Veterans in the HYIP industry are probably familiar with the site I’m going to talk about tonight, but many newcomers in the industry may not have come across Ecommerce Journal yet in their HYIP adventure.

There are only a handful of active sites in the HYIP industry that have been around for extended periods of time. I’ve written about two already in the resources section of my Walkthrough Page, and Ecommerce Journal can join them; since 2006 news and reviews have been available for readers interested in the HYIP industry, provided by Ecommerce Journal.

A newcomer to the Ecommerce Journal website may be taken back, confused by all the information available on topics outside the HYIP industry, but if you take a moment to look through the site you’ll find quickly that the site has a strong focus on providing information about the HYIP industry. Before I dig into the site I want to mention that Ecommerce Journal hosts a yearly award with one category being the Best Ecommerce Blog. HYIPBlogger.com was nominated as one of the choices, and though it’s unlikely we win this year (as the site had only just opened for the last 3-4 months of 2010..), I wanted to say it’s a privilege to be noticed in the HYIP industry and HYIPBlogger will continue to provide unbiased, honest information for potential investors. Oh, if you do want to vote for us feel free to do so: HERE.

That being said, lets look back at Ecommerce Journal’s site and start explaining what really makes this resource different and stand out from the rest. First thing we need to do is locate the information about HYIPs, because honestly that’s what we’re looking for…If you want to read the other news articles, go right ahead, but here we’re focusing on high-yield investment programs. So, the first thing you’re going to do is scroll down until you see the following sections:

Once you’ve located the “Ecommerce-Checked” and Investment Industry sections, you’re ready to start reading what Ecommerce Journal has to say about high yield investment programs.

You’ll find detailed reviews of HYIPs written by Ecommerce Journal in the “Ecommerce-Checked” section, but I’m not going to go into detail talking about how other sites review programs. The real gem in my eyes are the Battles of Investment Projects.

Ecommerce Journal writes extensive comparison analyses about different investment programs, something that isn’t found elsewhere in the HYIP industry.  These battles rate programs based on scores that are determined in each of the five (5) different categories:

• Investment Plans
• The availability of website log in security features
• Website security features
• Whois information
• Interfaces of the websites
• Referral programs
• Contact Information
• Language availability
• Rating and monitors

I’ll be the first to admit it’s a pretty extensive list of items to compare, and may of the listings are information that I don’t necessarily cover in my reviews, so there is definite benefit to checking out the investment battles to find out a bit more information in your personal research of a HYIP program.

I’m not going to insult your intelligence by going step-by-step through a HYIP investment battle comparison, but I do want to discuss a couple of the categories. Specifically I want to focus on the “Referral Programs” and “Rating and monitors” sections. First, I believe Ecommerce Journal is backward in how they rate the referral section. They score the program with the highest paying referrals as the winner. Yes, higher referrals is good for members that refer and monitors and the like, but for the program itself, high referral amounts can be very detrimental. Honestly, in my opinion anything over 2-3% starts to damage a program. Once referrals start getting higher than 5%, they’re definitely detrimental to the overall life of the program.

Second, it’s obvious that Ecommerce Journal favors the monitors listed in their “Rating and monitors” section as the authorities in the HYIP industry, and I will admit the monitors listed are among the longest-lived and well known in the industry, but they are also the most expensive. To purchase monitoring in all six would cause a significant drain on any HYIP program just starting out, as we’re talking about several thousand dollars for monitoring, plus continued payments. It’s assumed these larger monitors will bring a significant number of investors to the program, but again it’s my belief that a program can be successful by monitoring with a small number of recognized monitoring programs, it isn’t in my eyes the best to monitor with all the large sites.

Other than that though, the Ecommerce Journal’s investment program battles is a unique and informational resource for investors to tap into to gain further knowledge about specific HYIP programs. In addition, it’s my opinion that Ecommerce Journal’s reviews are among the best in the industry, showing step-by-step instruction on how to invest in each program and providing a great deal of visual instruction for potential investors.

In summary, Ecommerce Journal is an excellent resource to gain further knowledge on HYIPs. It’s important to remember that you need to come to your own conclusion about a program before investing, and not to blindly trust any monitor or reporting site. Remember that resources such as Ecommerce Journal and HYIPBlogger are merely guides for you that provide you with information. If you are going to invest in high yield investment programs it’s important to come to your own decision and learn everything you can before investing.