As entrepreneurs, many (probably most) of us are plagued with a common challenge; we have more ideas than we have time to execute them.

One particular case for me is writing. Whether that means something as basic as a post for our blog, something more robust like a book or something in between, ideas pop into my head throughout the day, every single day. Unless I make a note of them, many are lost forever to the next wave of ideas, so I’ve made it a point to always have paper and a pen handy everywhere I go so I can jot my ideas down whenever inspiration strikes.

But paper has it drawbacks. I’ve often found some of my best ideas tucked away, deep in a filing cabinet, that have outlived their usefulness, despite never having been executed. So what’s the solution? If you’re using WordPress to run your website, you can log in an save a draft of your ideas. It doesn’t have to be anything more complete than a rough title, you just need to put your idea somewhere that you’ll see it every time you log in to your website.

Then, it’s easy to sort your posts by status (published, scheduled, drafts, etc.) so you can take a quick look, prioritize them and take action as necessary.

Over time you’re going to go through creative periods, as well as dry spells, so when inspiration strikes, make sure you don’t throw away any opportunities!

After you’ve written and submitted a few articles – hopefully several – it’s time to start promoting them. While it’s great that your articles are out there for people to read and republish, to get the best results, you’ll need to do some promotion. There are five main steps you should take to get the most traction from your articles:

1. Tweet about your article

Let people know when you have posted a new article in a directory by tweeting a link to your followers.  Letting them know about new information available from you is a quick and easy way to spread the word. A simple tweet should include the topic and the link, but try to stay under 120 characters so people have room to retweet your message without having it get cut off.

2. Post a link on your own blog

While you don’t want to post the entire article, you can mention it at the end of another post. For example, “Want to read more about how to train your puppy in a week or less? Check out my new article, “Tricks and Treats for Puppies,” and then link to the page.

3. Create a reprints page

Create a list of the articles you allow others to republish on an individual page within your blog or website. Link to it from the main page with a sentence that says, “Would you like to reprint my articles on your site? Click here for more information.” Then include links to your list of articles, as well as how interested parties can contact you for more information.

4. Promote them through other channels

Tell your audience about the articles you have available at every chance you get. This is why it’s great to have multiple articles out there — you can mention a different one in your newsletter, on your Facebook page, in your signature line on your emails, in forums, etc. If you’ve created targeted, useful content, people are going to want to know about it!

5. Combine and package them them

Once you’ve authored 10 or 20 articles on a similar theme, combine them and edit them into a guide, an e-book, a special report, or an e-course. Add more information, create transitions, toss in a resource or two, and you’ve got a product that you can give away or sell indefinitely.

Writing and publishing your first few articles is just the beginning of your marketing cycle. Think creatively about who would like the information you’ve written, and how you can get it to them, and you’re on your way to creating a steady stream of traffic to your site.

It is amazing how quickly a person’s opinion can change because of the smallest details. In online business, that is most often customer service. Done right, it can set you apart from other businesses and help build a trust-based relationship with your readers and potential customers. Just look at Zappos — tons of articles and even a book have been written about their unique and phenomenal customer service.

What is Customer Service?

Customer service is simply meeting the needs of your customers. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

For example, a reader signs up for newsletters or your affiliate program and then days go by before they receive a confirmation of your receipt of their request or they receive any information. That reader then decides to withdraw their request because they feel that you really don’t care.

It is important to follow through on the offers you make to both readers and customers alike. That is why they came to you in the first place. Doing your part helps them make the decision to stay.

Just like in a retail store, people don’t want to wander around aimlessly without any help from an associate. If they have to ask you to help them, then you’ve already dropped the ball. It’s your job to be available and offer assistance when you see it’s needed.

How to Provide Good Customer Service

Now, it would be unrealistic to think that you will sit at your computer 24/7 waiting for a reader to ask a question, but what you can do is put processes in place so that someone or something is there 24/7 to be available for any eventuality.

