Market Samurai Gone Useless [???]

[SEOpsychic]

hi, my version (and my friend's MS) can't return the total number of searches for keywords. it just returns "-" for all search terms.

also in the new update of MS, the option to choose results with keywords in their titles is gone.

if that's the case, then the reason for which i'm using MS is nulled and will remain so till i get some clarification.

cheers.

[Dumkist]

Best advice..move on..I have already deleted Ms from my Pc..you know the saying good things don't last forever.

[Croz]

I would contact Noble Samurai - Support and talk to them about it.

My version works fine so it's definitely not an issue with any of the features.

Hope that helps.

[jesus3]

i stopped using market samurai after google changed they codes and made it useless. they took to long to update theres more programs out there that can do the job and better. like serpattacks lol. thats wat i use now.

[sentient]

If you take a look at the MS blog, you will see that they have announced that the results for in title and in url are no longer available.

They try and spin this into good news, because it means that reduced load on the servers results in a speeding up of other features.

However, realistically, of course there is no good news. And in answer to the OP, yes, MS is currently useless. If you can't analyse the viability of a keyword, then there is little point in using it. You can generate the same keywords through the google adwords keyword tool.

Time to find an alternative!

[jacked]

Originally Posted by Dumkist

Best advice..move on..I have already deleted Ms from my Pc..you know the saying good things don't last forever.

This, after the Yahoo Site Explorer is shut down, MS isn't going to be that great.

[Old Dog New Tricks]

Yes it is very disappointing what's happening with MS. If you have paid for it I wouldn't just throw it in the trash can unless you need the space on your HD. It will still help you get drilled down a step or two into a niche. As for it not returning any results, they posted that because of Goggle's messing around the older versions of MS are not now supported. You must upgrade or should I say update. I did so earlier today and it is more or less working but the functions mentioned above are gone from the options. The version I have now is (ver. 0.87.41). Try updating and see what happens.

[TokiTover]

This software still does great at getting ideas and such. To tell the truth I didn't even look at the seotc. Just put in the work to get good bl to your site.

[simonbuzz]

I just hate MS....will buy a new tool

[Alex Lin]

How about Micro Niche Finder? Did the recent google change of things affect it?

[charu.seo]

all are absolutely right MS is totally useless now..suggest any other good tool.

[Captain Dynamo]

Originally Posted by charu.seo

all are absolutely right MS is totally useless now..suggest any other good tool.

Yeah I'm wondering what software is a good alternative to Market samurai since i was about to buy it but..... reading these posts i certainly aint.

I've tried Brad Callens Niche Finder software but found it waaayyy to basic for my needs as it has no serps analysis.

Niche Market Finder is a great free tool for analysing serps but limited.

theres also something call Micro Niche Finder?

[AsianIM]

How about Traffic Travis Pro, is good enough??

[0b1]

I'm having problems with MS itself, I hope its just temporarily. Aside from the SEOTC, i am having troubles with the MS's Rank tracker, the display of information is so different from SEO suite's rank tracker and MS is slower too .

Im sure the guys at MS are doing something to combat this bad publicity of it not working etc.

-Brandon

[SEOpsychic]

ok, confirmed. i ready their blog. and the funny thing is. they say this problem is "temporal" when google is changing their rules for good. it's too bad how they make it seem like it can be fixed.

they said they are trying to tap results from Bing but with no success as of yet and i don't think they will succeed (good news if they do succeed) but the point is...google results are superior. Google ranks #1 Bing ranks #20, now way i would be happy even if the succeed with Bing.

VERDICT: Market Samurai is useless now.

the only regret i have is...i just realized this minutes after i had bought it.

i won't bother asking for a refund. they need it cause their business prolly will go down from now. too bad.

[AnniePot]

Since I began getting poor results for MS, I've turned to Traffic Travis. It's been on my computer for a while and I guess I now need to learn how to use its features properly.

[riza]

It's a real shae because i liked MS. I think the team put in a good effort building it and all the tutorials that went along with it. The realy pity is that i think most of the other features on MS are great and still work fine. The SEO competition tool, moetize page, content finder etc are all good. But the whole process starts with keyword research and now that's gone it makes the whole tool pretty much useless.

The other thing i never liked is that it was always a little slow. Not just in getting results but changing tabs etc.

I'm currently looking for an alternative. Havent chosen one yet but i have my eye on SEcockpit which looks like the most interesting for me.

