Advice on keywords.

Ok I have a site that is ranked really well on one keyword. #2 to be exact. That is all fine and dandy and I enjoy the traffic, but it isn't a ton of traffic and now I am greedy and want to branch out to get even more traffic via ranking well on more keywords.

I have tried to read everything I can find on Keyword research, but I am still stumped, so I have a few questions.

What FREE tools do you use to research your keywords and how do you use them?

For example I have used Google Adwords: Traffic Estimator. It estimates how many clicks an ad for this keyword will receive a day. Which by my estimation is way short of the amount a high ranking site recieves. I then of course have to compare to how much competition there is for that keyword so I simply search the term on google in quotes. If this is actually a good strategy well I still need help because I have no idea what are good numbers to try for or how to tell if there is too much competition.

Next, as far as keywords go, will trying for a listing on a new keyword hurt my standing for my current keyword?

I realize that I need to pay attention and not forget about it, but are there any other consequences?

I would really appreciate any help, and I believe everyone here can help me out a lot as I have been a member and silently reading posts for a while now. I just think it is definitely time for me not to be satisfied with my traffic and to get after getting some more.

Check out the site below and keep scrolling down the page once you get there. It's a fairly decent list of both paid and free keyword tools.


And here's a free "Black Hat Keyword Tool" (I can't vouch for how 'black hat' it is though ))

And here's SOOVLE - A Free Multi-Search Engine Keyword Tool:

And here is the free Seobook Keyword Research Tool:

And here is a good, easy, and effective way to do keyword research (Video):

Cheers! - "Wiz"