2026 Q1 Check-In: Accountability on All My Sites

Hello, 2026! I can hardly believe how fast this year is going, but that’s time for ya – always slipping by, faster, and faster. Taking a quick look back though, I do feel pretty good about the year so far…

I’m back to kick off the first post in my quarterly accountability series for 2026. I’ve now been writing these check-ins for more than three years (you can see Q1, Q2, Q3 & Q4 of 2023; Q1, Q2, Q3 & Q4 of 2024; and Q1, Q2, Q3 & Q4 of 2025 if you want to look back), and I find it extremely helpful to do so. While I don’t know that anyone reads them, I hope these inspire you to set some goals for your site, and to check in on them regularly.

As of 2025, I’m using a modified stoplight system to assess my progress on each goal. In total, I have 13 areas of focus across 3 high-priority and 5 low-priority sites, and here’s how they’re doing:

• 🟢 (success/achieved) = 5/11 = 45%
• 🟡 (in progress) = 3/11 = 27%
• 🔴 (failure/so far) = 2/11 = 18%
• ⚫️ (abandoned) = 1/11 = 9%

Having five options feels a little bit too nuanced, but I like being able to share that I’m working on things that aren’t going well – I think it’s important to acknowledge that too, as part of these accountability reports. In any case, let’s dive into each site so you can understand more.

High Priority Sites

This section focuses on the four sites I’m currently focusing on the most; they’re the ones I have as ‘favorites’ in Asana and have at least a few articles (new or updates) scheduled in the coming months.

Valerie & Valise (October 2013)

My firstborn (oldest) site is still my favorite, even though it’s lost over 85% of its traffic in the last few years. Valerie & Valise is also still a pretty powerful income machine, and is part of what allows me to keep doing this… *gestures*

• 🟢 Focus on Facebook & Instagram – I’ve been doing pretty well at this, but could definitely be better at leveraging Instagram for growth. I’m planning to focus on this in Q2.
  
• 🟢 Ride or Die on Email – I’m still going strong with email, which is something I really enjoy; I wish it was more productive for my site, but for now, it’s still well worth doing and I plan to continue it.
  
• 🟡 Write What You Love; Love What You Write – It’s been hard to prioritize writing since nothing ever seems to rank or help my site grow, but I have been writing a few articles just for fun, which I think meets this criteria.
  

London On My Mind (January 2021)

While London On My Mind hasn’t been growing in the past year, I’m still going at it, and just published my five-year case study update in February. Here are the goals I set for the coming year:

• 🟢 Weekly Articles & Emails – For 2026, I set a goal to publish or update one new article a week, and I’m doing pretty well at that (8 articles in 13 weeks); I’ve also done well at emailing every week.
  
• 🔴 Instagram… Maybe? – This is a real opportunity, but I haven’t had the bandwidth to focus on it yet. By the next check-in… Maybe?
  

Eat Like Bourdain (June 2021)

Eat Like Bourdain is still my golden child, and I’m really proud of all that I’ve done with it. The site is approaching its five-year mark, and I’ll be setting some new goals before my next check-in, so here’s one last look at this year’s…

• 🟡 Write 5 Enthusiast Stories – As I alluded to last quarter, I’m talking to a book agent about a project for this site, and I’ve written one of the three samples she wants. So I’m counting that here, only because it’s progress and I really need to make some progress on this!!!
  
• ⚫️ Figure out Facebook – This did not work, and I have abandoned this goal.

Alaskan Cruisers (January 2025)

After not really focusing on this site for the first year of its existence, I’m now changing that. I set a goal to publish or migrate 24 articles on Alaskan Cruisers this year – so two a month. I also published my first case study update, where I set a few goals:

• 🟢 Posting 2-3x per Month – So far, so good! I’ve got a plan for the next few months, and I just need to stick to it! I’ve also been coming up with some new content ideas too, which has been fun.
  
• 🟡 Lean into Social Media – I’ve tried to get better about remembering to create pins and schedule my posts to my various social media sites, but there’s definitely room for improvement.
  
• 🟢 Build out an Email List – I now have about 120 subscribers and am emailing every two weeks! That’s a cadence I’d like to keep up going forward; I need to build my welcome sequence too, which ties in to…
  
• 🔴 Roll out Travel Advisor Services – This is something that will take me a few days of building landing pages and my automation welcome sequence, but I need to get it done by the fall at the latest.
  

Low Priority Sites

In this section, I cover sites I’m not focusing on much; most of them don’t have many goals, and I

Space Tourism Guide (November 2017)

Space Tourism Guide crossed its eight-year mark in November, and I wrote a recap to mark the milestone. I did not, however, set any new goals for the coming year. This site has lost 97% of its traffic, and – this breaks my heart to say it – it’s just not worth my time or energy to focus on, beyond the bare minimum of updating timely annual articles.

Jordan Traveler (May 2021)

As you might expect, given the war in Iran, my Jordan Traveler site has basically died since late February, and tourism is virtually nil in Jordan. I was not planning to focus on this site this year anyway – it’s kind of on autopilot –, but it’s still a bummer to keep taking hits when the site is already down.

D&D Community (April 2023)

After failing at my 2025 goal to write 12 articles, I have not set any new goals for D&D Community this year either; I really should focus on my social media community at least, since I have a good opportunity there… but again, it’s just not my main area of focus at this point.

Global Tiki Tour (February 2024)

I didn’t set any new goals for Global Tiki Tour after meeting my goal to publish 12 articles last year. I like having this site and working on it occasionally, and I have a content strategy set up, but I don’t really have any plan to focus on it for the foreseeable future.

Sites I’ve Shut Down

As we wrap up 2025, I’ll mention one last time that I shut down several sites this year:

• Discover Sausalito (January 2020)
• Follow the Butterflies (April 2020)
• Soup Whoop (April 2021)
• Great Plains Travel Guide (March 2021)

I don’t have much to add other than including this section for posterity, and to reference all the sites I’ve shut down – including those I don’t really mention anymore, like True Crime Podcasts and Visit Ni’ihau. I did write a post about making the decision to shut these sites own, if you’re curious about my thought process.

And that’s a wrap on the first quarter of 2026. Have any questions about my various quarterly goals? I’m happy to answer in the comments below!