Investing in most HYIPs on the Internet is a little bit like going to the casino. If you're not the type of person who would go to the casino with a free mind and a total acceptance about losing money as well as the opportunity of winning big, don't invest in HYIPs.

Playing in the HYIP arena on the internet is a little bit like going to an imaginary casino in which many of the games would purely and simply steal your money without respecting the rules and a small number of them would play by the rules. If you were to go to such a casino, you would first have to find the paying tables, before putting your money on any of them.

That's exactly what you have to do if you decide to put any amount of money in HYIPs. Don't think that by putting money once in a program and never doing anything after that you will become rich.

You have to explore this world by yourself, search and read regularly (ideally on a daily basis).

Many of the so called HYIPs are nothing more than pyramidal and Ponzi Schemes. If you "invest" your money in such programs, your chances are very high that you're gonna lose money, that the "program" in question will, sooner or later, simply vanish without refunding anyone.

The first and foremost rule is to DIVERSIFY as much as you can. If you invest ten thousand dollars equally in ten different HYIPs and that one or two of them close, you lose only 10% or 20% of your money.

But DIVERSIFICATION in itself is not enough (especially if you were to "diversify" in fraudulent schemes).

Diversify the e-currencies you use for investing. If someday one of the e-currencies you use disapears you will have other accounts alive.

Don't let your money sleep in your e-currencies account. First, because they charge a fee for keeping your gold. Second, because if you don't have sleeping money in your account there are less chances that someone may steal it by transferring it to their own account.

Remember that the only security device between you and your account is your passphrase. If someone knows your passphrase, he can in an instant empty your account.

Remember to keep your passphrases absolutely secret.

Some hackers try to steal the passphrases from your computer (never write your passphrases anywhere else than on a paper that you keep hidden). Some of them even know how to "read" what you type. So, if they happen to be spying on you while you are accessing your account, they could have your account number and passphrase.

Change you passwords often.

Ideally always retransfer your incoming payments either in new HYIPs or to your debit card. Withdraw the money and keep the dollar bills. Those can't be stolen online.

Invest the sooner you can when programs come up but not as long as you have not seen the program deliver results for a long enough time (this "long enough time" may vary from person to person according to their willingness to take risks). By results I mean financial ($) results as well as explanations from them concerning their investments that are logical and plausible, fast answers to your requests for informations, a willingness to help and a general look and feel of professionalism (nonetheless, one of the biggest Ponzi' scheme of last year, Income Ventures, was one of the most professionally designed HYIP web site ever).

If you make profits, and you're gonna make some if you follow simple logical rules, keep some for yourself or, if you're more adventurous, re-invest in new programs. Do not always reinvest your interests in the same programs that have been paying for you. Try new ones, diversify.

Some times, get out of programs if you feel that something is wrong with them, before it closes. Especially the ones like the fate illed Income Ventures, HYIPs that keep all your capital and interests for compounding. When a program like that closes you lose everything, capital and interests.

Invest in short term and long term programs. Go for a few that pay daily (most of those that pay daily are pyramidal schemes), weekly and monthly.

You can "test" many of the HYIPs by investing small amounts of money first and then bigger ones when you feel they have delivered what they promised.