Saturday, November 15, 2014

Natural Beauty “Secrets”

Natural Beauty “Secrets” Really Do Exist When I first became interested in enhancing my beauty—softening the fine lines that started to appear on my face after giving birth, restoring my hair’s youthful luster, and ridding myself of cellulite—I knew I was on to something that few women would ever discover... And I made a vow to myself to share what I discovered with as many women as possible. When I began my search for home-based, natural, non-surgical, and inexpensive beauty enhancers, I was absolutely shocked at how manipulative the beauty industry had become... And how often they lied to women, all for the sake of selling snake oil miracles, and tricking us out of our hard-earned money. I’m a positive person by nature, so you can imagine how hurt and devastated I felt when learning more about this multi-billion dollar scam—a scam even the smartest of women have fallen for, and one that I have devoted my life to exposing. Did you know that one of the lies the cosmetic and skin care companies tell women is that there is no such thing as “natural beauty treatments?” It’s true. In fact, they spend millions of dollars every year trying to convince you that the only solution to younger-looking skin, silky, strong hair, and reducing cellulite is surgery, expensive creams that cost hundreds of dollars a month, or “tox”... ... you know, those needles a lot of us have tried? Sure, it works—yet, I have something that works without the pain and the expense... and it gives you the same exact result. I’ll share more about this with you in a moment... first, I really want to be clear about something important. While remarkable natural beauty solutions are out there... These Unique Beauty Tips Are Really Hard To Find Ladies, it took me years to discover all the secrets I want to share with you today...

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Buying Health Insurance Online

The online marketplace for health insurance has never been better. Instead of waiting to receive insurance applications in the mail, you can now access an online application and submit it to a health insurance broker via the internet. The most popular health insurance broker is eHealthInsurance.com. They provide users with free quotes for insurance premiums and a list of licensed healthcare companies that will likely approve their application. If you live in the United States then this is a life saver because all Americans are required to buy health insurance now. If they don’t then they will have to pay penalty fees on their income taxes. The online marketplace for health insurance has made a lot of people’s lives much easier for this reason. There is also the government sponsored website “HealthCare.gov,” but this website is more suitable for poorer people that need to get federal funding for their health insurance. The rest of the people have to look through various healthcare companies in order to pick the best insurance policy with the lowest premium. Online brokers, like ehealthinsurance.com, will help you do that.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Clickbank Cash Secrets

Clickbank is one of the easiest way you can earn money from the Internet. You probably will have a hard time believing such a statement; perhaps you have tried it before and it did not work for you. But it is possible that you just haven’t tried the best strategies available, and thus experienced the disappointment. Get all the info you need here.
Clickbank Cash Cow Secrets

Clickbank Cash is the World's Biggest Marketplace Today! you will learn a systematic and foolproof way of turning Clickbank into a gold mine. It won’t be difficult because it’s true  Clickbank is really the biggest marketplace nowadays.


Affiliate marketing to earn supplemental income during your free time is as good as other ways of earning money from the Internet, maybe even the best because at Clickbank there are literally thousands of products you can sell and commissions can go as high as 50% of cost.


All you need to do is find your niche, a product you can promote with authority, and you have won half the battle.


Clickbank is also the best place to market your own product because after all, you have the assistance of thousands of affiliates. While you are at it, you can do your own affiliate marketing on the side. You hit two birds with one stone.


Registering with Clickbank is simple: click the registration, fill-up the blanks and you are all set. If you want to make Clickbank make a difference to your finances though, don’t forget to read this details carefully.


Before, it was quite hard to imagine integrating marketing on the Internet, but intelligent and dedicated individuals made it happen. Today, people that were very much interested in making money on the web are now afforded opportunities to do so through Internet marketing, writing and editing, and other ways. These three are the most popular ways to make money online, but there are other ways for people to make money on the web though Internet marketing is the most effective way.



Although there are a lot of ways to make money online, Clickbank is the one that should be considered as the best. It is regarded as one of the simplest marketing websites today, especially if you have some background in Internet marketing. The thing that makes Clickbank one of the best is the fact that it is the perfect place to advertise due to the leniency it gives to affiliate marketers. What’s more surprising here is that most sellers on the website provide high commissions for affiliate marketers – this is a great treat for people who know a thing or two about marketing.



