I've said it before and I'll say it again: any process which includes, as one step, "Start an AdWords campaign" tests <i>your ability to work AdWords</i> more than it tests anything about your market, customers, ability to craft a landing page, etc etc.<p>"This validated my earlier finding that [search engine marketing -- by which I think they mean exclusively CPC ads] might not actually be a viable distribution channel for CloudFire."<p>No, it did not. It only proved that, today, you were not able to create a profitable AdWords campaign.<p>I can't bang on this enough: AdWords doesn't have a skill curve associated with it. It has a gentle skill slope followed by a 1,000 foot-tall basalt monolith slicked with ice, guarded by ill-tempered yeti, and governed under rules of physics different than the rest of the world which change constantly and cannot be disclosed to you.<p>For example, trust me on this: there is much, much, muuuuuuch cheaper inventory available for those keywords. (Check the content network. You'll be amazed.) The blogger just wasn't getting it because <i>ahem</i> it is not in Google's interest to give everyone cheap inventory when they could be overcharging them for worthless Youtube page views.