Using PPC to drive traffic to paid newsletter squeeze page?

Since the latest Panda update, I'm not only looking at getting my current and new sites back up and up in the rankings, but exploring other sources of income.

I'm looking at creating squeeze pages for mini email-memberships (monthly subscriptions for daily or weekly delivery of content people are interested in). The hardest part, I think, will be driving the traffic to the squeeze pages.

I could, of course, just get cheap .info domains and try to rank them in the SERPs like usual, but with the recent changes in the Google results, I'm wary of investing too much in SE rankings until things settle down.

I don't see many other choices besides PPC.

I don't really know, however, however, to go about this. Since these pages will be small squeeze pages, I don't imagine that would go over well with Adwords. Which other PPC platforms would you suggest using? I'd like to be able to target keywords of my choice, and of course set how much I spend each day. I also don't favor platforms/networks that require, as I've seen in the past on some, a minimum deposit to begin. And I need a platform with "good", targeted traffic.

I'm also not sure how to target keywords, using PPC. For example, let's say I want to get subscribers looking for information about "how to garden in Canada" (just an example).

Should I simply bid on the term "how to garden in Canada", and also bid on, say, the next five related terms with the most search volume according to a keyword tool?

In fact, should I choose my initial topics using "normal" keyword research methods (search volume, competition, etc.)?

Finally, How do I track which campaign is converting the best?

Any thoughts on methods of driving traffic besides SEO or PPC are welcome, too.

Can't thank you enough for your answers, cheers!