However, success with Clickbank takes more than just knowledge in Internet marketing. Therefore, this article will give out some invaluable tips to help affiliate marketers find success with Clickbank



First off, you will need to look for forums where people who are involved with your niche spend time. For instance, if you are advertising or selling eBooks that directly help car enthusiasts from around the world, then you should look for forums that talk about cars and nothing else.


Additionally, most forums will allow signatures on the bottom of each of your posts, so you might as well utilize this leniency and advertise all you want.


As discussed earlier, you should be looking to post relevant topics and information on the forum. Don’t make off topic posts just for the sake of advertising the things that are contained in the signature portion. Be as friendly as possible so that people may accept you with open arms, because if you do otherwise, you will risk getting banned from that forum and all similar forums.



It is best to affix your unique signature in emails which includes a link to your business or sales website. Even if your email does not mention


anything about your business or product, your recipient will be curious enough to click on it to know more about what you have to offer.
In case you are into email marketing as well, be sure to fill the emails with some of your advertisements so that when people read their mail, they will see the products and services you provide.
That said, emails should also contain content that interests people so that they will read your emails and if you’re lucky, they may even share it with their friends. Again quality content and relevant topics play a big role with your marketing strategies.

What you should remember here is that instant success cannot be attained through Clickbank, but if you have the right attitude and the right methods, you will make some money through the site in less than a month.


Clickbank is a third party service that is able to link thousands of merchants in the World Wide Web. It is capable of providing you with the latest technology to deliver the campaigns and other promotional materials of the merchants. This service can also be described as an affiliate network wherein it performs a specific function of being an intermediary between merchants and other affiliates.


Clickbank now holds the largest database of affiliates with different marketing programs, making them the biggest affiliate marketplace on the web.
Aside from being an affiliate network, Clickbank also performs other services like collecting commission fees from a merchant and distributes it to affiliates involved in a specific program.
It has a high-end, innovative tracking system that is made for convenience and ease of managing your online business. This tracking system is one of the top in the list of marketing trends.
Clickbank can provide you with 100,000 affiliates to give you the needed growth for your business.
Like any other businesses, people want to deal with a company that is fair. Clickbank’s success is not just due to its system but also to its fairness in the way that they process commissions.
It is free and the sign-up is as easy as 1-2-3. Once you get to sign-in, you can sell your products right away. With its

promotional page, the would-be buyers will be able to see your products and services in detail. This will surely boost your sales.


Clickbank works with you all the way through. It also promotes and even sells your products or services. At the same time, it does customer service to any queries given to your products. From their vast experiences and hundreds of affiliates, this service also offers you the latest marketing strategies that will surely help your business grow.

You will also need sales reports and any documents to see the progress of your business. Well, this service also sends the exact report and even sends you a paycheck 2 times a month, if you are an affiliate.
Starting is easy with Clickbank. Since it already holds 10,000 products that you can sell, you will be able to choose the products that will work to your advantage. Usually, these products are e-books.

These are the 10 things anyone should know about Clickbank. So if you want to start your own online business, you can count on Clickbank as your way to climb the ladder of success. With these offers, what can go wrong?


Although there is no doubt that Clickbank is the go-to site for affiliate marketers, it does not mean you should place all your digital eggs in one basket right away. Certainly, there is nothing wrong if you take the time to look for alternatives to Clickbank even if it is only to compare the site to its competitors and weigh their respective pros and cons. By knowing what other sites can and can’t offer compared to Clickbank, you will be better able to appreciate the features of Clickbank.




















Friday, May 16, 2014

Some Important Steps to Successful Selling on eBay

So you want to be a successful seller with your own eBay business; Here's a simple, ten-step path to eBay enlightenment. 

Step 1

Identify your market. Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see the 'sweet spots' quite quickly - those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price. 

Step 2

Watch the competition. Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own game. 

Step 3

Find a product. Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are - don't be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's, then you're set.

Step 4

Start small.The Expert Guide to Cashing in on eBay - 13 - Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go. Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work! 

Step 5

Test and repeat. Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche. 

Step 6

Work out a business plan. A business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else. 

Step 7

Invest and expand. This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time. 