Examples of these processes could be:

• Auto-responder messages
• Scheduled newsletter deliver
• FAQ page that is always updated
• User-friendly tabs, site map and links to get around the website with ease
• Answering service
• Virtual assistant

Even when you can’t be available personally, you know that your readers and customers will be taken care of. For example: If you have an affiliate program, include enough information to help readers understand the benefits, how they can sign up and don’t forget to give them the tools and resources they’ll need to be successful. Sign up forms should only include pertinent information so they are as simple as possible to complete.

When you have time, go through your email messages for those whose question didn’t fit one of the recorded categories on your “Contact Us” page. The auto-responder message for them gives you an additional 24 hours to get back to them with the information they need.

Prompt service tells people that you are concerned about their business, that you value their input and want to keep them happy. Effective customer service is a big part of building a healthy long-lasting relationship with your readers and customers.

These days, web design pricing tends to be all over the map. You can find a lot of web designers who claim to be willing to design a website for $200, a lot who wouldn’t touch a project for less than $10,000 and even more who fall somewhere in between. So what’s the right price? You’re going to hate this answer, but there isn’t one right price. It’s sort of like buying a home; it depends on a lot of different variables.

Price is what you pay, value is what you get.

You could save tons of money by going with a dirt-cheap web designer, but if your website does a poor job of converting your visitors into customers, what did you really save? On the other hand, if you blow your entire marketing budget on the perfect website and then can’t afford to market it, did you really make a wise investment?

You need a website that presents a professional image and gives your visitors that warm fuzzy feeling deep in their gut that lets them know they can trust you. But more importantly, you need a website that converts your visitors into customers. It’s all about results.

To determine whether the price/value ratio is on the mark, you’ll have to know what your website needs to be capable of. Functionality impacts price. For example, our website design prices currently start at $1,225. That’s for a completely custom designed, multi-page website website, coded with valid HTML and CSS that works properly in all major browsers. Specialized functionality, like a content management system, which gives you the ability to easily  change your own website content, moves your investment up into the $2,200 range. The more bells and whistles you add, the more your website will cost.

Some people may be thinking that’s a lot of money, which is both right and wrong at the same time. If you just want to set up a blog as a hobby, a couple thousand dollars is probably a lot of money to spend, but if you want to set up a custom website for your company, investing a couple thousand dollars is virtually nothing. Think about it like this. You’re selling a product or service, and if you’re website allows you to increase your sales by even just 5%, how quickly will your investment pay for itself? More importantly, what will it mean to your bottom line after that?

What is the scope of your project

In addition to the functionality of your website, the scope of your project can have a significant impact on the price. More work obviously means more fees, so you’ll need to factor in certain details ahead of time, such as:

• How many pages will be included?
• Will you be providing content or will they write it for you?
• Who will input your content (copy and/or products)
• Is web hosting included?
• Is a domain name included?
• Will you be providing images/photos?

When do you need it?

You might be surprised at how many people wait until the last minute to start their web design project. If you want to save some money, don’t be that guy! When a firm has to rearrange their existing projects, work extended hours, through weekends or holidays to meet your deadline, there will be additional fees.

Experience counts

OJ Simpson can tell you how important it is to hire the right lawyer, and the same principal applies to web designers. An experienced web design firm will almost always charge more, but will produce much better results. We’re not just talking about appearance though. In this case, we’re talking about your bottom line. An experienced firm knows what it takes to get your new website up and running quickly, how to drive traffic to it and how to convert your visitors into customers.

Experienced web design firms will often utilize standardized processes, like our web design process, and checklists, like our web design checklist to make sure each client receives consistent quality, their specific needs are met and that no details are missed. If you’re considering several firms, look at the systems they’ve put in place, some of the websites they’ve designed, read their testimonials and even contact some of their clients. If they seem to have solid systems, you like the style of their work, and their clients are successful and happy with their service, it may be worth the additional cost to hire a more experienced firm.

The bottom line?

Price should never be your sole determining factor, in fact, it should be the last and least significant factor in your decision. You should choose a web design firm with sufficient experience to execute your project, but you also need to make sure you can afford to market your new website once it’s up and running. The “build it and they will come” days are far behind us.

