I being my research on Google Keyword Search based on search volume "exact" and country. 500-1000+ monthly is what I think is a good number per keyword. Then I look at who ranks at the top for those keywords. If the competition has high number of backlinks with anchor text, then I change the keyword, until I hit that sweet spot, with high search volume and low competition. Anyone else want to share their techniques?
I don't do keyword research, I just blog away and let the SEO crap do itself. I get quite a bit of traffic, sometimes even more than people who spend all their time SEOing their website(s). Sure, I add friendly URLs and have a sitemap but apart from that, it's all natural.
I use the Exact Match and look for keywords that have at least 3,000 searches. Any less and you probably won't make any money with your site.
Depending on my niche, i do like a pyramid. Let say my niche is "cats" ill search for low competition inlcuding keywords including cats. Like "fat orange cats", "Special diet cats food", build links for these, then ill eventually see my site, rank naturally for bigger words, like "black cats" or even "cats", then when i enter the top 100 for these big keywords, i start building links directly for those. I start long tail and small then go up the competition pyramid. Ifyou are referring to exact match domain keyword, then its rather easy to rank good for medium keywords with any effort. For those, i search minimum of 1000 exact and a minimum of 2$ per click..... get some good results.
I target the same keywords on the page but in 3 variations, of which they must total 10,000 - 20,000 searches per month (so 3,000 - 6,000 requests per keyword phrase). They must also tally with my domain. For example a website with a domain of "learntoplayguitar" i would target 'learn guitar', 'learn play guitar', and 'learn to play guitar'. I look for keyword phrases rather than single words like 'guitar', using the instance before. The competition is too big to make any money from single keywords, therefore concentrate on phrases and variations of them, or go even more particular. So as for my "learntoplayguitar" website example you could have "learntoplayclassicalguitar", thus shortening the competition, targeting a specific market and having other keyword phrases to consider.
What I also do is check the commercial intention of every keyword with Microsoft's OCI tool. The tool is not an exact science but it does stack the deck in your favor in attracting people who are more likely to buy.
I also use the exact match for Google keyword tool. I also use some of the other tools like Wordtracker, Keyword Elite, Keyword Discovery.
I am using Google adword keyword research tool. & select the keywords on the basis of keyword competition, Global & Local monthly searches...
I also Google adword keyword research tool, Google suggestion tool and exact match search volume for that keywords.
I use Google adword keyword research tool and spyfu. I focus on those keywords having both local and global search counts.