Is it common for people to have adwords even if they don't offer a product or service? To use it simply as a means to get traffic to their website in the hope they'll click an advert? Dan
I wouldn't pay for advertising without a source of revenue that wasn't advertising, since ads really aren't a reliable way to make money all the time.
Yes, it's common - it's called arbitrage. The idea is that you're looking for keywords that cost less on average (per click) than the value of a visitor on your site. So, let's say that, on average, 100 visitors to your site makes you $10 dollars. That would mean each visitor is worth about 10 cents. If you can find good keywords that bring targetted traffic to your site for less than 10 cents per click, you're making money. It's not easy and takes a lot of trial and error, but can be worth the effort.