“The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.” Frank Hubbard

The acronym “hyip” will probably sound very foreign to a person who has never ventured into online investing. Seasoned online investors will either hate hyips or love them depending on their experiences.

What exactly is a hyip or high yield investment program? Wikipedia defines it as a type of investment pyramid scheme normally offered via the internet and invariably offers astoundingly high returns.

Because of the high returns, the risks are inherently high and HYIPs generally do not last for the long term. Indeed the majority of HYIPs are nothing more than ponzi schemes in disguise. Money from new investors are used to pay the existing investors. The scam will continue as long as money coming in from new investors is enough to pay off withdrawals by existing members . When the new money dries up, the scheme collapses.

Most hyips offer little transparency. There is little or completely no disclosure about the company or the owners, or how they invest the money from their members.

Seasoned hyip players will invariably know about a hyip called PIPS ( People In Profit System or Pure Investor). This hyip was started by Bryan Marsden in early 2004 and achieved phenomenal growth worldwide. Its popularity was so immense that it attained almost a cult-like status among some of its die-hard members. In its heyday, it delivered what it promised, a hefty 1.9% return per working day. Indeed some of the early investors became millionaires! When the program started to stall and payments to members were delayed for months, disgruntled members started to complain. Bank Negara (the national bank) in Malaysia commenced an investigation in 2005 and this led to Marsden and his Malaysian wife being charged in Malaysia with 97 counts of money laundering.

If the majority of hyips are scams, why are they still so popular and widespread? The reason is simple: You can make a quick and high profit if you know how to play hyips. If you know how to avoid the many traps and pitfalls, you can multiply your initial investment capital in a relatively short time.

Hyips are undeniably not the most secure way to build your wealth in the long run. Most hyip players hope to raise substantial capital through hyips so that they can then move on to genuine non-hyip investment programs that offer much lower return but which normally require larger initial capital.

So if you still want to invest in hyips despite the high risks, always remember the following rules :
(1) Never use your grocery money.
(2) Never borrow money to invest in hyips.
(3) Do some due diligence before investing.
(4) Diversify into a few different types of hyips.
(5) Withdraw your capital as soon as possible.
(6) Don’t join hyips promoted through spam emails.
(7) Never fall in love with any hyip. You will be doomed for a major heartbreak if you love a hyip so much that you keep on compounding your earnings. Hyips are not built to last!
(8) Adopt a hit-and-run strategy. Just play a few rounds and then get out!
(9) Visit hyip forums often to read the latest posts on the hyips that you have invested in. As soon as you perceive any red flags, try to exit as fast as you can. It is better to earn less than to be sorry!
(10) Control your greed.
(11) Try to focus on the more stable and reliable programs. Have patience. Slow and steady win the race!
(12) Beware of HYIP monitors. Hyip monitors are websites that list and often promote hyips for referral commissions. They are often paid by hyips through ads placed on their sites by hyips and therefore lack credibility. They are supposed to label hyip programs as either “Paying” or “Not Paying” based on the actual situation. Just remember that they may have hidden agendas.

When you begin investing in hyips, it is inevitable that you will take some hits along the way. Learn from them. If you stick to the 12 rules mentioned above, you will take much less hits than someone who ventures into hyips blindly. You will greatly reduce the painful learning curve. And you may truly make a small fortune from your hyip ventures.

“It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have been very actively involved in online programs for about 8 years. During my early involvement in such programs, I must admit that I fell victims to many scams due to my lack of experience and my greed. I lost quite a fair amount of money to many hyips or high-yield investment programs. But I took it all in my stride and persisted.  I considered my early losses as the “tuition fees” that I paid for getting an “education” on online programs.  The internet is like a minefield rife with all sorts of scams and the inexperienced will be easily snared.

I consider myself an experienced player now and have been enjoying great success with several online ventures; my ventures in the online investing arena have paid handsome dividends.

In this blog, I will share with you the programs that I am involved in and it is up to you to decide whether you want to get involved in these programs or not. I sincerely believe that if you join my recommended programs and diversify your capital among these programs , you have a great chance to also build a good stream of passive income online.

I will provide updates on these programs when the need arises and I will add new programs to my portfolio from time to time so do bookmark this blog and visit it regularly. I will also be sharing useful and educational articles on online investing and related topics.

I also wish to stress that all these programs have been cherry-picked by me and I personally invest in all these programs.  You can see the links to all my cherry-picked programs on the right side of this blog.

I wish you great success!