No matter how well you maintain your website, eventually, you’re going to have broken links. You might have moved a page, put a typo in a link or maybe someone else linked to a page on your website that no longer (or never did) exist. The end result is a visitor or search engine arriving at a page that doesn’t exist.

Finding broken links within your website is simple and painless; you can either use W3C’s online link checker tool, or a more robust tool, like Xenu’s Link Sleuth, which is free and runs from your desktop. Finding broken links from other websites is equally simple, but takes a bit more work to fix them. First, you’ll have to dig through your server logs to find any 404 errors, then see which sites are linking to those non-existent pages and contact the site owners to have them corrected. If you can’t get in touch with the site owner, or he isn’t willing to correct the link, you’ll need to set up a 301 redirect to automatically send visitors and search engines to the correct page.

This is so important because if a visitors arrives at a non-existent page, they will usually just leave and visit one of your competitors instead. If a search engine finds several non-existent pages on your website, they may lower your ranking, which means less traffic.

Anyone who has taken on the task of driving traffic to their website knows how tough it can be. You can blog all day long, churning out post after post but you’ll still face the same challenge; if people don’t know about your website they can’t link to it or send traffic your way, no matter how great your content may be.

So what can you do?

For starters, you need to keep producing fresh content for your own website because that’s what will keep people coming back once they know about it, but you should also invest some time writing quality guest posts for other sites related to yours. This is an easy way to tap into an established group of visitors while building relevant backlinks. Keep in mind though — it’s not all about you! Your guest post should be well-written, informative, useful and not overly self-promotional. Darren Rowse has a great article on How to Guest Post to Promote Your Blog that you should definitely read before getting started.

Now, on to the list:

1. Mashable – Guest writer
   Page Rank: 7
   Alexa Ranking: 345
2. SmashingMagazine – Become a Author
   Page Rank: 7
   Alexa Ranking: 796
3. ProBlogger – Guest post
   Page Rank: 6
   Alexa Ranking: 1,999
4. Digital Inspiration – Write for DI
   Page Rank: 6
   Alexa Ranking: 2,446
5. SearchEngineJournal – Seo blog guest posts
   Page Rank: 7
   Alexa Ranking: 3,335
6. DailyBlogTips – Guest post
   Page Rank: 6
   Alexa Ranking: 4,673
7. QuickOnlineTips – Guest blogging
   Page Rank: 6
   Alexa Ranking: 6,847
8. JohnChow – Guest post
   Page Rank: 5
   Alexa Ranking: 7,527
9. Techie-Buzz – Write for us
   Page Rank: 5
   Alexa Ranking: 7,668
10. ShoutMeLoud – Join ShoutMeLoud
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 7,687
11. BloggingTips – Write for us
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 15,480
12. ProBlogDesign – Write for us
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 17,256
13. Blogussion – Write for us
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 17,591
14. SearchEnginePeople – Submit guest post writer
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 22,863
15. CourtneyTuttle – Write a post
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 24,593
16. MoneyMakerInfo – Looking for guest bloggers
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 26,830
17. The Web Squeeze – Write For Us
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 34,311
18. TechieBlogger – Write for Techie Blogger
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 39,873
19. ReveNews – Write at ReveNews
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 52,009
20. Seo-Scoop – Send guest post
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 52,038
21. The Net Setter – Guest post
    Page Rank: 5
    Alexa Ranking: 96,990
22. Techpp – Guest blogging
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 9,723
23. Teck.in – Guest blogging
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 19,943
24. HowToMakeMyBlog – Write for us
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 23,964
25. TricksDaddy – Submit guest post
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 28,862
26. DailySeoTip – Contribute an seo tip
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 24,669
27. SmartBloggerz – Write for us
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 35,909
28. BashBosh – Guest post
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 42,674
29. Carlocab – Write for this blog
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 56,786
30. CanIMakeBigMoneyOnline – Guest blogger
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 105,013
31. DazzlinDonna – Guest Posts
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking 151,767
32. SearchAnyway Blog – For writers
    Page Rank: 4
    Alexa Ranking: 285,569
33. CatsWhoCode Blog – Contribute post
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 11,933
34. FreelanceFolder – Write for us
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 11,997
35. Caroline Middlebrook Blog – Invitation to guest posters
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 21,978
36. FamousBloggers – Submit your article
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 23,806
37. EarnersBlog – Submit post
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 19,493
38. BlogSolute – Guest post
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 27,452
39. BlogGodown – Write for us
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 28,456
40. TechCats – Guest blogging
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 46,201
41. eBlogTip – Guest blogger
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 48,939
42. MyBlog2Day – Guest blogger
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 52,443
43. WP Blogger – Submit a Guest Post
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 65,230
44. Teenius – Guest post Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 107,253
45. DaneBlogger – Write For DaneBlogger
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 115,454
46. TechnoGati – Become guest writer
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 153,207
47. Technotip – Guest post guidelines
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 159,897
48. BetterBloggingforBloggers – Open for guest bloggers
    Page Rank: 3
    Alexa Ranking: 227,196
49. Business Consulting Buzz – Write for us
    Page Rank 3
    Alexa Ranking: 305,608
50. ScopeForMoney – Submit post
    Page Rank: 2
    Alexa Ranking: 55,989
51. Serradinho Blog – Submit guest post
    Page Rank: 2
    Alexa Ranking: 57,979
52. MillionClues – Guest blogging
    Page Rank: 2
    Alexa Ranking: 97,056
53. E-MoneyMarketing – Guest bloggers wanted
    Page Rank: 2
    Alexa Ranking: 200,758
54. Gdiworkathome – Write for us
    Page Rank: 2
    Alexa Ranking: 289,977
55. JackNguyen – Be a guest blogger
    Page Rank: 1
    Alexa Ranking: 114,995

