Part 3: Affiliate Income Growth with Stay22 on Under Northern Skies (Months 7-11)

Part 3 of affiliate journey progress by Alice Smith of  UnderNorthernSkies.com

Back in April 2025, my second blog, Under Northern Skies, quietly turned 1 year old. To celebrate, I shared part two of this case study, documenting how the site was growing and earning with the help of Stay22.

Well, it’s now been almost a full year since we first integrated Stay22 into our site, and the results over that time have been really exciting. While it’s still very much a baby by blogging standards, I’m so happy with the progress it’s making.

Now, I’m sharing the next 5 months of growth and, spoiler alert: we’ve hit some of our biggest months to date!

If you’re a newer blogger or just dipping your toes into affiliate income, this shows how even a relatively small site can start building meaningful income streams with the right strategy.

Recap: The First 6 Months with Stay22

In case you missed the earlier parts of this series, here’s where we left off at the 6-month mark (March 2025):

• 63 blog posts live, all optimised for conversions
• 12,284 sessions in total across Q2 (Jan–Mar)
• 16,580 pageviews in the same period
• 54 bookings generated through Stay22
• $768 total in affiliate commission, nearly tripling the first 3 months
  
  

It was clear then that Stay22 was a fantastic fit for Under Northern Skies. However, we’d heard stories of blogs growing quickly at the start but then teetering off as they got bigger. 

So, our biggest question was: could the growth keep going?

Growth Results: April to August 2025

The short answer: yes, it could! The blog has continued to scale over the last six months, both in traffic and in affiliate earnings. 

We’ve seen steady increases month over month, and July and June in particular turned out to be our highest-earning months yet.

Here’s how Under Northern Skies performed in months 7–11 with Stay22:

• Blog posts grew from 63 to 81, and we published 18 new articles. This summer was a particularly busy period for us, and we were away a lot, so this number isn’t as high as we’d have liked, but still positive growth, nonetheless!
  
  
• Total sessions: 36,036 (now averaging around 8,000 per month)
  
  
• Total pageviews: 52,270
  
  
• 172 bookings in total over 5 months. Not bad at all, especially when you consider some individual months were already hitting over 40 bookings, and we averaged just 54 bookings per quarter previously.
  
  
• Affiliate commission: $2,721 in total from April to August. Our top months were July ($678) and June ($571)

Side-by-Side Comparison: Months 1–6 vs. Months 7–11

Note: The “First 6 Months” column combines the data from Part 1 + Part 2.

What really stands out to us here is that, while traffic growth has been fairly steady, affiliate income seems to have scaled faster - proof that Stay22 continues to be one of the most reliable income streams on the site.

What I’ve noticed around Stay22’s conversions

So, why is Stay22 continuing to perform so well compared to other affiliate programs?

• User-first personalisation is so important. Readers get redirected to the booking platform they know and trust - whether that’s Booking.com, Expedia, or Hotels.com. We still think this feature has been one of the key factors affecting our growth. 
  
  
• Seasonality is definitely at play here. We kind of predicted this! Summer is peak travel season, and that showed clearly in the data. June and July were the highest-earning months so far, with over 40 bookings each. But, I’m hoping for another peak later in the year, around winter travel content.
  
  
• I’ve kept a close eye on Stay22’s backend analytics. Some of the less-visited articles have been driving high-value bookings, so doubling down on those niches has been worthwhile.

Lessons & Takeaways (Months 7–11)

Looking back at this period, here’s what I’ve learned from this journey:

#1. Optimise for affiliates as soon as possible. 

One of the biggest mistakes I made with my first travel blog was that I didn’t write affiliate links into my content.

Obviously, you want to sound authentic and don’t want your site to come across like a huge sales page. But, I assume you’re writing about places you’ve already been, so if you stay somewhere cool, mention it. If you went on a tour, link it. It really is that simple!

There are so many opportunities, especially in travel, to earn affiliate commission, and it really pays off to do this at the start. 

Otherwise, you’ll end up having to do what I did and go back into over 250 posts 4 years down the line and optimise them all. Trust me, that is not fun!

#2. Traffic ≠ income

Some of our best-converting posts aren’t the highest traffic ones. Analytics has been essential for spotting these gems. 

In fact, a few articles that only get a few hundred views a month end up bringing in multiple bookings, while some of our biggest traffic drivers convert way less. This has been a huge reminder that the quality of traffic often matters more than quantity.

By digging into Stay22’s backend data and Google Analytics, I’ve been able to identify which posts attract readers with the highest booking intent. These tend to be very targeted guides or specific reviews, where, even though they don’t pull in massive numbers, the people who land on them are usually ready to book.

So, don’t just chase pageviews. A smaller, highly motivated audience can be far more valuable than a big wave of casual readers.

#3. Stay22 outperforms other affiliates

Even with our increased traffic, some of our other affiliate programs are still barely pulling in $50 per month. Stay22 consistently pulls in over 10x this. 

Of course, we do have a few other high-performing affiliate programs. Our second-highest earner brought in a total of $1,748 between April and August. That’s a solid amount, but still almost $1,000 less than what Stay22 generated in the same period.

I’ll always recommend diversifying your income streams and not putting all your eggs in one basket (if recent Google updates have taught us bloggers anything, it’s this!). However, there’s no question that Stay22 has become a core revenue stream for Under Northern Skies.

And what’s particularly exciting is that Stay22 continues to grow in proportion to our traffic, whereas some of the other programs tend to plateau or only spike occasionally. This consistency makes it much easier to forecast income and build a strategy around it.

What’s Next?

Our traffic is now averaging around 8,000 monthly sessions. The site is still a long way from the 50,000 sessions needed for a premium ad network, but the affiliate growth shows what’s possible even with modest traffic.

It’s crazy to think that, in our first 3 months with Stay22, we only made $257, whereas in July alone we brought in over $650! The growth trajectory is really exciting, and we can’t wait to see where it goes as we scale our traffic further.

Over the next few months, I’ll be focusing on:

• Expanding into more autumn and winter travel content
• Writing up all the guides from our recent travels over the summer
• Pushing monthly sessions beyond 10K - this is our next traffic goal, and we’re hoping to hit it before the end of the year

We’re also exploring new content formats and recently launched a YouTube channel, which we’re really excited about. 

By turning blog content into videos, we hope to reach a wider audience and strengthen trust with our readers. Not only does this provide more value to our audience, but it also opens up another channel for affiliate conversions. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, we’re extremely pleased with how this case study has gone. 

By the end of August 2025, Under Northern Skies had earned a total of over $3,600 in affiliate income just through Stay22. My first blog hadn’t even come close to this figure within its first 2 years!

It just goes to show that with the right tools and consistent effort, even a “baby blog” can start making real money within its first year.