How Our Trending System Works

Transparency is the point of QA Affiliate — so here is exactly how a product earns the Trending or Viral tag.

1. Signal collection

Each refresh cycle we gather permitted signals for products in our affiliate sources (Amazon, AliExpress, Temu):

• Merchant popularity / bestseller indicators, where the merchant publishes them
• Rating and review-count momentum (growth vs. previous cycle)
• Discount and price movement
• Availability and affiliate-eligibility status
• External trend research: social attention, search interest, seasonal demand

2. Scoring

Candidate products are scored on momentum (not absolute size): a product is trending when its signals are rising faster than its category baseline. Viral is reserved for products with exceptional cross-signal spikes — social attention plus merchant momentum together.

3. Editorial review

No product is tagged automatically. An editor checks every candidate for: real merchant availability, a working affiliate link, accurate pricing, and fit with our audience — before it appears in any trending collection.

4. Publishing

Approved products get trend_status: "trending" or "viral" in data/products.json. Homepage modules, the Trending page and category pages render these collections automatically — no code changes.

5. Refresh & removal

Trending collections are reviewed on a rolling cycle (recommended: weekly; viral: as signals move). Products whose momentum fades, go out of stock, or lose affiliate eligibility are demoted or removed — manually if needed.

What we never do

• Never fabricate a trend, popularity claim or "viral" status.
• Never tag a product trending because a merchant paid for placement.
• Never present sample/demo data as real trend evidence.

The full operator runbook lives in docs/trending-workflow.md in the site repository.