13 Years of Blogging Later, a New Ben Parr(.com)

Reflections on a decade of blogging

Credit to Melly Lee for the incredible photo on my home page. Seriously, she’s a top-tier portrait/travel photographer. Go book her. Tell her I sent you.

BenParr.com has a new coat of paint. I want to explain why, and tell you a little about the future of Ben Parr (both the website and the human being)

I’ve been blogging/writing on BenParr.com since 2008. For those of you counting, that’s 13 years. My writing career is now a teenager.

Because I’m a glutton for punishment, here’s a list of things that didn’t exist when I first started blogging:

• The iPhone 3G (the first iPhone was in 2007, not to mention the iPad)
• Netflix (the streaming site — remember when Netflix did DVDs?! Oh yeah, and no Disney+ or Paramount+ or HBO Max or…)
• Slack or Discord (the things I have open almost all the time)
• Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, Pinterest… basically every social network not named Facebook or YouTube.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, Coinbase or ANY kind of Blockchain technology (Satoshi Nakamoto first published “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” in 2008)
• Uber or Lyft (Back then, I would regularly drive my truck from SF to LA so that I would have a car to use in LA.)
• Airbnb (Literally my housing for all of 2020, true story. I’m posting about 40(!) places we lived in during the pandemic on my Instagram.)

Thanks to a fire, bed bugs, and a global pandemic, Deborah and I ended up living in 40 places in 12 states in 18 months, from Nov 2019 to May 2021. Oh, and we had 3 cows! These were our “pets” when we lived in our first Vermont Airbnb in June 2020. Check them out on Instagram.

• Tinder, Hinge, or The League (the app where I met my partner-in-crime, Deborah)
• I mean, do you really want me to go on? Legal marijuana, gay marriage, self-driving cars, mRNA vaccines, Parks and Rec, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tesla, Kickstarter, Barack Obama or Donald Trump’s presidencies, Stripe, Wework, or Justin Bieber’s career (not to mention Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Adelé… did you know “Low” by Flo Rida was the #1 song of 2008? I feel old.)
• Oh, and Medium, the blogging/writing/media tool that now powers BenParr.com.

Speaking of perfect segues, I decided to switch my website to Medium for a few reasons. But only one really matters: I want to write more.

It’s no secret I have been writing far less since I became a founder. (I co-founded Octane AI, the zero-party data & quiz platform for Shopify, with Matt Schlicht and Leif K-Brooks in 2016. If you run an ecommerce brand and want to supercharge your ads, SMS or email marketing with data you own, go here to see how, then email me or DM me and the team and I will help get you started.)

Octane AI future-proofs ecommerce businesses from the major data privacy changes transforming ecommerce and advertising.

I don’t think any founder will be surprised I was writing less. Starting a company eats all your time, and it’s been… way too long since I was a full-time or even a part-time reporter.

It’s been a decade since I wrote for Mashable. A DECADE! I might faint.

To be clear — I haven’t stopped writing (see my recent articles in TechCrunch around how to collect zero-party data and e-commerce trends), but I love writing, and I want to write more. Medium is a joy to use for composing articles and I’ve already built an audience here on Medium. Easy decision.

So what should you expect from the new BenParr.com? A mix of tech and media commentary, advice for entrepreneurs and operators, thoughts about ecommerce, and personal posts about my life and a few choice projects. Far less frequent than my 2008–2014 writing heyday, but more frequent than my 2016–2021 writing desert.

Welcome back! What should I write about next?

Ben Parr: A Quirky Q&A

You might still have a few questions about the new BenParr.com, so I put together a quick Q&A (because I love Q&As, fun fact):

Q: What about the 400+ articles you published in the past on BenParr.com? Are those all gone?

A: Did…did you count up all the articles I published?! Why?!

Real answer: I’ve saved all of the past articles and I will be republishing a large but select group of these articles over time. (Side note: Medium’s import feature is GOLD.)

I am choosing articles that either have some relevance to our modern day or have historical or personal significance to me.

So don’t expect me to republish any articles like this one:

(Most of the old articles are memes or have broken videos, so you aren’t missing out on much.)

Q: Are you still doing public speaking / speaking engagements?

A: YES! I’ve been doing lots of virtual talks for the last two years (though I’ve delivering some in-person talks recently). You can go to either go my Speaker page on BenParr.com or chat with Worldwide Speakers Group to see some highlights / book me.

Q: I saw some people tweet incredible things about Octane AI! How do I try it out?

A: Go here to schedule a time with the team, or take our 2-minute quiz.

Q: I loved Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention! Are you ever going to write another book?

A: Glad you loved my book! Please tell all your friends and colleagues to buy Captivology, and then tell every conference they should book me as a speaker and buy copies of my book, and then tell a random stranger to buy my book.

I am (eventually) going to write my second book! I know what it will be about. It will be a while (I have a full-time-and-a-half job), but stay tuned.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: Beyond Octane AI 24/7? I spend some of my time advising or investing in startups and VC funds. Check out some of the amazing companies I advise, like Elanza Wellness (fertility coaching at scale) and World Chef (Masterclass meets Goldbelly).

If you want to pitch/partner with me, fill out my contact form.

I also have plans for a show (or a podcast) and 1–2 other secret projects, but I have learned not to try to do too much at one time.

Q: Do you still do influencer deals?

A: I do this more than you’d think. I do a good job. It’s super fun for me, but I only support things I use and love. (I still use my HP Thunderbolt & HP E273 monitors every day.) Contact me.

Q: Are you launching an NFT?

A: Uh, do you want me to launch one? Have an idea for one?

Q: Will you ever change BenParr.com in the future?

A: Life is constantly changing.

~ Ben

P.S. Is the term “blogging” out of fashion now? Do I sound old if I call it blogging? Can someone tell me?