A Longtail Keywords Pro v3.0 Review – Is it the best long tail keyword search tool? Or is all about the upsales?
Name: Longtail Keyword Pro v.3
Website: http://v3.longtailpro.com
Price: Orig. Price $97,$37 one-time (70% off limited time)
Upsales: $17/mo.-or-$197 one-time –> $97 –> $197
Sold By: Mark Thompson, Spencer Haw
Overall Rating: 75 out of 100
Every now and then I get a bug in my behind and think that I can come up with a better, more economical way to hunt down keywords for my website. I own a copy of Market Samurai ($149), but I rarely use it because it’s so “clunky”. For most of my searches I use what I consider to be the most awesome keyword tool on the planet. It’s subscription based, so I pay monthly fees to use the service. It’s a fair price at $49/mo. However, I’m always looking for that new software with a one-time fee, that’s gonna show up my subscription service so I can leave the monthly payment in the dust.
Last night, I thought I had the opportunity to do just that. I opened up my mail account, and here’s an email from Mark Thompson promoting his latest collaborative upgrade to a four-year old keyword research software tool that was originally created by Spencer Haw back in 2011. I went through the sales page video and it looked as though I was getting everything I was looking for:
- Multiple seed words at one time
- Local Search volume
- Global Search volume
- Advertiser Competition level
- CPC estimations from Adwords
- Sort by # of words in longtail string
- Exact name domain match search
- Rank checking
- Field sorting
- Real-time filtering
So, I think you can see why I got a little excited! I’m thinking to myself, “This is awesome! Probably Faaast, too!” I click on the Add to Cart button, take the deal at 70% off the original $97 price tag ($37 One Time fee to purchase)…”Bam!” Then, as usually expected of anything from Mark Thompson, the upsells start to role…
Let the Upselling begin!
This is where I discover the things I thought I was going to get in the PRO version, that are only available in the 
PLATINUM version. Now maybe 
it’s just the way they worded and used the term “competition” that tricked me and I guess I just assumed that I would be able to save my keywords to keyword lists after all of that work finding them?
Maybe I misunderstood that the software wasn’t going to give me any idea of keyword competitiveness in the marketplace?
Well, either way, I wasn’t too concerned about the OTO (one-time offer) which was going to award me with two already anticipated features for a discounted price of $17/mo. (not $29/mo. as originally packaged in the first version), but now I have two new price points, both are somewhat reasonable, seeing that I spend $49/mo. for the online keyword search tool I’m using now.
I decided to pass on the O.T.O. just to see exactly what I would get for the one-time $37 bucks. I hope to be taken to the JVZoo download page…but wait, (it’s kinda what I was expecting), along came “Longtail University” Ya know, because I have no clue how to drive traffic to a webpage, so I have to go through 10 lessons from a pro to be sure I do. I just go looking for professional keyword research tools on a whim and don’t know what they’re used for. Eh, I suppose there’s bound to be folks like that out there in the world. I guess not being one of those tends to make be bias. Anyway, I decide to pass on this offer also so I can get to checking out this software…um, nope…not yet…next in the upsales line…(drumroll please) DIY Links!
Respectfully noted, this product is probably worth $197 one-time payment for a lifetime worth of access. But, I’m not a black-hatter (even though I wear one on YouTube!) and I don’t look kindly upon softwares that utilize backend methods as an attempt to “beat the system”, if you know what I mean? Normally, DIY Links sells for $77/mo. (?) for what amount of value I’m not so sure. Again, I don’t use these back door tactics, but I’m sure people out there will pay to rank sites when they can’t do it legitimately, as for the product itself, I can’t comment on it, cuz I passed right by this O.T.O.
Whew! Finally! I get to go the member site! Isn’t that where I wanted to be in the first place? Marketers really need to begin to understand one thing… Sometimes people know exactly what they want and that’s ALL that they want. No number of upsells or downsells are going to change their minds. Why not just give people like us a “Bypass ALL O.T.O.’s” button so we can pass GO, collect our just under $200 software, knowing we can avoid getting “slapped” by Google for using the “next best” black hat tool on the market? But, I digress…
After fuddling around for 10 minutes waiting for my JVZoo account to forward me the login info, I get to the heart of the software. So I’m in! First thing I notice right away at the first page is that the software is going to be running through Adobe Air (similar to the way Market Samurai works), well that’s good and bad. I was anticipating a fresh slew of source code this time, but then if I had owned Longtail Pro’s original, I would have known what to expect. I get the fact that Air is a way to allow both PC and Mac compatibility without having to code two versions of the software, but I’m not a fan of having to install software on my machine so I can run other software that’s also installed on my machine.
Is Longtail Keyword Pro just a rehash of Market Samurai with bells and whistles in different places?