[RichardHK]

If MS goes down due to Google changes, won't the others out there (Travis, MNF, etc) also go? Or is it a function of programming resources?

My MS is so unreliable currently it is really sad. But have had my money's worth if it fades away. I really hope not though. Fabulous interface and wide range of tools and info. Still much of value in MS but as noted above, keyword research is the main pillar.

[lukemeister]

I can't quite bring myself to slam MS yet

MS is undergoing a lot of bugs lately but they keep fixing things as things happen - software like this is going to always need to evolve because it relies on other systems and ways of mining data that are always evolving

Just make sure to keep up with the software updates and to report bugs to support (rather than just complain on their forum like a lot of people do) to get the most out of it

I still find MS to be very useful, I can research related keywords, see their SEO value and get a pretty good idea of traffic expectations, and size up the competition.

In the last month I've found 3 niches and put up three web sites that are right now starting to make money, all using data from MS, which tells me it's still useful. I probably would not have been able to find and zero in on those niches without MS.

Yeah it's not perfect software and is going through some bumps, but it still saves me a ton of time from doing all that research the "old way" - so I'm gonna ride it out and keep using it for now, I'm liking it, it still feels like a secret weapon.

[JSProjects]

Originally Posted by sentient

If you take a look at the MS blog, you will see that they have announced that the results for in title and in url are no longer available.

They try and spin this into good news, because it means that reduced load on the servers results in a speeding up of other features.

However, realistically, of course there is no good news. And in answer to the OP, yes, MS is currently useless. If you can't analyse the viability of a keyword, then there is little point in using it. You can generate the same keywords through the google adwords keyword tool.

Time to find an alternative!

The two features I use the most.

[TBInternetMarketing]

In my personal opinion, MS will be worth it just for the ability to see which high PR links your competitors have.

[InitialEffort]

@TB You can accomplish this with Scrapebox and some proxies on a far more efficient level.

[tritrain]

I'm so glad that I didn't buy MS.

It's one of the few pieces of good news I've in weeks. ...and I've had a lot of really bad news lately.

[fishka]

Originally Posted by Alex Lin

How about Micro Niche Finder? Did the recent google change of things affect it?

MNF works well, after all updates!

[johnhoefer]

It runs so slow on my computer that it is useless regardless of reduced features.

[SEOpsychic]

Originally Posted by johnhoefer

It runs so slow on my computer that it is useless regardless of reduced features.

i think this is also another problem. it's slow for me and for my friends and most of the times it's not responding, hangs and freezes

[east_coast_alex]

I'm really surprised at the number of people who are saying that Market Samurai should just be discarded. This is a knee-jerk reaction.

For the record, I have no official connection with MS and am not even an affiliate.

I've been using this tool for about two years, and it is far from useless even with the current -- and likely temporary -- lack of title (SEOTC) and URL (SEOUC) keyword data.

The MS functions that enable you to guage the viability of a particular market go far beyond SEOTC and SEOUC info.

Consider these points:

1 - MS is one of the best values you can find. It is based on sound, fundamental semantic principles that enable you to construct websites that rank faster. If you haven't done the training, you should, as it will enable you to get a lot more out of this tool.

2 - The SEOV estimate gives you a nice tool to determine the potential value of a market. Given two potential markets with similar statistics, the SEOV helps you choose the market that would give you the highest return on your hard work.

3 - The SEO Competition function gives you tremendous insight into the true SEO strength of the top ten websites for any keyword. (The SEOTC and SEOUC numbers might look great, but if you skip examining the strength of your potential competition, you could get steam rolled in a hurry.) You may discover that the top ranking websites are very weak or very strong. This is a critical point to consider in your decision making process.

4 - MS is supported by a passionate team of IM developers and researchers and they continuously upgrade the product. Think of all the products you have purchased that were essentially abandoned by the owner after they made a quick killing with the release.

I could go on and on about the valuable features of this tool. Bottom line, the value the MS team provides for a one-off payment far outstrips any other IM software product I have purchased over the past five years.

If you really want to understand how this tool works, check out some of the training videos in the Samurai Dojo at: Noble Samurai - Dojo.

[Terellk]

I bought MS when things started to fall apart. Now I use the free version of Traffic Travis. Its great tool... I haven't used all the tools it provides. I can check to see where my site is ranked on the search engines compared to my competition. Its does a lot, still playing around with it.

