Getting The Message Out In Spite Of The Information Stranglehold
Malaysia was recently rated 124 in the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Sans Frontieres (source: Malaysiakini). This is the lowest ranking ever received by Malaysia, for reasons of which I am sure is quite self evident and difficult to dispute. The Minister of Truth, Zainuddin Maidin, could try but I am quite certain Malaysians would know better.
One way to bypass this official stranglehold on the dissemination of information is to use the Internet as a tool for dissemination. One of the most common usages is through the humble e-mail mailing list. However with the general availability of affordable broadband today, a website could increase the effectiveness and methods available for the dissemination of information.
It is relatively easy to get a website set up on one of the many free web hosting services around. There are, however, some limitations in using free hosting services such as the inability to use a domain name to brand your website, limited or no technical support, the serving of advertisements (even competing ones) on web pages. The other option is to get commercial hosting.
As the term commercial implies, there’re some costs involved in getting your website hosted on a commercial host. Of course, in comparison to the US$36 (RM120) a month that I used to have to pay for hosting back in the late 90’s, commercial hosting is relatively much more cheaper these days.
In an earlier sponsored posting, I reviewed a site that offered discount coupons for hosting. I have been asked to review another site, also called the HostGator Coupon site.
Having browsed through the site a bit, I found this new HostGator Coupon site much more informative. Apart from merely providing discount coupons for HostGator, coupons with a higher cash value for another host, Lunarpages, are provided as well.
This new HostGator Coupon site also provides links to resource sites and informative articles that would help the visitor understand more about how the hosting business is set up and how one can potentially use this to generate some additional side income.
Useful user reviews are also provided to help the visitor make an informed purchasing decision and user contributed reviews are also solicited.
All in all, the new HostGator Coupon site is a pretty good resource that’s worth bookmarking whether you’re seeking to make a decision to get commercial hosting services, or seeking to find out more about how to develop a small side income on the internet.
If you’re a non-profit organisation or civic organisation seeking to establish an online presence or improve an existing presence, you can leave me a comment or contact me directly and I’ll network you with some non-profit technology assistance providers that can provide more specialised services and information strategy consultation at NGO-friendly rates.
Disclaimer & Disclosure
The preceding post is a paid review. I hope that it is evident that I did put quite a bit of thought and enquiry into the services provided. If you see anything you might not like about this post, please do contact me or leave a comment here. If this resource was useful, let me know too.
