Online financial portal Zecco.com, currently in beta, will offer free stock trading to registered users starting next week.

Zecco says it can offer free trading because it won't have expensive traditional marketing bills, as it hopes to build business by word-of-mouth, and it will also rely on other revenue streams, Internet News reports. Zecco plans to earn money from premium services and interest income from margin and cash balances in brokerage accounts.

It will also draw ad revenue from its financial portal features, including blogs and forums, and as an incentive Zecco wants to give its users who blog on the site the ability to share in ad revenue from the site, hoping they will create a vibrant online community.