Ok, so... I've been learning about the different processes of choosing a successful niche keyword to build an affiliate site around. The tools I'm currently using are free: Google Adwords Keyword Tool & a google allintitle: "keyword idea" search. I do plan on purchasing a subscription to wordtracker once I get things closer to launching. My question is... what is a good search volume to competition ratio? and... how important is the quality of the first page competitors? Example #1: Google Adwords Keyword (phrase) search for "Example Example Example" returned a monthly volume search of 480 per month (16 daily) allintitle: "Example Example Example" returned 1,610 competing pages. The top 10 sites on first page are of poor competing quality, some not even on the same topic. Example #2: Google Adwords Keyword (phrase) search for "Example Example Example" returned a monthly volume search of 6,600 per month (220 daily) allintitle: "Example Example Example" returned 22,400 competing pages. The top 10 sites contain some heavy hitters, but I do see a couple questionable sites that I might be able to rank against. So the question is? are any of these examples worth pursuing? and more importantly, is this a good system for finding niche keywords? What's a good search to competition ratio?