Then the next nail in the coffin (for me anyway). I have to log into my Google Adwords account. Really? Hey, this is starting to feel like another Market Samurai keyword tool in disguise, no? I was looking for some FRESH tools, not a remix of the same ol’, same ‘ol. I’ll amuse myself and get everything installed and running just to see how it goes.
Well, here it is! Not too shabby, interface-wise. Not sure why the “Find Keywo…” button got botched the way it did (text font too big for its britches, I suppose), but hey, that’s just a pet peeve of mine.
You must create a project, (once again similar to Market Samurai). I found it nice to be able to select the network I was working in (Google and search partners), though I’m usually checking Google stats over any other in the initial stages of my research. I can determine what fields I’m able to work with by selecting on the tab in the upper-right corner of the screen. Now we can add in some keywords and get cranking. I quickly add in a keyword through the main entry screen. I like the fact I can filter out the adult content to avoid total trash, Well, cranking probably isn’t the word I should have used here. If we add too many keywords we’re gonna slow the software down tremendously, if we set any additional filters to customize our search (Global searches, Domains, etc.) even the software itself notes this will increase processing time.
The one feature I found unique here is that you can enter more than one seed keyword at a time, which did add to the processing time, but regardless, I found the interface through Air and Adwords to be bulky and slow, the screen was flashing a lot as the software did it’s thing. It even stalled and locked up a couple of times causing the software to stick (not responding). Something they have noted in their own FAQ from the previous version. You’d think they would have addressed this issue with Adwords compatibility by now.
It took a good 2.5-3 minutes for the software to generate 722 keywords for the initial search string of “keyword research”. I didn’t mind so much, because I was working on this article at the time, but I did feel that was a pretty long wait. My online keyword tool would mop the floor with this software when it comes to agility and data return speed. So what else ya got?
Google Page Ranking, that’s new…?
It’s nice to have an access point within the software to check Google page rank, but it’s nothing “new” when you consider there are several free websites online that this metric can be obtained from pretty quickly. There was a substantial period of waiting for this section of the software to return any results, which led me to thinking why would I want to use this if it’s so slow? Not only that, but after a few quick hits of the “Check Ranks” button, I was slapped in the schnaz with the SEOmoz window. OK, now what?
More API connections? More overhead? More delays in getting results? That’s what I’m guessing. This is not at all what I was looking for. I was hoping for a new suite of software built on new code, built for SPEED! Was I wanting something that simply does not exist?!
I think what’s really bumming me out here is I’m usually a HUGE fan and supporter of Mark Thompson’s products. In fact I own and use several that I’ve picked up over the years and have even purchased developer’s rights to a couple of the one’s I highly recommend (like WebinarExpress for example). This time around I was disappointed to find a product so chunky and clunky being promoted as a kind of “latest and greatest” version that you just can’t do without.
I spent the night poking around inside the software, waited out some relatively simple keyword searches, checked a few page ranks and stumbled through the Captchas that kept popping up from using the shared API for SEOmoz. I did some real-time filtering along the way, then just kind of petered out and decided I would probably never use this tool because it just doesn’t compare to what I have already. The multi-seed keyword concept is really pretty slick, but the speed and required upsell to get keyword competition metrics was kind of the deal breaker for me.
So I sent in for a cancellation and a full refund of my $37 bucks. The next day I got an email asking if I would take the Longtail University for free instead of a refund and I would still have access to the Pro software? Really? What part of the request for a refund didn’t you get? I had to explain to support that I wasn’t interested in learning something I already know and that I would just like my money back for a product I’ll never use. Please, just honor your 30 day refund policy. I received the refund confirmation the next morning.
For someone on a tight budget that doesn’t care about all of the software API connections and who isn’t on to worry much about speed in processing. Spending $37 will get you a pretty decent keyword research tool in Longtail Keyword Pro v.3. If you’re a Market Samurai user like myself, I don’t see much benefit in changing software except for being able to run several seed keywords at a time. Stick with what you’ve got, you probably won’t be happy with this tool. In my eyes, it’s just not worth the time or your $37 bucks. Besides, if you were to go for all the upsales you’d be out a pretty good chunk of change:
Longtail Keyword Pro – $37 + Platinum Upgrade – $197 (or $17/mo) + Longtail University – $97 + DIYLinks – $197 = $528!! (Whoa! …and all I wanted was a keyword tool!)
It’s my opinion that this “upgraded” long tail keyword research tool is just a loss-leader into what’s really being sold on the back end. Any really good, useful software tool should be able to stand on it’s own without all the upsells and I think it would benefit the sellers to sell it as is, without them. I would have included a video that shows just how much of a slug (with regards to speed), this tool really is, but my license key was revoked before I got around to it. Sorry, that’s not usually like me to miss an opportunity to get video!
If this review has been helpful in anyway, or if you’ve purchased Longtail Keyword Pro 3.0 or the Platinum version and have a different experience or opinion of the software, please share it below in the comment section.
Until next time…
