Seeking Advice

First things first, im not looking to be spoon fed, i am simply asking for my best choice.

Im looking into creating my first site to actually earn a steady income of money, Problem is, i cant figure out where to start with it. What is the best type of sites to make at the moment? Smaller(<10k monthly's?) sites, or bigger sites(10k+). Im not looking to make big money right away, but to start earning a steady income, that i can then turn into bigger success.

I have the time, and ability to create the sites,i have the money to start them up, and to outsource some of the SEO.

Also what is the best way to monetize such site? I have an unused adsense, several CPA networks, Amazon affilites accounts.

Also whats the best way to go about keyword research, thats free?

Any advice is taken and seriously considered, thanks in advance guys.

If you have the opportunity to make a bigger site with 10,000+ monthly, why would you even consider a smaller (<10,000 monthly) site? The more traffic the better.

It's hard for us to help or tell you how to monetize a website that doesn't even exist yet. Each website is different, there are so many different ways to monetize each website and it depends on a lot of things, like your niche, target market, etc. Figure out what kind of website and start it before you start thinking about how you can monetize it.

If it is your first site then I will suggest you to start with small one.. Just try with smaller site.. see the results and depending upon them make plan for future..I think that google adwords is most famous for keyword research. I also use it for keyword research.. Moreover if you are going to buy any SEO service then you can get keyword research free by SEO service provider.. If need more suggestions then you can pm me without any hesitation..

You may want to start with cheap hosting, EMD domain. Try to work with micro/small niche. Do not get yourself on deep water immediately. If you are good at writing articles, write them yourself, if not, outsource that maybe on fiverr. Google loves content, so get yourself at least 10+ articles regarding the topic you want to rank for, then it would be a good idea to get some backlinks. Once your site ranks top 10, you can start playing with monetisation of the website. Honestly, there's no need to play with that unless you are in top 10. From my personal experience almost nobody goes to 2nd page of results. Just my 2 cents.