Pupster, this is all basic, elementary SEO 'tactics' being referred to here.

Both questions can be answered here...

Onpage SEO factors are the simple things like Title, Descriptions, Kw density, anchor text links, img tags, etc. etc. etc. Google or search any IM forum and you will undoubtedly find tons of information about onpage SEO.

What Robert is saying is that yes, there are easy keywords to rank for which are the longtail, under 221,000 broad phrase results. Robert does mention that once you're focusing on kw/phrases above 221,000 then the use of backlinks (offpage SEO factors) becomes more necessary to rank combined with onpage SEO.

Next, you focus on ranking for those phrases using simple onpage SEO techniques which I described above which should get you into the top10 'easily'.

When you get those kw's ranked top10, now you can start going after the 'harder' competition phrases which aren't longtail and over 221,000 results. You can use the high rank of your 'easy' kw's and link up to your 'harder' kw pages.

Which now means your harder kw's got juice behind them because you're linking up to them with pages already top10. Now it should be easier to rank that 'harder' kw.

Keyword Elite is just a keyword tool. WordTracker is a keyword database. Tools pull from database(s). KE also has the option to pull from WT. If you can afford the subscription to WordTracker by all means go for it. However KE and other tools tend to pull from a variety of databases, including WT. That way you get a good look at wide range of kw information and you can cook it up how you like it.

Hope that helps.