Researching Keyword Research

Hey Warriors, I have been a member here for a while now, and mostly been a silent observer of whats going on. I have been making a comfortable living working online in my niche, but am looking to expand and move into other areas.

Guess you could say Im a fish that is outgrowing his pond and looking for a lake to jump into.

So I have been reading and watching and listening to everything I can, and have found that proper keyword research is an essential art form.

Well the trouble is that all the information I have been taking in has now effectively canceled its self out, Ill read one thing one place then watch a video that says don't do that do this and so on.

I'm sure some of it comes down to what works for you, and developing your own style and technics but same basics are needed before that can be done.

So I would like to ask you.

What is the best advice you have for doing key word research? What about the worst advice some one has given you?

What are your favorite tools? what tools are a waste of time and or money?

What are some common misnomers you see being passed around?

If you were to train your own keyword expert what would you have them study?

I know that was a lot of questions but any feedback to any of them you may have would be greatly appreciated.