It seems that the vast majority of online investing opportunities suffer from many of the frustrations and inconveniences that offline businesses do. However, online opportunities are visible to a much wider audience and can therefore be subjected to immediate vilification if things don’t happen as quickly as people expect.

To some extent this has happened to me2everyone. Launched some months ago in a blaze of publicity it gained members very quickly and then earlier this year the momentum seemed to slow down somewhat.

However, whilst there have been significant changes in corporate structure and strategy work has been going on in the background. I know this for a fact as I have been involved in helping to create a database of potential me2everyone Customer Care Managers (CCM).

The idea is that me2everyone will have a global network of CCM’s who will be looking after individual members.

I have been reluctant to showcase me2everyone previously as the progress being made was somewhat lacklustre but there are now definite signs that things are going in the right direction.

If you sign up as a member you receive 2,000 free shares and you will have access to what will become the next generation of social networking sites. For those who want to exploit opportunities further you can learn all about what else is planned in the short and medium term. me2everyone isn’t there yet but at least definite progress is being made.

It seems that Gold Nugget Invest has been subjected to a blackmail attempt over the last few days. The admin has been keeping members informed of what is going on as they are keen to show that they will not be intimidated.

It seems that a hacker was able to access certain portions of the website and send out emails to members suggesting that they were part of a ponzi scheme. The Gold Nugget Invest admin was able to send information that provided answers to all the accusations being made but to ensure that further attacks would not be tolerated the decision was taken to re-write the site script from scratch.

This meant that the site has been unavailable for the last few days whilst the changes were made. When I logged into my Gold Nugget Invest account this morning there didn’t seem to be any problems so it looks as though we can look forward to a more trouble free future.

It seems that Global Connect Pension Plan is very much in the finishing strait for sales of their policies.

Whilst this was a relatively new scheme to me it was already well subscribed and now it seems that it will very soon be closed to new members. If you have been considering Global Connect Pension Plan as a way to make some money then I’d advise you to apply as soon as you can.

For those who may not know about Global Connect Pension Plan it is a Reverse Pension Plan where each policy costs $40 (pay by Liberty Reserve or Perfect Money). You can buy a maximum of 6 policies. The good thing is that for every 2 policies you buy you will be given another 1 free. So, if you purchase the maximum 6 policies you will end up with 9 allocated to you.

Each policy is worth $72,000 so you can see that there is a significant amount of money to make and hopefully it won’t take too long to pay out. Before I get too carried away however let me just remind you that any investment like Global Connect Pension Plan is a risk so you should not invest if you feel nervous or unsure about this type of scheme.

Anyone contemplating an online investment should also consider what steps they need to take to make sure that any gains are managed in the most effective manner.

I am not talking about anything unlawful here, more the right of every individual to create a tax efficient structure that will allow them to fully enjoy the rewards that they have risked their own money on.

To help provide a resource where you can find out more I’m listing 7 online sources where you will be able to learn more and if needed pursue solutions for your own individual needs.

The list below is not exhaustive but does contain recommendations that I have found both from personal experience and from trusted sources. I am not recommending any one service over another, that is a purely personal decision and you need to spend time on learning and researching to find the right answer:

• Freedom from Taxes
• The Sovereign Society
• PT Shamrock
• The Venture Resource Group
• High Secured
• Capital Asset
• Trident Press

You’ll notice that the sites are a mixture of advice and practical assistance in creating the right asset protection for your own needs. If you already have knowledge of a particular service (or one not shown above) then feel free to leave a comment and I can research further.

Every now and again I will do a search for new (at least to me) online opportunities that are available. Most of them fail to impress as they follow the path of many others that offered much but deliver little.

One seeming exception to this is Gold Nugget Invest which is an online investment that uses sports arbitrage as a way to make money. Now the idea of sports arbitrage is very appealing as you effectively have a zero risk transaction because you know before the event what money you will make irrespective of the event’s result.

Sounds great doesn’t it but of course in practise it isn’t that easy to implement. As an individual you would have to open an account with a lot of bookmakers, find a way of identifying the arbitrage opportunities and then being quick enough to place the bet before the needed odds change. Having done all this myself previously I know how hard it is and for an individual not that easy to profit.

Where Gold Nugget Invest are different is that they do all the trading and you join as part of the investor pool. The company was recently incorporated and has been online since 2006 so have a good track record.

One site where I was able to learn more about them was on the Money News Online blog. The site owner is very positive about Gold Nugget Invest and has written several posts including a couple of interviews with one of the owners of Gold Nugget Invest. If you are interested the posts are here and here.

There is also a full review in this post which gives a good explanation of what plans are available and the returns involved.

Now, normally I would be fairly cautious when reviewing an opportunity that was being trumpeted by one investor but having done some further research it seems that many others are very happy with Gold Nugget Invest so I’m happy to post about them here.

