Where to get expired domains?

Anyone following SEO trends knows that Google released an algorithm update the penalized PBN sites. It affected 3-5% of all searches, and several well-known PBN networks were effectively destroyed: Google detected them and delisted them. Does this mean PBNs, or private blog networks, are bad?

No. It just means that the networks that got caught were sloppy. Google ranks sites based on backlinks, and the quality of those backlinks. If you have good content on your own network, where each site offers some value, it can pass it's link juice on to your main site, or money site. This is just how Google works, and will continue to work for the foreseeable near and long term.

You can focus on link building from authority sites, or you can build authority sites, in your niche, and link from them to your main site. Getting natural backlinks from sites you don't control, though, is extremely hard if you aren't 100% immersed in a niche, and have developed relationships with the site owners.

The next best thing is to acquire quality, spam-free, expired domains which have a history of backlinks that Google can't discount. Put some quality content on these old sites, redirect their incoming links to your sites main page, and then direct a link or two from that entire site to your main site. Boom - you have passed a quality backlink to you main site you could not have otherwise gotten. Watch your rankings go up now. That is the power of backlinks.

So, how do you get expired domains? You need a quality expired domain vendor, like Oxbow Domains. We built our own tool to crawl sites, find expired domains, and sort them for us by authority. From there, we hand-check each site for spam, and only sell the good stuff.

No, PBNs are not dead, not by a long shot. So grab some expired domains and get going on quality content!

How to find the most the most popular graphic design blogs

So what graphic design blogs should you follow? There are lots to pick from but you want the design blogs that are publishing content that is both helpful and fresh. Read too many old design articles and you might start wearing bell bottoms or growing big sideburns. A lot of design blogs have gone dark in 2012 that were busy and popular just in the last couple of years. You have to find and stick with what's relevant.

The Big List of Lists takes a different approach to the venerable "list post". Instead of simply recycling readily available older list posts of varying quality, it takes a social pulse of popular graphic design blogs with it's latest post, 135+ Top Graphic Design Blogs (Ranked and Sortable!) for 2012 ,  and measures 1) frequency of posting useful design articles, 2) Alexa Rank and 3) Google Pagerank.

But there is a twist! You can sort the list by different criteria to find out the blogs score against each other, which is much more revealing that simply a big list of stats.

So if you like list posts do yourself a favor and visit the article above, and don't forget to follow or sign up for the email newsletter!

Combination Lamp Review

Back in college, I inherited a combination lamp from my older brother who took some engineering classes at the local community college. I was just starting art school, and had attached the combination lamp to my art desk and loved it.

The lamp had an incandescent bulb in the center, which gave off a warm yellow light. The second bulb was a ring-shaped fluorescent bulb, which gave off a nasty blue light at close range.

Using either bulb by itself was impossible. But when both bulbs were turned on, it was the surest recreation of natural sunlight I had ever seen, especially in the context of working on fine artwork up close. I loved it!

I finished art school and moved on. I wasn't doing much drawing one period of my life, and sold off some items, including the combination lamp, that I thought I didn't need. Big mistake!

Years later, as I eased back into producing art, I realized I needed a new lamp, and knew exactly what kind of lamp and light I wanted. I looked high and low but could not find a lamp like I remembered on the market. I eventually settled for a "natural light" bulb goose neck lamp using some special filters and a unique shape. It was a beautiful lamp, but it was not close at all, no matter how much the marketing said "natural", to the lighting I remembered.

I keep searching and one day stumbled on the lamp I had been looking for! I had been looking for "dual source" and "multiple light bulb" lamps, but the key terms was "combination lamp". It turns out, I could only find one company making them. I eventually found a few places I could buy it from, and decided that Utrecht art supplies (utrecht.com) was the place to get it.

Combination Lamp (2 bulbs)

I ordered it, and when it arrived, set it up immediately. I dug out some old artwork that I had last worked on under the same kind of lamp, flicked on the lamp, and was immediately transported nearly 20 years into the past. It was as if I was still working on the same drawing after all that time. Yes, I do have unfinished artwork from 20 years ago.

Anyway, I have a new lamp and am back in the saddle, ready to create new art with the best indoor lighting I've yet seen.

So if you want to cut to the chase, go look at the lamp, Model CL1755 at Utrecht, and order it! You won't be disappointed!

Here is the description from the site, for quick reference:

"Lite Source Combination Lamp - Black
Combination incandescent and fluorescent lamp. Indispensable for color correction. Comes with a 100W Incandescent A Type Bulb and a 22W Fluorescent T9 Type Bulb with a 3-Way Switch
Color: Black"

SEO Reboot

Lots of interesting experiments, and some interesting results. But it's time for an SEO reboot. Hat tip to Glen Allsopp and his Cloud Living (which is now closed to new members) program.

As usual, since bonfx.blogspot.com is "old", it's a good place to try some related long tail SEO experiments. Since the blog has always been about design and art, we'll stick to those topics and see what we can make happen!

Here we go!