Step 8

Make it official. Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don't worry, it's not expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process. 

Step 9

Automate. You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide. 

Step 10

Never give up

Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Special Course Make Money Online

People living in all over the world can easily earn money online from internet at home. Whether you are student, house-wife, young man, you can make money online.There is no need of any kind of education to earn money through Internet. This is one of the best ways to make money online and the best part time online jobs for college student. Want to earn in US Dollars online. No experience required basic internet knowledge and basic English knowledge required
This is NOT MLM, Ads clicking , Email reading or survey . Because you cannot earn from the Ads clicking , Email reading or survey. So beware of it if anyone advertise for ads clicking please dont waste your money on it.
I will provide you legitimate sites which pays you where there are unlimited Buying/Selling available.. its very easy . full training will be provided.
For students living far away can contact and get the detailed information from skype and by email on step by step approach to earn online.
Classes are conducted on weekends and holidays if you wish to attend please book an appointment upfront
Student who live in overseas can arrange online class through skype, my skype leo130416

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Stock Market


A stock market is a public market for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.

The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion US at the beginning of October 2008. The total world derivatives market has been estimated at about $791 trillion face or nominal value, 11 times the size of the entire world economy. The value of the derivatives market, because it is stated in terms of notional values, cannot be directly compared to a stock or a fixed income security, which traditionally refers to an actual value. Moreover, the vast majority of derivatives 'cancel' each other out (i.e., a derivative 'bet' on an event occurring is offset by a comparable derivative 'bet' on the event not occurring.). Many such relatively illiquid securities are valued as marked to model, rather than an actual market price.


The stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges which are entities of a corporation or mutual organization specialized in the business of bringing buyers and sellers of the organizations to a listing of stocks and securities together. The stock market in the United States is NYSE while in Canada, it is theToronto Stock Exchange. Major European examples of stock exchanges include the London Stock Exchange, Paris Bourse, and the Deutsche Börse. Asian examples include the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the Bombay Stock Exchange. In Latin America, there are such exchanges as the BM&F Bovespa and the BMV

The stock market is one of the most important sources for companies to raise money. This allows businesses to be publicly traded, or raise additional capital for expansion by selling shares of ownership of the company in a public market. The liquidity that an exchange provides affords investors the ability to quickly and easily sell securities. This is an attractive feature of investing in stocks, compared to other less liquid investments such as real estate.
History has shown that the price of shares and other assets is an important part of the dynamics of economic activity, and can influence or be an indicator of social mood. An economy where the stock market is on the rise is considered to be an up and coming economy. In fact, the stock market is often considered the primary indicator of a country's economic strength and development. Rising share prices, for instance, tend to be associated with increased business investment and vice versa. Share prices also affect the wealth of households and their consumption. Therefore, central banks tend to keep an eye on the control and behavior of the stock market and, in general, on the smooth operation of financial system functions. Financial stability is the raison d'être of central banks.
Exchanges also act as the clearinghouse for each transaction, meaning that they collect and deliver the shares, and guarantee payment to the seller of a security. This eliminates the risk to an individual buyer or seller that the counterparty could default on the transaction.
The smooth functioning of all these activities facilitates economic growth in that lower costs and enterprise risks promote the production of goods and services as well as employment. In this way the financial system contributes to increased prosperity.



Definition of a stock exchange
A stock exchange provides a liquid, open market for buying selling shares, debentures and warrants of publicly owned companies. The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) was established under the companies act No.17 of 1982 and licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka. CSE currently has 234 listed companies and 15 member firms and 6 trading members
What is a share?
A share represents your ownership in a company. As a part owner you are investing in the future growth of the company.
Distribution by the Company (Bonus Issues)
The company will offer a specified number of free shares to existing share holders at a ratio decided by the Directors of the Company
Liquidity
Shares quoted on a stock market are generally liquid, therefore they can be easily sold and converted to cash
Higher Returns
With very low interest rates offered by most commercial banks in SL, the stock market is seen as a very attractive source for investment which offers investors higher returns specially medium to long term
Collateral
Most banks accept share portfolios as a guarantee against loan facilities
How to get started
To start investing in the stock market you must first open a Central Depository System (CDS) Account thru your Trading company. Opening a CDS account is done free of charge. Once the account is opened you could start trading in the Primary or Secondary markets
Primary Market
In the primary market shares could be subscribed directly from the issuer (Company), who extends an invitation to the public by publishing a document known as the “Offer Document” or the “Prospectus”
Secondary Market
A market in which an investor could either buy or sell shares from or to another investor, subsequent to the original issuance in the primary market.
Is investing in the stock market risky?
There is an element of risk. However you can minimize and manage risk through diversifying strategy
1.Your portfolio can be a mix of equity and debt instruments (i.e. in shares and government corporate debt instruments
2.In the share market you can invest in several sectors. Thereby in an instance when one sector underperform and another very well, you can offset your losses in one sector from the gains you made in the other
3.Within a sector you can invest in several companies. thereby if one company does not do well, your entire investment returns do not suffer as other companies in that sector may perform well


