Register.com is offering free domain registration for small businesses.

Limit one per business. Valid for new .com, .net, .biz, .org, .us and .info domains only.

Link

You need a credit card to register. They will charge you $35 renewal free IF you do not transfer your domain before the year ends. But you are free to transfer to any registrar of your choice.

These guys are awful. They get you sucked in with a free registration, then they are almost impossible to get to release your domain to another registrar, so effectively they can hold your domain hostage and charge you 35 bucks a year for what GoDaddy charges 10 for. I've personally had bad experiences with them, but ymmv.

There is no policy about having to renew so I would guess you can. I registered a domain and canceled the automatic 'safe renew'.

I think microsoft has the same program, but is $15 to renew after the first day, and requires 60 days until you are free to transfer it.

Microsoft Office Live Small Office

anyone have updates on this? i did a fatwallet search and this seemed like a good free alternative for a domain name, that i may or may not use too much.
requirements that i can transfer it to another registrar service /hosting service before the $15 renewal charge at the end of the year.
if i use the ms service and like it i may decide it is worth the fee to register , at this point i just want to register a name and don't want to have to play with go daddy's packages which cause me to spend more money that since i like big discounts.
in this case i just want to register a couple names.

I personally use GoDaddy and then use coupens such as OYH3 - $3 off / $6.95 any .COM (renewals too... just used it)

BTPS7 - 20% any order of $50 or more

BTPS255 - 25% off any order of $100 or more

OYH1 - 10% off whatever

OYH2 - $5 off a $30 purchase

BTPS50 - 50% off .co.uk domains

BTPS4 - 10% off anything

chill1 - 10% off

chill2 - $5 off $30

chill3 - $6.95 .coms

hash1 - 10% off

hash2 - $5 off $30

hash3 - $6.95 .com registration

gdd1101c - 10% off any order of $40 or more

bump for codes. TY