Well, the festive season is well and truly upon us and hopefully we are all nearing the point where we can take a deep breath and come to the realisation that we are as prepared for Christmas as we can be, and it's time to sit back and enjoy the festive break. Oh, how good that feeling is! 😁
It's been another great year for BeoWorld and we are pleased to announce a surge in paying memberships lately which is great news! The site is now starting to pay for itself and if this carries on we will be in great shape once the site redevelopment loans are paid off around November next year. We have already bought the very latest Community Server Edition as mentioned, which will be installed in January - so there are immediate improvements for all to enjoy and it will be great fun exploring the new functionalities!
Relations with Bang & Olufsen in Struer, the UK and the rest of the world during 2008 have continued to stengthen even further, and the old attitude to BeoWorld seems to have disappeared along with the sites previous owner. What they now see for sure is a professional, well presented and well informed website a very focused passion for B&O that can really add value to the brand in general. There is no escaping the fact that whenever you Google a B&O product from 1925 to present, you almost always end up with a beoworld.org reference somewhere, and that is entirely down to each and every one of you for being so dedicated and enthusiastic. You will also note that when you type 'BeoWorld' into Google, we show as an 'authority' listing, with sub-section breakdowns. This is apparently quite an accolade, so well done to us all for exciting the 'googleweb crawlers' or whatever they are called into loving what we say so much!
The Prize Draw has just kept on giving out literally tens of thousands of pounds worth of B&O over the last year and we have plenty of extremely happy winners (as well as several 'multiple winners') such are the odds of winning a prize. Many have suggested we should stop with the Prize Draw to save money, but i maintain that it's a wonderful way of giving something back to members who pay their hard-earned money to support the site. I have also had plenty of emails saying that most members would pay £30 a year anyway, even without a draw - but that's not the way i want it to be. The Prize Draw is fun, it brings a lot of joy to a lot of people, and it gives jandyt the excuse to get excited and smoke too many figs once a month.. LOL - It stays..
Members have continued to join BeoWorld at their same steady rate during 2008. We now have over 8,600 registered members, and the 10,000 milestone will happen during early 2009 - less than 2 years since launch, which is amazing. Well done to all of us there - even B&O are impressed, and i'm sure that we have a membership level that is rising faster than a huge majority of websites on the internet.
So, all that really remains is to thank YOU, staring at your screen now wondering why you are being thanked.. Well, one person doesn't make a website and if it wasn't for people like yourself reading and posting on BeoWorld it would simply be me talking to myself. Not interesting at all - even my wife confirms it's boring as i tend to do it more as i get older!! Without the ever-growing band of interesting and intelligent people on here, it would make scant reading i assure you! 😳
I would like to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy 2009 from both myself and the Moderating Team on BeoWorld, who work hard to make sure the site runs smoother than silky the silkworms silk pyjamas 24/7. It's a privilege to be a part of BeoWorld, and long may the site continue to grow and improve!
Happy Holidays!!
Lee
🙂