Types of Securities (Shares) Traded at the CSE
1. Ordinary Share (N)
2. Non-Voting Shares (X)
3. Preference Shares (P)
4. Warrants (W)
Benefits of investing in Equity
Capital Gains
This is where the selling price of the share exceeds the purchase price. Capital gains are free of Tax
Dividends
This is when a company decides to payout a portion of its earnings to the shareholders. Some companies declare interim dividends during the company’s financial year
Rights Issue

This is where the company extends an invitation to existing shareholders to purchase the respective company’s shares at specified and discounted rate. This offer is usually in proportion to the number of shares already owned by the investor

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Expert Guide to Cashing in on eBay


Do you know about eBay, you will have seen the kinds of incomes people make -Do you know people making thousands of dollars per month on eBay. Next time you're on eBay, take a look at how many PowerSellers there are: you'll find quite a few. Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that's eBay's requirement for becoming a PowerSeller. • Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month, • Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000,
• Platinum Powersellers make more than $25,000, and • Titanium PowerSellers make at least a whopping $150,000 in sales every month! The fact that these people exist gives you come idea of the income possibilities here. Most of them never set out to even set up a business on eBay - they simply started selling a few things, and then kept going. There are plenty of people whose full-time job is selling things on eBay, and some of them have been doing it for years now. Can you imagine that? Once they've bought the stock, everything else is pretty much pure profit for these people - they don't need to pay for any business premises, staff, or anything else. There are multi-million pound businesses making less in actual profit than eBay PowerSellers do. Even if you don't want to quit your job and really go for it, you can still use eBay to make a significant second income. You can pack up orders during the week and take them down to the post office for delivery each Saturday. There are few other things you could be doing with your spare time that have anywhere near that kind of earning potential.

There's no job interview and no commuting involved - if you can post things, you can do it. Put it this way: if you know where to get something reasonably cheaply that you could sell, then you can sell it on eBay - and since you can always get discounts for bulk at wholesale, that's not exactly difficult. Buy a job lot of something in- demand cheaply, sell it on eBay, and you're making money already, with no set- up costs. If you want to dip your toe in the water before you commit to actually buying anything, then you can just sell things that you've got lying around in the house. Search through that cupboard of stuff you never use, and you'll probably find you've got a few hundred dollars' worth of stuff lying around in there! This is the power of eBay: there is always someone who wants what you're selling, whatever it might be, and since they've come looking for you, you don't even need to do anything to get them to buy it. So you want to get started on eBay? Well, that's great! There are only a few little things you need to learn to get started. Read on! What You Need to Know Before Getting Started So you've decided that you want to get started as a seller on eBay. There are a few things that you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end. What to Sell First off, you need to know what it is you're going to sell: what's your speciality? You'll do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You won't get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.
When you think about what to sell, there are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something that you just don't know anything about then you'll never write a good description and sell it for a good price. You might think you're not especially interested in anything, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most often, I'm sure you'll discover some kind of interest. If all else fails mention it to your friends and family: they'll almost certainly say "Oh, well why don't you sell…" and you'll slap your forehead. Out of the things you know enough about, you should then consider which things you could actually get for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for posting. If you can think of something of that you're knowledgeable about and it's small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, then that's great! Don't worry if you think the thing you're selling is too obscure - it isn't. There's a market for almost everything on eBay, even things that wouldn't sell once in a year if you stocked them in a shop. You'll probably do even better if you fill a niche than if you sell something common. Tax and Legal Matters If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you're going to have to start paying tax - this won't be done for you. If you decide to sell on eBay on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a business. Prepare Yourself There are going to be ups and downs when you sell on eBay. Don't pack it in if something goes a little wrong in your first few sales: the sellers who are successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it, and stick at it whatever happens. Anyone can sell on eBay, if they believe in themselves - and if you do decide it's not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you won't really have lost anything.
If you're ready to start selling, then the next thing you need to know is the different auction types, so you can decide which ones you will use to sell your items.