Every now and then, even the biggest companies make a stupid move, but I can honestly say it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything quite this bad.

First American Title Insurance held a webinar last month to teach their agents that the closing experience when buying a home is somehow different for African-Americans because of cultural differences.

The first thing that First American needs to do is visit Amazon and pick up a copy of Webster’s Dictionary so they can learn that race and culture are two very different things. The second thing they need to do is exercise a little common sense the next time they prepare an email marketing campaign.

Here’s a little newsflash guys, just because someone is white, black, hispanic or martian, it doesn’t mean they will have the same views or opinions as others from the same racial group.

Far too often, a website redesign starts off focused on appearance instead of measurable goals. If appearance is your first priority, you’re on the fast-track to failure, so before you jump into the fun stuff, grab a pad and a pen and spend some time figuring out the answers to these 4 questions:

1. What are your goals? Before you change a single line of code, before you even start thinking about what your new website will look like, you need to know exactly what you want it to accomplish. Do you want your new website to present a particular image? Do you want it to generate more leads/sales or do a better job of converting the traffic you’re already getting? Figure this out and you’ll get a lot more from your new website, plus, the entire process will move more smoothly and quickly.
2. What is and isn’t working? You need to know how your current website impacts your goals. This means spending some time analyzing your website traffic, leads and sales. You’ll probably notice that a small handful of sources drive most of your traffic, leads and sales, but a little more digging will often turn up some low-hanging fruit that you’re missing out on. Maybe you’ll realize that 70% of your revenue comes from one or two products, which would be an indication that you should focus on developing more similar products. Or perhaps you have a #1 ranking for a particular keyword but don’t rank at all for a few other variations that may drive reasonable traffic with lower competition. The more you dig, the more opportunities you’ll find.
3. What are you up against? Potential customers will be looking at your competitors, so you need to as well. The idea isn’t to copy, or even emulate them. The idea is to make sure that your website covers the same bases they do while filling in the gaps they’ve missed. For example, if all of your competitors offer online ordering, you damn sure better offer it too, but also offer what they don’t. Perhaps you sell a complex product that people often call you about before ordering online. You could launch a blog or forum that lets your visitors learn more about it. This helps present you as an industry leader and will often help to shorten your sales process too.
4. Where are you now? Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was Apple, Starbucks or any other large, successful company. Take a cold and emotionless look at where you stand today; traffic, exposure, brand recognition, budget, etc. If you’re running a small mom-and-pop store with little website traffic, spending thousands of dollars to add the newest web 2.0 social-media this and that to your website is a really bad idea. You need to invest for the future, but rather than adding features, focus on driving traffic and building a brand. Before you add any special functionality, you should determine how it’s going to help you reach your goals.

