Like many people, I own a bunch of domain names, most of which are nearly dormant, but I want to keep them online to satisfy the Googlebeast. Before NFSN I was paying GoDaddy $3-10 bucks a month for each domain, but now I pay literally a penny or two a day for a few of my sites, and nothing at all for most of the others.

One NFSN account can have unlimited domains, so I drop $5-10 in my account and it keeps me runnin’ for months. You can open up an account with as little as $.25. Disk storage? A penny/MB per month. That’s right, one penny per MONTH.

No sales reps, no commissions, no pressure. No tacky pinup girls or extreme political BS. Also, unfortunately, no tech support, except FAQ pages. That means NFSN is probably not the best choice for beginners. While most of their directions are clear and easy to implement, if you do have problems, you’ll have to figure it out on your own — or call your 14 year old neighbor.

PS: I am not afiliated with NFSN nor do I receive anything for this endorsement. I just like their service.

How can he afford it? Distributors in southern Europe have been so desperate to get cars off their lots that they were selling them at huge discounts.

From a marketing standpoint, two-for-one is far better than simply cutting the price of the first car. Helps alleviate overcrowding on the lot, too. And all the publicity he’s getting for this stunt doesn’t hurt, either.

But is it working?

Cardoen’s eight showrooms had seen more than 10 times their usual number of visitors since the promotion began. “People have been coming in from all over Belgium and abroad,” said Cardoen’s Commercial Director Ivo Willems.

So people are coming in to kick the tires, and maybe stare at the crazy person who’s giving away free cars. But are they actually buying any? Um, not yet. Willems admits they’ve yet to see an impact on sales.

But at least they’re trying something new. And wisely using free publicity to spread the word. How is your business coping with the economic crisis?

The missing link is the same thing that causes a lot of products, services, blogs, and companies to crash and burn. With it, you’ve got a shot at success. Without it, you’re doomed. What is the missing ingredient?

It’s what makes something — anything — exciting, buzzworthy, viral. It’s simple, once you think of it. Ready?

It’s having a fantastic product (or service). Then adding some features that make it remarkable. (“Remarkable”= “worthy of remark” = word of mouth!)

Sure, it’s obvious and elementary. But look around at many businesses today, especially some online businesses and Web applications. You’ve got to wonder, what is so special about this? What were these people thinking? Who did they think was going to use (buy) this?

Online or off, I believe the biggest problem most small businesses have is cultivating their uniqueness. Your Unique Selling Proposition, to use the old marketing textbook phrase. It’s really tough to distinguish yourself from competitors when everyone is offering essentially the same product or service.

Finding and promoting what’s different and fantastic about you — that’s the essence of all marketing. Once you find (or add) that, copywriting and promotion becomes easy.

Zillow, the real estate valuation website, is launching a service that I think is simply brilliant. Mortgage Marketplace lets borrowers get quotes anonymously, and at the same time provides free leads for lenders. Can you say “win-win?”

“Borrowers fill out detailed loan request forms but do not provide any personally identifiable information… The borrowers get e-mail alerts and can choose which quote and lender they want. Zillow vets the lenders so only reputable ones can offer quotes… The quotes must… disclose all fees and Zillow estimates the taxes, insurance, and monthly payments, making comparison shopping easier.” CNet

Wow! As a marketing consultant, I’m always trying to dig out my client’s Unique Selling Proposition. But this — this is a no-brainer!

I predict privacy will become an even more urgent problem in the months and years ahead. (Can you say TJX and Hannaford?) Savvy companies like Zillow will proactively offer ways to protect their customers’ privacy while still providing value-added services.

That’s right. No longer do you have to leave a store and fire up your Web browser to find out if you can get the same item cheaper someplace else. Amazon’s TextBuyIt, which launched yesterday, lets you text the name of a product, its description, UPC or ISBN from anywhere — even inside a physical store.

How does a bricks-and-mortar retailer fight back, especially when the American consumer has already made it quite clear he expects superior customer service, but is unwilling to pay (extra) for it. Retailers, I’d love to hear your thoughts — and ideas for how to cope — in the comments.