[bkrull]

I agree with threeseed and I'm also someone who has spent hundreds with Themeforest. Viewing demos one by one is too slow. It doesn't live up to your promise of finding themes quickly.

However, the larger problem you discovered is that spending adwords is not cost effective for theme affiliates. It's common knowledge that the bigger players like Themeforest, ElegantThemes, etc. have better economics so they will always outbid you. But if you reduce your CPCs down to your breakeven, the volume will be too low to bother. Ultimately you need a more cost effective traffic channel to have any chance of making this work.

I also own a premium themes business and a theme review blog so I will share the ways I get cheap traffic:

1. For the premium themes, I rely on marketplaces and blog reviews/roundups. I let them drive the traffic while I focus on building great themes.

2. For the theme review blog, I rely on super long tail search traffic driven by the hundreds of theme reviews I've written. I also gain traffic and links by writing guest posts on prominent WP blogs.

3. Another big traffic driver I see a lot but don't use myself is to release high quality free WP themes. Then mix in premium affiliate themes on your Themes page to make a little money.

Be prepared to spend a solid year working on the above before you see significant traction. It's a tough space to play in these days, but it does eventually pay if you work really hard at it. If that scares you, I would probably pull the plug now before you spend a lot more time.

Best of luck!