If you already have an Internet business, but parts of it aren’t performing particularly well, then it may be a good idea to sell off the unprofitable parts.

Consolidate everything that is working; and move forward with a new model.

These unprofitable sections of your internet business might include websites that are poorly monetized; or products that don’t seem to sell very well.

Whatever the case may be, consider selling it on a forum like SitePoint.

If you have monthly revenue data (from AdSense or PayPal records), this will be helpful.

Even if the site doesn’t sell well for you, that doesn’t mean it can’t for someone else.

This is something that is important to highlight when making the sale.

Point out the positives about the site (such as its daily unique visitor counts); and then mention how this can potentially make more money if monetized better.

One good thing about selling your unprofitable sites is that you can usually get something like 7-10 months worth of profit from the sale.

Even if your site was making a meager $100/mo, this could translate into an immediate sale for $700-1000.

As far as e-books, reports, and unprofitable intellectual property go, consider selling them on forums.

Do whatever you need to in order to make the most from them—whether it be selling the master resale rights; or simply selling them to many people with a restrictive license.

If you’re really desperate and need cash fast, then it may be time to start trying to solicit the help of others more aggressively.

One way to do this is to make offers that they cannot refuse.

For instance, you could offer to develop a product independently and at your own expense (and also agree to revise it until the JV partner finds it acceptable) if your partner will give you a mere 5% split of the profits she receives from promoting it.

While it might seem like you’re giving away too much here for it to be worth it, this can often be one of your best options when you’re in a bind.

If even one marketer with a large list accepts this offer, you have the potential to make hundreds—if not thousands—of sales. This could translate into you making several hundred dollars in the span of two weeks.

If you can write well and can also do basic graphic design work, consider churning out some custom content mini-sites.

This might consist of something like a standard graphics package for a site, including a logo and banners; as well as a 10-15 articles.

Once you have created your content mini-site, consider how best to sell it.

Usually, the best place to sell it is a marketing forum.

The price and the number of copies you want to sell may be harder question.

If you believe you can make two sites per day, then it may make sense to sell them for as little as $30/each.

Remember, also, that you should research the topics you pick in advance, so that the sites you create will target lucrative keywords for your buyers.

Several large forums allow members to submit special offers to other members.

If you need cash badly, consider using this section on one of the larger Internet marketing forums to sell something that a lot of people need for very cheap.

For instance, consider writing a 15-page report on a current hot topic; and selling it for $3 per copy as a special offer.

This may sound like a tiny amount—and indeed it is—but that’s exactly the point.

You’re not selling a massive, comprehensive set of encyclopedias.

You’re simply selling something small and targeted for a tiny price, so that potential buyers don’t have to think hard about what to do.

If you do a good job with this approach and create a valuable product, there’s a good chance you’ll make hundreds of dollars from your offer.

As an Internet marketer, you understand the sales process.

You know how to create ad campaigns, exchange links, create salesletters, manage autoresponders, create check-out pages—and all the other things that Internet marketers do on a daily basis.

As it turns out, this can be very useful if you’re in a bid and need cash.

You can simply offer your services to Internet marketers on forums and in other places in exchange for small fees.

For instance, if you need to make $50/day for the next week, then offer to submit a site’s link to 50 directories for $5.

You should have no problem pulling in 10 sales per day with that a strategy like that.

If you don’t already have a site and an email list of your own, a joint venture can be one of the best ways to make emergency cash quickly.

When it comes to joint venture partnerships, there are three things to keep in mind:

1. Most good JV partners will reject you initially. If a person immediately accepts your JV offer, there’s a good chance that she is not receiving many offers.On the other hand, if she doesn’t respond initially or tells you that she’ll need more time or a better offer, this probably (but doesn’t always) mean that a lot of people are pursuing her as a JV partner.

   Why is this important to understand?

   Because you will get rejected many times initially when you first begin sending out offers. It is important to understand that partnerships can often be a numbers game; and that you shouldn’t be discouraged too easily.