[sentient]

You do raise some valid points alex, and I have personally had a huge amount of value from MS over the past couple of years.

I would stand by my point, however, that in it's current state it is nearly useless.

The keyword generation is just taking keywords from google keyword tool. You can do this yourself without MS, and there are better keyword generation tools out there that don't just use the google keyword tool as a source.

If I have several hundred keywords generated, I need a way to filter them down to assess whether they are viable competition wise. Without the in title or in url, I have no real way of doing this. Therefore I can't move onto the next stage of examining the top 10 competition (which you can do using the free version of Traffic Travis anyway).

Added to this that the rank tracker isn't working for me either, then there is little reason to use the software at all.

And given that the MS team have said that they are now looking to provide competition analysis through using Bing means that the software will become completely redundant. Bing and Google are very different. I make my money via Google.

[Clojo]

Originally Posted by sentient

The keyword generation is just taking keywords from google keyword tool. You can do this yourself without MS, and there are better keyword generation tools out there that don't just use the google keyword tool as a source.

Out of interest sentient what are the better keyword generation tools? I am relatively new to IM and have bought MS. I actually find it really useful, but maybe I am missing something crucial? The one thing I am having problems understanding is the difference between the backlink data? Majestic SEO seems much more that Yahoo Site Explorer. I understand that Yahoo Site Explorer is being phased out, but is SEO Majestic much more accurate? You obviously have to pay to see this data though. Are there any free tools that show you accurate backlink data.

Would really appreciate some guidance.

Thanks

[ExploringInfinity]

Originally Posted by jacked

This, after the Yahoo Site Explorer is shut down, MS isn't going to be that great.

Yeah.. I just bought Market Samurai about a month ago, and now it's useless.

I want my money back. Perhaps I should request a refund.

[Clojo]

Am I missing something. I am getting total local monthly searchs and possible number of clicks if ranked number one. Also in title and url is in the SEO matrix. Have I misunderstood what the problem with MS is. It seems to work fine for me?

I am concerned as I have just bought it and don't want to think that the results that it is sending me, are not all that accurate, there by making me target a keyword which isn't going to rank!

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Clojo

Out of interest sentient what are the better keyword generation tools? I am relatively new to IM and have bought MS. I actually find it really useful, but maybe I am missing something crucial? The one thing I am having problems understanding is the difference between the backlink data? Majestic SEO seems much more that Yahoo Site Explorer. I understand that Yahoo Site Explorer is being phased out, but is SEO Majestic much more accurate? You obviously have to pay to see this data though. Are there any free tools that show you accurate backlink data.

Would really appreciate some guidance.

Thanks

I use a few different sources for keyword generation, a really good one is Keyword Sniper Pro 2.0. I combine these with google adwords keyword tool, so you can end up with several hundred keywords than if you just used google / MS.

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Clojo

Am I missing something. I am getting total local monthly searchs and possible number of clicks if ranked number one. Also in title and url is in the SEO matrix. Have I misunderstood what the problem with MS is. It seems to work fine for me?

I am concerned as I have just bought it and don't want to think that the results that it is sending me, are not all that accurate, there by making me target a keyword which isn't going to rank!

Are you sure that you're using the latest version? v0.87.41 has the SEOTC and SEOURL removed.

[Clojo]

Yes. V 0.87.41. You are talking about the keyword in title and url in the SEO COMPETITION matrix? Is that right? I would post a screen shot but am having problems with my server.

[Clojo]

Originally Posted by sentient

I use a few different sources for keyword generation, a really good one is Keyword Sniper Pro 2.0. I combine these with google adwords keyword tool, so you can end up with several hundred keywords than if you just used google / MS.

In MS you get up to 800 keywords for a single keyword if you sign in. Does Keyword sniper pro give you more than this. I find that most of the really obscure ones aren't worth targeting, or at least only as LSI's. What do you think?

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Clojo

Yes. V 0.87.41. You are talking about the keyword in title and url in the SEO COMPETITION matrix? Is that right? I would post a screen shot but am having problems with my server.

No, I'm talking about the SEOTC and URL in the keyword research module. If I've got hundreds of keywords, the only way I can start to see which maybe viable is to look at the in title and in url. Once I have got those down to a manageable amount I use the SEO Competition matrix.

