Archive for April, 2007
E-gold and Bullion Vault news…
This week two companies that have dealings in gold were in the news. Firstly it seems that the US Government in their tireless crusade to put a strait jacket on every one of their citizens has filed an injunction against the principals of 1mdc that is a partner company of e-gold. It seems that the US Government has forced e-gold to block all 1mdc accounts. It’s still not totally clear what further steps will be taken but it is hoped that as the courts re-open on Monday more will be known.
As of this post the e-gold site is functioning normally although several companies have instigated a freeze on transactions with the e-currency provider. As typically happens when something of this nature occurs many people jump on the bandwagon of speculation and forsee a dire future for companies such as e-gold. Personally I would rather wait and learn exactly what allegations are being made and the evidence for them. I was heartened to see a similar approach being taken on the informative No BS HYIP where Jude the owner has posted what I believe to be a considered and thoughtful view on the matter. If only others could be so reasoned.
It seems clear to me that the US Government is trying as hard as possible to restrict freedom of choice for its citizens whilst at the same time putting up a shield of justification against wrong doers. I’m all for catching the bad guy but not at the expense of millions of hard working people.
The second gold related company in the news this week is Bullion Vault whose CEO Paul Tustain advised members that they are re-locating their bullion deposits from Brinks Inc to a Swiss company, Viamat. The company has been around for 62 years and performs many of the same gold bullion related tasks in Switzerland that Brinks Inc does in the US. Whilst no specific reason was given for why Brinks Inc no longer want Bullion Vault business the change is seen as positive as it removes focus from a US based company to a Swiss based one.
This does not mean to say that members can’t still have their gold stored in the US as Viamat have facilities there as well. Personally I’m quite happy to stay far away from any US involvement so am happy about the change.
Protection against the dollar slide…
Given the sliding value of the US$ it’s hardly surprising that much focus is being placed on the weakening value of this currency. Many commentators feel strongly that the US Government has not been honest with its citizens in creating this situation. The continual printing of paper money to try and seal the cracks has been highlighted by the US Congressman Ron Paul as one of the real scandals of the current government.
Dr. Russell McDougal has written a series of 4 articles in the Investors Daily Edge that gives even more detail on the currency decline. He concludes his articles by saying ‘these four articles on the dollar’s woes point to a historic dollar bubble and an international fiat monetary system that is thereby extremely stressed. The serial bubble blowers have outdone themselves. If this somehow ends without calamity, it will be a first’
One of the ways in which people can protect themselves from the damage being wreaked by the weakening dollar is to invest in gold. This has historically provided a shelter from the storm of currency woes and the current situation seems to be another example of where this will be true.
To buy gold directly you can use an online facility at Bullion Vault with the knowledge that your purchases are fully audited and you can check this every day without even logging on to the site. By clicking on the Daily Audit link on the home page you will be directed to a list of all members holdings which is verified by Lloyds TSB.
The gold you purchase is held in one of three highly secure centres, London, Zurich or New York. The centres are managed by Brinks who have a worldwide reputation for bullion storage.
Whilst the cost of gold may seem high for many people you can always take advantage of a regular saving scheme so that, for example, you transfer a sum of money over each month into your Bullion Vault account. With this money you will then be able to purchase some gold at highly competitive prices.
For new users there may be a lot to take in but the Bullion Vault help pages provide an invaluable source of information that will help them gain a greater understanding of how everything works.
A trusted forum for online investors…
Internet forums can provide an extremely valuable way for like-minded people to learn, share and discuss topics of common interest. For many online investment administrators it has been a way to communicate with investors and to showcase their offerings to prospective investors.
It also means that any group who want to create strength in numbers can join together and share knowledge and experience. In the world of online investing this can be a terrific advantage to all concerned. The ability to learn about and discuss the myriad opportunities available provides an investor with some degree of assurance that can’t be gleaned by personal effort alone.