2. Be courteous and make a generous offer.Often, the simple presence of a JV partner will boost your sales and your profile as a marketer far beyond what it will do for you in direct sales from that partner.For this reason, it is always a good idea to approach JV partners with a generous offer; and to be patient, kind, and courteous.
3. Stay focused in your presentation.If you’re looking for a JV partner who can drive traffic to your site; and you are willing to offer a profit-sharing arrangement in exchange, then say that upfront.Make sure they understand exactly what it is that you need from them; and exactly what they will get for participating.

If you do these three things—and if you remain persistent—you have a good chance of finding at least a few JV partners who will be willing to work with you and promote your project.

If you used emergency cash method #14 (Myspace Forums to Sell Products), you now have:

1. an inexpensive, entry-level product,
2. a sales page, and
3. a check-out system.

All you need to do now to make more cash is direct additional traffic to it.

While posting on Myspace Forums was a good way to start, there are still a lot of options available for traffic generation.

One such option is Twitter.

If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s a social networking service that allows you to add and remove friend as you would on Myspace or Facebook.

The difference is that the main purpose of Twitter is to send out 140-character “tweets” to your friends; and, in return, to read what they are tweeting about.

Of course, Twitter can also be used to make emergency cash.

1. To do this, you’ll need to start by creating an account if you do not already have one.
2. After that, you will want to begin adding people who might be good targets for your sales campaign. You can do this by searching to see who is tweeting about topics related to your product. You can then add them.
3. After a week or so, if you worked diligently, you will have hundreds of followers.
4. What you should do next is begin making tweets that do not directly pitch your product. Instead, they should simply communicate interesting and useful information about your product niche.

Your goal in this whole process is to spur some interest in your twitter profile.

There you will place a link to your salespage. That’s right: instead of using your profile to conduct a massive pitchfest, you will use it to draw people in naturally, so that they view your profile on their own terms—and then decide whether to buy.

Social media has proven to be one of the best venues for marketing products in a hurry.

Internet marketers have held contests to see how much they can make in one day, one week, or one month by creating a new product and selling it through a social marketing medium.

When it comes to this type of project, there are two things to ask yourself:

1. What type of product should you sell?
2. What medium should you sell it in?

In this article , I will cover how to sell on Myspace forums. In the next article, we’ll consider Twitter.

Let’s start with the types of products you might want to sell on Myspace.

What Product to Sell

You might immediately assume that you should sell one of your flagship products, but in fact, social media sites are not always the best place to do this. For this reason, you will want to answer this question by doing market research, rather than simply picking a product and running with it.

One way you can approach this is to begin browsing through a variety of Myspace member forums. Do this for various categories; and make an attempt to gauge how large the forum following is. Are there hundreds of people who post regularly? Thousands? What is it that they’re talking about; and what information could they possibly need to help them in their endeavors?

Once you find a group that strikes you, begin reading up on their topic of choice; and then participate in the forum discussions. Try to make friends and be helpful. This will benefit you in the long run, since they are unlikely to respond well to you if they perceive you as a green-eyed infiltrator whose only interest is in selling them stuff.’

After you have a feel for the forum and the topic, commission a writer through a site like Elance to create a powerful, but brief, “how to” manual on some specific facet of their topic. For instance, you might follow a jewelry group; and decide to create a guide on how to purchase high quality beads online at a steep discount.

Whatever you do, make sure that this topic is something you hear about on the forum frequently. Your goal should be to provide a product that solves a problem that seems to be common among forum members.

Once you have this guide in hand, create a mini-site with a short copy salespage; and a PayPal checkout button, so that you can receive payment immediately. On the salesletter, highlight the following benefits of your guide:

• Explain how it will tangibly improve the lives of your target demographic group (i.e. after you read my guide, you will be able to do task x twice as fast) in general.
• Highlight the specific benefits of certain chapters (i.e. chapter 8 alone will save you $100 per month).

Also, consider selling your guide for a very, very low price. Your goal here should be to make the decision to purchase a no-brainer. At least initially, you shouldn’t bludgeon your new customers with high-end products. Introduce them to your work with something that costs around $3-7. If you do a good job with everything else, you could easily make around $500 in a matter of days.

The final step is market your product by creating a signature that references it. Beyond that, all you can do is post frequently; and hope that people see it and buy.

