buzzbishop
on - last edited on
Get Your Business Online is the site created by Google (who's paying the domain charges) and then you're shuttled off to Yola (a hosting provider) to set up templates.
The target is small business. Their success stories include a costume shop from Montreal that leads their business across North America, and a spiritual advisor with little technical know-how who used the templates to get her business online. Others successes tout the use of Google AdWords as a marketing tool that works.
It's meant to be an easy and painless way for the non-savvy to get a solid web presence and be introduced to the world of Google AdWords to promote their business.
SO WHAT'S THE CATCH?
Only the first year is free, so they're trying to get people into hosting deals with Yola. After the first year, the hosting and domain registration will cost about $30 / year.
You can also only register one domain per email address, so you're stuck with one or carving up multiple accounts for all the email addresses in your control.
They're also targetting people towards Google AdWords as promotion of the site, so that's Google's reason to be included in the deal.
Personally, I use Hover to register my domains (but I did grab some free ones through this offer that I will transfer).
Hover's interface is so clean and easy to use. It's a Canadian company and in the backlash to GoDaddy's support of SOPA, I've found it a great place to register my domains.
But still, even if you don't want to do all that stuff, it's a free domain that you can transfer away to a provider of your own after 60 days (my plan).
