Still considered a newbie at ten months now, I have painstakingly learned a few hard and real lessons early on by not following the advice offered by many other seasoned HYIP’ers. I have also come up with a few of my own realizations surrounding attributes/suggestions that might offer some more longevity to programs which offer true value and opportunity:

1) GREED being a factor in our lives, whether we believe it or not, seems to be not only a source of frustration for investors, but an implication of, and recipe for impending disaster. I have learned that leaving your money to compound in the hopes of getting rich doesn't work. A person must follow the advice constantly offered to recover your original principal, fees of investing, and at least a percentage of the in-Profit value. If you leave it for too long, I can almost promise you will lose it (ref. GOLDSTOCK, HYIPPRO, JOHNSON, etc.). It seems better to live by the above principle, put some back in your wallet, reinvest some in the program, and put the residual in a number of other programs as test spends. If they worked, the word on the street looks good, and you have to checked several rating/monitoring websites that remain updated and are held in good stead, then place your money in a large grouping of sites that have good potential and reasonable returns.

2) The advice offered within forum discussions, and possibly a few other monitoring/rating sites is completely invaluable. I have learned so much by getting to know people through their posts, and who/which can be trusted is truly helpful. Pay attention and get to know these people/sites as they may hold your success or failure in their words.

3) Never invest if you are afraid you will lose it. Get out now, put it in the bank, and live off the interest. Otherwise, deferring to # 1 above, you will be frustrated and upset far beyond the realms of what life typically casts in your direction. This is high risk, which means that your odds are very much the same as they are in gambling. You win some; you lose some. Always remember too that in the gambling arena, the odds are unreasonably stacked in the casinos’ favor! Same here considering it's the Internet. You don't know these people offering to take your money the same as you don't know a dealer. He/she has much more experience than you within his/her craft.

4) If you don't take someone else's word for it, do your own research. Learn this by asking questions if you don't otherwise know. It's your money, and your responsibility. If you're not a trusting person in the first place, you're in the wrong arena! I see people asking the same questions over and over about the same investment programs on a regular basis when the information has already been well covered. All you need do is refer to the links of most forums before you post to find any discussion on a particular item. It's also good to provide input to a discussion wherever possible, especially constructive, or information that could stand to benefit the consortium.

5) If anyone sends you an invitation to an investment program, label it as Spam, delete it, and start your own list of programs to avoid based on that information. Nobody should be coming to your door trying to get you to join something here. Ask to gain information at appropriate places that don't stand to gain from the information they offer, or learn to do your own research. There are a good many I'm not even aware of, but I can tell you one place to look, and a few things to stay away from:

• http://www.domainwhitepages.com. All a person needs to do here is enter a web site address, and he/she can get all the information. In its most basic form, this is what most people use.

• beware of IP numbers! Compare the first three sets of numbers to see if there is a match. Chances are that if you see a large number of bad IPs with the same number as yours, put it on your own personal list of programs to avoid if you don't want to lose your investment. You can find such a list by joining investmentprograms in Yahoo Group free of charge.

• Be aware of free hosting. If a web site is the real thing instead of John Doe (no offense to actual people with same real name) signing on his computer to steal your money, they will most likely pay for their hosting. I'm not really sure exactly which companies to look for, but I think that I learned correctly that KATZ GLOBAL and GO DADDY should be avoided.

• Look for phony contact information where the numbers are sequenced somehow, ot the address is missing info. If they don't wish to be contacted, chances are they have a very good reason, like no one to you to follow up on what's happening with your money. The more information provided for contact that actually looks legitimate, the more legit they might be. I'm told that N.Y. is a classic area for scams to use for contacts. Also know that high yield investment programs are illegal in the United States, as well as other places “on-shore”, so such addresses and contact information is most likely flawed.

