In several threads, I have seen the more experienced among us (not me) suggest that the inexperienced begin with Yahoo advertising and stay away from Google Adwords until you know what you are doing. What is it about Yahoo that makes is simpler or better for newbies.
Keywords are cheaper, plus you won't get hit so hard on the quality score as you do with Google. Less action compared to Google, so your budget is much more manageable until you know what ads perform and what keywords to bid on. You can burn a lot of money and quickly with AdWords if you're not careful. Yahoo, is much slower (also .. .slower on the profit sides too), but is easy to understand the game. I personally like to test the waters with YSM, then get a working niche (working .. meaning a paying niche), then get a good performing ad. After I have a niche site that converts and a ad that people like to click, I start a campaign on AdWords and push it hard. If you can afford to take a monetary hit and the gamble is not too bad.. then start with AdWords, but starting with YSM is a great way if you don't want to lose too much money if things go bad or if you weren't paying attention. Remember, ads clicked means money out of your pocket, and you need to get a return by getting converting traffic to click the ad.. that's where you can lose money... so it's all about the keywords and the ad text. Also, a piece that needs to be discussed is keyword tracking. Monitor what ads get to your site on what keywords. Then stick the keyword into SID to see what/who converts on a regular basis. hanji P.S. also, YSM usually has coupons, etc. So total free road on testing.
I am waiting for the $199 Yahoo Coupon to be available again and try out my first promotion just like you. Hopefully, it will gives give conversion rate.