5 Easy Steps to Posting Your First eBay Auction It's surprisingly simple to get started posting your very first auction on eBay. Here's what you need to do. Step 1: Open an eBay seller's account. If you've bought things on eBay, then you already have an account - just log in with it and click 'Sell' in the toolbar at the top of the page, then click 'Create a seller's account'. If you've never used eBay before, then you'll need to open an account first using the 'register' link underneath the toolbar, and then click 'Sell' and 'Create a seller's account'. The eBay site will then guide you through the process. For security, this may involve giving card details and bank information. Step 2: Decide what to sell. For your first little experiment with eBay, it doesn't really matter what you sell. Take a look around the room you're in - I'm sure there's something in there that you're not all that attached to and could put in the post. Small books and CDs are ideal first items. Step 3: Submit your item. Click 'Sell', and you're on your way to listing your item. The first thing you need to do is choose a category - it's best to just type in what the item is and let eBay choose for you. Next, write a title and description. Include key words you think people will search for in the title box, and all the information you have about the item in the description box.
Now set a starting price. $0.01 is the best starting price, as it draws people in to bid who otherwise wouldn't, and items will almost never finish at such a low price. The next thing to set is the duration of the auction: 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. This is up to you: longer sales will usually get more bids, but will also seem to drag on forever. If you've taken a picture, add it now - items with pictures always sell for more. Finally, tick the payment methods you will accept (just PayPal is best for now), and where you will post to (limit yourself to your own country to begin with). Submit and you're done! Step 4: Wait for it to sell. This is just a matter of sitting back and letting eBay do its thing - buyers will find your item and leave bids on it. Some bidders might email you with questions about the item, and you should do your best to answer these questions as quickly as you can. ** Remember that if your item doesn't sell then you can list it again for free. ** Step 5: Collect payment and post it. eBay will sent your buyer emails guiding them through the process of sending you payment for the item. Make sure you have the money before you send anything. Once you've got the payment, all you need to do is pack the item for posting (make sure to use some bubble wrap), take the buyer's address from the confirmation email eBay sent you, and write it on the parcel. Put some stamps on, post it, and you're done! An eBay Seller's Checklist Being a seller is a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might feel like you're not doing everything you should be. This simple checklist will help you keep on top of things. Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items? Try typing their names into a search engine - you might find out something you didn't know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do.
Do you monitor the competition? Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or similar to yours are selling, and what prices they're being offered at. There's usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90.

Have you got pictures of the items? It's worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don't have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point. Are you emailing your sellers? It's worth sending a brief email when transactions go through: something like a simple "Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment". Follow this up with "Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item name] today". You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way. Also, are you checking your emails? Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you. Do your item description pages have everything that buyers need to know? If you're planning to offer international delivery, then it's good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions (for example, if you will give a refund on any item as long as it hasn't been opened), then you should make sure these are displayed too. Have you been wrapping your items correctly? Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post - don't be cheap. Do you follow up? It is worth sending out an email a few days after you post an item, saying "Is everything alright with your purchase? I hope you received it and it was as you expected." This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run. Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That's the only foolproof way to protect your reputation.
What's Your eBay Reputation Really Worth?