With regards to the keywords, Keyword Sniper pro could give you thousands of keywords if you kept digging. I think they are more likely to be lower volume search wise (if you plug them into MS and count the search volume that way), but you do pick up some gems.

My problem with just using the ones that MS generates, even if there are 800, is that they are the same 800 that everyone else who is using the google keyword tool is coming up with. You can certainly still find reasonable keywords this way, but I prefer to not chase all the ones that everone else is.

[Clojo]

Originally Posted by sentient

No, I'm talking about the SEOTC and URL in the keyword research module. If I've got hundreds of keywords, the only way I can start to see which maybe viable is to look at the in title and in url. Once I have got those down to a manageable amount I use the SEO Competition matrix.

With regards to the keywords, Keyword Sniper pro could give you thousands of keywords if you kept digging. I think they are more likely to be lower volume search wise (if you plug them into MS and count the search volume that way), but you do pick up some gems.

My problem with just using the ones that MS generates, even if there are 800, is that they are the same 800 that everyone else who is using the google keyword tool is coming up with. You can certainly still find reasonable keywords this way, but I prefer to not chase all the ones that everone else is.

Thanks sentient, that makes sense. I will have a look at keyword sniper pro. I am still finding MS very useful though. It maybe that I am just a newbie, but some of the keywords I am looking at showing good search volumes and not so much competition, which I can see from the SEO matrix, which I haven't been able to see before without this tool. Maybe there are better ones? The only thing that I am finding throwing things out is the difference between Yahoo and Majestic in the backlink profile. Is there something more accurate which is free? I can't afford the monthly fee at the moment.

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Clojo

Thanks sentient, that makes sense. I will have a look at keyword sniper pro. I am still finding MS very useful though. It maybe that I am just a newbie, but some of the keywords I am looking at showing good search volumes and not so much competition, which I can see from the SEO matrix, which I haven't been able to see before without this tool. Maybe there are better ones? The only thing that I am finding throwing things out is the difference between Yahoo and Majestic in the backlink profile. Is there something more accurate which is free? I can't afford the monthly fee at the moment.

I agree that the competition matrix is very useful.

Not sure on the Yahoo / Majestic difference. You could download the free version of Traffic Travis, and run the competition module there, and compare it to MS. It is very similar to the MS competition matrix, but it shows the top twenty results, rather than the top ten.

[GeorgR.]

SEOTC not working anymore is extremely bad. If there was ONE interesting value it was SEOTC....so now the most important value is gone...

[simonbuzz]

I have found a new good tool...but haven't tried it yet...." Keyword Sniper Pro" you can search on this forum

[east_coast_alex]

Originally Posted by sentient

You do raise some valid points alex, and I have personally had a huge amount of value from MS over the past couple of years.

I would stand by my point, however, that in it's current state it is nearly useless.

The keyword generation is just taking keywords from google keyword tool. You can do this yourself without MS, and there are better keyword generation tools out there that don't just use the google keyword tool as a source.

If I have several hundred keywords generated, I need a way to filter them down to assess whether they are viable competition wise. Without the in title or in url, I have no real way of doing this. Therefore I can't move onto the next stage of examining the top 10 competition (which you can do using the free version of Traffic Travis anyway).

Added to this that the rank tracker isn't working for me either, then there is little reason to use the software at all.

And given that the MS team have said that they are now looking to provide competition analysis through using Bing means that the software will become completely redundant. Bing and Google are very different. I make my money via Google.

You're right, sentient. The Bing vs. Google Title and URL data is a legitimate concern. However, I still believe the jury is out here, and it is far from a closed case that MS is a dead duck.

Consider that the keywords numbers we work with are all relative anyway. Hence, if MS gets Title and URL keyword data from Bing, that will still provide the relative data needed to do initial screening. Only time and some testing will tell, but I just don't see the MS situation as being all that dire.

[ynotbluey]

Damn I only purchased this last month. It was slow loading but worth the wait. Will check out the other tools mentioned in this thread

[Clojo]

I got to say, even though it has it's pitfalls, I still find MS incredibly useful.

[honed]

I need to stop buying software for a while. I thought that it was just me. Maybe I'll stick to online tools like Raven.

[JohnJD]

I'm so confused right now... I don't know if I should wait or should I buy MS. Right now I'm using the trial and following their training videos, I find it very frustrating because it's very SLOW! Also I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong because no matter what niche I choose I can never find a microniche that meets their criteria of SEOC 30000. I don't know if all the good niches are already taken or MS is just not pulling their keywords correctly...