If you’re tired of reading articles that supposedly will teach you how to make emergency cash online—but do little other than belch hot air about some internet business opportunity—then this emergency cash method will come as a breath of fresh air to you.

Instead of creating a website, building traffic over time, creating a product, and then waiting for the profits to flow in, you can simply look for a babysitting job that will likely pay you cash (and possibly even the same day).

Today, the process of getting a babysitting job isn’t the same as it was 10 years ago.

You don’t need to know someone who knows someone who needs a babysitter.

All you have to do is locate good places online to find parents who need babysitters; and then submit dozens of job applications.

In a matter of hours, you very well could have a job lined up for tonight.

Start by going to www.care.com. This is one of the best places to find sitting jobs. All you have to do there is create a profile, and do a good job of advertising yourself. Remember to highlight things about yourself that will put potential employers at ease; and will communicate to them that you will be good sitter.

In addition to this, there are two other things you may want to consider doing: 1) allowing www.care.com to run a background check on you, so that you can demonstrate to parents that you do not pose any threat to the children. Also, you may want to consider including a picture of yourself in your profile, so that your application has a more human feel to it.

In addition to www.care.com, there are many other places for you to locate sitting jobs. One of those places is www.craigslist.org. You can start by going to the site and then selecting the major city closest to your place of residence.

Once you have done this, browse and search through the “gigs” and “jobs” section to locate promising sitting jobs. Look for parents who are willing to pay cash; and who need a sitter immediately (perhaps because they have plans for the evening). Since they will have fewer options and will be in a rush, there’s a better chance they’ll select you and do so without taking up a lot of your time with interviews, questions, and other formalities.

Overall, this strategy is an excellent way to make cash fast when you’re in a bind. This is especially true if you have past sitting experience or have had children of your own.

As I mentioned in earlier sections, working as a freelance writer can be highly lucrative.

What I did not mention originally is that there are several other possibilities when it comes to freelance writing.

You don’t always have to look for a buyer; and then create a project that matches her specifications.

Rather, there are other models of freelance writing that don’t involve you using Elance or forums to find customers.

In particular, sites like www.associatedcontent.com, www.helium.com, and www.constant-content.com permit you to participate in such alternative freelancing approaches.

Within this class of sites, there are two important categories:

1. the category of sites that facilitate direct sales of your writing; and
2. the category of sites that permit you to post content—and then pay you according to how frequently it is viewed on the site.

Category 1 Sites: facilitating direct sales of your writing

Sites like www.associatedcontent and www.constant-content.com will permit you to post articles on their site. Publishers will then browse the site for topics of interest; and purchase your articles if they think it would be a good match for their site’s content.

1. One benefit of using this category of freelance site is that your articles will usually sell for a high price (i.e. for $15-20/each, rather than $5/each).
2. Additionally, if you truly enjoy writing, the higher prices will permit you to create something requires research and careful thought, rather than something that simply requires you to write as quickly as is possible.

The major downside of this type of freelancing is that there’s no guarantee that anyone will buy your articles at the end of the day. This means that you could invest hours in your articles; and could ultimately never make any money.

Category 2 Sites: pay for views

Unlike category 1 sites, category 2 sites, such as www.helium.com, do not match you with a buyer. Instead, you give the site your content; and, in return, you gain revenue whenever someone views your article. Usually, this amounts to something like 1-3 cents per view.

In general, if you plan to use category 2 sites, you should be careful about which topics you pick. Since these sites usually generate revenue through Google AdSense, they often pay accordingly. This means that you should write about topics that businesses spend a lot of advertising money on.

It might not initially be obvious what these topics are, but if you spend some time on Google Adwords searching for keywords, you should be able to scrape together some keywords that people pay a great deal to advertise for.

Summary

Ultimately, neither of these methods provides a lighting-fast way to make emergency cash.

If you need emergency cash today or by the end of the week, you definitely have other options that are better (such as using Elance.com or Guru.com to find freelancing projects). As a form of supplementary income, these sites are a good option.

Another quick way to raise some cash is to have a “wrap” put on your car.

If you’ve never heard of this before, it’s basically just large advertisement that is either painted on or attached to your car.

