I think, exact domain name, is not bad, if you down white-hat strategy to rank it higher, it's nice, but if you use spam tactics its bad for exact and non-exact match domain name.

for example if you search "shoes" on google.com you will see the domain "shoes.com" on 1st or 2nd position on 1st serp. this is not bad if you down the right seo for a domain.

for the keyword "seo" is the same too.

from my side, take it, down the whitehat tactics seo, and finish that's all.

Hi Mozzers, please write here the directories the strong directories you know please, make a fresh-list here.

thanks