微软普尔ls the Plug on Free Office Live Domains
ByCarol Tice•
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Chat boards arerumblingandgrumblingwith the news that Microsoft is going to make customers who signed up for free custom domains withOffice Live Small Businessstart paying $14.95 a year as of Oct. 1. This despite the fact that its site still encourages small business owners to "Get a free web site and more." But few have bothered to ask Microsoft what's up. Turns out it's not quite as sweeping of a change as you might think.I put in a call to Microsoft PR firmWaggener Edstrom在波特兰,俄勒冈州,有一些背景。转啊ut many custom sitesubscribers already pay the $14.95 fee. It's just customers who signedup before Feb. 12, 2008 who ever got the free custom deal.
Small business owners can still get a free fourth-level domain at OfficeLive, such as http://yourbusiness.web.officelive.com, which is theoffer the Office Live site is touting. But if you want Microsoft tohost your www.yourbusiness.com site, you pay the fee.
In all, under $15 a year for hosting a custom site is still dirt cheap. Many of Microsoft's hosting services are stillfree.But when you've been promised something free and there's no caveat thatit's a limited-time offer, I think the expectation is that it's going tostay free.
What do you think of Microsoft's move?
