1&1’s fresh .com promotional price: Free

Forget 99 cents, these domains are now free.

Domain name registrars often use discounted prices to get fresh clients. This is especially the case with their Google Adwords ads, where registrars frequently offer .com domains as loss leaders to get a fresh client.

1&1 has been particularly aggressive, offering $.99 cent .com domain names on its site and in search ads. (The firm has a history of investing up front for fresh clients. It launched with multi-page ads in huge publications promoting free webhosting for three years.)

Yet 1&1’s competitors also offer cut rate pricing in their Google ads. So how do you beat 99 cents? Here’s what I get when I search for “domain name” in Google right now:

Next thing you know 1&1 will be paying people to register a domain with them!

That “Powered by Verisign” in the ad is a requirement for registrars getting rebates from Verisign, but 1&1 is still losing money on this deal.

But losing $5 to have a fresh client sign up with you rather than a competitor? That seems like a pretty good idea.

The deal is limited to one domain for fresh clients.