Over the last year, I've worked to transfer all domains from the horrendous labyrinth of GoDaddy hell to the more serene interface of 1and1.com.

At the time, I had about 50 domains. After I'd axed what I didn't need, I was left with 30.

Instead of transferring them all at one time, I decided to do them as they came due.

Serious mistake. While this saved a one-time cash pay-out, it caused a lot of headaches. 

Here are some tips based on my personal experience with domain transfers. If you've learned headaches to avoid, please share those in the comments. I'd love to hear them!

• Weed out the old. Review the domains you have and delete those you don't need. This can be difficult - especially if you purchased several to brand a series. Get tough with those that are likely to remain good thoughts and be vigilant with those that are use regularly.
• Check the time. Note the dates of your domain renewals. Initiate transfers about a month before they are due, if possible. If it is the day before, you are better off renewing through your old provider, then doing the transfer. If you don't, your domain could go on the auction block before the transfer completes. In my case, I had to pay GoDaddy so the name would not be forfeited, then also pay for the transfer. That was like paying twice for the right to use that name.
• Get the details. Each domain provider has its own way to transfer domains. Find out what you need to do, print out the FAQ and keep it handy. Also, make sure your contact information is correct - especially the email - in your old account. The domain provider will send you an email to confirm the transfer.
• Transfer in bulk. Once you get rid of the ones you really don't need, initiate the transfers. Do them all at once instead of as they come due. Do it at a time when your new domain provider has a special deal, like an initial transfer fee that is half what you normally pay. Sometimes, providers will let you secure that rate for several years. Before you begin, ask customer service if they can transfer them for you. Typically, you need hundreds for them to do it, but some companies hungry for new business will do it for you. Also, ask them to give you a special deal even if it isn't advertised. If you have a lot of domains, or want to transfer your entire hosting package there, they might cut you a deal. (Hey, just ask. All they can do is say NO, right?)
• List 'em. Keep a detailed list of the domains you are working with. Mark them as they get transfered. This can sometimes take days, so a list is extremely helpful to stay organized. Also, archive the final transfer emails - perhaps even keep printed copies in a folder for future reference.

HOT TIP: Whether you transfer or not, be sure your domain is set to auto-renew and that your credit card information is accurate. That way, you will never be in danger of losing it. You can also sign up for five or ten-year contracts. If you do this, be sure you use an email you plan to have for the long-term, so the company can contact you about the renewal.

Over the last few weeks, several authors have asked me if blogging is really good for book marketing.

The short answer is YES!

Blogs are an incredible, free way to improve your search engine rankings, connect with readers and constantly promote your work. They are interactive, which makes them more interesting than the static pages of a traditional Web site.

Why do readers like blogs? 

Tidbits about authors. Blogs are personal musings that readers can devour to learn more about their FAV writers. Readers like personal details. It makes them feel like they know you.


Up-to-date information. Many times, authors will update their blogs more frequently than their Web sites. That makes an author blog the go-to place for info on the latest releases.

Contests. Blogs are a great way to share contest information - even if the contest is held on a social network like Twitter.

Social network links. Readers check out blogs to find author handles and links for social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Scoops. Many authors share the cover art to their new books well before the street date. They also give tantalizing glimpses into coming stories, free short stories, and more - free items that readers eat up.

Comments. Readers love to chat, but they won't always have an opportunity to speak to their favorite authors at book signings. Comments are a great way to get feedback from fans. 

Free stuff. Who doesn't love free stuff? Readers especially enjoy a good contest filled with freebies like books, bookmarks, postcards, coffee samplers (with a cup) and more. They also like free short stories, original art and anything unique the author can post.

As a reader, what makes you check out an author's blog?

Cheryl K. Tardif

I know hundreds of writers who fall victim to the deadly P-syndrome. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you’re one of the lucky ones. This syndrome is not only a killer of words and inspiration, but it can also be contagious, claiming other areas of the victim’s life or spreading to others. Washing your hands won’t keep P-syndrome away―unless washing your hands is part of a new mindset, one where you set daily goals.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking about PROCRASTINATION. It can be extremely debilitating to an author.

Worst case scenarios:

• Author has an exciting idea for a new book or short story or article, but procrastinates about writing it and it never gets written
• Writer is writing a novel, but puts it aside every time something else needs to be done―like laundry, dishes, cooking, eating, sleeping, brushing dog, dressing kids, coffee at Starbucks…and the list goes on and on, so the work never really gets any quality writing time.
• Author needs to set up book signings for the week before Christmas, but doesn’t start making calls until December 15th, only to find there are no spots open and he’ll have to sell his books from the trunk of his car in 40 below weather.
• Writer needs to edit his chapters, but leaves it, eventually talking himself out of it because: ‘They weren’t that bad anyway. Were they?’
•  Author needs a new publisher, but has decided to start her search “tomorrow”. Well, you know what they say? “Tomorrow” never comes.

