I’ve taken a long pause from making more video tutorials because I’ve been busy over the holidays. I’ll start making more tutorials every weekend (hopefully) starting this week. Don’t forget to submit a request for a video tutorial that you want to see made. We’ve had one request so far and I intend on covering his topic in my next tutorial.

Pligg CMS is celebrating their first birthday in a couple weeks, and to celebrate they are handing out gifts to Pligg users and offering a DreamHost maximum discount coupon for up to $97. The coupon “BIRTHDAY” will only be offered for one day, December 17, 2006. There will be some other great prizes handed out to forum members, so register with their forum today so you can be entered in their random drawings.

NB: This DreamHost promo code no longer works. Our code MAXSAVINGS offers $50 off any DreamHost hosting plan.

DreamHost is having one of their classic one-day coupon sales that they do every once in a while. This coupon is to celebrate their 9th year in business. I swear they said the same thing last year when I purchased an account with a similar discount. This coupon will get you $99.99 off from any hosting account that you prepay for 1 year or longer. That means for a few pennies under $20 you can get yourself an year of hosting and a domain on their most inexpensive plan. The deal was so good, I couldn’t pass it up and bought myself a secondary account to host a site I’ve been dreaming up for a few months. If you have any nerd friends, here’s a great Christmas/Chanukah gift staring you in the face. Make a move before it’s too late because this deal expires this evening at 11:59 pm.

Note: This coupon can not be applied to existing account holders. You can’t even register for a new account using a credit card that you have previously used with DreamHost. Lucky for me I recently replaced my old credit card and picked up a new debit card. Remember to actually use the coupon code in step 2 where it asks for a promo card. If you see the payment page and you haven’t yet entered a promo code, go back a step and find the promo area near the bottom of page two. I didn’t notice it the first time around because I was expecting the coupon area to be on the payment page.

Flash video tutorial teaching you how to download, install and setup a new server account in FileZilla. FileZilla is an open source (free) FTP program that lets you connect to a server via FTP and download/upload files. This tutorial teaches you the very first step in creating a server account so that you can connect to a server, and then demonstrates how easy it is to upload a directory. This wasn’t my favorite tutorial since it was so basic and because it’s not an area that I’m excited about, but it’s essential that everyone learns how to use FTP software because it’s one of the first steps in web development. Click on this link, or the image below, to view the 4 MB flash video. It might take a couple minutes to finish loading, so be patient after clicking the link.

1. Download FileZilla
2. Unzip and Install
3. Open FileZilla
4. Select File>Site Manager, or Ctrl+S
5. Select New Site button
6. Enter new site nickname in left panel
7. Enter host details in right panel
8. Change Logontype from Anonymous to Normal
9. Enter your servers FTP username and password
10. Click Connect and it will save the information and connect to your FTP server

One of the most beneficial features provided by Dreamhost is often overlooked because many people don’t realize how simple it is to use. DreamHost Rewards are credited to you through three different methods.

The first method is the easiest to use because all it takes is a simple copy/paste of the automatically generated referrer URL provided to you through the Rewards page in the DreamHost administration panel. The URL should look something like: http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?12345, where 12345 reflects your unique referral number. When a user clicks on a link that uses this URL and then signs up for a new account with Dreamhost, you are credited either 10% of all future payments made by that user or a one time $97 payment depending on your reward settings. You can change back and forth from the 10% recurring and the one time $97 by clicking on a button provided in the second block on the page.

The second method for referring a person, and what I consider to be the worst option, requires a user to enter your email address as a referrer when they sign up for a new account. This method will probably not be very successful unless you explicitly tell everyone you refer to enter your email address. By using the .cgi link provided as the first method, you don’t have to make sure that users enter your email address and make things much easier on the person who is about to earn you some $$$.

The third and often most successful method is referring people through coupon codes. Coupon codes can easily be set up through the web panel and they will probably represent the bulk of your referrals, since people love saving money. Even though a lot of referrals will come from coupons, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will make the most money from it. Coupon codes depend on you offering large discounts on hosting, and in order to do that you sacrifice how much money you will earn through the referral. Each referral through coupon can earn you up to $97 per customer. You are given control over how much of a discount each customer gets, but for every dollar you save the customer you will lose a dollar yourself. There are also restrictions on giving too much of a discount on less expensive accounts, this stops you from giving $97 off coupons to people who are signing up for $100 accounts.

Cashing Out

Dreamhost offers two methods for using your hard earned referrals. The first method lets you apply your earnings to your DreamHost account so you can pay your bills. The second method lets you transfer your earnings to a Paypal account. The Paypal payments are sent out once a month and you lose 5% of your earnings by transferring your money out of Dreamhost. It’s a bit of a bummer that there isn’t a third option for them to write you a check or direct deposit to a bank account, but Dreamhost is in the business of web hosting not advertising so it’s understandable.

1. Create a new MySQL database from your Dreamhost web panel. Write down your MySQL details, which will be needed during the Vanilla install process.
2. Download Vanilla from GetVanilla.com. Extract the files from the archive.
   
3. Open your FTP program, if you don’t have one try the freeware program FileZilla for Windows. Create and/or select the directory you want to install the Vanilla forum. Upload the extracted contents from the Vanilla download to the subdirectory.
4. Visit your installation directory using a web browser. This will bring up the installation script.
5. CHMOD the following directories, then continue to step 2.
• /conf to 777
• /extensions to 755
• /languages to 755
• /setup to 755
• /themes to 755
6. Enter your MySQL details as created during step 1 then continue to step 3.
7. Create an administrator username and configure your site then continue to page 4.
8. Scroll down the page and click the link at the bottom the log in as the newly created administrator.
9. You’re Finished! You can now change some more settings from the admin panel.

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I’m a web director for the content management system Pligg, so here’s a tutorial that’s close to my heart. Pligg lets you install and run a Digg-like site in just a few minutes. This video was made to prove that Pligg is very easy and fast to install. The installation is complete in about four and a half minutes and everything past that is an intro to configuring Pligg through the administration panel.

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Here’s a video tutorial for adding a new domain to your Dreamhost web panel.  You can alternatively watch this video in mov format here.
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