Keyword research

There is no real science to keyword research. It is just a matter of brainstorming up as many ideas as you can about a niche and then using the various keyword research tools to verify that they are worthwhile taking further.

You have to check out the potential for traffic and the difficultly of getting a page targeting the keyword onto the front page of Google. This competition analysis is crucial because if you can't get on the front page then you are wasting your time.

There is no right way about it but what works for me is looking at the PageRank and backlinks to the page of the top 10 results. If these are low then I know from past experience that I can easily get my page ranked in the first page. My ideal limit is the top 10 have PR < 3 and Backlinks < 20.

There is a free tool called Traffic Travis which is great for the competition analysis. I haven't used it for the keyword research (generation) as I prefer Market Samurai. The Keyword research section of MS is free so you can always use that with the competition analysis of Traffic Travis for a great free option.

Just keep brainstorming for new ideas until you find a weak keyword that has the traffic you require. Pay particular attention to "local searches" and the trends. These can make a promising keyword useless if you aren't positioned to take advantage of the location the keyword gets searched or if the search numbers are skewed by seasonal data.

Brainstorming for ideas that others are too lazy to find is the key to good keyword research.

It really depends on what your goal is and what you are targetting. Are you driving traffic or sales, because both are very different!

Use this online tool Google Adwords and please do watch this video about search optimization at youtube Type in
Google Keyword External Tool Changes - Video Search Optimization

I hope this could help you.