Normally, companies will pay to put wraps on their own fleet of cars.

But some companies also choose to advertise by paying normal drivers $300-750 per month to use a wrap that advertises the company’s products.

Unfortunately, getting selected for these positions can be difficult.

Hundreds or even thousands of drivers often queue up as soon as companies begin offering these opportunities, so it can often be hard to find a spot.

Additionally, if you have a history of moving violations (such as multiple speeding tickets within a short period of time), then you may not be eligible—or at least your application won’t be given top priority.

You may also not be disqualified if you do not drive frequently or if you don’t live in a major population center.

If this still sounds like a good idea to you, you can get specific information about this opportunity at the following sites:

1. http://www.adsmartoutdoor.com/driversreg.htm

2. http://www.ad-wraps.com/driversinfo_signup.htm

If you live outside of the U.S., there are still many other similar advertising opportunities.

Just look for mobile advertising companies in your area.

In the previous section, we discussed one type of web design work that you can do to make emergency cash—namely, creating sites for local businesses and creating local business directories.

In addition to this, there are other ways that you can make emergency cash through web design.

Selling Your Services as a Freelance Web Designer

If you haven’t already designed multiple web sites, it’s probably not a good idea to try to sell yourself as a high-end web designer.

However, as long as you have a WYSIWYG editor, know a little about Internet marketing, and are willing to work hard, you can expect to earn a decent bounty from mid-to-low level web design work.

Since I’ve gone over the general concept of freelancing several times already, I won’t focus on it too much here.

Again, look at sites like Elance.com, SitePoint.com, Guru.com, and others when trying to sell your web design services.

Additionally, remember that it is vital to have a portfolio (perhaps one site with multiple sub-domains to show off various styles and themes) and to avoid overselling your skills.

Sell Site Re-Designs to Companies

This is a little bit harder than doing typical web design work. Instead of simply selling your services, getting site specs, and then performing the design job, you will need to start this process by seeking out sites (and preferably sites of local businesses) that could benefit from a site-re-design.

Once you have located these sites, make a pitch to the business owner.

Offer to redesign the site, so that it is more functional, provides more interactive features for visitors, generates more traffic, and appears more professional and better-organized. When you begin this process, offer to do it for a very low price until you build up a customer base; and begin receiving some feedback.

Another thing you should do is to offer to maintain the site once it is re-designed.

This means that you would be on call to monitor downtime; and to make any changes needed.  This might seem like a hassle, but it could be well worth it if you accumulate a large portfolio of sites that require very little maintenance. B

y charging around $50/month for maintenance, you could reap a large and virtually passive income while only working 10-15 hours per week.

Summary

Freelance web design is an excellent way to make emergency cash, even if you have only created one or two websites and know nothing about Flash, php, or even html.

The key is that you should work with a WYSIWYG editor (and master it over time), focus on working with local businesses, and sell the maintenance work as a package. Additionally, you should make an attempt to pitch your proposal over the phone.

Similar to freelance writing, freelance graphic design work is an excellent way to make emergency cash online and quickly.

• If you’ve already done graphic design work of some sort, this is a definite plus.
• If you haven’t, don’t worry. It’s still possible to make emergency cash online doing graphic design work.
• But if graphic design gives you the creeps, better move on to the next article.

For now, I will assume that you don’t have any prior experience.In that case, it is essential that you begin by accumulating items to put in your portfolio, which you will show to prospective clients.

At a minimum, you will want to create the following objects for your graphic design portfolio...

1. an e-book cover;
2. a banner;
3. a small business logo; and
4. a payment button.

If you’re not skilled with Photoshop (or GIMP, the free analog to Photoshop), this type of work probably won’t be easy initially. You’ll probably do very poorly on your first few banners, but with a little work, you can get better.

If you plan to sell banners, one good way to start is by going to the following site: http://mybannermaker.com. This site will allow you to create a banner by uploading a background image, inserting text, and tweaking a few options. It’s easy to do; and it is also free.

1. One good way to approach this process is to edit each component individually in GIMP or Photoshop before you insert it into the banner using mybannermaker.com.
2. Once the editing is finished, the only step that remains is to combine everything using the site.

