Part 2: Affiliate Income Growth with Stay22 on Under Northern Skies (Months 4-6)

Part 2 of affiliate journey progress by Alice Smith of UnderNorthernSkies.com

At the beginning of this year (2024), I published the first part of this case study, documenting my journey with Stay22 on a brand new site. 

UnderNorthernSkies.com is my second travel blog and it’s just hit the 1 year mark in April 2025 - so it’s still a baby by blogging standards. But, I’m really pleased with the progress it’s made and the income it’s generating since adopting Stay22. 

I was very impressed by the results in the first three months, and now that another quarter has passed, things are looking even more exciting.

If you’re a newer blogger, or someone still exploring affiliate income opportunities, I hope this series offers a helpful real-world example of how even a relatively young site can start generating income with the right strategy.

Recap: The First 3 Months with Stay22

So, first things first, let's go over the first 3 months since adopting Stay22. 

Stay22 went live on Under Northern Skies at the end of September 2024. Within just three months, the blog saw impressive improvements both in traffic and affiliate earnings.

By the end of December 2024:

• The site had 47 blog posts, all optimised for affiliate conversions.

• The monthly sessions were hovering around the 2,400 mark, with 8,900 page views across the 3 months.

• Bookings jumped from 5 total (pre-Stay22) to 24 in just three months

• Affiliate commission in the entire quarter was $257.

It was clear early on that Stay22 was a fantastic fit for the site. But as we moved into the new year, I was curious to see just how far this momentum would continue, especially since January is usually the peak booking season for travellers.

Growth Results: January to March 2025

The results speak for themselves! The site has continued to grow over the last 3 months both in terms of traffic and affiliate income generated through Stay22. 

We’ve celebrated our highest earning month to date and had some pretty huge bookings too - if you’ve ever had those $100+ commission bookings, you know this feeling!

So, here’s how Under Northern Skies performed in Months 4 to 6 with Stay22:

• Posts grew from 47 to 63. That’s 16 new blog posts added over the last three months, each optimized for affiliate conversions.

• Sessions increased to 4,300 per month, with a total of 12,284 for the quarter.

• Pageviews climbed to 5,800 per month, with a total of 16,580 for the quarter.

• We had 54 booking in total, more than double the previous period.

• The total affiliate commission increased from $257 to $768. This is a nearly 200% increase in earnings compared to the previous quarter.

Side-By-Side Comparison

As you can see, the growth in traffic almost definitely correlates to the increase in affiliate conversions. Nevertheless, the site still doesn’t get a huge amount of traffic. 

For reference, the amount of sessions you need to get into a top tier ad network is usually around 50,000, which makes out little 5K seem tiny! 

But, it’s scalable and that the key thing here. 

If we can make $768 with less that 5,000 sessions per month, imagine what we could make with 10K sessions, with 25K sessions, or even with 50K!

Plus, I love how Stay22 is helping Under Northern Skies monetize in as the site is still building its audience. Hopefully, if our audience likes our recommendations, they’ll come back and trust us again in the future.

Why Stay22 Continues to Perform

Stay22 continues to deliver amazing results compared to other affiliate programs we use. Some of out other programs barely convert $30 per month. In comparison, Stay22 is consistently generating income. 

There are a few reasons why I believe Stay22 converts so well onUnder Northern Skies:

• User-First Personalization

Stay22’s intelligent redirection means each reader is served a booking platform they’re already familiar with, whether that’s Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, or others. 

This creates a smoother experience, which naturally leads to higher conversion rates and I believe this is one of the main reasons for our increase in booking. If you’re regularly served with a platform you never use, of course you aren’t likely to book through it. 

This is one of the features I love most about Stay22.

• Optimized Content Growth

I’ve continued to write posts with affiliate conversions in mind, always placing the reader's needs first and providing clear recommendations based on our own experience.

We never recommend something we haven’t either done ourselves or had a very good recommendation from a friend. 

• Peak Planning Season

This almost definitely had an impact on the number of bookings. A lot of people book travel in January, after the Christmas festivities are over, people’s minds tend to jump to summer. However, this wasn’t as big a jump as I expected. 

In January, we had 18 bookings generating $248. In February, we had just 13 bookings generating $207; and in March this jumped to 23 bookings and a total of $312 in commission.

February dipping slightly was expected as it’s a shorter month and the holiday hype in Jan is over. But, March was our biggest month to date which did surprise me as I was expecting January to take the lead. 

However, we may end up seeing this upward trajectory continue throughout summer as people book more last minute trips and want to start enjoying the great outdoors.

It’s also worth mentioning that December is typically one of the quietest months for travel bookings. With January being a peak holiday planning time, I’m hopeful that next month’s results will be even more impressive.

Lessons & Takeaways

Six months in, I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made with the blog and how things are looking from an income perspective. 

However, I’ve also learned a lot since starting this experiment. Here are a few of our key takeaways from this quarter:

• Consistent content publishing is key - the more helpful content you create, the more opportunities you generate for clicks and conversions.

• Seasonality is so important, especially in the travel space. A lot of the content on our site focuses on winter travel, so we’ve seen a slight plateau in traffic growth as we’re moving towards summer.

• Focus on content clusters - writing around a certain topic will give your readers so much more info than writing one post on a destination then bouncing to another.

• Don’t sleep on your analytics. We regularly check out data in the backend of Stay22 to see whic posts and generating the most bookings. While some of our highest traffic posts do convert well, we also have some less visited articles that generate a fair bit too. So, I recommend doubling down on what works. 

Looking Ahead

With summer trip planning just around the corner, I’m feeling optimistic about what the next few months will bring. 

We’re working out a plan to tackle the traffic plateau that will hopefully help us get back on track with growth. We’re also hopeful that bookings will continue well into the summer. 

I’ll carry on documenting this journey for you over the coming quarter, not only to track the site’s growth but also to share strategies that other bloggers can apply to their own websites.

If you’ve doubtful whether it’s possible to start earning with a newer blog, this case study shows it absolutely is, especially with smart tools like Stay22. 

My first blog, Adventures of Alice, hadn’t earned anything at all by the time it was a year old, so the fact that Under Northern Skies has brought in over $1000 from just one affiliate platform is really exciting. 

Stay tuned for the next update, and thanks for following along on the journey!