Be creative. If you wanna build a miner, and have money to lose, go for it. It's thrilling and fun.
Mine an alt-coin: Litecoin is the leader, and when traded to Bitcoins, you get the most bang for your buck.
Get involved: I'm just new here but I joined in the Litecoin forum to help out a pool operator as a beta tester, got lucky, and helped out noobs who had q's about rigs.
Be patient: This is not a get-rich scheme. You devote your time, money, and life with it, depending on how intense you want your mining prospects will be. Gold diggers had themselves or as teams. Sort of the same thing with this from what I understand as a miner (and a noob investor).