The Cake That Took Six Months to Bake
Image by Vidiot
It all started with a baker’s dozen, 13 articles on Experience Design. Nearly six months later, the Maximum Customer Experience Blog blows out the 100th candle, and slowly but surely gathers a loyal band of readers, from business owners, to entrepreneurs, to writers, designers, and friends, and the category we all fall into: Customers, discussing Experience together.
I took my time with it, and I hope that’s worked for you. Thanks, dear reader, for taking a few minutes from your busy day to read, comment, and share the MCE Blog. Without you, it’s just a journal.
It’s My Party, So…
A round-up at a blog birthday is about as traditional as thanking your Mom and Dad at the Oscars, and I love a good tradition. Without further ado:
Top 7 Most Viewed Posts
1. Tip of the Week: Be Transparent, or, (One More Reason) Why I Heart Jeff Bezos
2. What’s Hot Now: 39 Inspirations With Sticking Power
3. 7 Secrets of McDonald’s Customer Experience
4. Leonardo DiCaprio Sent Me a Letter Today
5. Repeat After Me: I Do Not Need a Logo
6. Why TypePad Doesn’t Want Your Comments
7. Experience Design 101 (This is the one that started it all, folks, so if you feel like starting from the beginning, enjoy.)
Top 7 Search Terms
1. McDonald’s 90 second guarantee (*sigh* Not what one hopes to be known for)
2. Customer pain points
3. Kelly Erickson (People find me that way? They must be trying pretty hard)
4. Restaurant
5. McDonald’s secrets (I’m sensing a theme here)
6. Target Experience Design
7. Internal stakeholders
7 Strangest Search Terms, aka, The Long Tail at work
1. “i like to look at things upside down” (You, too?)
2. .typepad martinis (I’m sure this had to be a disappointment)
3. babes (Thank you)
4. cheese customer experience blog (Cheesy, sometimes…)
5. Manage Customer Experience Kelly (Yup)
6. Kelly Erickson Dallas (Nope)
7. Kelly Erickson sugar (Wrong again)
Kelly’s 7 Favorite Posts
1. When Is Experience: New York All You’d Expect From Paris?
2. Plain-English: “Pain Points” in Experience Design
3. Inspiration Points: Unapproachably Great
5. Tip of the Week: What Would a Kid Say?
6. Key Concepts in Experience Design
7. The Web Is a Great Big Yellow Pages and Five Other Tech Truths Your Customers Won’t Tell You
7 Things Your Small Business Needs for Maximum Customer Experience
1. Vision
2. Direction
4. Emphasis on the Details
5. Friends & Family
6. Propheteers
7. Innovation
& Integrated Experience Design!
Keep coming back, folks. As Lou Reed sings, it’s the Beginning of a Great Adventure. Glad you’re here.
And thanks, Mom and Dad.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
The Biggest P.S. in Blogging History:
7 13 All the Bloggers Who Rock This Customer’s Experience Every Time
(and a link to the one article you must not miss from each)
Amy, Write From Home
Brett, 6 Weeks
Brian, Copyblogger (without whom you might not be reading this)
Caroline, Caroline Middlebrook
Charlie, Trust Matters
Crystal, Big Bright Bulb
Darren, ProBlogger
David, Change Order
Harry, Men With Pens
Jacob, Just Creative Design
James, Men With Pens
Mark, Unconventional Thinking Blog
Mike, Simplenomics
Naomi, IttyBiz
Paul, Idea Sandbox
Scott, HELLO, My Name Is BLOG
Seth, Seth Godin’s Blog
Tim, Planning Startups Stories
For inspiring me, for challenging me, for your breathtaking insights, and most of all, for your humor. Thank you guys.
Looking for just the right thing for MCE’s birthday? Comment today, comment often, and subscribe to the Maximum Customer Experience Blog. The gift of your comments is precious to me.
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18 April 2008, 9:11 am
Kelly,
Happy 100th Birthday, and thank you for including my name on the “invite list”.
It has been a true pleasure getting to know you over the last few months. Each and every time I come to visit you here, I leave with a smile.
Thank you for that, and keep on doing what you do.
Have a wonderful day,
Brett
18 April 2008, 2:23 pm
Happy 100th Kelly!
I’m new around here, and it looks like I have a lot of archives to get through to catch up. Thoroughly enjoying it though!
18 April 2008, 2:38 pm
Well, this might be the most important post I’ve ever read in my one month history! Talk about a gold mine of information!
WOW WOW WOW!!!!!
Thanks for doing my homework Pen Girl Partner!
Looks like I have some reading to do!
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you….
18 April 2008, 3:10 pm
Brett,
Where have I been today? Thanks so much for having a sip of your coffee here this morning. You always add to my perspective on any topic, and your writing is top-notch. It’s a pleasure to include you so others can make your acquaintance.
It’s just a baby birthday, in terms of blogs, but I saw it coming up and I couldn’t resist. I was as excited as a puppy when I finally hit publish on this—better than my real birthday!