Ensuring that a forum is well managed is a stiff challenge and not something for the faint hearted. Frustrations and lack of patience can lead to posts that provide an unfair view of a particular topic and it is up to the forum moderator(s) to ensure that things don’t get out of hand.
One example of a forum that provides a valuable service to its members is Secure Your Future where the owner takes an extremely active role in making sure that the topics discussed are of potential financial benefit to the members and that any updates are given in a timely manner.
Given that the admin, John, is careful about spreading information it shouldn’t come as any surprise to know that if you wish to join the forum there is a defined protocol to follow.
This formality also applies to the investments that are featured. Somewhat surprisingly it seems that many people find it difficult to follow the detailed instructions and John ends up having to spend a lot of time pointing out errors and reinforcing how things need to be done.
All this means that Secure Your Future does have a very vigilant moderator and this ensures that all posts are relevant and provide great value to the members.
If you want to learn about investments that are not available to the casual investor then Secure Your Future is a great place to look around and discover opportunities that could prove profitable.
What others say about making money…
Most people who publish a blog on a regular basis will attract other bloggers and very often agree to share links. As you’ll see on the right hand side of my blog for example there are links to several blogs that I recommend. So, whilst that seems an accepted practice what does it actually mean for the visitor who might click on one of those links.
Today’s post will spend a little time exploring what type of information can be found on the blogs I link to. I’ll choose a specific post from each blog to give a flavour and would encourage you to explore further by visiting the blogs in question.
Being the gentleman I am I’ll start with a lady. Kip is from Minneapolis and writes a blog focused on marketing and technical web issues. A recent post that interested me was for zoho which is an online alternative to Microsoft Office. As Kip explains Google have made a start with providing a word processor and spreadsheet online but zoho has taken this further and they provide a whole host of office software applications that are open source and therefore will not cost anything to use.
Daryl Lau is someone who loves to help others by providing advice and recommendations on how to make money online. He introduced me to Bloggerwave where those who blog can earn money by reviewing products and services. Also, Daryl has provided a 3 column template for Blogger blogs that may find it’s way here in the not too distant future.
As I’m from the UK I’m always interested in connecting with others who live on this small island. One blog that has certainly stolen a march on a lot of others is Mike’s Money Making Mission as the author keeps visitors updated on his mission to make money from a blog without investing any capital. To this end his post about whether bloggers should become their own advertising agents made me stop and think about just how much influence a heavily visited blog might have with companies ever eager to get their message out to the buying public.
My final recommendation is for Alex over at Blog About Money Online where again you can learn about various ways to earn money from posting on your blog. I’ve chosen to spotlight a post about Slash My Search Cash which is a new opportunity to me so I will be following up on that tout suite.
That’s my selection for today so join in the link love-in by visiting the blogs highlighted above, you may just learn something of exceptional value.
Global WealthBuilders Offshore Privacy Club (GWOPC)
There is a new program being promoted on the internet that is in pre-registration and this will close on April 15th. The program is called Global WealthBuilders Offshore Privacy Club and there are some 67,000 people currently pre-registered. When you sign up you are provided with a website link that allows you to find out more about the clubs aims.
Having spent some time reading through all the material it does seem that there is a good sense of realism about the people who will be keen to join. There are primarily two groups, firstly those people who will keen to buy and/or sell at a discount a range of digital products and items such as health supplements. Interestingly there is also a sub-group identified that relates to US citizens who are no longer able to participate in online gambling and who hate the idea of not having freedom of choice. Secondly are the group who just see this as a money making opportunity by signing up a large number of people in their matrix.
The club distances themselves from being a true MLM organisation by saying that paid up members will not need to purchase any products whatsoever to remain in the club and to benefit from the various compensation plans.
Once pre-registration to the Global WealthBuilders Offshore Privacy Club is closed on April 15th there will be a period when the pre-registrants will have to decide whether to become fully paid members. There are 3 levels of membership with the highest level offering some interesting additional rewards.
It is expected that the membership upgrades will be complete with the formal launch of the club taking place on June 01. After this time the only way to join is to become a paying member.
