The whole science is finding the perfect impression to CTR ratio to determine your budget. That's the focal point in the crux of every successful advertising campaign. If you're into affiliate marketing, carefully pick your affiliate program. For instance does the software give you campaign tracking options for you, the affiliate? Now if you're a vendor you have total control over your campaign tracking. You can place snippets of tracking code to strategic sports but as an affiliate, things are quite tougher, especially if you deal with a vendor who is on a one-way road to making himself a profit. I mean vendors have all the advantages they can get, but what about the little affiliate? That small squid in the pond who tries to make a living scurrying forums for 2 cents advice; because that's all that's worth. Two freaking cents. Au contraire, a savvy affiliate is a loner... a different animal. He knows how to reverse engineer a successful campaign, dissect it and bring it all back together flawless than ever - and farther lucrative! Picking up the right software (an efficient ppc tool that does the job as it should) is a must... you can fart all day long but without a powerful software there's no boost - poof! Anyway please let me know if I qualify for the free ppc maven membership or however you call it. If I don't hear from you...
I'll be back.

I consistently use phrase match (quotes) and exact match (brackets)
to all of my campaigns. This way I optimize my adwords analogously
to my given budget. I do not use PPC tools to automate my ads, maybe
I should:) I kept thinking maybe I should outsource my advertising
to some PPC expert but now I am having seconds thoughts. I'd love
the more economically viable route. Most profits come from SEO but
I plan to change that soon as google is a very quality search engine
for small time business owners like me. My ROI is getting better monthly
and budget slightly increases but I have recouped my investments times fold!

I think your idea is a splendid one. PPC is a tough call for the little guy and quite honestly I don't think there's enough room for everybody in any industry with serious competition. I see you endorse "Effective PPC", I used it and it made me money but ... how about mine which implements API integration, works 100% server side and automatically builds campaigns for you daily... would you be interested in test riding my app? If your membership is as interested as you've described in a video (followed the URL up to here), I'll issue 5 free licenses to interested parties. And it retails $299... just whistle.

Your post on a popular SEO forum is very interesting. We have performed a massive test whether if PPC affects natural rankings and we agree on that. I'd be very interested in securing a spot for a membership in your private ppc club. I have partners who would most definitely be very receptive in contributing. Could you email me on more specifically on GOOGLE SMOOCH? How do you define that term. Which parameters affect the algo, etc. I am using EFFECTIVE PPC for churning out hundreds of campaigns and found it very... effective indeed.

Finding the right product to promote has been the best bet for me. Currently I am netting ~$570 per month using Adwords.
I don't go the narrow match route.
I go for a mass campaign blitz hitting
generic terms that match the product.
I pick up a highly converting product
and stack on a massive keyword list.
Then I skim low/non performing keywords to minimize risks and once everything is settled I create another campaign.

I routinely analyze the merchant's webpage. Research is of paramount importance and takes me a lot of time. Once I settle down the "perfect keywords" I confidently bid
competing with the heavy bidders.