(This article include full reprint rights as long as you do not change article and include byline box.) With so many people trying to make money on web and so many products being sold with resell and master resell rights,
it's a wonder anyone can make any money at all at it!
Indeed, most people don't.
Why?
Sometimes it's because people get in on tail end of product being sold and start trying to resell it just as original creator decides to start giving it away for free. Generally this is 3-4 months after product debuts.
But lots of times people actually learn quickly about a new resale product, but don't have a mailing list or website with lots of traffic to advertise product to.
So what are you to do if you're one of these folks? You use Google Adwords as your new best friend.
Notice that I said AdWORDS, not AdSENSE. What's difference? Adsense is big thing those marketing gurus have recently been talking up. You know...make a web page specifically designed for a search term, put Google Adsense on that page, and make tons of money when people click on those ads. (Yeah, right, sure. They don't happen to mention that you need *traffic* before you can get clicks.)
AdWords, on other hand, are those ads themselves. Where YOU are person paying every time someone clicks on one of them. And I have found them to be #1 way to make money with short-term resell products if you don't have a decent mailing list.
Steps and Rules of Thumb
Here are steps and rules of thumb I use to achieve good to great profits on short-term sales items - those products that will be sold quickly then given away free within 3-4 months - practically every time.
#1 ~~ I do a Google search on product name to see if market is already saturated (not all 'new' products are actually new), to see if product is already being given away free (most end up this way), and to see what Google Adwords competition looks like.
If everybody and his brother are already selling or giving it away, I look for a new product.
#2 ~~ Assuming there's an opportunity here, I use Overture Keyword Bid Amounts Lookup Tool <
http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/ > and FindWhat.com, as well as Google Adwords itself, to see what advertisers are paying for various search words and phrases, and compare cost per click to sale price of item.
Rule of Thumb: I don't spend more than 1/100th of price of an item on a click.