Review of NameSpy

Active domainers are familiar with dozens of expired domain tools. In this entry I review NameSpy.

We all know that expired domains are an important part of any domain portfolio. Many expired domains come with existing link popularity, have been registered for years, and get traffic from day one. Most domainers are familiar with services you can use to find good expiring domains. Many of these are paid subscription services, including a newcomer called NameSpy.

NameSpy is geared to domain newbies and internet marketers, as evidenced by its sales page. They assume users don’t know much about the expired domain market. NameSpy says it’s a worthwhile solution because it helps you dig for the best expiring domains and helps you create “super” parking pages for domains you register.

However, I don’t recommend signing up for the service. More on that later.

First, here’s what NameSpy tells you about expiring domains:
-Number of Google, Yahoo, and MSN backlinks
-Google Pagerank
-Alexa Ranking
-Years registered
-DMOZ and Yahoo directory listings
-Link to Archive.org for domain
-Date available
-Bids for domain’s key terms in Overture and Adwords
-A computer generated “value” score for the domain

Compared to other expiring domain services, the cool thing about NameSpy is the inclusion of bid values from Overture and Adwords. However, these values are based on keywords parsed from the domains that won’t necessarily relate to the actual ads that will show on the domain. The sales page shows “checkthisoutdude.com” and high bid values related to the banking term “check”. However, the domain has nothing to do with “check” in the banking sense. So the bid values are irrelevant.

Now let’s talk about the page generator included with NameSpy. It’s basically a hosted script that creates mini-sites around keywords (similar to TrafficEqualizer). The sales page suggests that Google approves of such mini-sites. This is incorrect. Although Google has a domain parking program, it does not approve of sites that generate pages of search results for key terms over and over. It has strict guidelines for its parking page feeds. Trust me, Google has discussed this with me 🙂

Additionally, the page generator stamps each page with a Powered by NameSpy link. That means it’s easy for the search engines to quickly wipe away all pages generated with this software because it has a footprint. I found the page generator to work slowly, but this could just be an early-stage kink.

NameSpy is a legitimate contender in the expiring domains information arena. I give the service props for its clean design and navigation. It’s easy to see all of a domain’s statsat a glance. It organizes and analyzes expiring domains in an easy-to-use manner. However, after paying for the service for a month, I don’t think it’s worth the $39.95 per month. You can get most of the same info from SnapCheck.com for free, and I strongly discourage using NameSpy’s added page generator.

I welcome different opinions 🙂