Still concerned with promo codes?

Well DH is changing the amount.

http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2007/12/04/promo-codes-max-discount-dropping-to-50/

What's a promo code? laugh

Your new favorite site

Takes some of the magic out of $22.40 for one year of hosting...

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit until 12/11/07.

That it does. I wonder why they're doing it? It's still going to cost them the same amount...

Though I have no opinion on the "referrer" benefit angle to this, think it's a good move. I never really liked that the $97.00 off for the first year (which made awfully close to "free"), and access to a shell, made DreamHost far too attractive to script-kiddies and other internet "lower life-forms".

Having to actually pay *something* might eliminate some of that kind of thing.Some people might consider the new pricing to be a little less of a "throw-away account", and that can only be a good thing for the rest of us on shared servers.

I suppose, that with $47 dollars now "available" to pocket (at least initially, until people build out "fuller service packages"), it will only throw gasoline on the promo code pimping fire that's raging all over the tubes. wink

--rlparker

Maybe they are "less than thrilled" with the churn from those considering the accounts cheap enough to be "throw aways", and the problems generated by those who only planned to use/abuse the account till they get TOSsed , or their "free year" is over?

--rlparker

They probably figure people will take codes with $50 discount plus extras such as extra domains which can still be offered. After a year if someone wants to leave they lose those extras. Gives a better reason to stay after the year.

That sounds like perfectly good logic to me! The "extras" are the best deal going, ir you are serious about maintaining hosting.

--rlparker

That is true. I could see this if they're getting concerned about their churn rate.

OTOH, as we were commenting on in some thread in the other forum, $22.40 is a nice easy introductory trial rate. No one could be afraid of trying out a web host at that rate.

Well, there's always the 97 day money back guarantee period and $69.40 isn't that scary...

If they're mostly concerned about churn what they could do is to limit the cash discount on the one year plan but to continue to have us be able to offer the $97 off on plans of two years or more.

In reply to:
Though I have no opinion on the "referrer" benefit angle to this, think it's a good move. I never really liked that the $97.00 off for the first year (which made awfully close to "free"), and access to a shell, made DreamHost far too attractive to script-kiddies and other internet "lower life-forms".

I've long campaigned for a move like this, although I would prefer their complete destruction. The introduction of promo codes was great for DreamHost, and it was great for new customers, but it absolutely sucked for existing customers. It caused/causes the following problems:

1. The "growing pains" period: Lots of new sign-ups seemed to almost cripple the system for some.

2. Loss of referral revenue: For most DreamHosters, their referral revenue dropped to almost zero overnight. "Long-game" secondary referrals offer meagre reward.

3. Influx of non-web savvy: DreamHosters were traditionally a fairly web-savvy bunch, attracted more by features like shell access, etc. The new breed of DreamHoster is of the MySpace ilk - knows nothing of web design or development. Questions in the forum have gone from "how do create a mailbox?" to "I'm getting a URL file access error and I want someone to fix it for me because I'm just a n00b who thinks "PHP" is part of the "science" with a hair product."

4. Influx of warez: 97 days of free (or almost free, if account terminated) hosting for warez!

5. Promo code whoring: The web is now replete with promo codes. They can be found on web sites, forums, wikis, discussion lists and feeds. Particularly bad is the fact that many forums and wikis get spammed with promo codes.

6. Hacker target: Big players (like Microsoft) make big targets for hackers. The rapid growth of DreamHost, coupled with the poor web security of some DreamHosters and an iffy web panel, made the system more attractive to hackers. FTP accounts were compromised (some of which seem to still be vulnerable, judging by recent posts) and many of us have switched to SFTP.

There are more things I can think of that are only indirectly related (such as the fact that CPU/memory resources are a bigger problem thanks to trying to run dozens of WordPress plug-ins, mostly being used by the New Breed™) but I think everyone gets the idea.

Still, I'd like to point out that you only have 5 days to get the best deal from the promo code below!

⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓ ⇓

-- si-blog --

I think that is a good point. It would eliminate the "end of first year churn" while also requiring the client to invest some money, which might help reduce the attractiveness of DreamHost as a "throwaway" hosting account. smile

--rlparker

As a relative newbie to web hosting, I am a bit conflicted about the idea of reserving Dreamhost for experts....

In reply to:
1. The "growing pains" period: Lots of new sign-ups seemed to almost cripple the system for some.

I wonder if this is due to quantity or quality? After all, assuming you get a new server every N signups, it's only the new people who are vulnerable to high signup rates.

In reply to:
2. Loss of referral revenue: For most DreamHosters, their referral revenue dropped to almost zero overnight. "Long-game" secondary referrals offer meagre reward.

I think it is unfortunate that the standard has become to give the *whole* referral amount as a discount. It would have been nice to have a small reserve. One benefit of the "meager" reward is that you don't see professional referral folks hawking for Dreamhost - you only see people who are doing it for love. :)

In reply to:
3. Influx of non-web savvy: DreamHosters were traditionally a fairly web-savvy bunch, attracted more by features like shell access, etc. The new breed of DreamHoster is of the MySpace ilk - knows nothing of web design or development. Questions in the forum have gone from "how do create a mailbox?" to "I'm getting a URL file access error and I want someone to fix it for me because I'm just a n00b who thinks "PHP" is part of the "science" with a hair product."

I have to say that I don't mind the non-web savvy. Part of this is that they make me look smarter than I actually am. :)

I do agree that I'm a bit put off by the occassional person who comes here to the forums with some sense of entitlement and a "here's my broken code, fix it for me" attitude. I attribute some of that to confusion in thinking that this is an official support forum. I don't envy the support people who aren't really supposed to be responsible for fixing random people's broken code but who I imagine are often innundated with requests exactly like this.

In reply to:
4. Influx of warez: 97 days of free (or almost free, if account terminated) hosting for warez!

Yeah, I hope not.

In reply to:
5. Promo code whoring: The web is now replete with promo codes. They can be found on web sites, forums, wikis, discussion lists and feeds. Particularly bad is the fact that many forums and wikis get spammed with promo codes.

I haven't noticed that much of this from Dreamhost. (except here on this forum) But do you think it would be lessened by not having any discounts and just having referrals? The most obnoxious referral here was the guy hawking the Bl**host referrer ID.

In reply to:
6. Hacker target: Big players (like Microsoft) make big targets for hackers. The rapid growth of DreamHost, coupled with the poor web security of some DreamHosters and an iffy web panel, made the system more attractive to hackers. FTP accounts were compromised (some of which seem to still be vulnerable, judging by recent posts) and many of us have switched to SFTP.

Yup, no argument here. It's going to become a bigger and bigger problem.

Still concerned with promo codes?