Get Started with your Website and Email Addresses

I confess, this was hard for me to believe, but it's true -- Webware reports that you can

get a free domain name and hosting from Microsoft. Just starting your business and planning on an Internet presence? (Let's hope so.)

This is the real deal:

The words "free" and "Microsoft" don't often appear in the same sentence, so imagine my surprise at discovering this deal: a free custom domain name, free Web hosting, free e-mail accounts, and more.

As you might expect from the name, Microsoft Office Live Small

Business has a decidedly business focus--but that doesn't mean you

can't use it for a personal site.

The freebie account includes not only the domain (any available

.com, .net, .org, or .info address), but also site-building tools,

reporting tools, project and document managers, 100 e-mail addresses,

and collaboration-minded online workspaces. You get 500MB of storage,

too.

So what's the catch? There really isn't one, though the free domain

hosting expires after one year. After that, it'll run you a very

reasonable $14.95 annually.