This is the first in a series of emails designed to give you the basic knowledge you need to make significant amounts of money investing online.

First, let's examine what HYIPs are not. They are not insured investments. They are not overseen by any government entity onshore or offshore. Even when they say they are guaranteed the most I have ever seen guaranteed is your initial investment. In other words, you are on your own.

That being said, there are still, quite a few, well-run and conscientious HYIPs out there that will make money for you with little risk. Most of these types of programs are run by groups of investors that know what they are doing. They tend to invest in markets that are not well-known and catered to by the established brokerage houses. For example, Smith-Barney or others.

As I have said in past emails and articles, there is no 100% safe investment on earth. There may be some like US Savings Bonds that are close to infallible, but there have been civil wars. Should there be one your bonds might not make it through. And then, would you really care about the pittance they pay.

Let's face it folks, most of us are drawn to HYIPs by big gains and short maturity dates. With those come the accompanying risk. That is what I am here to teach you how to avoid the largest portion of HYIP risk when you invest.

Here are the basic rules for investing in HYIPs and more-or-less guaranteeing you the best returns.

1. Avoid any program that offers only e-gold as the only way to make an investment or spend (jargon for putting money into a program) when the e-gold account is linked to a yahoo, zipmail, g-mail or hotmail address. This should be your first clue and a red flag to pass on this investment.

2. Websites and programs of negative character will usually have websites that are hosted for free from places like Homestead, Geo-Cities or Tri-Pod or others. What you should ask yourself is if they don't have the money to put up a quality site, they probably want some of yours so they can beat feet outa town. Your chances of investing for a profit are small indeed.

3. Avoid programs that do not have an email address or a phone number for the program manager or a fax line so that you can ask questions. Having a program manager's name and even a snail mail address is a great benefit to have.

Sample of Whois follows below: Administrative Contact: WhoisGuard WhoisGuard Protected (a96f0d43d2324e6ab1337a3aec3aa031.protect@whoisguard.com) +1.6613102107 Fax: +1.6613102107 8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd 8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd Westchester, CA 90045 US

There is no program manager listed with this information. Still, in this case I have chosen to go ahead with my investments with this program as I have seen the original program run and made (continue to make) good money. More on that later.

4. Look for an investors forum. The most professionally run programs have some sort of forum attached so that you can interact with other investors and keep up with the pay status of the program at any given time. Also, if you are new or considering such a program you can get insider information right away this way as to how the program is performing. If you haven't noticed yet, Invest Place has added a new live chat forum to their website. This can be interpreted as them being serious.

5. It also helps to have a sponsor that has some information. I have just provided you with what information I have. I have approximately $400 of my own money in a program and feel comfortable with it being there. Many of the programs that you will hear about will not be good and need further investigation. The ones that pass muster you should not hesitate to invest in. More on how much in a follow-up article.

What I am attempting to teach you here is how to do due diligence on these programs. If you learn to do this and then actually do it, you will have more success than you can imagine. Certainly, you will outstrip those that do not.

So, therefore follow these steps when investigating a program for investment.

A. Go to http://www.GoDaddy.com and look up the who is on the domain name. The "whois" is information that is listed when the domain is opened or renewed. You will find this link at the bottom of the Godaddy page. In that listing you may find this info that you need.

1. Phone number 2. Fax number 3. Name to Contact 4. Who hosts the domain. (Remember the free names I gave you above) 5. Snail Mail Address

With this information or most of it you will be able to judge the main thing and that is this: If the company has started this investment program with the thought of being legitimate. Even professional traders like the ones that run many winning HYIPs lose at times. They may not be able to pay you at some time. However, if done right over time you will have made plenty. If you got your initial principal out and then some, how can you whine about losing or complain they were less than upfront and straightforward.

Remember, play with the rules you learn here and your exposure will be much less than using other plans. Always have a plan and expect to lose a little, but not a lot. Expect to earn much, much more than you ever lose. Few sports teams around the world ever go without losing occasionally. Very few. I hope you understand what I am telling you.

Now, having said all that , get ready for Part 2 on how you do win and win big. Are you ready?

About the author:

Jeff Griffin is an experienced investor online and a well-known marketer as well having operated in this arena for several years. He will provide you with more detailed information by visiting his website at http://www.ClassicInternetStrategies.com