Domain Name Registration and Renewal Fees to Increase on October 14

Back in April 2007, ICANN and Verisign announced that the domain name registration and renewal fees would increase by 7% on October 14, 2007. It's expected that all domain registrars will pass this cost increase on to their customers.

However, if you renew your domain registration before October 14 (even if it's not due to be renewed yet), you can lock in the current fee rate for as many years as the registrar will allow. For instance, GoDaddy's current domain name registration fee for .COM names is $8.95 per year, and they will allow you to register that domain for up to 10 years at a discounted $8.49 per year rate.

Here are two things to do before October 14:

1. Look at your existing domains and determine which ones you want to keep/renew before the price increase.

2. Decide if you are comfortable with your current domain registrar's prices. Some companies are offering a great deal on "transfers" of an existing domain from your old registrar to a new registrar.

It pays to do some shopping around. While GoDaddy's domain name registration fee starts at $8.99 a year, Register.com's registration rate is $35.00 a year.

Let's put this price difference in perspective. I own 21 domain names.

• If I were to renew with GoDaddy, it would cost me a total of $188.79 per year.
• If I were to renew with Register.com, it would cost me $735.00 per year.

That's a steep price difference, especially to self-employed people who try to keep their expenses down. And, yes, my domain registrations (and my hosting) are through GoDaddy.

My Favorite (Office) Things: Post-It Dispensers

I wanted to share with you some of the office supply items I use -- especially those items I use daily (almost hourly) and make my work day easier.

Today's favorite: Post-It Pop-Up Dispensers.

I'm always losing my small pads of post-it notes. They get lost under other papers, or get pushed behind the desk. Then when I finally clean up my desk, I find a half-dozen of these pads scattered about.

Solution: Dispenser.

These are regular Post-It notes, in a weighted dispenser you can keep on your desk. You purchase special pop-up post-it note paper to put in the dispenser, and whenever you need a Post-It note, there it is! It never falls off the desk and it never gets lost among the papers.

It's an inexpensive solution to one of life's little annoyances. You can purchase them at Amazon.com.

Mastermind Groups Discussion on the Radio

Last week I was on The Blog Squad's radio program, talking about Mastermind groups. Give a listen here.

You can also read my article, How to Create and Run a Mastermind Group.

Is Your Important Business Data Safe?

A few weeks ago we had a burglary in our office. Among the items they stole were two laptops.

But our data -- especially our confidential client information -- was safe. Here's how:

• We don't keep client credit card information on our computers or in paper anywhere in the office. It's all kept online in our shopping cart, and it's only kept online for one day -- the day the client's transaction gets processed through the system. Then it's cleared out of the cart.


• We keep all client files in a locked drawer or fire-proof safe.


• We burn or shred all client information from inactive clients.


• We don't keep notes about the client in the computer. Instead, we take all notes manually and keep them locked away with the client files.


• We back up our computers daily to an offsite backup. We use http://www.mozy.com/ (recommended by Consumer Reports), which automatically uploads any new or updated files each night.

There are three things you need to protect against: loss of data because a hard drive fails, loss of data because of theft, and loss of data because of fire or flood. Most people backup their data to an external hard drive or CD. That will protect you if your hard drive fails, but it won't protect you if your computer gets stolen or burns up in a fire.

We've learned some important lessons about office data security through this experience, and you know we'll write an ebook about it as soon as the dust settles!

Think Small and Accomplish Great Things

Mary came to me to create big, new changes for her business. How exciting, having a big dream! She had a million ideas and a solid, well thought-out task lists to back up the big plan. Except there was one small problem – Mary's dream was dying on the vine. By thinking big she was overwhelming herself. She was paralyzed.

Mary asked me, "How do you accomplish all the things you do? Do you have some mysterious time management system that I need to know about?"

Nope. No time management system. No crystal ball. No magic wand. Just one mantra: Think Big and Think Small.

Thinking Big is about dreaming and strategic design; it answers the questions, "What do I want?" and "Why do I want it now?"

Thinking Small is about tactical planning; it answers the question, "How do I accomplish it?"

Great things are accomplished through thinking in small steps. Anyone who has tried to stop smoking or lose weight knows you do it one day (one hour, one moment) at a time. Anyone who has attempted to do a 30-mile hike knows it's simply a case of one foot in front of the other.

People with big business dreams often forget these well-known truths about how to tackle big things. Mary became frustrated because things weren't moving fast enough. She was ready to give up her dream because there was too much to do and she didn't know which task to do first. When she did start a task, she abandoned it if it took longer -- or was more complicated -- than she thought it should be.

We live in a world of instant gratification. It numbs us to what's really important: to live the big, juicy, vibrant life you desire. We're afraid that thinking small and taking small steps forward because we equate it with being small and having a small life. Nothing could be further from the truth.

No matter how much you try, you can only really do one thing at a time. You may think that multi-tasking makes you more productive, but studies show that multi-tasking actually reduces your ability to accomplish tasks. So instead of trying to do five tasks simultaneously I'm advocating this approach: put exquisite, conscious effort into one task at a time, complete it, and move on to the next.

How do you know what small step to take first? You have been gifted with four pillars of life the day you were born: your intellect, your emotions, your intuition, and other human beings. Start by asking yourself, "What one small thing can I do, right now, that will move me towards my big goal?" Don't give up if the answer doesn’t come to you immediately; have patience and allow the answer to bubble up to the surface.

If the answer still doesn't come to you, ask other people for help. Talk to supportive people who fully understand your big dream and can help you to look at the small tasks you must do to accomplish the goal. Write down the tasks or draw them on a piece of paper and ask yourself, "Does this feel right?" Write in pencil so that you can re-arrange it until it truly feels right to you. Then do one small task at a time.

I'm encouraging you to do both: Dream Big, Think Small, and you will succeed.