With so many keyword tools on the market it’s sometimes hard to tell which way you should go.  In fact, the stats from keyword tool to keyword tool often vary enough that it’s hard to tell if any of them are accurate. 

About a month ago, Google changed their Adwords Keyword Tool and added actual numbers instead of the ugly green bar.  Now you can see actual numbers showing up instead of the green bar for search results.

Make sure to change your setting to "Exact Match" though otherwise you’ll pull up some astronomical broad match numbers that aren’t as realistic as the exact match type.

You can also use this tool to see adwords competitors which is good.  This will help you determine a profitable niche if you like to display a lot of adsense on your sites.  Typically the higher the green bar, the more search results, the higher the payout.  Then you could just put together a high paying adwords site and start getting it ranked in the search engines.

All in all I have to say I like the tool.  Like all keyword tools though the results are approximate values and not an exact science. 

What I actually like to do is use Google Adwords tool to start, then check my keywords again in the Word Tracker tool.  If I really want to get serious I will buy a month subscription from word tracker to really dig deep into my keywords.  But, my recent research has been started with the Adwords tool.

Doing this will help you see a little more accurate results by comparing what the two different networks have to say.  Keep in mind that it would be impossible to give an accurate count of searches per month or determine accurate results for the future.

I have had better results when I’ve planned my sites based on the stats from both tools instead of just one.  If I’m really unsure of search results stats coming up I’ll even check my keywords in a 3rd tool, Keyword Discovery Tool.

This might seem like a long process but we should be taking any niche we want to tackle, seriously.  Using a method like described above will help you better prepare to conquer your competitors.