Dreamhost: Promo Codes and More

Let me tell you about the monthly mddr raffle: from now on, every month I will be giving away a $50 in cash to someone who used one of our promocodes!

How does the mddr raffle work? (aka the rules)

• Who can enter the raffle? Everyone who uses one of our Dreamhost promotional codes or coupons can enter.
• How to enter the raffle? Mail me () your  user name, so I can check if you actually used one of the codes. If you used one of our promo codes after the last raffle ended, you’ve entered the current raffle.
• When is the winner announced? On the 25th of every month, starting February 2009, I will post who won this month’s raffle.
• How is the winner picked? I will enter all user names in a spreadsheet and use an online random number generator to pick a winning row number. The result is final and will not be discussed.
• When will the winner receive the money? After his or her Dreamhost 97 day money-back period has ended and only if his or her account hasn’t been cancelled in that period.
• How will the $50 be sent? I’ll be using Paypal, but am happy to consider any other method which is more convenient to the winner.

And that’s basically it. Mail me if  got any questions or remarks, especially if you got ideas on how I can make this even more transparent. As for the small print: if you enter you agree with the rules and I reserve the right to change the terms and conditions of the raffle at any time.

The Dreamhost hosting plan comes with a bunch of free and easy to configure software. Last time, we talked about Zen Cart, the shopping cart software. Let us no point our attention to the MediaWiki one-click installation.

Mediawiki is without a doubt the best known amongst the wiki software applications. Why? Because it is used for the most famous wiki on the interwebs: Wikipedia.

Take a look at Wikipedia and you’ll know what kind of functionality your Dreamhost Mediawiki Installation will provide you with: a Wiki is a website where a visitor can edit any page or to create new pages through the browser. Editing and adding links in a Wiki is very easy and intuitive.

Some of Mediawiki features: skins, printable versions of articles; automatic resizing of images; extended recent changes; edit toolbar; talk pages; message notification; different rights for anonymous users, signed in users, sysops, bureaucrats and developers; full text search…

Why on earth would you want your own Wiki? Well, you could set up a Wiki for your website and let your visitors add content, ie document the episodes of a television show or build an encyclopedia on your local sports team. But while wiki’s are typically used for collaborative webites and community sites, you could very well use Mediawiki for your own private projects. Set up a wiki as your personal online notebook and never loose a quote, a link or a picture.

With Dream host it will take you about five minutes to have a Wiki up and running. Fill out a few fields, click the “install it for me now”-button and Dreamhost will install a brand new wiki for you. Be sure to use one of our Dreamhost coupon codes when sign up with DH and you’ll pay even less.

Just a quick word on web hosting and climate change. It takes a lot of energy to host a website. Data centers consume a lot of energy to stay up 24/7. During the production of energy, in this case electricity, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. Those greenhouse gases are responsible for global climate change.

So basically, keeping your site up and running with Dream host means the earth’s temperature will rise? Well, kind of, but not really. The good folks over at Dreamhost decided their company and all of its activities would be climate, or carbon, neutral. This means that they erase all the negative effects their operations have on our climate. They are doing so in the first place by acting energy efficient at the office. A good way to start, but it can obviously  not make up for everyting. So Dreamhost also purchases Renewable Energy Credits and invests in Emission Reduction Credits (carbon offsets). In that way their impact, and the impact of your site hosted with them, is effectively erased. So with Dreamhost you get a great deal and you do something for the environment!

More on Dreamhost’s Carbon Neutral Mission.

Paste our dreamhost coupon in the right field when signing-up.

Dreamhost’s reliable hosting deal comes a bundle of free and easy to install top web software. One of those free one-click software installations is shopping cart software Zen Cart.

Zen Cart is an improved version of the well known OsCommerce shopping cart software. Zen Cart distinguishes itself from OsCommerce by a better template and themes system and by more built-in features. Zen Cart is suitable for every kind of web shop you want to start. The newsletter manager, the modules for vouchers and gift certificates and the possibility to offer multiple shipping and payment options will make your business thrive. This professional online store management system can even be used for selling downloads (games, pdf’s, mp3’s and other files).

If you want to learn more about Zen Cart and its features, check out the Zen Cart website. But remember, you can skip the part about installation. Because with Dreamhost, the installation of Zen Cart only requires one click.

Thinking of starting a web shop? You will need a reliable web host. Sign up with Dreamhost, use one of our promo codes and you’re all set for as little as $5.78 a month!

I’m totally convinced Dreamhost is the best hosting company you’ll ever find. Let me give you five reasons why I think  Dreamhost is a great hosting company.

1. They offer a great hosting deal. Some people think good and cheap is an impossible combination. Dreamhost proves it is not.
2. Their staff knows what they are talking about and they are willing to work with you. If a problem occurs, they’ll be looking for a solution right away. (Get to know the DH staff, don’t be scared off by the sometimes slightly tacky pictures
3. Dreamhost is not evil. You can trust them to be clear, honest and straight forward in their communication. Big deal, you might think. I can tell you there are other hosting companies out there.
4. DreamHost is carbon neutral. Hosting your site with Dreamhost means your site is carbon neutral too. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your children! No seriously, climate change is something we all should care about. So use energy saving light bulbs, ride your bike and pick Dreamhost to host your site.
5. The Dreamhost newsletter! It does what every other newsletter does (informing you about the company, new features, updates and so on) but it’s funny as well. Don’t take my word for it, take a look at the newsletter archive.