As the Global WealthBuilders Offshore Privacy Club is based in Panama there are some slightly awkward hoops to pass through for getting membership fees to them. Whether this proves a show stopper for a lot of people remains to be seen.
One other reason that you might consider joining is the fact that there will be advice provided to full members about protecting your assets within legal frameworks that mean you do not have to pay any tax on your earnings so this may be something you might be interested in learning more about.
Learn how ETF’s can protect your wealth…
One area of online investing that I haven’t dabbled with greatly is stocks and shares. Nowadays it is very easy and relatively cheap to transact online. If you have the right trading strategy then there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to make a healthy profit even if the market is declining rather than rising.
The problem of course is finding the individual shares that will buck the trend and offer growth irrespective of what the market as a whole is doing.
Previously I’ve mentioned Investors Daily Edge as a good source of information on many aspects of market trading. One type of investment that is regularly mentioned is Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) and it is clear that this seen to be a very profitable place to invest if you trade wisely. Their attraction lies in the lower cost of ownership and their diversification of risk.
When I was talking to a friend about this he suggested I take a look at the website ETF Guide as he said it gives a really in-depth analysis of the whole ETF market place.
I took his advice and was especially impressed with the ETF Directory as it gives some useful links to other advisory services and also the News and Commentary page which provides all the latest information in the world of ETF’s.
The ETF market place is expanding very quickly and any resource that brings together all of the information is worth following. The site issues a free newsletter and you can sign-up for a 30 day trial of their service for free.
If you want to profit from the markets but don’t want to spend hours researching specific company stocks then ETF’s may well be a good way to go.
Leverage the skill of others to make money…
Yesterday I received an email that was an endorsement for the Ultimate Betting System and thought I’d see what is on offer. Clicking on the link brings you to a fairly standard sales page where you are introduced to Phil Moulds who straightaway admits to being somewhat of a gambling novice who has developed a software package that made some good money for him.
In fact he claims to have turned a £1,000 betting bank into just shy of £25,000 since September 2005. Phil seems to focus on using the system with UK horse racing but the banner at the top of the page claims it can be used with many other sports.
As you read down the page you learn that there is a system to be followed which is fully explained when you purchase. Like all good sales pages there are quite a few testimonials posted which gives some reassurance to the potential buyer…or does it? One thing I do when looking at sales pages like this is to visit any testimonial where there is a website listed. By doing this I am hoping to find an endorsement of the product. Unfortunately this rarely happens which I find very disappointing as the whole point of a testimonial is to provide a potential purchaser with proof that the person does actually think the product or service is worth investing in. This is not to criticise Phil as he clearly doesn’t have any influence over other people’s websites but for me it does detract somewhat from the effectiveness of the testimonial.
Reading more about the Ultimate Betting System you learn that you don’t have to have any experience in gambling although you will need to dedicate some time to applying the system for it to work properly. In fact this is the biggest obstacle for me as when I looked at the detailed results that Phil gives you access to (by separate application) you see that operating the system does require you to have ready access to racing results so that you can learn whether to place the next wager or not. Currently this is not practical for me and I suspect many others although in Phil’s defence he does address this by saying that a reasonable profit can still be achieved by just operating at the weekend.
If you go to the end of the page you will learn about the bonuses that Phil is offering when you purchase. The one thing that caught my eye was the provision of a series of videos that showed you exactly how the system works. I always find it very useful to watch something being done as it confirms the steps you read and sometimes provides the missing link that text may not always contain.
Phil is offering the Ultimate Betting System at £97 as he is keen to get people to use it and send him some more testimonials for a more widespread release in the future. When this happens the cost is likely to rise. I don’t have any real knowledge of whether this is just a sales pitch or a genuine offer to early buyers. What it does mean is that I might buy it (it does have a 30 day money back guarantee) in the knowledge that I won’t be able to profit from it fully until my working arrangements allow me some more flexibility.
