Why not apply between 2007-2010 and pile up the preference points (can you really have too many)? I do it online, and it works like a charm. An additional change is that they only take as many points as needed to draw the tag. In the past, you lost all points once you drew a tag. Slowly, the CDOW is entering an era where "points" act as currency (circa 2500 BC).
The online option was new for last year. I thought the system worked pretty well and avoids problems with scanning the application forms, and writing all the separate checks.