New Niche Site, Need Some Advice.

I am thinking about starting a new niche site. The search traffic looks VERY promising, one of my keyword pairs is getting 550,000 monthly searches (according to google) and the competition volume is low (.27).

I think the reason for this is that the topic area is a bit unsavory to some (without telling you specifically what it is, I would say it is along the lines of wearing fur, animal testing, etc. -- it definitely has some political overtones to it and the topic polarizes communities -- and no, it's not porn. ). However, with that said, the traffic seems brisk and it looks like it might be a good niche.

My first monetization approach will probably be through AdWords. Does anyone know of a way to estimate how much ad inventory there is for this type of traffic. I am trying to spitball how much monthly income I can generate through advertising.

I think I can build a high ranking site rather quick. The existing quality of content out there is not very good, but I want to make sure there is enough $$ to support the effort of building the site. Affiliate income is definitely something I want to pursue as well, but it will take longer to build since it will likely require forging individual relationships.

All thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks,
Brock.