)
Signal: if ONE bundle/stack page converts hard (e.g. /perimenopause/the-stack/ sends 50+/week clicking 3 affiliate links each), trigger white-label. Use Nutramed (~£5-10k inventory + £500 brand work). Capture ~60% margin on the highest-converting funnel; keep everything else affiliate. By Y2 maybe 1-3 own-brand SKUs covering proven funnels.
Risk register
| Risk | Likelihood | Mitigation |
|---|
| Wild Nutrition adds creatine + fitness angle | Medium | First-mover urgency — ship Day-1 within 21 days; trio Week 1; survey + lab Q1 |
| Louise Newson scales fitness/creatine content | Low-Medium | Counter-position fitness-led + named GP (not Louise) + heavy-metals lab |
| ASA CAP enforcement on perimenopause claims | Medium-High | CAP Copy Advice pre-clearance; per-page RD sign-off; EFSA discipline |
| Affiliate commission cuts | Medium | Diversified — Awin direct at 8-15%; Amazon <30% of revenue mix |
| First-mover window closes (12-18 mo) | High if delayed | Ship Day-1 within 21 days; quarterly lab + survey lock entity authority |
| RD/GP/coach not recruitable at budget | Medium | Per-page rates higher than typical; BMS + AfN pools deep |
| SEO doesn't materialise (Wild + Newson dominate AIO) | Medium | 10-signal trust matrix on every page; if Y1 month 6 not ranking ≥3 anchors, re-scope |
| Heavy-metals lab finds problems with recommended brands | Low-Medium | Publish results regardless; switch recommendations; failure-publishing IS the E-E-A-T moat |
6-month checkpoint (what tells us it's working)
- ✅ Page 1 (or top of AIO) on ≥3 wedge anchor terms (creatine for women · magnesium glycinate vs citrate · best supplements perimenopause · best collagen for women)
- ✅ AI citation share 25-40% on worried-buyer cluster (creatine side effects · magnesium glycinate side effects · dangers of creatine)
- ✅ 1,500-3,000 email subscribers (quiz-led)
- ✅ ~10k+ sessions/mo by month 6
- ✅ £1.5-5k affiliate revenue / mo by month 6
- ✅ First quarterly lab report picked up by ≥3 UK menopause/fitness/lifestyle outlets