Good Keyword?

The first thing you want from the keyword is buyer intent. Is a person who searches for this particular phrase in what is called the "buying cycle", or are they just browsing for information.

Second thing you need to know is the competition of the keyword. You basically want to know if you can get on the first page of Google (assuming your intended route is article marketing/SEO). The number of competitors is not important. You have to analyze the top 10 results in google for your keyword phrase. Market Samurai is great for this by the way, you're just going to take some time to learn the software.

Finally, does the keyword actually get searched for. I was helping out a fellow newbie yesterday who built a site based on the term flat screen 32. His site had been in the 8th spot on Google for a little while but he couldn't figure out why he was only getting 1 hit every couple of days. When he did his keyword research he assumed the keyword got searched for 110,000 times a month. That result was for a broad match. His phrase only gets searched approximately 320 times a month, hence his ridiculously low traffic.

Here's a link to some really good Market Samurai training (free). Watch the Keyword Research, and SEO competition sections for now.
Noble Samurai Dojo

Have you tried putting your keyword in the free google keyword tool to see how much searches it gets?

A good keyword is one in which gets a lot of searches: enough for you to spend time to rank your site for it so that you can profit from it. It it doesn't get a lot of searches then it is a waste of time.

Yeah, well that's gonna be a problem for you if you just want other people to do it for you instead of learning yourself. Learn how to use Market Samurai. Or, I guess you could hire out keyword research if you have some money to spend on outsourcing. But until you do one or the other, you're gonna spin your wheels. It takes either effort or money to pay someone to do it for you. Embrace that fact.

John

Run a quick Adwords campaign.

Does the keyword bring traffic?

Does the keyword bring conversions?

You can do all the research you want - but the keyword will eventually have to prove itself in the real world...

You want lessons on maximizing the potential of Market Samurai? Then this is what you need: Thirty Day Challenge
Great set of videos explaining how to use Market Samurai and finding your niche keywords.
Start on Day 2 where they go head-on exploring Market Samurai: Thirty Day Challenge 2009 - Day 02