Writers, I get it. I really do. I can procrastinate with the best of them. Heck, I put off writing this article for a few days, even though I was excited to do so. No one’s perfect. However, there are ways that you can diminish P-syndrome’s effects and actually have something to show for it.

How? It’s simple. Set goals!

If you’re a parent, you know how hard most kids will work for that gold star. I’m not suggesting you buy those stars, but hey, if that’s what’ll work for you, go for it. I think, in general, that most writers will function more effectively if they set small goals each day. It’s also important to have intermediate goals for a few months down the road; and of course, you’ll want long term goals.

The key to goal setting is this: Set the goal, commit to it, do it and celebrate it.

For me, I find it very helpful to announce my daily goal to the world. Nowadays, that’s an easy thing to do. Log in to your Twitter account (writers, if you’re not on Twitter, you’re missing out) and send out a tweet about your goal. Use the #writegoal hashtag in your tweet. You can even search for #writegoal and read other people’s writing goals. Give them KUDOS when they achieve theirs, and the next thing you know, you’ll have your own personal cheering section.

My tweets usually look like this: Today’s #writegoal is 1000 words and edit 1 chapter.

I usually try to remember to post later that day or the next morning to let people know if I’ve achieved my goal. Shouting it out to the world makes me more determined to achieve it. In many cases, my reply was: Yesterday’s #writegoal was 1000 words. I did 1500. YAY!

In an email from www.HigherAwareness.com, it states: “The 80/20 rule says that on a list of 10 tasks, only 2 of those tasks will return 80% of the value of the entire list.” So the trick is to find those top 2 tasks, do them and reap the 80% value reward.

Here are some tips on goal setting:

1. Make a list of your top 10 priorities for today, things you want to do or achieve.
2. Now circle the 2 that could actually affect your career or your biggest dream.
3. Do those 2 first.
4. Reward yourself after you’ve done those top 2.
5. Work on remaining goals in your list, giving yourself permission to carry some into the next day. That’s not procrastination; that’s organization!

Goal setting isn’t about cracking the whip and being rigid. It’s about recognizing which actions will actually move you forward in life and closer to the big picture. If you don’t have a big picture, find one. Do you want to be a bestselling author? Do you want to be well known like Stephen King and JK Rowling? Do you want to quit your job and write full time? Do you want to see your book made into a film? Do you want to make decent money from writing?

Find your dream and dream it BIG!

The other key to setting goals is rewarding yourself for a goal you’ve achieved. The best rewards are those things you like to do that often pull you away from your writing. But you can also reward yourself with the less important goals.

Let’s say you really need to fold laundry today. But you also want to write a chapter of your sizzling romance novel. Set the goal that will propel you forward, which is the writing. Once you’ve written that chapter, go fold laundry. Maybe the reward is watching an hour of your favorite soap opera or a hockey game. Whatever it is, use it as a reward for accomplishing your top goals.

I once used chocolate as my reward. Sure, I could have eaten it while working on my latest novel, but instead I set a goal to write 1500 words. Once I finished this―and in record time, I might add―I ate the chocolate.

So, writers, be a goal setter. Before you even turn on your computer or sit down to write, list your top 2 most important goals and set the reward in advance. In the end, the best reward is the feeling of accomplishment you’ll get when you see you’re 2 steps closer to your dream because you did what you set out to do that day―achieved your goals.

“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.” --Nido Qubein

About the author
Cheryl Kaye Tardif is a bestselling suspense author who is currently working on her debut romance novel Lancelot’s Lady, which you can read for free at www.textnovel.com. She has appeared on TV and radio, and in newspapers and magazines in Canada and the US. Cheryl also shares her marketing experience with other writers as a book marketing coach.

http://www.cherylktardif.com
http://www.shamelessbookpromoter.com
 

Tony Eldridge

Special thanks to Tony Eldridge for today's post in the Market My Novel Time Management series!

It seems that Things To Do are never-ending tasks that find a way of dominating our time. I know that with me, I have to juggle watching 3 year old twin boys during the day, creating videos, blogging, writing, contacting and scheduling guest bloggers, attending offline meetings and working a job that I choose to work during the 3rd shift so that I can find time to do everything else. Somehow, my wife and I try to find some time to spend with each other.

