Ok.. there have been a few proposed and im now officially confused.. doing a bit of research and have found that there is a decent amount of free, so why pay?
trying to get off to a good start on a handful of affiliate sites, so looking for good niche keywords...using overture doesnt give me the more accurate feeling, then using trial versions of wordtracker same.. (and its very expensive in my opinion)
are there many with experience with buying/using the 2 more common softwares (Niche Inspector and Brainstorm generator) they are more affordable and a one time fee, so that entices me much more.

OR

is the document (ebook) that comes from the same site as the Niche Inspector just as good?? where the lady talks about using overture, excel spreadsheet, adding the words, then filtering them based on KEI, Google adsense etc,.,

I have to admit, I don't get bogged down in keyword research too much. I generally use the Overture tool as a general guide and then base my content off that. I know it's not as accurate or as thorough as some others but since my traffic has been very good for all my sites and continues to increase, I don't spend too much time on the various keyword research tools.

I know people who swear by all the latest research tools and I guess they can be beneficial if you are looking for new, hot niches. Many affiliates make their money from creating several "mini affiliate/niche sites". But for me, Overture has always been my main go-to tool. I can't keep up with all that's out there these days.

__________________
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Create a Website | 2 Create a Website Blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent Blog Posts...

My Thoughts on Lazy People
A MUST READ for Struggling Bloggers
5 Assumptions You Shouldn't Make

thanks lisa for your insight... i tend to let myself get overwhelmed with what keywords to go after, and in fact what niche for that matter..
i have been toying with a lot of niches lately and it looks like they are very competitive, the thing is the affiliate programs pay so well that its hard to not want to do well in them.. that can be the reason for all the competitiveness though, so i might have to keep looking for something a little less diluted
either way, thanks

Kyle, go with your passion rather than aiming for best or high paying affiliate programs. Trust me. When I first started I used to build sites to promote affiliate marketing products because that's what seemed to be making the most money. Corey Rudl's course earned you like $100 per sale and that used to motivate me so much, but I had little experience in marketing at the time so my site got little traffic and I had to end up closing the site down.

Then I decided, why not start creating sites on subjects that interest me. I was frustrated that there weren't a lot of beginner sites for people like me who wanted to create a website but was not a programmer. So that's when I built my site. Then I created my flat stomach site because fitness was something I was beginning to get more interested in.

Yeah I only earn $3.00 per sale on domain names, hosting, etc. but the residuals add up and now I make five figures per month reselling domain names and hosting because my site's traffic is so high.

When you love what you're talking about, it becomes so much more easier to build content and the money will come automatically once the traffic grows. Go after what interests you and there will always be affiliate programs that can supplement your theme.

__________________
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Create a Website | 2 Create a Website Blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent Blog Posts...

My Thoughts on Lazy People
A MUST READ for Struggling Bloggers
5 Assumptions You Shouldn't Make

Is there a way to determine how often or how much a given phrase or keyword is searched on google for free?

For instance, lets say i wanted to possibly write a site on working out military style and i wanted to see how often "(army workout...military workout, army fitness etc..) was searched on google.

Where can I find that out?

I dont know about getting exact #'s but you can get a sense of volume by using overtures search for popularity of generic stuff http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...suggestion/and keyword discovery http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html then narrow it down. I use it along with my adwords account to see what google projects..
I also use nichebot now too, 1$ for their trial, I am now into a full month at regular subscription.

the keyword site shows that the most common search word for the site I'm looking to write about had 130 searches within the last 12 months. There were other spin-off keywords that had 37 here, 14 there...etc. With low amount of inquiries over a 12 month period, should i be concerned?

well with a few articles well written and submitted to 3-4 of the top article directories you will own those im sure
you should expand tho on what it is you can offer.. this might be a good starting point,.,. now branch out more..
im by no means an expert on these search tools.. if you use google and search the exact terms in quotes, you will get a sense of how many pages exist out there with those terms in them too... But this could be a good basis, and guaranteed niche traffic that you can build off and add to..

Also keep in mind that as you create your site, you will not just be targeting that one keyword phrase. There are probably other related keywords you could target related to that main phrase and you can capitalize on that traffic as well.

__________________
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Create a Website | 2 Create a Website Blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent Blog Posts...

My Thoughts on Lazy People
A MUST READ for Struggling Bloggers
5 Assumptions You Shouldn't Make