Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, & Solstice! Also, what presents did you get?

[The Engineer]

Welcome to the COZIEST thread on BuSo!
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As the holidays fast approach, I hope you're enjoying the crisp, {cool|freezing} nip in the air. As for me, I'm wrapped up in my big fluffy robe, feet kicked up on the desk, a hot chocolate on one side and a whisky on the other, thinking back on 2017 at Builder Society. These were some good... nay... GREAT times.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, the New Year, or anything else that occurs around this time that I'm forgetting, I hope it's a happy holiday for you.

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What were some of your favorite moments on BuSo this year?
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I liked the chaos around "CCarter Promises Gold." "CCarter's going to teach us to traffic leak! Wait, she never showed us! Maybe this thread itself is the method! Meta-Inception, we must go deeper!" I'm not sure we'll ever know the truth of what happened that day, but I do know one thing: my GIF collection got a lot bigger thanks to that thread.

I also enjoyed the birth of the two new forum sections, one for Marketing and one for Search. It's always exciting to see things growing and changing for the better.

A fun escapade was watching @animalstyle make power moves to expand his main earning site by moving it to a broader domain. It didn't go as planned, but it's amazing to watch people plow forward against all odds and come out the other side better for it. If I recall, he was able to reverse the damages completely and the shake up gave him some new ideas too. It was a happy ending!

And finally, I've been loving the weekly video conferencing over at the SEO UnMasked YouTube channel. If you don't know, that's @stackcash, @Steve Brownlie, and Steve's co-worker Garrett, often with a guest. I've seen several members from BuSo show up as guests. Not only is it funny (Sassy Steve!) but you're missing out on a ton of "Don't Tweet This" moments where they drop some seekret SEO knowledge.

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Which builders would you say thanks to this year?
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I hate to even try to do this because I'm afraid I'll leave someone out, especially when every single member who posted 500 times, 1 time, or lurked 24/7 all contributed to what we have here. But, I'll give it a shot.

My special thanks goes to @Ryuzaki & @CCarter, who've done an insanely selfless job of moderating the forum not just daily, but damn near hourly. I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the quality of conversation on BuSo absolutely destroys that of all of the other forums, and that's all thanks to these two people.

We have a lot of builders playing a lot of different roles. Some like to start threads. Some like to only respond to threads. Some like to give motivation by brow beating while some like to create energy through softer encouragement. I appreciate each and every one of you (especially those of you who are running case studies and journals, I love those). A few of the builders that I'd tuck into this category that I'd like to bring attention to this year would include @built, @animalstyle, @Calamari, @Kevin, @RomesFall, @TacoCat, @Andrewkar, @contract, @Potatoe, @Sutra, and @Nat. There's more but if I list everyone then there's no point in listing anyone!

I love those types of posters above, but my favorite type of posters are the ones who goes off the rails and cram 10x value into every post. For that, I'd like to also honor @turbin3, @eliquid, @Steve Brownlie, @stackcash, and again @Ryuzaki and @CCarter. A person could read your post histories and have no excuses left.

And special thanks goes to @Hyper6 for being our first sponsor. We had many people inquire about such an arrangement but Hyper6 was the first and only one I trusted, having watched him work over the last decade around the internet and having had friends use his services only to turn around and make tons of money off of the results. I know one thing, if you need a landing page that looks like a billion dollar corporation was behind it, you need to get at the photoshop masters on his team. They do banners, websites, logos, infographics, and everything else too. Please consider them for your next graphic design job (or at least go gawk at their bad ass portfolio).

Thanks to the rest of the Marketplace sellers (and buyers), too. I know countless builders and lurkers are getting insane value out of your offerings, stress-free I might add, thanks to your professional approaches, attention to detail, and great customer service.

Who would you thank for their contributions this year?

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What presents did you get!?!
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But let's be real for a minute. As much as I want everyone to enjoy time with their loved ones and see the sparkle and appreciation in their eyes as you share joy amongst each other, what I really want to know is what kind of dope ass presents you got this year?