Remember, since all of your work is likely to be used for commercial purposes, it is critical to use “stock photos” and photos that are in the public domain. Otherwise, you could be violating someone’s copyright.

Once you have created a small portfolio of items that are sufficiently attractive and well-polished it’s time to begin marketing your work through various channels.

3 Ways To Find Freelance Graphic Design Work

Channel #1: Elance

As I mentioned earlier, Elance is a good place to pick up freelance writing and editing projects. It is also a good place to find work if you are a freelance graphic designer. All you have to do is post your portfolio in your profile, bid reasonably on projects, and then wait for people to accept. As you gain credibility, your acceptance rate will rise.

Channel #2: Sitepoint.com and Warriorforum.com

Site users at both of these places require a great deal of graphic design work; and if you want to make emergency cash as a graphic designer, you should take advantage of this.

Start by making an offer people cannot resist.

For instance, offer to make site logos for $3 (or free) for one week. If you actually produce high-quality logos, the forums will be buzzing about your work by the end of the week; and future work will come flowing in without your needing to do anything else.

Channel #3: Craigslist.org

As I mentioned earlier, Craigslist is a great place to find freelance writing projects. This is also true for graphic design projects. Just keep in mind that you can search for jobs in any Craigslist city site, since many of them do not require you to work on-location.

Summary

Freelance graphic design work is an excellent way to raise cash quickly; however, it is important to keep in mind that submitting low quality work may very well ensure that you never get a project.

1. So, before you get started, work out all the kinks until you can create an acceptable portfolio.
2. After that, go forward with your work and also ensure that you match or exceed your clients’ expectations.

One easy way to raise some emergency cash fast is to work as an virtual assistant.

Usually, this means doing things like record-keeping, database entry, and other repetitive tasks.

However, in other situations, it might mean something like submitting links to directories, managing an affiliate program, or something like that.

Whatever the case may be, the only requirement is usually that you be good with computers and with the Microsoft Office suite of products.

Other than that, you will probably be given a detailed set of instructions that explain exactly what you should be doing on a daily basis.

When looking for administrative assistant jobs, a good place to look is www.elance.com.

If you need immediate payment, you should look for one-time, small jobs. Put in a low bid; and offer to work around the clock until you complete it.

If you do a good job, there’s a chance the client will release the funds to you within days, which you can then transfer to your PayPal account.

Alternatively, you can pick up very large jobs; and require clients to make a deposit of, say, 30% on acceptance of your bid. This means that you will get 30% of the project’s full cost as soon as you are hired, which you can immediately transfer to your PayPal account and then deposit in your bank.

As a final note, one key to doing well with these types of projects is to make credible bids.

• You can do this by writing a proposal that is specifically tailored to the project, rather than just writing something generic.
• You can also do this by submitting samples of your relevant work, a copy of your resume, and anything else that might provide pertinent information to the job poster.

As I said in the introduction, my goal in this article series is not to tell you how to build an internet business. I want to tell you how to make emergency cash immediately.

If you end up with a successful business as a byproduct, then that’s just a bonus.

With that said, it’s important to realize that internet businesses don’t usually turn a profit overnight.

Instead, it is usually a long process that will only turn a profit after months have passed.

There are two general reasons why internet businesses usually don’t turn a profit quickly.

1. The first is that many Internet-business owners have little or no formal training; and often make serious errors in the implementation stage.
2. And the second reason is that good long-term business plans generally require you to gradually promote your site through things like search engine optimization, cross-promotional agreements, and joint ventures.

While these long-term techniques are essential for business plans, they won’t work to make you emergency cash tonight.

If you want to make emergency cash tonight, you essentially have two options:

1. you can use PPC advertising; or
2. you can use word-of-mouth advertising.

Other than that, it is unlikely that other techniques will yield immediate sales.

With that said, let’s breakdown the process step-by-step, so that you can understand how to make a quick profit with this technique.

Step #1: Create Your Product… Fast

When it comes to writing a special report, don’t be a perfectionist. Spend no more than a half hour to come up with your topic. Once you’ve done that, spend no more than two hours researching the topic. And once you’ve done that, spend no more than five hours to write the report.

