Novice Adwords user needs advice

[super70s]

Hi all, I've been with Adsense since the beginning but never signed up for Adwords. Today I received a letter in the (snail)mail from Google offering me a $100 credit if I signed up for Adwords by Dec. 4. What I need is advice on "setting my maximum daily budget," "choosing my bidding option," and how to "choose the best keywords that relate to my site" so I can get the most out of this $100 as possible. I realize everyone's situation is different but if you could give me some ballpark figures about setting the daily budget and how to determine the best keywords that would be a big help (I believe there are independent sites out there that track keywords for other sites?). My site is PR3 and gets about 11,000 page views per month for what that's worth.

BTW, how much 'mileage' can I expect to get out of $100 worth of Adwords credit? Is it even worth bothering with?

Thanks!

[smallcompany]

Buaha ha ha ha ha ha!

Read this please:

[webmasterworld.com...]

...and then come to Daddy...

[super70s]

I don't happen to share your credo ("Most of AdSense folks build sites for AdSense" as you said in that thread). I didn't build my site for Adsense, in fact Adsense was seven years in the future when I started my site.

[smallcompany]

Adsense was seven years in the future

That (and other) threads are not all about what I said. I just pointed you (and joked a bit) to what I think you should be aware of, just in case.

By digging more, I'm sure you'll find peers that got into trouble - AW or AS. Not all, but some for sure, and they all made a claim about how good their site was, and how it still ranks high in organic results.

So, just be aware, and then decide what to do.

In regards of your specific questions, as you've mentioned, every situation is different.

Choosing keywords - you know what you're after, right? If want careful approach, use exact match at the beginning.
Setting budget - Tough call as some keywords may be in a range over $3, even $6 or $10 while other in range of 10 cents. Depends on industry.
Bidding option - if aggressive, get most of clicks, if want to spread, pick the other one.

[super70s]

Thanks for the input but I decided not to go through with it at this time, I didn't appreciate getting 10 screens into the sign-up before finding out I have to pay a $5 "activation fee" out of my pocket (and not taken out of the free $100 coupon). Of course there was no mention of that in the solicitation I received either.

[accuratemessage]

Five bucks for $100 "free" is not a bad thing. After all the company needs to verify you are you.