Here is how most bloggers get their start on the internet. First they look for a free blogging service like blogger.com or wordpress.com. These are not bad in the beginning when you are just learning how to write and market your blog. But there comes a time when the free service isn’t good enough and you want to start making some real money.

For that you need to ditch the free blogging sites, own your own domain name and look for some commercial web hosting.

I am a firm believer that you need to spend money to make money and nowhere is that more true than on the internet. Now I’m not talking about spending hundreds of dollars and most commercial web hosting is fairly inexpensive, roughly $5 - $12 a month. Owning your own domain is even cheaper at around $10 per year. (even cheaper if you use a name.com promo code)

The 3 Best Commercial Web Hosting Companies

Here are my top 3 picks for commercial web hosting companies. It should come as no surprise that these are also some of the most popular hosting companies on the market today.

1. Hostgator.com

For less than $8 a month you get unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, and the ablility to host unlimited domains. You get a ton of software and support included in this plan and if the time comes you can also upgrade to their dedicated hosting service.

2. Powweb.com

This was that first company I dealt with when I started 3 years ago and they are great. Your first year is $60 including a free domain and 300 GB on disk space (I never even came close to using it all). Powweb also has really good 24 hour support via chat and a great forum with very knowledgeable members. You can pay by paypal too.

3. Godaddy.com

Godaddy’s deluxe plan is more than enough for what most bloggers and internet marketers need. They have all the bell’s and whistles as the other guys but have more free ad on applications. The deluxe plan starts at 6.99 a month, the price decreases the longer you sign up for.

So if you are currently blogging on a free hosted site either (wordpress or blogspot) consider switching to a commercial web host and you’ll be in a better position to start profiting from your site.

Name.com is quickly becoming one of the most popular domain registration companies on the internet. They offer great prices on new domains as well as renewals and transfers.

Name.com is constantly changing their promo codes. While old ones expire they are replaced by new ones. So here is a list of the latest name.com promo and discount codes as of March 20th 2009.

Latest Name.com Promo Codes

Renew .com .net and .org domains for only $7.69 using promo code: NPENBY - No Longer Working

New .com and .org domains for $7.99 using promo code: LORENA - No Longer Working

Renew .com .net and .org domains for only $7.69 using promo code: SAUDADE

New .com and .org domains for $7.95 using promo code: IPANEMA - No Longer Working

That’s it so far. I will keep updating these codes as I find them. I have saved a ton of money on over 20 domains using these codes.

UPDATE:
These are working as of May 12th 2009

Save .99 off a new .com or .net domain using promo code: PIRIGUETE - This is no longer valid

Save .90 on renewals of .com or .net domains using code: EATATCHANS

Get a new .com or .net domain for $8.25 using coupon code: GREENBOW - This is no longer valid

Get a new .net domain for $7.25 using promotion code: HTESROB I used this 2 days a go to register huggiesdiapercoupons.net - This is no longer valid

*Update June 3rd 2009*

Get a new .net domain for only $7 using name.com promo code - parkhill - This is no longer valid

Save .59 on a new .com or .net using promo code - washpark - This is no longer valid

$8.20 for a new .com domain registration using name.com promo code - stapleton -This is no longer valid

Update September 2009

$8.19 for a new .com domain registration using name.com promo code - diptera

Renew your .com .net or .org domains for only $8.25 using name.com promo code - chilopoda

I’ll post more as I test them.

Enjoy.

I own quite a few websites with the .com domain extensions and the average cost of those domains through Go Daddy is $10 each.

Not too long ago I registered a new website on Driveway Sealing using name.com for only $7.49. I used a promo code to save $1.50 on a one year registration.

There are 2 codes that you can enter to get the discount. They are 7UD9ID or ghu5km (thanks to dotsauce.com) keep in mind that these are only for the .com domain extensions.

Cheap .com domains are not the only deals at name.com. They also have great specials all the time on .net and other domain extensions including the soon to be released .tel extensions.