Everything Everywhere is one of Time’s Best Blogs of 2010

If you haven’t heard already, my little travel blog was named as one of the 25 best blogs in the world by Time today. This is far and away the most flattering thing which has ever happened to me since I started this site. I’m listed along side other mega sites like Engadget, PostSecrets, Zen Habits and Roger Ebert.

Today has been totally crazy with people emailing me and sending me Tweets of congratulations. I think it may also open up a bunch of other doors for me, but I won’t know about that until later.

I will confess that I had a sneaking suspicion that this might happen. I was contacted by the writer Steven Snyder last week via Twitter about coming into to their offices on Wednesday when I was in New York for TBEX. In the end, he didn’t need me to come and and just said something cryptic like “Wait until Monday. You’ll be very pleased.”

I assumed they were going to give me a brief mention in an article about travel or something, but I found it odd because every time I’ve been mentioned in the press, someone usually talks to me. Also, upon a bit of digging, I realized that Steve was a tech writer, not someone who would usually write a story about travel.

I sort of forgot about it for two days, figuring that I’d have some sort of mention in Time, but it wasn’t anything to get to worked up about. Then for some reason, out of the blue, I remembered seeing a top 25 list of blogs they did last year. A little bit of digging and I discovered they did it in 2008 too, and the the 2009 list came out in February of last year. The 2010 list hadn’t come out yet….

His cryptic comment made sense in this context. A tech writer would certainly write an article about blogs and it was about time for them to release the list. I figured there was about a 75% chance I was going to be on the 2010 list of best blogs.

75% isn’t 100%, however. When I figured out what it probably was I wanted to piss my pants I was so excited, but I couldn’t really tell anyone. It wasn’t that it was a secret or that I was asked to keep it quiet so much as I didn’t want to look like a total fool if it wasn’t true. I mentioned it discretely to a few people at TBEX, trying very hard to stress the “I don’t know if this will really happen” part.

I had to get up at 4am today to catch my flight back to Wisconsin. I woke up at 3am, rolled over in my bed and grabbed the laptop to check Time.com. Sure enough, there on the front page was the link for the 25 Best Blogs of 2010. Needless to say, I didn’t get back to sleep. The first person I told was Jen Leo, my co-host on This Week In Travel, who was up in London.

Obviously, I’m very happy about this for several reasons:

  • As a blogger, especially in an industry with such established, traditional media as travel writing, it is difficult to get any respect for what you do. In the three years Time has been doing this list, I’m the first and only travel blog to be mentioned. I hope this gives some respectability and legitimacy to the entire field. I hope I am not the last travel blog to be so honored.
  • After spending three and a half years tramping around the world by myself in shitty hostels and guesthouses, it is nice to be acknowledged for what you do.
  • The internet is about disintermediation and removing gatekeepers. Nonetheless, we still exist in a world where the opinions of some institutions hold more sway than others. This is sort of a “seal of approval” which can help me professionally, especially with people who have no clue what blogs or social media are about.

I don’t know if anything like this will ever happen to me again. This might be my 15 seconds of fame. If so, I’m certainly going to enjoy for the brief time it is has everyone’s attention.

51 thoughts on “Everything Everywhere is one of Time’s Best Blogs of 2010”

  1. Congratulations Gary! This award is very much well deserved as your blog is extremely interesting.

  2. YAY, Gary!! congratulations! i love your blog – SO glad that you’re in this incredible list. BRAVO!!

  3. Sweet!!! That is HUGE Gary! Congrats. Loved your talk at TBEX. Thanks for bridging the gap (and minding it, as well). :)
    LL

  4. Hello Gary,
    It’s really significative for those of us that just start in the blogging world to see how rewarding this hard work can be. Thank you for being an example of success. Keep on working!

  5. Congrats that is so exciting. I get excited if I get a twitter mention, couldn’t imagine Time…wow!

  6. Here in the Uk T-mobile and Orange have just joined to become everythingeverywhere.com, and the country’s largest mobile network. You’re currently above them in a google search. Well done for that!

  7. Wow Gary that is so awesome! It’s been wonderful to follow your journey for the past 3 years (and going) and you deserve all the recognition you’ve received and more. I send everyone I know to your site when the topic of travel comes up… keep up the excellent work. <3

  8. Congrats Gary! Your speech at #TBEX was prophetic wasn’t it? You are the Ron Jeremy of Travel Porn!

  9. Congrats Gary! You’re an inspiration to the rest of us bloggers and it’s great to see your hard work being rewarded. You deserve it!

  10. Congratulations, Gary! That is SO exciting! You totally deserve it. BTW, I’m very sorry I didn’t have an opportunity to meet you in person at TBEX. Loved your talk.

  11. Very awesome! Congratulations. I definitely think this will open more doors for yourself and travel bloggers everywhere.

  12. Congratulations Gary! Your hard work is paying off well. Very exciting for you, and the travel community as a whole.

  13. Gary, huge congratulations for this accomplishment. You’ve lent credibility to the entire travel blogging community. Loved your Travel Porn presentation at TBEX10. Three reasons I love your work:
    1. You prove once & for all that you don’t have to be a professional journalist to be a successful travel writer/blogger. Have a passion for what you do, and the ability to capture and sell the story – you succeed on all counts. (The condescension in the room at TBEX09 between journalists vs. bloggers was palpable.)
    2. I love your style because you tell your story through contextual photos, and not long Hemmingway
    narratives.
    3. You’ve proven to me that it’s okay to break the domain rule and have a hyphen in your URL name

    Congrats again on this huge accolade!
    Mary Ann
    @enchantedtravel
    http://www.enchanted-traveler.com

    • I actually had no choice with my domain name. Someone else had the non-hyphenated name and I wasn’t willing to spend a lot of money to buy it.

  14. Gary, you deserve this!!!
    While we were traveling together in Spain in May, I had the privilege of seeing first-hand how hard Gary works (Ant Stone, the “3am” comment is just one indication of Gary’s dedication) and teachers like me love real-life examples (like this!) of the adage: “Hard work pays off!”

  15. Congrats Gary!!!! Very well deserved. I Love your content and your “way of life”. I have a well dosis of “good” envy…
    Best regards,
    ML

  16. Wow!! Wonderful achievement. Especially the fact that you are the only and the first travel blog to be mentioned…..

  17. Congratulations, Gary for the well deserved recognition. By the way, your presentation at TBEX was the best of the conference. I like practical, usable information that I can immediately put into action.

  18. Congratulations Gary. This is truly an amazing accomplishment. Well done.

    You are indeed paving the road for future travel blog recognitions. Thank you for that!

  19. This is so incredibly amazing. You are (and have been) trailblazing for the industry. I wish many bounteous returns on you from this exposure. Live it up!

  20. Congratulations! You already are an inspiration to many travel bloggers, starting with me. And I’m not even speaking about your photos yet!

    Getting recognition in the Internet world is not easy and you can be proud of yourself for accomplishing that.

  21. I’m a bit worried about the line:

    I woke up at 3am, rolled over in my bed and grabbed the laptop to check Time.com.

    .

    I didn’t know you were that attached to the job!

    Humour aside, a hearty congratulations for the accolade, and thanks for raising continuing to raise the profile of our growing niche. Writers. Bloggers. Who cares, we’re all travellers.

  22. Hi Gary,

    Congrats on this achievement ! Awesome and you will be an inspiration to many bloggers in travel and photography out there !

    The reasons you wrote there, I concur and agree with you wholeheartedly, traditional media versus social media and internet world today.

    Looking forward to reading more of your wonderful posts !

    JH
    http://www.photojournalist-tgh.tv

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