When you’re done with the whole process, stop working on your report for the night. Come back to it the following day, edit it thoroughly, format it, and then create a PDF version. Even though your goal is to do everything quickly, you should make sure that it is error-free, well written, and contains useful information.

Additionally, as a general rule, you should pick a topic you’re already familiar with. If you’re familiar with Internet marketing, write a report about Internet marketing. If you’re a good cook, write a report about cooking. If you know something about buying cars, then write a guide about that.

Whatever you do, make sure that you come up with a catchy hook for your product. There should be something about your special report that others will find interesting; and that will draw them to buy.

With the vast amount of free information widely available on the Internet, it is critical to be able to market your product in a way that differentiates from everything else available.

Once you complete your product, it’s time to move on to the site-building phase.

Step #2: Build Your Site… Quickly

Again, the point of this exercise is to get your product made and put in front of as many buyers as quickly as possible. This means that you can’t take your time when it comes to the site-building phase.

I personally suggest that you register a domain, purchase cheap hosting, and immediately install a plug-in that will allow you to edit your site using a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor.

Most hosting sites will offer a large variety of these editors, but I suggest using something simple and something that offers a lot of different templates. Wordpress is probably a good option.

Once you’ve installed the WYSIWYG editor, it’s time to select a good sales page template. Your choice should be clean, professional, and free of distractions, such as links to other pages.

After you do that, it’s time to put up a salesletter. Again, time is of the essence, so don’t bother with long-copy. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Make sure you have a good hook, a number of bullet points that highlight the products benefits (rather than features), and a call to action (to buy).

Finally, add a PayPal payment button. If you want to ensure that you make sales immediately, it’s a good idea to keep the price low (say, between $3 and $7). This will ensure that you maintain a high conversion rate.

Step #3: Advertise

Once you have a functioning sales page, a product to sell, and check-out system, it’s time to begin advertising your product. However, in this case, it’s a good idea to skip SEO and slow promotional methods—and move immediately to PPC and word-of-mouth advertising.

As far as PPC advertising goes, this is as simple as creating a Google Adwords account and making several advertising campaigns. Remember to focus each campaign narrowly. Also, remember to use the root keyword in your campaign multiple times in your advertisement, so that it shows up in bold when people see your ad.

Finally, once you have your PPC campaign working, consider using some word-of-mouth channels to spread the word about your product.

If you are a member of online forums related to your product’s niche, you should include a link to your salespage in your signature; and make an effort to post frequently, so that others see it. You should also consider offering a deal to members of the forum.

Conclusion

If you want to make cash fast, selling your products online is always a good option; however, you cannot do it using the conventional formula for Internet business creation.

Instead, you have to cut out all obstacles that will slow down payments, slow down traffic flows, and generally prevent you from realizing a profit within days.

Using the template I’ve given above, you should be able to make emergency cash within days, as long as you push yourself to stick to the timeline I’ve suggested.

Much like finding a babysitting job, finding a tutoring job is another excellent way to make emergency cash fast.

Not only is it possible to get a job that starts tonight, but there’s also a good chance that you’ll get paid in cash on the spot.

And when you’re in a bind, it doesn’t get much better than that.

When it comes to tutoring, there’s a good chance that the student or the student’s parents will want you to have some sort of formal credentials.

If you’re already starting to worry that your credentials may not be sufficient, don’t.

If you satisfy even one of the criteria, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find a bunch of tutoring gigs; and then leverage them into future gigs (if you decide to continue with it).

Here's a list of useful credentials:

• In some cases, they’ll simply want you to be in college.
• In other cases, they’ll want you to have a bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree.
• And in other cases, they’ll want you to have significant prior teaching and/or tutoring experience.

Before you do anything else, start by creating a resume that focuses on skills that you have that are pertinent to tutoring. This should include all prior teaching and tutoring experience, all degrees you hold, all standardized tests scores (if relevant), all reference you have from past tutoring work you have done, and all relevant coursework you have done on the collegiate level.

Once you finish typing up your resume in Word, spend some time to format it so that it looks nice, and then save it in PDF format. Whenever you send out applications for prospective tutoring jobs, you should always attach a copy of your resume.