Who can you trust with your money…
One site that has been featured quite heavily on CEP Coast recently is Kip Fund and I was drawn to the statistics that they were reporting. Online since October 2006 they
show a membership as of today of 37. This seems very low given the time running and the investment figures don’t seem to be that encouraging either. A total of $2032 invested, $183 earned and $0.56 withdrawn.
show a membership as of today of 37. This seems very low given the time running and the investment figures don’t seem to be that encouraging either. A total of $2032 invested, $183 earned and $0.56 withdrawn.
If I was trying to promote an investment program I don’t think I would be tempted to show figures like this as I believe it would discourage rather than encourage new investors. My overall feeling is that the site is not genuine as they seem to use a website layout that is very reminiscent of previous scammers.
They do have a link to HYIP Investment which portrays itself as a HYIP monitoring site. Kip Fund is shown as number 18 in their list with recent comments showing that they are paying (how does that square with the $0.56 shown as withdrawals?).
So if Kip Fund are number 18 I thought it would be interesting to see what they regard as number 1. The answer is Open Trade which relies on FOREX trading to make variable daily returns to their members. Digging a little deeper and looking at some of the forums that they have links to on their site it is not really clear whether this is a genuine program or not. Whilst they seem quite happy to link to several forums and quite a few monitoring sites the forum comments leave several questions unanswered.
Personally I will steer well clear of programs like this for the time being as there seems little visibility of who is actually running the programs and what experience or qualifications they have for being involved. A year ago I would probably have taken a punt with a smallish spend but experience has taught me that lack of visibility and no communication with members is a serious sign of potential problems in the future.
Will this make me Money?…
A recent post I made was titled Money Making Ahead of the Crowd and was about a newsletter I receive on a fairly adhoc basis. The author, Gerald Deer, has provided some useful recommendations for investments to consider (you can subscribe to the newsletter by sending an email to geralddeer@safe-mail.net with IYCU as the subject line of the mail).
Whilst it is interesting to receive the recommendations it doesn’t necessarily validate any of the programs that Gerald discusses so I thought I would do somewhat of an experiment where I will invest some of my own money in one of his recommended programs to see whether a good profit can be turned.
The program I’ve chosen is ghpi which has a range of investments on offer. I’ve chosen the Real Estate Plan as it has a low minimum deposit ($100) and pays a return of 8% per week for a year. I’ve invested $125 so that the weekly return is an even $10.
None of the plans allow you to compound your investment returns so I will likely make a withdrawal for every $50 earned. This will then provide me with funds to either re-invest with ghpi or elsewhere.
If you are tempted to follow along with my example then you should note that ghpi are very close to closing to new members so you may not have much time to join. Also, whilst you can join for free you do have to make an investment into one of the plans within 72 hours or your details will be purged from the database.
It’s worth mentioning that I have read good reports about ghpi on other forums so for what they might be worth there is at least some anecdotal evidence that the program is sound.
If you do visit the site then you should be aware that the program admins are German so some of the English used may not sit all that well if you are a grammar buff, but at least it raises a smile now and then.
CEP – Golden Opportunity to make money…
Some great news in from Colon End Parenthesis (CEP) as they have decided to open for new members again for one week only starting on Friday 06 April.
If you haven’t already done so I would strongly urge you to join Colon End Parenthesis (CEP) as they are a stable company and are making regular payments. If you are unsure about investing money then don’t worry as there is no time limit on when you need to make a deposit. So, you can safely join as a free member, head over to the forum and just check things out until you are 100% confident that you have made the right decision
Colon End Parenthesis (CEP) have made the announcement today so that you have plenty of time to prepare. Don’t forget that this opportunity will only be available for one week from Friday 06 April.
It will be some time before they decide to open membership again. If you want to learn more about what Colon End Parenthesis (CEP) has to offer then head over to my post of February 12th where all will be revealed.
I know this post may sound somewhat pushy but I truly believe that you may miss a great opportunity if you don’t join this great program when the limited membership window opens.
