Before you look at me like I’ve lost my mind – I haven’t. The competition is being hosted by Websites.com and they’re giving away $10k to the winner. To win this award you need to submit your small business website.

All you have to do is get a website design that kicks ass. The website can be hosted anywhere but you will have to become a member of websites.com to enter the contest which will take you 5 minutes tops. What’s more, websites.com is even giving you a chance to pair up with a web designer of your choice.

If you’re not sure which web designer to go for, they have their own directory of web designers that you can choose from.

Please note that you will have to pay the web designer their fee regardless of whether you win or not. Remember, its not the web designers who’re entering the contest, it’s you. So the designer needs to be paid. Think of it this way, there will no sharing required of the $10k if you win

The deadline to enter is July 29th. You just need to enter the competition to let them know you’re a contestant. The date for submitting the actual website design is in September which gives you more than a month to come up with a kick-ass website design. After the initial judging, the nominees will be put up for public voting and the winner will be announced on October 2nd 2009.

It’s a great competition to boost your business and get you moving in case you’ve been dragging your feet about designing your small business website.

Once you’ve entered the competition, don’t forget to check out the judging criteria. Let us know if you enter the competition (and win)!

P.S: The runner up get $3000.

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I’m about three days late but since people still wishing me a very Happy New Year, I figured I’d stop feeling bad about being late and wish you guys.

May this year bring you happiness, health and success. May all our writing dreams come to fruition and may our blogs get enough traffic and make enough money to put a smile on our face

Now if that isn’t a heartfelt wish, I don’t know what is!

What are your wishes for the new year? Set up any goals for yourselves?

One way to constantly remind yourself of your goals is to write them on a paper and tuck them in your wallet. Keep it with you at all times. You’ll find yourself coming across it at odd times which will serve as great motivation.

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I have to say, I was ready to dish out up to $15 for a domain name. I was reading Blogging to the Bank and through there was directed to Hostazar. Then a friend recommended Domains Priced Right. I found a domain there for $7.69. I would have bought one there and then had my PayPal confirmed my credit card. Since there was time, I got back to my lazy browsing and read Elite By Designs 170+ Must Have Tools for a Beginning Blogger.

Through there I followed the various links to domain buying websites. None offered me a better price than Domains Priced Right till I noticed that 1and1.com had a sale going on! If I bought a domain before December 31st, I’d get a $5 discount the first year which brought the buying price at $3.99!

Needless to say, I bought a domain soon as my PayPal confirmed my credit card. I realize that once this one year is over, I’ll need to pay around $9. Which is fine by me. It’s still less than what I was willing to pay.

Keep in mind that this is just for buying a domain. If you’re looking for hosting, there are other offers. So if you’ve been thinking about buying a domain, now is the time to do it! Go to www.1and1.com and get your domain. The offer ends on Midnight December 31st!

Note: Always keep your domain independent of your host!

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I know a lot of struggling freelancers won’t be taking a break this Christmas. I won’t be either. But even though, we think we’ll be able to catch up with the tons of work we’ve got, its not going to help in the long run.

Our hearts and minds will be with our family, knowing we can’t give them our proper attention and our work will suffer.

So how do we cope with the feeling of guilt and compulsion to perform? We compromise. Work in blocks. You know what times are most looked forward to by your family. Spend it with them, and then after a while, excuse yourself for an hour or two, close yourself in a room and work like crazy. You’ll be looking forward to going back out to your family and would feel happier working because you wouldn’t be ignoring it either. And trust me, your family would be much more understanding too.

Whatever you do, don’t use these holidays as an excuse to work non-stop. Nothing, absolutely nothing is more important than family.

So get your butts off the chair, shut the lid of your laptop, get out and spend time with your family already! On that note, I wish you all a very, very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year! May all your dreams come true.

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How cool is that?! All you have to do is subscribe to Yan Susanto’s Thou Shall Blog’s e-mail updates, blog about it and leave a comment letting them know you did. Of course the blog is worth subscribing to. I’ve been going through it for most of the afternoon and found quite a few gems. Love the lay out too by the way.

