Hi, I'm Ben Robertson.

Independent software developer and entrepreneur based in Travelers Rest, SC.

In 2023, I built ColorBliss to see if AI could make coloring pages for my kids—and I've been working on it ever since. I share updates on my Build in Public page.

Notes →

Recent thoughts, observations, and things I'm working on.

What is a jottle?

According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language: To busy oneself with trifles, to accomplish little although appearing to be industrious…

2 Days Ago

One thousand miles on the Radio Flyer

1 Week Ago

How many backlinks does it take to rank a coloring pages site in Google?

When the .ing TLD was first released, I bought a fun domain: ColorAnyth.ing. At first I redirected it all to ColorBliss, but sometime last…

3 Weeks Ago

Rest in peace, Bobby Weir

I'm heartbroken over the loss of Bobby Weir over the weekend. His music has been a part of my life ever since I was 16 or 17. I'm not sure…

3 Weeks Ago

What to aim for after enough

I'm realizing that I'm struggling a bit know what to do and focus on work-wise going into this new year. About…

4 Weeks Ago

Invest in experiments and systems.

When I think about what to spend time on for my business, I try to think in terms of making an investment…

1 Month Ago

View all notes →

Links →

Short snippets of things I want to share or save for later.

Awakening to — And Escaping From — Total Work Through Non-Doing The Appropriate Amount of Effort is Zero I appeared on the Made to Matter podcast ColorBliss featured in the new AI Empires newsletter Well Lord Liftin Jesus I have found it Dev.to: The Sneaky Total Blocking Time Issue That PageSpeed Insights Didn’t Catch

Jottles →

Quick thoughts and updates. What's a jottle?

Conversions slowed way down for ColorBliss in January. It's been a little concerning for me, but December was a really great month so I've been trying to roll with the punches.

But I have a new theory as to why... While I was working on some new email sequences this afternoon, I discovered that no-one has received my onboarding emails for all of January. Not a single one! 🤦 It turns out I missed at least one critical piece of configuration when I migrated the ColorBliss dashboard to a subdomain last month--the webhooks for adding people to the email list. Turned it back on this afternoon, so it should be interesting to see how February starts trending. But man is it frustrating to find things mistakes like this. Especially when the only person to blame is...me

Today

Last week I added consistent characters to ColorBliss.

Here is me and Ash Ketchum racing to the pond on our bikes.