diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7c79a7b..71de611 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ run:
 # Sync CoreDNS' plugin README.md's to coredns.io. Also sync the release notes from the notes directory.
 .PHONY: sync
 sync:
-	@GO111MODULE=on go run bin/sync.go -plugindir $(PLUGINDIR)
-	@cp -vu $(PLUGINDIR)/../notes/coredns-* content/blog
+	go run bin/sync.go -plugindir $(PLUGINDIR)
+	@cp -v $(PLUGINDIR)/../notes/coredns-* content/blog
 
 # Scan all markdown files for Corefile snippets and check validity github.com/miekg/corecheck
 .PHONY: test
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5e64f55..ed784cd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ checks all these snippets to see if they are still valid.
 
 ## New CoreDNS releases
 
-* Sync the notes from the official coredns/coredns repo into this repo by running `cd bin; go run sync.go`
+* Sync the notes from the official coredns/coredns repo into this repo by running: `make PLUGINDIR=~coredns/plugin sync`
 * This should update the releases notes in content/blob/coredns-\<version\>.
 * After this step you should manually (never got this to automatically to work) update
   `date/coredns.toml` and set the latest release in that file and then run `make old` to update the
diff --git a/data/coredns.toml b/data/coredns.toml
index 2b3073d..1667437 100644
--- a/data/coredns.toml
+++ b/data/coredns.toml
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 [release]
-  version = "1.8.0"
+  version = "1.8.1"