Now that everything is prepared, your next step is to look for tutoring jobs online. Again, you can do this through www.care.com and www.collegehelpers.com (if you are in college). Another great source of tutoring jobs is www.craigslist.org.

If you do decide to search for tutoring jobs through www.craigslist.org, one thing you’ll notice is that many of the tutoring jobs are posted by agencies. If you want to continue to do tutoring in the long term, working through an agency may be your best option. If you’re looking for short-term work agencies may not be your best option, as they are unlikely to pay in cash; and will require you to do through a lengthy application process.

On the other hand, if you do want longer term jobs, you should seek out all of the agency jobs and post an application on each agency website.

If you’ve been involved in Internet business for several years, you’ve probably seen your fair share of firesales.

• Some companies do it before going out of business.
• Others do it as a part of their normal sales cycle.

If you’re in a bind and need some cash fast, then holding a firesale is probably one of your best options.

Of course, if it were easy or obvious how to do this, then everyone would do it successfully; and there would be no need for a guide such as this one. But this isn’t the case.

Here’s what I personally suggest you do to ensure that your firesale is successful:

Step #1: Before You Start Your Firesale Pick A Demographic

Before you even begin, it’s a good idea to pick a demographic to sell to.

If you don’t know who your target audience is before you get started, then it will be impossible for you to select the right things to sell to them; and it will also be impossible for you to pitch to them in a relatable way.

Step #2: Create A Truly Attractive Firesale Package

If you currently have a large product line, then this stage shouldn’t be terribly challenging for you. All you’ll have to do is select a handful of your products, bundle them together, and then sell them for a fraction of the normal cost.

If you don’t have your own product line, then this part could be a little more challenging. You’ll have to actively seek out products that offer some type of resale license, bundle them together, and then sell them at a tiny fraction of the normal combined price.

Step #3: Compute the Savings

Once you’ve assembled a large package of goods and have selected the firesale price, spend some time to determine how much it would cost an individual buyer to assemble all of these products (with normal—not resale—licenses).

You can then present the huge savings repeatedly in all of your advertisements.

Step #4: Pitch Your Firesale

Again, if you have your own product line, website, and autoresponder list, then this step will be relatively easier. In this case, you should start by pitching your firesale to your existing customers. As an added incentive, you might offer to make it even cheaper for people on your email list.

A good place to start is by creating a salespage for your firesale. Be careful to detail exactly how much buyers will save, so that they understand exactly how good the deal is. Also, include full descriptions of every product they will have access to after buying.

If you don’t feel comfortable writing copy, that’s perfectly fine. You can always hire someone from Elance to write the copy for you. Alternatively, you can spend some time on copywriting forums; and look for people who are marketing their services there. These individuals are more likely to have a strong background in marketing principles and copy-writing in particular (whereas those on Elance may be good writers, but not know much about marketing).

Once you have a salesletter, your next step should be to pitch the firesale to your email list. This will require you to write some short email copy. Here, you will just want to be brief, avoid the appearance of spam, and keep the tone of a letter. A good approach is usually to say something like the following:

=============

[Name],

I don’t usually do this, but I’m holding a firesale this week.

I’m going to sell my entire line of products for a mere 10% of the normal price. The catch is that I’m only going to allow people to buy at this price on Friday.

If you want a chance to get in on this incredible deal, I suggest that you check out what I’m offering at [firesale URL] and make sure to come back on Friday.

I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Yours,

[Name]

=============

Again, the idea is to avoid something that appears too overtly salesy.

Instead, you want to pitch it casually as an opportunity, but with a time limit and an associated sense of urgency.

On the other hand, if you don’t already have a list and a line of products of your own, it’s still a good idea to start by creating a salesletter; however, your approach here should probably be different.

How To Build Anticipation For Your Firesale

One good way to build anticipation for your firesale is to setup countdown clock on the page; and then incrementally add the items that will be part of your sale over time.

1. On day one, you could add three pieces of software that will be included in the firesale to the page.
2. On day two, you could add a bundle of 200 ghostwritten articles that will be included.
3. And so on.

