Found a nice niche!

I think I have found a nice niche but I am not sure, it seems too good to be true. One question is, should I go by the google search results compared to google keyword tool with quotes around the search term or without? For example. I have read many conflicting answers and I am not quite sure.

1. "microniche"
or
2. microniche

Using microniche without the quotes will return pages/sites that may talk about them or have that on the page. However, they may not be specifically trying to go for that term. If you use quotes, then those are the ones who are targeting that term. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Skyrain....You're NOT wrong!

When NOT using quotes around the keyword, you're seeing page results that contain one or more of your 'keywords' but NOT that EXACT PHRASE...Thus, WITH QUOTES, you see all those pages that are competing for that exact phrase and that is where I get/hear/read a lot of conflicting reports.

Some folks have said anything less than 100K is ideal, why others have said under 50K is good...and a few have said under 15K is what to shot for!

Guess the only thing that will dictate what a good number is...is TESTING! ;-)

Yes, use quotes if you would like to know the competition and decide if are going into that niche.

You can also use allintitle:keyword

That will let you see the number of sites that are trying to optimize for that keyword. I think it is a better judge of who is targeting that keyword. Then look at the top 2 or 3 listings and look up their backlinks to see if there is any chance of overtaking them. If the top couple of search results are .gov or .edu - RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!!! ;-)

Also use allinanchor: to see how is really working on those links, vs. people trying to build pages. I think allinanchor is a lot more powerful as off-page seo is more potent.