I have my eye on most of the stuff offered by the sponsors! Let’s see, there’s the Ipod Shuffle with free shipping anywhere in the world (yes, even to UAE!), Free domain and a 6 month free hosting (Me! Me! Meeeee!) a couple of WordPress themes, and a copy of Problogger book. Of course these are just the ones I liked. There are a few consultations up as well.

It was like I stumbled onto an early Christmas! All right, only if I win something but still! The idea is exciting! Still not convinced? Check out the top 10 reasons to subscribe to Thou Shall Blog.

Subscribe to Yan’s blog now and you might stand a chance to win some awesome Christmas goodies courtesy of Blog for Beginners, Become a Better Blogger, Blog Setup for Beginners, Blog Blazers, Internet Marketing with Joe, A Blogger Blog, Site Flip Remix, the Marketing Vision, How To Blog, Extreme Ezine and the Ultimate Blogging Theme.

Have you found other Christmas offers that made you rubs your hands in glee?

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I first heard about Site Build It! at Problogger where Darren had put up a glowing user review. To be honest, I was skeptical reading the review. The review was altogether too praising and there weren’t any disadvantages listed. Then I started reading the comments and realized that there weren’t any cons pointed out because people hadn’t found any.

Site Build It! targets everyone who is confused by keywords, search engine optimization and ad placements. If you want to focus on your writing and not spend weeks trying to grasp the countless aspects of monetizing your website then SBI! is for you.

SBI! is on my list of things to get as soon as I reach a few goals and complete the timeline I’ve set for myself. But you don’t have to follow my timeline. They have a great ‘Buy-1 Get-1 Free’ Christmas offer going on. When you buy one SBI! they give you another free of cost. It would make for a great Christmas gift to someone, or you can use this offer to set up two sites.

The cost of Site Built It! is not too high, but it costs enough to make you look into it thoroughly before making the purchase. You will have to renew your SBI! every year. If the testimonials are anything to go by, that’s not an issue if you’re hosting your business through it as the returns make up for the yearly renewal.

Their offer ends at the stroke of midnight on Christmas day. Surprise your loved ones or yourself and order SBI! before then. Got Questions? Contact SBI! and get answers.

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I like the spirit of thanksgiving. Where I come from, thanksgiving is not celebrated. It’s not a holiday or a special day. Even though thankfulness is a big part of our faith, there’s no religious, cultural or social event to mark it.

My mum’s spent years telling me that I should be thankful every single day. Mum, I know you’re right, but it’s just not possible! But, remembering to be thankful one day is more than possible.

So keeping with the spirit of the day, I’d like to express my thankfulness for the one thing without which I probably wouldn’t know half of what I know – which isn’t much to begin with but you get my drift.

The thing I’m most thankful for is the Internet. You heard me folks! Without the Internet I probably wouldn’t have gotten interested in writing, I wouldn’t have read about different cultures, wouldn’t have gotten obsessed with world affairs and my horizons would have remained narrow had I not had access to the world wide web to find answers for every and anything I could think of.

Having been born and raised in a country that in its best years was called a ‘developing country’, the Internet became my portal of knowledge. It is the reason I chose the discipline I chose for my Bachelors. It’s responsible for making me a writer and it is also the medium through which I get work.

Most of all, I’m thankful for all the learning opportunities it gives me. From taking online classes to attending conferences – without it I wouldn’t even be a freelancer!

My thanksgiving giveaway: As a thanksgiving gift, I’m going to give 5 working hours free of charge. If you have a project that you want to work on but can’t find the time or the money, I’ll work for you for no charge.

Remember, I’m a writer so the work should have something to do with words. I’m open to all kinds of work. Writing, editing, proofreading, ghost writing etc. Even that of a Virtual Assistant. Be creative, or not. There are lots of possibilities.

If the work requires less than five hours, I’ll take on someone else’s work. The offer is valid till Sunday on a first come first serve basis. Monday I start working the allotted hours!

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