I am an admitted newbie with Bitcoins and crypto-currencies in general. With very little research and only a vague understanding, here is what I have done thus far...
Invested $400 on trading shares at Bitcoin-trader.biz. I had to do this in a round-about way because you can't just put in your credit card number, you have to go through an exchange service first, or pay with Bitcoins. I joined Coinbase (see below) and paid for my shares using Bitcoins. There were some nominal fees involved in the process, but I felt they were acceptable.
Since their inception in November, 2013, the trading shares at Bitcoin-trader.biz have been realizing returns of over 1% most trading days and you even get your initial investment back after 120 days if you buy the trading shares. Too good to be true? Maybe... worth the risk? Maybe... Personally, I put a chunk of change in there for fun just to see and I am hoping they don't Gox me.
There is a thread devoted to them on this site. Here is a link:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-traderbiz-393570If you do decide to sign up and purchase shares, I would greatly appreciate it if you use my referral link:
https://bitcoin-trader.biz/?ref=thegoodlifeI then went back to Coinbase and bought Bitcoins with the remainder of my money... they charge a small fee and can be used to buy coins from USD via your bank account. If you use the link below when you join, they will give both you and I an extra $5 of Bitcoin when you complete your first buy of $100 or more:
https://coinbase.com/?r=533b275e356e0d97950000d0&utm_campaign=user-referral&src=referral-linkSo I bought like 1.25 Bitcoins.
I then joined Bter.com, which is a site that facilitates trading between various different coins and currencies. I transferred .1 Bitcoin to my account there just to play around with. I bought small amounts of several of the different coins that I have heard alot of buzz about. Here is a referal link to Bter.com:
https://bter.com/ref/185271I bought some Blackcoin (BC), Mintcoin (MINT), Nextcoin (NXT), Vertcoin (VTC), and Worldcoin (WDC) all in VERY small amounts. This is just what I did and I am comfortable with it so far. Obviously, there are many other altcoins out there and most if not all will end up in the toilet. That being said, I am risking a small amount on the ones listed above.
Going forward, I plan to invest a set amount weekly ($20 or more when I have extra) into Bitcoin to hold long term, and a small portion into various alt coins as a speculative measure just because it is so fun for me to do so. I also plan to reinvest the profits from my trading shares at bitcoin-trader.biz back into more trading shares and letting them compound.
Hope it may be helpful to someone in some way.
Careful linking your referral link only, might not be allowed.