The problem is you are bidding on popular keywords. Adwords should be treated like a giant marketplace. If you are bidding a $1 and you have 10 people in front of you bidding more, then you are going to fall to the bottom and probably not get any impressions, let alone clicks. Why would Google give you impressions and clicks at $1 if it can get $2 from someone else? Just adjust your bid according to how much you are willing to spend to get conversions. Don't go broke chasing expensive keywords.
Bidding is not the main factor with Adwords. More Ad quality and CTR will bring ads over the high bidders. Bidding 1 usd with 2/10 quality ad will put it below 0.30 usd 10/10 quality ad.
Chum - no one has told you to bump up your $$$! In fact, that's probably the worst thing to do right now! You need to do 2 things: 1) Improve your Quality Score - look at your CTR and how you can improve with more targeted ads (split test!) make your landing pages relevant to your KWs (i.e. include them in the text, metatags etc) structure your account tightly with as few KWs in an ad group as are relevant 2) KW research - use as many tools as possible to find lower cost KWs. These usually convert better as they're usually more tightly related / long tail, and if you get enough of them you may still get the same level of traffic possible as the expensive phrases can generate.
Chum, Creating adwords campaigns without a thorough understanding of how adwords works will only cost you money. It's very hard to earn a return with adwords until you understand the ins and outs of building an effective campaign.
When did you create the campaign? I've noticed Google taking a long freaking time to approve ads, Two days passed and I just happened to click on the ads tab and they were still under review... May or may not be an issue, but just keep in mind.