Your eBay reputation is everything you are on eBay - without it, you're nothing. Your reputation is worth as much as every sale you will ever make. If you've ever bought anything on eBay (and the chances are you have), then think about your own behaviour. Buying from a seller with a low feedback rating makes you feel a little nervous and insecure, while buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation in the thousands doesn't require any thought or fear - it feels just like buying from a shop. A Bad Reputation Will Lose You Sales. In fact, a bad reputation will lose you almost all your sales. If someone leaves you negative feedback, you will feel the pain straight away, as that rating will go right at the top of your user page for everyone to see. Who's going to want to do business with you when they've just read that you "took a month to deliver the item", or that you had "bad communication and sent a damaged item"? The answer is no-one. Your next few items will need to be very cheap things, just to push that negative down the page. You might have to spend days or even weeks selling cheap stuff to get enough positive feedback to make anyone deal with you again. It's even worse if you consistently let buyers leave negative feedback - once you get below 90% positive ratings, you might as well be invisible. You Can't Just Open a New Account. Besides eBay's rules about only having one account, there are far more downsides than that to getting a new account. You literally have to start all over again from scratch. You won't be able to use all the different eBay features. Your existing customers won't be able to find you any more. Your auctions will finish at a lower price because of your low feedback rating. Opening a new account is like moving to a new town to get away from a few people who are spreading rumours about you: it's throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
A Good ReputationWill Get You Sales.

When a PowerSeller tells me something, I tend to believe them. They can be selling a pretty unlikely item, but if they guarantee it is what they say it is, then I trust them - they're not going to risk their reputation, after all. This is the power of a reputation: people know you want to keep it, and they know you'll go to almost any lengths to do so. This is true even to the point that I would sooner buy something for $20 from a seller I know I can trust than for $15 from someone with average feedback. It's worth the extra money to feel like the seller knows what they're doing, has all their systems in place and will get me the item quickly and efficiently.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

The Special Characteristics of Mobile Sources

Few real-world situations fit perfectly the conditions of the standard economic approach to environmental
externalities learned in one’s first graduate environmental economics course and
presented, for example, in Baumol and Oates (1988). However, motor vehicles are quite likely
an especially poor fit. Their distinctive features offer opportunities and—more commonly—
create difficulties for fashioning approaches to environmental policy, especially policy respecting
conventional pollutants.
The users are primarily households, rather than firms. This means there are millions of
potential polluters, rather than thousands as in the case of stationary sources. This obvious fact
has had several ramifications that have profoundly shaped policy. First, emissions and emission
reductions cannot be directly measured for every vehicle, nor, for that matter, can vehicle use.
Vehicle use and vehicle emissions can only be determined indirectly by inferences from surveys
of households or (for emissions) of vehicles.1 Planners and regulators have had to rely heavily on
modeled rather than measured emissions. In the United States, for example, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA) MOBILE model is now used not only for planning but for enforcement
as well, a development that has had unfortunate consequences both for the model itself
and for policy. Second, these millions of motorist-polluters vote, which has made it very
difficult to implement effective emissions regulations directly on vehicles. Instead, most of the
work in reducing emissions has been done by emissions standards for new vehicles.
Responsibility for emissions is shared among a number of parties. The actions of many different
parties can affect motor vehicle emissions. Manufacturers design vehicles of different sizes
and types, and install the engine and emissions-control system. Refiners can produce fuel with
highly variable emission potential, particularly with regard to hydrocarbon (HC) emissions for
gasoline engines and sulfur for diesel fuel. Actual emissions, of both conventional pollutants and
greenhouse gas pollutants, vary greatly with how the vehicle is driven. Responsibility for vehicle
maintenance and emissions-system repair is shared between mechanics and motorists.
The upside of this diffusion of responsibility is that there are many potential regulatees, and
many possible interventions in the system. On the other hand, the more policies, the greater the
difficulty of choosing among them. Various actors can more easily point to others as the real
problem. And actions taken by one actor can be undone by the behavior of others. For example,
motorists’ failure to maintain their vehicles can compromise the integrity of manufacturerinstalled
emissions-control systems. The observed pattern of responsibility is in part a product
of the institutional structure that governs motor vehicle production, ownership, and use. Thus,
one possible approach to motor vehicle emissions policy is to consider ways to alter this structure.
For example, manufacturers could be required to maintain pollution control over the lifetime
of their vehicles; or in-use vehicle emissions control could be bid on and contracted by one
party, who would then be responsible for a target level of emissions reductions. These approaches
have been suggested (Harrington and McConnell 2000 have reviewed alternative property rights
structures) but have not been tried.