Global Monthly Searches... What to look for?

[fellipe]

I'm in the process of selecting a niche for building my first adsense website. What do you think is a good average of Global Monthly Searches to look for?
Oh, and what's the minimum CPC you think it's profitble?

Just asking for general guidelines..

thanks

[lovboa]

1000+ should be bare minimum to make it worth working on a site.
Make sure you are looking at "EXACT MATCH" searches and not "BROAD" searches

[vtotheyouknow]

fellipe

You should be looking at LOCAL monthly searches in the country in which you intend to rank your keyword.

Make sure you select your country in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

The reason this is important is because searches in different countries typing in the same keyword get different results and you'll have different competition depending on your country as well.

Always, always use local exact match searches.

If you find a keyword that looks attractive in the UK and you're in the US, you can certainly buy a co.uk domain and initiate your link building efforts using UK sites.

As far as CPC, you want at least $1, I shoot for at least $2.00. But more importantly, head over to ezinearticles and type your keyword in the search. Click on an article that talks about your keyword's topic and check to make sure there are several relevant advertisers on the Google Content network!

Definitely get at least 1,000 searches monthly and check your top 3 competitors.

Good luck!
Vic

[SimpleSEOTips]

Some very good advice to follow already within this thread when it comes to keyword research for search volumes.
I would also throw in my 2 cents when it comes to EPC research and state that you really need to use the Google AdWords Contextual Targeting tool to get an idea of the potential value of different keywords for your adsense niche too. More info about the tool is available here:
What's the Contextual Targeting Tool? - AdWords Help

[That Guy]

I generally look for keywords with at least 1000 exact global local searches and 500 exact local searches. It may not seem like a lot to some, but it's all a numbers game and having 5-15 of these keywords on a site really adds up.

[optionstrader]

Hey,

I am interested in this aswell to get my adsense balance up to $100 so I can get a check (it's $60ish atm).

I was doing some research earlier and found a fairly long keyword phrase but the .com is available but not sure about the marketability of the phrase/niche but it may be ok for adsense.

The phrase is basically: 'how to clean purple widgets'
For location I selected 'US'
global monthly/local monthly EXACT = 3,600/2,400 seems ok..
the dot com is available (was previously registered) and someone has registered the .net but nothing yet.

Any advice?

Thanks

EDIT: the guy who registered the .net has developed and is on the front page #4.. grr.. but there doesn't seem to be any big names or very high PR websites to compete with.. but if his exact phrase .net is #4 I don't have much change with the .com?