6) Be very skeptical of programs that are new, or offering incredibly high percentages. Something like 30 percent for 10 days is nothing but a black hole. If you get in early and are fortunate enough not to be scammed out of your money before any testing phases have been investigated, you might be one of the lucky few, but your risk level is at its highest point. Legitimate offerings would give anywhere from a very low percentage monthly, not equaling more than 20%. It takes time for your investment to reach the program, and time for them to invest it themselves. Even the best traders and MASTER investors cannot do much better than this figure regularly. Daily, and weekly paid programs are the riskiest of all, and you stand the realization that there is most likely not any sort of the investinging going on. A definite Ponzi if not a scam! Speaking of newer programs, the problem is that they really cannot be trusted. If it comes to you in your email, or you jump in the first day without knowing anything, you will most likely lose. Give the program a chance to be reviewed for payout on monitoring programs, or for a discussion from an objective group of investors. The words of a seasoned and honest person will always far outweigh anything you will find on a monitoring site. These tend to easily be corrupted by people being paid to rate a certain program a certain way. It might be a good idea, though, for a person who has had success or failure with a certain program to post a rating as often as possible to try to balance the system toward some more honestly, thus giving the future investors an opportunity to make informed decisions. Either way, a little time is the best testimonial. The opposite is also true in high-yield investing. If a program has been around for quite a long time, the chances of its continuation usually diminish. This is just typical, and not the rule. You just never know with high risk.

7) Diversification. The term itself expands far beyond people's opinions of "how much.” Some people will suggest 10 programs as a minimum investing agenda, others 20, and some go as high as 100. The main idea behind the overall principle is that the more investments you have spread around, the less the chances of losing all your money. If you put it all in one company, and they run away, so does your money. If you spread your money around, a percentage will run away, but a percentage will stay. As you gain more understanding of HYIP investing, you will make well-informed decisions as to how to spread it. Thereafter, the amount of your risk is lowered, and the number of your running Investments far outnumbers those that are gone. Your money works for you. But you should prepare yourself for very difficult learning lessons at the beginning. That is one of the reasons an effort was made to create this document. If you insist on spending into daily, and weekly programs, it is best to only put 10% to 20% of your total fund allocation into such places, and the other 80% into more proven stable programs.

8) even within the most honest of discussions found on forums, people can have strong opinions one way or the other about a given program. Read between the lines, and look for the best supporting evidence to back up statements. The more factual support of their statements, the more the person speaks from knowledge. Everybody has opinions, after all. And that is what you will find, including persons who have been losing money or scammed, and simply look to harm other investors with their grudge. Again, do your own research, and weigh the opinions. The more you get to know the people posting regularly, the more you can learn about them.

9) Patience. This being a high yield, high-risk arena, your emotional stability should not enter into statements and actions. You already knew what you were getting into, so complaining about, bringing down web sites, and trying to lead people astray with their investment money is not only counterproductive, but devoid of value. It only serves to make a good program close with honest investors' money, or for a new and uninformed investor to make a colossal mistake. Why seek retribution for the loss instead of teaching others to learn from an error that was yours to begin with? If a person who does the research, pays attention, asks good questions, and simply follows the rules of item # 1, he/she stands a pretty good chance of a sustainable income. Just like in school, it seems. Between people trying to close programs complaining to the authorities and thereby exposing them because they themselves have become emotional train wrecks, (good reasons aside) and scam artists, the entire system becomes too corrupted for everyone's use. We all lose!!!

10) Advertising . Now, advertising of a program makes the most logical sense for any Ponzi. The first members in can only get paid by new member spends. I’m not talking about the kind of free advertising you get through Spam. This kind of advertising can be found as "paid for" in different HYIP mediums, including monitoring platforms. Rating is not the same as advertising, so be careful. If something is highly rated, that sort of advertising can be dishonest, as previously mentioned. The kind of advertising I'm talking about is what you see in banners, and is privately written about in forums by administrators. If they're taking the time to post in different places, and defend their positions or let you get to know them, chances are you might have hit on something that might last longer than a site that doesn't. Another thing about advertising: if someone paid for it, someone needs to get their money back. That means they probably need to stay open for a while to do that. Another exclusion applies. PRIVATE programs.