So right now I don't know if I should buy MS after my trial expires... Or should I get a different program like Micro Niche finder? Any suggestions?

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by sentient

If you take a look at the MS blog, you will see that they have announced that the results for in title and in url are no longer available.

What is really up with this? I mean why would they say that they can't get allintitle and allinurl results from Google? If you really want them you can get them... my program All In Scraper gets all that... something else smells a little fishy here if you ask me...

[Yellowcake]

Originally Posted by JohnJD

I'm so confused right now... I don't know if I should wait or should I buy MS. Right now I'm using the trial and following their training videos, I find it very frustrating because it's very SLOW! Also I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong because no matter what niche I choose I can never find a microniche that meets their criteria of SEOC 30000. I don't know if all the good niches are already taken or MS is just not pulling their keywords correctly...

So right now I don't know if I should buy MS after my trial expires... Or should I get a different program like Micro Niche finder? Any suggestions?

I absolutely have to agree John. I spent three hours last night just throwing random keywords at MS. The SEOC value of 30,000 literally threw the whole lot out. Now is this because I'm simply targeting over poplulated niches (I doubt it), or is there a problem with MS.

Interestingly, the example niche used on the training videos is 'dog training' which is mega saturated. I can't anywhere near the statistical data that the bloke in the videos got.

No keywords I selected on a wide range of subjects got anywhere near the 30,000 SEOC - and some were pretty obscure. Is it this 30,000 figure that's a red herring? I tried upping it to 50,000 but that didn't make much difference. Those that crept under the radar were then thrown out by the SEO competition module (Too much RED!)

Look guys I'm not bleating here. If I've just picked a load of random keywords that happen to be popular then so be it. Rome wasn't built in a day. But I'm just feeling really quirky at the moment about the accuracy of MS data.

Cheers

ps. Only purchased MS two days ago. Just not feeling any confidence from it.

Yellowcake

[airallineed]

Originally Posted by Yellowcake

I absolutely have to agree John. I spent three hours last night just throwing random keywords at MS. The SEOC value of 30,000 literally threw the whole lot out. Now is this because I'm simply targeting over poplulated niches (I doubt it), or is there a problem with MS.

Interestingly, the example niche used on the training videos is 'dog training' which is mega saturated. I can't anywhere near the statistical data that the bloke in the videos got.

No keywords I selected on a wide range of subjects got anywhere near the 30,000 SEOC - and some were pretty obscure. Is it this 30,000 figure that's a red herring? I tried upping it to 50,000 but that didn't make much difference. Those that crept under the radar were then thrown out by the SEO competition module (Too much RED!)

Look guys I'm not bleating here. If I've just picked a load of random keywords that happen to be popular then so be it. Rome wasn't built in a day. But I'm just feeling really quirky at the moment about the accuracy of MS data.

Cheers

ps. Only purchased MS two days ago. Just not feeling any confidence from it.

Yellowcake

I agree Yellowcake, if MS will be useless in a couple of days i want my money back This would be simply a rip-off in my eyes... or should i call it bad luck?

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by JohnJD

I'm so confused right now... I don't know if I should wait or should I buy MS. Right now I'm using the trial and following their training videos, I find it very frustrating because it's very SLOW! Also I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong because no matter what niche I choose I can never find a microniche that meets their criteria of SEOC 30000. I don't know if all the good niches are already taken or MS is just not pulling their keywords correctly...

So right now I don't know if I should buy MS after my trial expires... Or should I get a different program like Micro Niche finder? Any suggestions?

Yes MS is very, very slow. Add a few hundred of keywords in and it gets painfully slow. Let alone a few thousand.

SEO < 30.000 is silly. 30.000 is an ultra tiny niche, i always used < 64.000 SEOT....heck even < 80.000 SEOT is still usually a good keyword, easy to rank.
SEOC is way too fuzzy and not precise enough to make an even REMOTE assumption about ranking possiblity . Thats why i said the most important value was SEOT, i never ever cared about SEOC.

So right now, the only value i have from this tool is "search volume" since i cannot even find good niches anymore with SEOT missing.

(By the way right RIGHT NOW i am trying to get rank data [i do this every day] and its just hanging there and doesn't finish....MS has really become a pain to work with recently)