I just started a blog for SEO Tip and Tricks to try to pass on some of my knowledge. Here is a good guide for SEO Keyword Research: The rest of the guide can be found at: http://www.jeffashby.com/keywords/guide-to-seo-keyword-research/
Although Adwords tool is a very useful tool for checking competition, search volume, etc - its nowhere near 100% accurate. After choosing a few 'long tail keywords' with the Google adwords tool, you need to find out the difficulty on how easy it is to rank in the top 10 search result. The best tool for this I have ever come across is 'Market Samurai'. This little tool has saved me hours of research.
I agree, don't rely totally on the Google Adwords keyword tool. Market Samuari is good, so is Micro Niche Finder. You can do top quality keyword research manually too although it is time consuming. Article Cash Secrets is a free report (so no affiliation) that happens to include excellent keyword research instructions. It's available here. Malcolm
Micro niche finder is the best tool for the money, it saves you hours and hours and hours. Market samurai is also good but a little expensive for the average bloke.
You can use famous wordtracker, keywordspy, spyfu, nichebot, keywordcountry, etc. these are gr8 tools for keyword research.
Market samurai is not expensive if you sum all that it does. Keyword analysis is unlocked in the trial version - it never expires. Other functions (modules) are worth its money.
To be successful in getting the right keyword you should know the niche and the type business of your client. Think as if you're the owner and the visitors of the site. In this was you can come up with bright ideas in picking the right keywords for your site.
I'm all for trying to rank high and slip my way into some significant spots through search engine optimization and specific keyword analysis, but if all I ever did was shoot for the best possible combination and sets of keywords and phrases I would never actually populate my blog. I actually do my research on the follow up after I've already written the content. I know that may sound like a 'DUH' moment for some, but I can't tell you how many times some of my other associates have failed to launch something because they are trying to make everything just perfect. JJ
If you think about keywords and how often these keywords were used in the past, do not forget to consider the competition. Most of the popular keywords search terms have a very big competition. Some keywords are niche keywords with lower ranking, but those keyword are far more better.
nobody will ever want a high competition niche but at the same time they want high traffic need research