5 New Tools on Stay22 for Travel Affiliates

Spark

One of our favorite things about Stay22 as an affiliate partner is that we can trust they're always working on new and inventive tech to help increase our affiliate earnings.

In mid-2024, Stay22 rolled out a new suite of tools known as Spark. You can read more about this one in their blog post for the full details, but, in short, Spark is an AI-link creator that Stay22 has shown boosts earnings by over 10%!

It works like this- Stay22's proprietary AI technology finds text on your site that may relate to a travel booking phrase, like “the Strip District neighborhood in Pittsburgh” or “where to stay in Cancun.” If you're not already linking to a booking landing page (which, let's be honest, you probably should be), the AI automatically adds an affiliate link to an appropriate landing page with an affiliate partner.

This is done across all articles, site-wide, and all in the background after adding their script on your site, and really can overhaul your affiliate linking through no extra effort of your own!

One of the reasons we really love this tool is that we, like most bloggers, can be quite passive when it comes to adding affiliate links in blog posts. I know from personal experience that unless I'm writing an article with overt booking references, I'm not likely to add an affiliate link in the copy. This presents a really large missed opportunity in the 2,000+ blog posts I have across my three travel-oriented sites.

With Spark, I don't even have to think about it anymore. The AI is pretty dialed in on what text should (or shouldn't) get linked, and to appropriate partners and landing pages, and now I can kick back and let the technology do the part I find cumbersome all in the background!

• Note: If you like to have more control over where your affiliate links are placed, Stay22 does let you opt-out of this product. Be sure to speak to your account rep if you have any concerns!

Script Generator

Some of the improvements going on at Stay22 have been to make the member hub a bit more user-friendly. One of the larger improvements made recently is for the Script Generator which incorporates many high-converting Stay22 products into your blog (like NOVA, which accounts for most of our bookings).

The process to generate a script before this change was, admittedly, a bit tech-forward and could have been confusing to some. But now the new format can create a script for your site in just a few clicks!

Here's all you have to do to make a new script:

• Head to the LMA Script Builder tab in Stay22's partner hub.
• Click the “+ Create a new script” button
• Choose a domain from your participating blog(s) in the drop down
• Add any URLs for deepStruct data if needed
• Click generate and install the code on your site!

This one is a larger improvement for script generation and much more user-friendly without any coding no-how needed.

The only caveat here is around deepStruct parameters, but Stay22 also has a handy guide on what to do there. This one is simply for all URLs that do not have a top-level domain for a partner (e.g. Booking.com) that you'd like to have the script recognize as possible links to be converted to Stay22.

So if you use a link cloaking tool like Pretty Links Pro and add an /affiliate/ note in your links, or use a 3rd party booking network that generates a non-conventional link structure, add these into the deepStruct section, if you want, to get them picked up by Stay22 to be passed through the network!

Map Button for Increased Engagement

Have you made a new map on Stay22 for live pricing in a destination lately? You may notice something new, as Stay22 maps now have a prominent “See Accommodations” call to action button at the top of the map!

This may be a simple change, we admit, it has had a dramatic impact in earnings. Stay22 published a new blog post with data showing that map booking conversion rates increased by 50% with this simple change and the optimized interface has resulted in a 4x increase in outbound clicks!

More clicks, more conversions, more money for creators. We'll call that a win-win.

So if you haven't revisited creating embeddable maps for your content recently, consider this your sign to test out the new layout!

Creator Calculator to Estimate Earnings

Have you not joined Stay22 yet and wonder what your earning potential could be with your travel blog? They recently released a Creator Calculator to estimate what your potential earnings could be based on your site traffic!

Simply head over to the calculator, select the travel-related industry you're a part of in the drop down (options include Travel Blogger, Dedicated Travel Media, Travel Adjacent Publishers (Weather), and City/Destination Guides), put in your monthly traffic in sessions, and check out the estimated revenue!

Now, we would be remiss if we did not point out that revenue estimates are a your-mileage-will-vary scenario. The calculator is based on historic earnings and traffic from a selection of existing partners, and after we posted this one in our Facebook group, we heard an array of responses.

Some bloggers, like Jeremy's wine blog and Chris' main travel blog, track with the Optimistic Estimate almost perfectly. Other sites, like Jeremy's local site for Pittsburgh and others who commented in the group, were below the Conservative Estimate. This is likely due to an array of scenarios like where your audience is located, where they're traveling to, average length of stay, and more.

Do you receive conversions in more expensive destinations with longer stays? You may trend higher. Do you receive bookings in less expensive regions and/or places with shorter stays? Your earnings may trend lower. This really is a case-by-case basis with a number of factors. Still, it is nice to see an estimate before signing up, even if it is just that- an estimate!

Widget Testing Program

Did you know that Stay22 has a beta testing program for new products for member sites?

Stay22 has many active opportunities in its Widget Testing Program to get participating bloggers to beta test new affiliate widgets on their site(s) before they go live. Participating sites (who must be existing Stay22 members, join here if you're not) will get to test new products, provide feedback, get to help shape the development of new projects before their full and public rollout, and make some extra affiliate revenue in the process!

More widgets are slated to launch as early as Q2 2025, making the program a great opportunity for those who want to get a peek behind the scenes and help improve affiliate product offerings on the backend. We've personally been members of Stay22 beta programs for several years now, and we love their openness to feedback as many recommendations have been taken into account for final launch!

So whether you're wanting to get a sneak preview of new widgets to come or want to shape the future of affiliate marketing projects with direct advice and feedback, share your interest to join Stay22's Widget Testing Program today!

We are looking forward to seeing more tools that Stay22 releases in the future, and will be sure to share some of the best in future articles.

Do you have a favorite tool in Stay22 that helps you earn more affiliate revenue? Comment below to share!