The best high yield bonds are easy to find. Just go to one of those sites offering to compare 100, 200, or 2087 different high yield bonds brokers. Seriously. It's a good idea. The trick is finding the best high yield bonds deal for you, given your circumstances.

What should you look for in taking-on a high yield bonds broker? You need someone trustworthy, who talks your language, and gives good, fast support, with reasonable fees. The internet is a mammoth, free yellow pages. Who can you trust?

You hear people griping about the cost of using brokers. The socialist-student-worker-miser believes capitalism is inherently evil. Someone is out to screw him. The truth is 'yes', someone is out to screw you, and will, but only if you let them. They're not obliged to get you the best deal, and you're not obliged to take the first deal they offer, either.

Performance: It's important to look at a fund's total return over time. Total return takes into account the market value of its bonds + the income from them. Investors interested in income should look at the fund's thirty-day yield.

A bond is an IOU, with interest. You are lending money to the issuer in exchange for a fixed rate of interest over a pre-defined period, with your original sum to be returned on a specified date. Bonds are often called 'fixed-interest securities'.

Here's another tip: be wary of internet sites with names like Go4-high-yield-bonds.co.uk or Your-high-yield-bonds.gb.uk. These sites are often the tertiary site of the real broker; they might be a big name in the business, or they might be a few East London geezers chancing their arm in the high yield bonds game.

The site may have been set up by a big broker to focus solely on high yield bonds, and get more internet 'traffic' from people looking for same, or it may just be a 'throwaway' site with no proper support, run by people who sell on your contact information.

Internet sites of this type won't be able to help you with unusual queries. Your information will be flogged on to three or more 'real' brokers, with the result your phone will be ringing off the hook for the next two weeks with calls from eager salesmen, thumbing through a database, and finding your name.

Are you investing for current income or for long-term growth?

The price paid for a bond can vary. A £100 bond offering a return of 6.8%, with interest rates currently at 3%, would be attractive to investors and the market price paid for each bond would go up, to, say, £107.50.

Think before cashing-in. If you hold the bond until it matures then its price will not change. if you buy and sell before they mature, you may win, or lose.

The amount you earn or lose depends on the bond's transaction costs maturity date and interest rates. If you want to sell before it matures, you should check the bond market to find out how easy it is to sell it.

Another trick I'd use is to type 'high yield bonds forum' into a search engine, and see what comes up. If you find a lively forum, you can ask questions about the broker you're keen on, or ask for other users' recommendations.

WARNING: Touts lurk in these forums; you may not get unbiased advice. Also, some posters are overly negative; they hate everyone! Or they are fools, or ignorant. Search thoroughly: you'll know the truth when you find it.