I have tried over 20 of the top ppc search engines. Good: Adwords YSM Miva Goclick Ask clicksor Trash: brainfox 7search Kanoodle epilot abcsearch Just off the top of my head. Don't try any ones that aren't in my good list. Hope this info saves you a few grand in trial and error.
Lol. Talk about "Your mileage may vary." Miva, Ask, Goclick and Clicksor were all major wastes of money for me. I also find adwords to be overated. Yeah Google converts well but they can be a little pricey. I can get a better ROI elsewhere. But I agree with you on YSM.
Ok. I never guaranteed a positive ROI. To get a positive return on investment you really need to watch your statistics. Step 1: Create a presell page that will qualify your leads when they click through to the order page. Step 2: Track which keyword was typed in that brought the visitor to the order page. Step 3: Create a list of keywords that brought the visitors through the presell page right to the order page. Step 4: Use the list of qualified keywords in PPC campaigns in all the companies I mentioned. If that doesn't work, you need to promote something else.
I've had the most success with Yahoo for sure. Google and MSN are "ok"... usually barely break even with them. Everything else is garbage IMO, but I suppose if you are amazing you can make them work.