I thought I would spread around some BTCs into alternative coins. I wish I wouldn't have bothered.
One exchange I used was BTer.com because it was the only place that seemed to have the largest variety of coins I was interested in. For instance ProtoCoins.

In the end, not a fan of low-amount dabbling in other coins on BTer. For example, for some reason I was allowed to BUY 10 quarkcoins. But now I can't sell them because I don't have enough of them.  The 0.18% transaction cost on everything  really adds up too. Also found out that since the exchange holds the coins for you, then you can't get any of the benefit ProtoCoins offers (such as matched coins from their new offerings).

Having said all that though, I think some full on non-dabbling is warranted. Early on, the developers at FeatherCoin looked like they were creating something good, and it would have been a great speculative buy. LiteCOin has a lot of action going on for it overseas and should be strong. FastCoin is... fast.  Which they are trying to leverage.  Just do some homework, and watch CoinMarketCap to watch the tide of money.