Just for full disclosure, whilst I have registered I haven’t funded my account yet but expect to do so before the end of July.

After a short delay Global Pension Plan have published a new update. Now that their site is back online it seems that things are getting back to some form of normality.

It’s been confirmed that the necessary 100,000 member requirement has been met as verified documents for that number have now been received by the Admin. The next stage will be down to the Insurance Company as they undertake the next stage of preparing for payout.

The Global Pension Plan admin advises that this next stage will take between 2 and 3 months, however any time estimate should be treated with some caution as very few estimates turn out to be close to the mark so my suggestion would be to allow a minimum of 2 months, then stay vigilant and responsive.

The update also mentions that are an additional 42,000 policies available and the insurance company would like to sell them as soon as possible. If I understand this correctly the additional policies are only available to existing clients and cost €10 each.

Personally, I’m not clear as to why these additional policies are still available so wouldn’t recommend buying any until there is a clearer explanation from Global Pension Plan as to their status.

As ever we shouldn’t read too much into this update and need to remain open minded about the possibility of a final payout. But at least it does seem to be moving in the right direction.

If you have been interested in making an additional income you will probably have come across several newsletters or websites that provide advice and help. Some are little more than glorified sales pages but one or two do provide better value and can give you a helping hand in finding something that you might be interested in looking into further.

One of these value added services is Shortcut Bulletin from Agora Publishing. The editor is Glenn Fisher and he comes across as enthusiastic and knowledgeable. There are two main services, firstly an email newsletter that gets delivered to your inbox on a regular basis. Generally they are short and to the point so it doesn’t take long to absorb what is written.

Secondly, there is also a published newsletter that is issued monthly and which contains a range of articles covering subjects as diverse as creating a website, copywriting or sports advisory services. Many of the contributors are well known in their field so the advice you get is up to date and reliable.

The email newsletter is free whereas the publication requires a subscription. Now, bear in mind that Glenn’s raison d’etre is to sell the products and services he writes about so keep an open mind when reading any article and do your own due diligence before parting with any cash. Having said that services like Shortcut Bulletin do provide a way for those who are looking for additional sources of income to focus in on opportunities quickly and easily.

By the way one service that they report on in the July edition may be of interest. If you have a stack of books lying around and feel like helping the planet then head over to greenmetropolis where you can sell them to others.

I will be reporting on other offerings of this type in future posts so please don’t accuse me of bias just yet!

Graham Laurie over at the Cash Master blog is currently trialling the Market Raider Plus software system from Ian Williams.

This is a forex system that provides alerts when to buy or sell a particular currency pair. It also indicates the stop to use and as the trade progresses all you have to do is move the stop accordingly until the trade gets stopped out.

Graham mentions that using a daily chart may be a good idea for those people who aren’t able to watch trades during the day. The signals given are clear as to when to act and as only one signal is operational at a time it should be very manageable. For those who want more action you could trade on more than a single pair. There is a 30 day money back guarantee but as Graham mentions one month may not be enough time to evaluate performance so any prospective purchaser would need to bear that in mind.

Since the trial started Graham has already tweaked a few things in how he is running the trial so it may be a few days yet before everything settles down.

So far results have been interesting and you can read the report for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday yourself. It seems that the software provides the capacity to make good gains but also limits losses to minimal amounts. It will be interesting to see how the trial progresses.

It seems that the Global Pension Plan website is back online although it appears that since many people are signing back in the response is slow. However, it is encouraging to see signs of life once again.

Having said that the site is back up I’m afraid there are no new updates to report on what is happening behind the scenes at the moment. As reported previously the last update announced that purchase of policies would cease after 30 June. As this date is now well behind us it’s disappointing to see that no new updates have been published.

Perhaps the fact that the site was down may have focused attention on other matters in the short term so we will have to hang on just a bit longer to see what will happen next.

Whilst I haven’t tried it the facility to sign up new members still seems to be available. Given the performance of Global Pension Plan recently I would caution any purchases until the picture is clearer.

Let’s hope there is an update soon so we can all understand what the future holds.

A new announcement from the Global Connect Pension Plan team has been published. It says that payments must be received by Monday 20 July otherwise money will be returned to the payment processor used.

Also, there is a cut-off date for receipt of signed agreements which is Monday 10 August. To be clear this only applies to the member agreement that needs to be downloaded from the site. The KYC documents will be handled by the representative bank so I assume that will follow up at a later date.

As a reminder policies cost $40 each and will provide a return of $72,000 for each. Currently you can get an additional policy for each two policies you purchase. Maximum number of policies per person is 6 (so you could end up with 9). In terms of age you need to be under 68 to be eligible.

So if Global Connect can enforce these deadlines it looks as though payments will start during the 4th quarter of 2009.

If you’d like to join Global Connect you will need to make a payment sooner rather than later. Payment can be made via Liberty Reserve or Perfect Money.