Now comes the hard part. Having registered over a million members to its free Internet domain service, Los Gatos-based Namezero will officially launch a paid domain service with more features next week at the Internetworld trade show. How many folks will opt for the competitively-priced paid service is an open question, but Namezero is predictably bullish.

"We look at our free service as an onramp to our new premium service," says Netzero co-founder and President Bruce Keiser. Our free service is geared to the new domain user. It's a great way for the public to understand the value of a domain. Down the road we're confident those people who come in for free will be in a positive mood to buy additional services from us." He predicts at least twenty percent of the current Namezero membership will convert to paid services over the next year in addition to brand new members who go straight to paid.

The paid service is available now at the Netzero Web site in advance of next week's formal unveiling. For $24.95 annually, Namezero's Personal and Business Plus package includes:

• Ownership of a domain name
• No Namezero-affiliated advertising. (The domain name holder can of course place their own advertising or storefront marketing there).
• Domain name POP and Web-based email accessible from anywhere.
• Unlimited URL forwarding, and one domain transfer.

An equivalent set of services would cost over $100 from competitors such as Register.com.

Keiser says Namezero hopes to tap the huge market of small businesses looking to create or improve their online presence. Currently he says about twenty percent of Namezero members use their domain names for a business purpose.

"A lot of our members didn't want ads at their sites and they wanted more control of the navigation bar, and the ability to get many domains at a discount. That's what we're offering." Later in November, Keiser says Namezero will launch auction service for buying domain names."

GIVE YOUR BABY A URL

Meantime, the free Namezero service marches on. Keiser says the company is signing new members at a 10,000 per day clip and has some innovative promotions in the works. Later this fall, Namezero will give new domain names to every newborn baby at several San Francisco Bay Area hospitals for a period of several months.

We're experimenting with fees and they could change for the paid service, but we're comfortable with this for now because it's very competive with what else it out there.