Yeah, I know... cry me a river, right? The truth is, we all have tasks that we have to find a way to get done consistently and accurately. Well, I had so many things happening that I started to turn reactive with my time management. I let my tasks dictate to me how I was spending my time rather than mastering my tasks and ultimately finding peace of mind and more time to do the things I wanted to do. My wife said to me, "Maybe you ought to examine how you are spending your time." By then, I was living (barely) on three hours of sleep a night.

I finally decided to take a proactive stand and get a hold of my time management practices. I found a way to use tools available to us all that effectively turned my computer into a virtual personal assistance. The results: I now sleep about six hours a night, spend more time with the twins and I get more things done. It's a great feeling to know that things are done (or will be) and not have to constantly be worrying about what I am missing.

Here are some simple ways that I found to take charge of my time and how they act as my own personal assistant:

Find a calendar and use it- I use MS Outlook, but Google and Yahoo have calendars that have many of the same powerful time-saving features. These calendars also allow you to sync with Outlook and your iPod Touch or PDA. I will be talking about the things I do in Outlook, but know that you can recreate the same things in these free online calendars. (Sir, you have three appointments today at 9:00am, 11:00am and 3:00PM- Bring your PowerPoint to the 11:00 meeting.)

Task List- I love these tasks list. Sometimes you don't need to create an appointment (which takes place at a specific time on a specific date), you just need to have a task that needs to get done. You can set up these tasks for a one-time job or for reoccurring activities. You can set these reoccurring tasks to take place with no end or for a specific number of occurrences. One thing I love about Outlook is that it allows me to flag an e-mail to automatically assign a task to it. This is a great way to make sure no e-mails fall through the cracks. There is also a physiological benefit associated with tasks: Your body releases endorphins when you check off a completed task and it feels sooo good! (Sir, here is a list of your tasks for the day.)

 Alerts- Appointments and tasks can be programmed to send you an alert before they are due. You can schedule these alerts to take place anytime before they are due. So, if you set an appointment 2 months out, you can set up an alert to remind you about it the day before. Alerts are great ways to serve as a back-up to scheduled events (Sir, don't forget you have an appointment tomorrow with Mr. X at 2:00 PM.)

Schedule E-mails- This is a nifty little trick that I just learned how to do in Outlook (I'm not sure if Gmail or Yahoo mail allows this or not). When there is an e-mail that needs to go out later, I write it, schedule it to go out at a specific future date and time, and it sits in my outbox until the time arrives I have scheduled it to go out. I love this and it bypasses the need to create a task to send the e-mail out and allows me to take care of it immediately. I use this when I schedule new guest authors on my blog. Since I schedule them months out, it's nice to be able to send a friendly reminder a few days before I need the post. Now I can schedule that reminder the moment I confirm the date they will be a guest on my blog. (Sir, I will remind Ms. Doe about her guest post six days before you need it.)

Sync with my iPod Touch- There are settings and apps available that allow me to sync all of these things with my iPod touch (Thanks to my wonderful wife for this unexpected and awesome 40th birthday gift last month!) Not only can I sync my appointments, tasks and e-mails so I can have them with me when I am away from my computer, I can create new ones on my iPod Touch and sync them back on my computer when I get home. (Sir, here is list of all your appointments, tasks and e-mails for you to have access to on your trip today. I will update your calendar with your new appointments and tasks.)

I know that I haven't shared anything earth-shattering here today, but sometimes the most effective things we can do are often right under our noses. You want to know what the great thing is about setting up a time management routine using these tools? Multi-billion dollar corporations use these same tools effectively because they work. They are simple, free, and powerful. The more you use them, the more ways you can see how they can help you. The built-in functions are deep and actually pretty amazing.

To get started on these tools, start to play around with them. The help menus do a pretty good job at teaching you how to use the features, but I find that video tutorials found on YouTube are wonderful at showing me shortcuts and time-management applications I may need. Also do a Google Blog search for people who share their tips on how to get the most of these tools. Once you get started and really rely on these tools to help you with your time management activities, you will be thrilled at how they can help you master your schedule and not let your schedule master you.

About the author:

Tony Eldridge is the author of the award winning action/adventure novel, The Samson Effect, which Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the creator of Marketing Tips for Authors, a site the publishes free tips and videos to help authors learn marketing techniques for their books. You can read the serial release of The Samson Effect at http://samsoneffect.marketingtipsforauthors.com/

Lisa Mason

If you’re trying to write your own articles for article marketing, there are a lot of things to know. You need to understand basic spelling and grammar skills, SEO and keywords, how to create great headlines and so much more. This can be a lot to take in, especially if you’re new at article writing.

One of the most difficult problems new article writers face is time management. It can be difficult to learn all of these things and still write well in a fast and efficient manner. However, there are some things you can learn and things you can do to help you manage your time and get more done when it comes to article writing and marketing.

