I had been playing with the idea of purchasing Market Samurai for about 6 months. I even downloaded and played with the trial version for a while, but for whatever reason decided not to buy it at the time. Well at the beginning of February I knew I needed it for two projects and decided it was time to pull the trigger and buy it. Keep in mind it a reasonably priced tool, so it isn’t a huge investment to make in your business, I just didn’t need it until. Some of the best Internet Marketers I follow promote it and even give great tutorials on how to incorporate it into your business. So I was aware of how powerful it is and have planned to purchase it as soon as I had a project that called for it.

For two weeks I loved it, it gave me great data, and helped me narrow down keywords for a few niche sites I am developing. In short I was actually kicking myself for not purchasing it earlier. It is not just a great keyword research tool, but also a great way to keep an eye on your backlink efforts, and competition. I fell in love plain and simple.

Two weeks later it started having issues, and Market Samurai start making some changes to the software and I had to update to the newest version almost every other day. In Market Samurai’s defense they sent out emails explaining why the updates were needed and the issues they were experiencing. I appreciated the emails, and sympathized with them over the issues, but since the updates I have not been as happy as I was during those first two weeks.

All the features are working fine, but that is not the issue I and many others have with the newest version. Before the updates Market Samurai was using Yahoo Site Explore to collect back link data. Well if turns out that Yahoo is ending this service which has forced Market Samurai to find another provider for back link data. The new provider is called Majestic, and I hate it! They do not provide good data for newly developed sites, and much of their data on older sites is irreverent. I was depending on Market Samurai to help me monitor the back link building of my new projects, and this is no longer an option. Of course I can go out and collect this data myself, but am pretty disappointed that I have to. I understand that there isn’t much Market Samurai can do at this point because the Yahoo data source is being phased out. For this reason I am not requesting a refund, and am hoping that they will get enough complaints from unhappy users that they work to find a better data source.

That is my only issue with Market Samurai, and am completely happy with every other feature in the software. If I had to give it a star rating I would have given it a 5 out 5 during the first 2 weeks, but now give it a 3 out of 5 stars because of its current limitations.
I suggest downloading the free trial version, and trying it out. Even though I am not happy with the switch to Majestic it is still a good tool, and more importantly it is a great company that is striving to constantly better their product, so I have no doubt that they will keep providing updates that will continue making Market Samurai the leading tool for Internet Marketers.

.