Nicole,
Mi casa es su casa. Please read, comment, and enjoy! Thanks for joining the conversation!
Wendi,
I was once told I could be an honorary Man With Pen, except for the gender thing, not being a Man. I’m not giving up on being a lady anytime soon, not for all the steel-barreled Pens in Las Vegas, so I’ll be an occasional moll when the sidecar’s on Harry’s bike. Hehehe.
Since I began MCE with a baker’s dozen, I was going to do this all in 13s. The editor in me said it would have been darned long, but what really stopped me was that Harry and James own 13 (.2) now, and I felt too derivative.
So the Men With Pens kept this list (somewhat) sensibly short, and full of lucky sevens. Hope you find just the right gold nuggets!
Regards,
Kelly
18 April 2008, 3:10 pm
Kelly, congratulations, well earned, and thanks for listing me, it made my day.
Tim
18 April 2008, 3:14 pm
Tim,
Your post is one of the first things I open in my inbox. I really look forward to it, and I never come away without ideas that stick with me for hours. Thanks for stopping by!
Regards,
Kelly
18 April 2008, 7:37 pm
Happy Birthday!
You’ve got so many great posts out there, I need to steal an afternoon and try to catch up. That’s what I get for being late to the party
And thank you so very much for the gift: your list of Rocking Bloggers is likely the only time I will find myself next to—let alone ABOVE—Darren Rowse in a list of bloggers. Heavens bless alphabetical order!
You’ve got fabulous content, and a clear Vision of what’s next. I look forward to the next 6 months of readin’ and commentin’ and learnin’ from the Queen!
18 April 2008, 9:12 pm
Happy B-day. I hope to be here for your 200th. I love your content and intend to be at the next party.
18 April 2008, 10:12 pm
Crystal,
(Hi, I’m back! The iced tea was good.)
Hehehe. Deciding how to thank people and introduce readers to my “blogroll” was tricky. I didn’t want to say that I have favorites, and I’m not sure I really could. Every single one of you has blown my mind with great thought way more than a few times. Thank you for that!
When I finally decided on first names only I thought, perfect. Everybody line up and we’ll all be happy.
Uh-oh. I’ve been Queen long enough that this crown’s getting comfy.
I hope you do have a happy afternoon of reading here, once that pesky chapter nine is out of your way. And I’m always looking forward to more Big Bright Bulb ideas!
Mark,
It’s nice having you along for the trip! A friend asked me today, is that a big deal writing your hundredth post? I said well, to me it is.
The best thing about it is knowing I’ve got plenty more in me, and I am having a blast sharing it with folks like you. Thanks!
Until later,
Kelly
19 April 2008, 1:56 am
Kelly,
For you, my dear, I would do better than a common sidecar, I would buy a Goldwing so you could ride in style.
Congrats on your 100th, and here’s to 100 more.
19 April 2008, 5:10 am
I commended you over at our blog, but that’s no good, now, is it, when you need my comments sealed over here permanently.
Congratulations. I think you’re a wonderful person with lots of bright ideas in a smart head, and you’ve got brassy balls to boot. That all goes well together, which leaves me 100% confident that you’ll be around for a long time to come.
Cheers, ma belle. To long life on the Internet.
19 April 2008, 5:39 am
Congrats
The only thing I would have done to improve this post is have the titles of the posts you linked to but cheers!
19 April 2008, 7:55 am
Harry,
One Pen Moll, at your service. Virtual bikes pass my safety needs, and the Goldwing is rather heart-stopping. Whoo! Putting on flaming red lipstick right now to properly fill the position.
Time in the day is my only (?) problem. There’s at least 200 in my Entourage notes right now, in various states of finish. I could be pre-posting to Christmas, but I need three of me!
You know how much I love your writing, Harry. Nice to tell people in a different sphere to check you out.
Thanks as always. Sweet dreams.
James, O Early Riser,
I just figured Bright Shiny Thing Syndrome got you yesterday.
Cajones I’ve got. This amuses some, and irritates others. If that ain’t right for the Internet, what is?
From the trouble I see you get yourself into, O Pen Pal with matches in hand, you surely know this already.
For you I’ll drink a toast at this hour. Virtual bikes, virtual toasts, what’s next?
Stick around.
Jacob,
They show up as you roll over. There’s one in particular that’s… a little racy… that was one reason, but the main reason was that I wanted to emphasize to readers that your whole site is awesome, not just the one article that happens to touch me/ inspire me/ make me laugh most.
Thanks for stopping by! It’s always a treat to read your posts, and I hope some of my readers will race over to Just Creative Design to get inspired by you. Congrats again on the Logo Design Love award!
Later,
Kelly
21 April 2008, 3:59 am
Ah sorry I didn’t realise that about the roll over, I’ll know for next time and now I’ll have to check out some more of the posts
21 April 2008, 6:30 am
No problem. I’m sneaky that way.