Don't forget to come back after all the hustle and bustle dies down and show us some pics of your new toys. Bonus points for computer peripherals or anything related to business!

Signing off,
The Engineer
xoxo

 

[stackcash]

D'awwww so many warm squishy feelings from this.

For real though - Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to everyone here. I've been talking to some of you, daily, for years now....sometimes more than my own family and friends in real life. I'm really glad to be part of such a community and I'm STOKED on what 2018 has to offer.

 

[GMerov]

2017 was a blast! Creativity slaps me upside the head straight out of blue so I have no idea what 2018 will be, but if it's anything like 2017 then I'll be just as staggered.

peace.
n.

 

[Steve Brownlie]

Damn, thank you so much for the kind words. We've put a lot into our content in 2017 and it's great to have had such awesome responses from the community here. This is just the icing on the cake.

We're always sending potential clients to check out posts I've made here, so it's stuff we're proud of so definitely plan on getting stuck into some more in 2018.

All the inspirational folks here hustling and getting more and more achieved has been pretty impactful on my life in 2017 too so thank you so much to all of you who are sharing real shit day in day out on here.

 

[Sutra]

Thanks for the shout out.

The 2 best presents I got this year were the gifts I gave to myself:

1. Quitting my job and working for myself full time (my dream since I was 15 years old)
2. Moving to Thailand (my dream since about 12 years ago)

The second best present I got this year is:

1. An unexpected box of chocolates from a Thai girl I recently started dating, haha. She's a sweetheart.

Having said that, BUSO and the knowledge, inspiration, and feedback from the members here made a huge impact on me. Without it I wouldn't have been able to realize my dreams in the timeframe that I did.

There's too many to list but @Ryuzaki @CCarter @eliquid @Tavin @Calamari @Potatoe @Steve Brownlie @stackcash have all played a part. Thanks to you all. And thanks for this awesome forum @The Engineer

Merry Christmas to everyone!

 

[Kris]

Merry Xmas all!

Thanks to everyone for the great insightful posts and all the best for 2018 where we are going to crush it!

 

[CCarter]

Merry Christmas everyone!!

It's almost 2018!

 

[LinkPlate]

Merry xmas and hope everyone has a great, happy and healthy 2018! Keep BUSO'ing

 

[animalstyle]

Thanks for this awesome post and the mentions @The Engineer. 2017 was a hell of a year and for me, I wouldn’t have made it through without the Builders. This place is special and it’s great to be a small part of it.

My big present this year was my wife and I buying our first house. Been in full remodel mode for almost a month, but its almost done. In 2018 I’ll be putting up a nice office space upstairs that should pay for itself many times over

I’ve got some ideas to share for 2018 and can’t wait to be back posting more!!

Wishing everyone here a healthy body and mind topped with success and progress during 2018!

 

[Ryuzaki]

The OP nailed the same set of people and their efforts I'd be thanking.

As far as moments go, I enjoyed the new Search Engine Optimization section and the discussion that went on in there. Between the Fred update, the Keyword Golden Ratio, and a few people talking about optimizing content and interlinking or reviving old sites and slaying it, we had some pretty good technical discussion going on.

I got some nice gifts from family and friends. They all asked and asked what I might want and I truly couldn't answer. As adults we tend to buy ourselves whatever it is we want. And by the time Christmas comes around we've already got everything we need for our hobbies. And when your interests are largely internet based, there's not much more you need.

So I ended up with a nice bomber jacket, a fleece pullover, a handmade decorative chalkboard for the kitchen to write down things to remember to buy, dog and cat toys and treats for my boys, and some little things like beef jerky, a candle, etc. All nice, thought out, useable items. My grandma even gave me a stick of deodorant and a dish scrubber. She's the ultimate in "useful" gift giving.

Now that Christmas has come and gone, I'm trying to squeeze in a few days of legitimate at-home vacation for myself. It's absurd though, because I'm already ancy about getting back to work. I know I need to force some down time though because once the calendar flips to the next page, the fire will be lit.