Here are some tips for time management for article marketing:

• Create a “game plan” for how many articles you want to complete in a particular period of time
• Be sure the goals you set are realistic and attainable
• Set forth a step-by-step guide for reaching these goals
• Discover where you are wasting time- time yourself writing each article or log what you do during your writing sessions. Many people find they are surfing the Internet, posting on Twitter, browsing Flickr and other activities instead of actually writing
• Prioritize to reach your goals- If you don’t seem to have enough time in your day for everything, it may be that you need to let go of some things that are not as important
• Learn to time yourself on writing tasks- then stick to it. If you go over your time limit for one thing, skip it and move on to the next thing. You can come back to it later when you have time. If not, you will be behind on everything and it’s impossible to “make up” the lost time.
• Stay organized so your writing system goes as planned
• Always write something during your allotted time for writing- even if it’s just free-writing to loosen up the brain

Now with these tips on time management for article marketing, your article writing and posting does not have to seem like such a difficult or daunting task. You can use these tips each and every time you write articles and also incorporate them into other parts of your life as well.

Happy article writing!

About the Author:
Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles and the author of How to Earn a Living Writing for the Internet as well as two poetry anthologies and a how-to poetry book. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of eBooks and thousands of website pages and related content in her 10+ years as a professional writer.

Bad Clutter Habits for a Writers Desk

See that desk pictured above? That is the desk in my home office - on a good day. The only thing missing is the cat who likes to sit on the keyboard or in front of the computer screen.

One key component to time management is a clean, efficient workspace - obviously NOT the above. You may use folders and file cabinets to keep everything straight, or have neat piles of documents where you know items are located. Either way, your workspace must cut the clutter to save time.

Ironically, when I worked in a cubicle, I had an incredibly-organized space. When I lost my job, had to move and started working from home as a freelancer, my workspace went to clutter hell.

I've noticed a dramatic decline in effective time management since. Not only is it difficult to find files, but the clutter gives me a sense of frenzy. It makes me go a little bit haywire while I try to complete my work. (Don't even ASK if I can find my task list - my go-to daily checklist of MUST DOs.)

Since I live with my parents, I now have to contend with office clutter that is not my own. (I also have to fight for time on my own computer, otherwise face a guilt trip, but that is a soapbox for another time.) I also have cats that really enjoy knocking things off of my desk.

For too long, though, I allowed these things to keep me from organizing. I figured, Why bother? Someone else will just mess it up, anyway. That mind set helped lead to a lot of bitterness and discontentment - emotions that bleed into other areas of life.

So, I took a self-appointed challenge to DO something about my workspace clutter. I cannot control others (outside of fiction), but I CAN control what I do. By organizing my files, books, pens, etc., and weeding out personal items from my office space, I can have that sense of purpose each day I go to work - the same successful attitude that carried me through Cubicle Country.

What I'm doing:

Purging. If I don't need it, it is GONE. I think this would have been a more difficult task had I not gone through a major book purge this summer, selling and donating 500 books from my overstuffed shelves. Thanks to this experience, I can more easily deal with attachment issues to books, DVD, office supplies, electronics, hardcopy emails, and those old items that just might be used someday. Purging doesn't mean you have to throw items away. Give them to friends, donate them to Salvation Army stores or Goodwill. Some like-new or new items could be sold on eBay or Amazon for a little extra cash.

Purchasing gear. I cleaned off a large bookshelf next to my desk (not photographed because it was messier than the desk.) I sold some DVDs on Amazon, moved the others to a recreational shelf and kept only tomes I need for work time. I purchased some wicker baskets that fit into bookshelves and plan to organize office items into them - which will offer a much neater finish than the haphazard array of notebooks, books, DVDs, papers, puzzles, pens, pencils and stuffed toys.

Daily cleanup. I'm not doing very well at this right now. My only excuse is that I have no idea where to go with what's left from the bookshelf and the desk piles. I also have a few plastic tubs that need to be stored somewhere other than underneath this desk. However, I know from experience that a daily desk clean up helps tremendously. What worked for me: Wrap up as many items as I could before closing time. Leave a pile of files, plus a checklist for the next day's work. File items that were no longer needed. Purge anything extra.

What is your office space like? Are you filled with clutter or terrific at The Purge? How does clutter impact your management of time? What tips can you offer to de-clutter for better time management?

Articles worth a look:

Rid Your Workspace of Clutter (eZine.com)

Too Much Clutter in Your Life? (Discover-Time-Management.com)

A De-Cluttered Office Skyrockets Productivity (Buzzle.com)

Stop Clutter from STealing Your Life by Mike Nelson is a terrific read about why people clutter, and how to deal with the emotional aspects of it before purging.