The goal of this exercise should be to get people in the habit of returning to your site daily, so that your firesale successfully builds anticipation until the final night, when your sale will begin. By this time, if you did a good job, hundreds of people will have seen your sale; and will be ready to buy.

As far as the actual promotional process goes, you have several options if you don’t already have a mailing list:

1. Adwords. Since your goal is to raise emergency cash fast and since the firesale will only be available for a limited window of time, Adwords is probably one of your best options when it comes to marketing. Remember to use multiple campaigns, to carefully write your text ads, and to limit each campaign to narrowly-focused set of keywords and keyphrases.
2. Joint Ventures. Find other business owners who have large, active lists. Offer them a very high commission if they participate (i.e. on the other of 50% or 75% of each sale). This will not only help you from the sales that they bring in directly, but it will help you indirectly by raising your status by association.
3. Post on Forums. While most forums will prohibit you from directly marketing your products through a thread, most will allow you to include a signature that markets your products. You can do this in all large, relevant forums that you frequent; and when you do, make sure that you include the date of the firesale in your signature, so that forum members gain a sense of urgency.

Summary

A firesale can be one of the easiest ways to make emergency cash fast online. You should have products available however, because if you don’t manage it correctly, you could find yourself spending hundreds of dollars on resell products without any real return to speak of.

These articles are designed for people who need emergency cash now; and can’t wait for some business opportunity to work itself out. I’ll show you 21 ways to make emergency cash offline or online fast; and without necessarily having any interest in continuing to do so in the long run. When most Internet marketers talk about making emergency cash online, they talk about it in the context of doing it quickly or immediately. In general, this doesn’t work if you want to create a viable, long-term business model. However, if you just want to make some cash now and don’t care about how stable and scalable your methods are in the long run, there are ways to do it. If you settle on a handful of these options, take my advice, and work hard, you’ll make that emergency cash you need for now; and once you have it, you’ll be able to return to your long term business plans. Please note: this article series is not…

• A list of “get rich quick” schemes
• A guide to participating in pyramid schemes
• A list of multi-level marketing schemes
• A list of business opportunities
• A guide for creating a successful business in the long term
• An attempt to get you to sell my products as an affiliate

That’s right: unlike virtually all of the other articles you’ll find on the Internet about making emergency cash fast, this series won’t tell you to do it through questionable, unreasonable strategies; or through a business opportunity that will incur a loss in the short run. In fact, the tips shared here are the opposite of that. These articles focus on how you can make emergency cash in the short run--legally, and by using reasonable, easy-to-follow emergency cash methods. It won’t tell you to incur losses, to make large investments up front, or to be patient. With that said, let’s get into the real content. In these 21 articles, I’m going to tell you how you can make emergency cash online and offline in a short amount of time and without risking any large investments in the process. Emergency Cash Tip #1: Make a Firesale Emergency Cash Tip #2: Find a Freelance Tutoring Job Emergency Cash Tip #3: Sell Your Junk Online Emergency Cash Tip #4: Sell Crafts on Etsy Emergency Cash Tip #5: Sell Your Own Special Reports… The Fast Way Emergency Cash Tip #6: Freelance as an Virtual Assistant Emergency Cash Tip #7: Become a Freelance Writer Emergency Cash Tip #8: Freelance Graphic Design Work Emergency Cash Tip #9: Internet Marketing for Local Businesses Emergency Cash Tip #10: Web Design Work Emergency Cash Tip #11: Put an Advertisement on Your Car Emergency Cash Tip #12: Freelance Writing Without Even Having A Customer Emergency Cash Tip #13: Find a Freelance Babysitting Job Emergency Cash Tip #14: Use Myspace Forums to Sell Products Emergency Cash Tip #15: Use Twitter to Market Your Myspace Forum Product Emergency Cash Tip #16: Enter into a Joint Venture Partnership Emergency Cash Tip #17: Offer Services to Internet Marketers Emergency Cash Tip #18: Offer a Special Offer on the WarriorForum or SitePoint Emergency Cash Tip #19: Sell Custom Content Mini-Sites Emergency Cash Tip #20: Make a 5/95 JV Offer Emergency Cash Tip #21: Sell Unprofitable Parts of Your Business