Adwords has become difficult and non-profitable unless they are managed by some professionals. Adwords sucks money from the customer pocket n he returns with nothing. According to you is Adwords,Yahoo Search Marketing or Other Advetising Programs - which of of them best suits for a new bie advertiser.???? What do you mostly use to advertise online.???
From what ive been reading, its not a case that adwords sucks money but just that you need to do plenty of research before even using it and to keep a close eye on everything, set limits, be sensible with it etc
My advise on where to start would be to look at the Search Market Share of each tool in your market audience. For Example, if you would be targeting the spanish market, It would have no sense at all to use Yahoo Search Marketing or other Advertising programs because in Spain, Google has over 98% Market share in searches. In other markets it could be different so I would start there.