ShoeMoney Tools offers great search engine tools, but I’m not completely sold on the domain tool.
If you aren’t familiar with Jeremy Schoemaker, he’s a classic rags to riches story. Broke and out of work, he stumbled upon search engine optimization and hit it big. You’ve probably seen his big check from Google Adsense. He also writes the popular ShoeMoney blog.
A couple months ago Schoemaker launched ShoeMoney Tools, a collection of SEO tools for web site owners. ShoeMoney Tools also includes a “Domain Marketplace” for finding expired domains with good backlinks.
Here’s how the domain tool looks:
The marketplace includes expired and readily available domains that have incoming links from military (.mil), education (.edu), and government (.gov) sites. Inbound links from these sites are thought to be more valuable than links from unrestricted domains such as .com.
You don’t get to see much about each domain. You see its length, any hyphens, and extension. You then “buy” the domain for $20-$40. By buying it, you are simply unmasking the domain so you can register it at your domain registrar.
I have mixed feelings about this tool. It’s possible that you’ll pay to see a trademarked domain you don’t want to buy. The domains could also be banned by Google (some of the domains look spammy just by seeing their 2 or 3 hyphens.) I bought one domain to test it out. It wasn’t a trademark per se, but it’s not the type of domain I’d usually register. Also, many domainers use backlink tools to gather similar data and don’t have to pay to buy domains like this. At least since domain tasting has been drastically reduced you have a chance of picking up something that hasn’t been tasted for traffic already.
So I give Domain Marketplace a lukewarm recommendation. It’s great for people who want to set up SEO sites and don’t really care about the subject. It’s not for building your portfolio of resalable domains.
But the rest of ShoeMoney Tools is excellent. If you operate any web sites, you’ll find the $99 a month pricetag worth it. The tools include pay-per-click tools, keywords, site search engine tracking, and about a dozen more.
Ms Domainer says
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Definitely would not like to pay for the right to reg a domain.
Seems a bit like black hat, well, maybe gray hat.
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RKB says
I have seen that tool also. I am not fan of it either.
DR. DOMAIN says
I’ve pretty much settled on the idea of developing my domains with relevant content.I’m a noob when it comes to just about all things web…but especially SEO.Every time I hear a story about someone making easy mega money with it-the story that surrounds it gets convoluted & tough to digest as to EXACTLY HOW THE MONEY WAS MADE.It’s usually followed by a sales pitch for some kind of vaporware…or membership into some exclusive tutoring session where they promise to make you a millionaire in short order.Is it hard?…Is it easy?…Is it labor/time intensive?…Is it expensive?…Is it still worth the effort?
Tan Tran says
I think Mr. ShoeMoney is going to be in for a big surprise when he learns that FreshDrop.net is giving away the same type of analytics for free.
bernard says
I just signed up, and was proposed to get billed $99 before seing anything! What a scam! (I marked the email he sent me as spam for the time I lost)
This guy probably made much more money ***showing*** his adsense check as this adsense check.
About the tool: these domains are most certainly low value, even for SEO. Fake PR, banned from Google, etc. Good backlinked domains can be found from registrar auctions, and metric from Premiumdrops.com