As if you didn’t already have enough technical terms to deal with, now everyone is talking about CSS and you may find yourself wondering what it is, why it matters, and more importantly, what it can do for you.

CSS, otherwise known as Cascading Style Sheets, is simply a way to tell a web browser how to display the elements on an HTML page. It offers more precise control and is supported by all browsers today.

Ideally, your CSS should be contained in a separate file, which is then linked to within the and head tags of each web page, as such:

<link rel='stylesheet' href='/style.css' type='text/css' media='all' />

The first, and most significant advantage in using CSS this way is that it puts all of your formatting into a single file. This means that rather than editing each individual page, you only have to change one file, which can save you a lot of time and effort when you make changes. For example, instead of using cumbersome tables to control your layout, you can use CSS to position and style elements, and the best part is that if you’ve set it up properly from the beginning, you can change your entire design by just modifying your CSS file. A great example of this is CSS Zen Garden. In each example, the HTML remains the same, the only thing that has changed is the external CSS file; it allows complete control over the appearance of an HTML document. The learning curve can be steep, but once you have a solid understanding, you can create more compelling designs in far less time than ever before.

CSS can help improve your search engine optimization (though just slightly) by reducing the ratio of code to text, which makes your content more relevant in the eyes of the search engines, resulting in more traffic. Less code also means a faster load loading page; another factor in how a web page ranks, but also a factor in your page view numbers because people will usually spend more time on a faster website.

By now, it’s probably obvious that you need a solid understanding of CSS. To get started, you can find tutorials on every aspect of CSS at W3Schools.com and for more advanced learning and interaction with experts on the subject, you’ll want to bookmark CSS Tricks, by Chris Coyier. That information along with a few books and healthy dose of trial and error will take you a long way to becoming a CSS pro!

Building a successful website takes a lot of work, and the lion’s share of that work is writing content that keeps your visitors engaged and coming back. To do that, you have to know what they’re looking for, which means you have to invest some time in keyword research. Below is a list of keyword research tools to help you find the right topics to write about, but be careful not to rely on any single tool; you should always check several sources before making any major decisions. Ok, now on to the list:

#1. AdWords Keyword Tool

This tool is based on search queries, but for some keywords, the search volume is way off. Particularly for popular, high-volume keywords. I’ll go out on a limb and speculate that comes from SEOs and website owners obsessively checking their ranking, which inflates the search volume. In any case, the AdWords Keyword Tool gives you a great starting point and some relative data to compare, along with plenty of keywords you may not have thought of.

#2. Google Wonder Wheel

The Google Wonder Wheel tool has the potential to dig up lots of semantically connected keywords, but it also has some serious drawbacks; mainly, the fact that there is no easy way to export the keywords and there is volume data. That means you have to manually retype any keywords you want to research further, and find volume info elsewhere. In my opinion though, it’s worth the effort.

#3. Wordtracker

Unlike the keyword tools provided by the search engines, the data from Wordtracker usually more accurate since the keyword data is their core business model. In the right hands, this tool can yield amazing results, and that’s why it comes highly recommended by SEO experts like Aaron Wall.

#4. Thesaurus.com

Not all keyword research has to come from SEO tools. Thesaurus.com can provide a wealth of new ideas if you’re willing to do a bit of digging, and the best part is you may stumble onto untapped keywords. The only downside is since there’s no way to export the data, you’ll have to copy and paste.

#5. Search Suggest

All of the major search engines these days offer related suggestions when you begin typing your query into the search box, and you can and should use that information in your keyword research.

#6. SEMRush

Along with search volume and related keywords, SEMRush also gives you information on trends so you can decide if a particular keyword is worth pursuing, and unlike most of the other tools, their data is compiled from a variety of sources.