11) PRIVATE is a very widely and loosely used word in HYIP. PRIVATE can mean anything that you can barely find out about to something that is almost no different than any other investment. Some are Online; some are offline. PRIVATE as a word here doesn't have much bearing. But the words "Going private" do. It has been a largely agreed-upon decision that 99 percent of HYIP is are Ponzis. In case you are not aware, a Ponzi is like a pyramid program where the first people into a new program are funded their returns (interest) by newer members entering the plan. Making money may have very little or nothing to do with it. If it turns out not to be a scam, but a Ponzi, the people that get in first get the best returns as their money continues to cycle while all new members pay. If membership stopped pouring in, the program can no longer pay people, and it most likely closes, leaving the newest investors stranded, and screaming scam. Really, you start to develop a picture that they are all scams. There are actually very few exceptions to this rule for the late investor into a program with slowing signup members/investors. Now, back to Ponzi's. So, if it's a Ponzi, why would they want to go private and cut off new membership? This idea is used mostly by Program administrators that decide to beef-up the investment pool just before running off with the money! Most recently, it can be evidenced in American United Trust. Those words are something you definitely want to stay away from, and the only exception would be in the most trusted of programs with extensive due diligence and all the right cylinders firing. These are extremely few and far between. Another strategy along the lines of going private is offering specials. Specials can be classified as anything from offering you a one-time only opportunity for a certain time, or offering increased percentages of returns while increasing minimum investment requirements. This can be most recently be seen in Golden Universe, a program which toward the end of its life made a last desperate attempt to collect more money by doing just what was discussed above. Be extremely cautious with these. Stay away if you are not sure.

12) Previously, I mentioned the word “on-shore." This is the opposite of a well-used term in the HYIP world known as “off-shore.” It pertains to legalities. As a lot of countries are mostly concerned with taxation and getting their money, HYIPs are illegal because cities/state/provinces/countries don't get their taxation dollars. There are certain countries, and places known as being off-shore, where the privacy and enhancement of a person's riches are highly regarded and protected. These are places you would find the origins of a lot of investment opportunities. For as much as you don't get taxed, the ownership does not get taxed either, and some feel it's a good place to hide in the event of scamming. Just a broad overview.

Below I offer what I feel is extremely useful specific information. Places to go to learn about investing and the ”language,” places to get a list that keeps you updated, places to gather information about potential investments, and places to find blacklists and programs to avoid, and places to learn about programs from people who have experienced them.

Again, I realized the value of forums at the pinnacle for HYIPing as compared to RATING sites. What I find there are a great number of

individuals sharing their factual testimonials and experiences, and

helping each other in the genuine fashion of decent society. In

fact, monitoring sites and informational resources to follow might

provide more honest reading. Please know that all that follows is

only IMHO:

• www.thehyipforum.com
• www.web-life.org
• www.moneymakergroup.com/forum
• http://www.chuckknight.com/forum/Blah/Blah.cgi

(in no particular order of preference). Probably the most popular

for most, I suggest you stay away from www.talkgold.com/forum. I

occasionally read topics I get in newsletters from there, and add

information by posting where I can. But that is infrequent because

I find that it is largely a group of strongly-opinionated and

frustrated people that spend more time debating their highly-touted

opinions than offering constructive information. If I had to make a

choice, I suppose the first one on the list would be the place I

would absorb and dispense information.

• www.hyip-navigator.com
• http://www.mintmachine.com
• www.teamaaronshara.com/daily.html
• http://money-monitor.com
• www.invest-navigator.com
• http://www.sensatrust.org/
• www.hyip.org

(again, in no order of preference) I would like to suggest that if

you choose to invest in a program, you investigate the second or

third one on the above list for referrals. The last web site on the

list is by far the best one-stop source for program information.

Any program you want to find information about is most likely

there. The only attention I would pay to the ratings, as I'm

positive programs offer funding to boost their standings, is to try

to catch program problems as they occur. Mostly, the overall

information contained seems to run between 24 and 48 hours behind,

and I feel that's mostly because they have a very small forum. The

one thing you will want to pay attention to is the top 100 list.

Again, slightly behind, but I find that as soon as a program reaches

the top five, you want to start pulling your money out. Somewhere

in the vicinity of the last 10 programs that have hit number one

have failed within a week after getting there. A good barometer, if

you will.

I find the first one is OK, but the information is infrequent to the

point that it arrives too late to act/react. The second one is by

far the best to where I would call it "The school for HYIP

newbies." Subscribing will entitle you to their archive

newsletters. This is by far the best informational resource you can

run across to learn about investing in this arena. But, be aware,

it will take you at least four days of being on the computer to

absorb all the information. You might create your own credo by

taking notes on what you learn.

I hope some can find this information useful. If not, maybe it could be passed along to someone who can. You are free to amend it in any way you like in the hopes that the general idea gets across to those who could use it. Share information and learning, and keep the minor squabbles over silly issues to an absolute minimum.