No, I'm not answering one of the few dozen Nigerian money transfer pleas I receive each week in my Spam inbox. Instead, I'm heading to a peer-to-peer (or "P2P") lending Website -- like Prosper (prosper.com), Lending Club (lendingclub.com) or Zopa (zopa.com) -- where I understand folks can earn much more on their investments than the current average of three percent that banks are offering on various savings vehicles, such as CDs and savings accounts.
P2P finance connects individual borrowers -- of variouscredit standings -- seeking everyday loans, without the pricey interest rates at traditional banks with borrowers looking to get more bang for their investible buck.
Emerging Opportunities
As the credit market continues to tighten and theInternet becomes more of an accepted platform for financial transactions, the P2P lending industry is expected to flourish over the next few years. Research firm Celent expects the overall P2P market to gallop 800% from now through 2010, reaching $5.8 billion in peer-to-peer loans.
Take established San Francisco-based Prosper.com, the country's biggest P2P lending site, which recorded $28.9 million in funded loans year-to-date (YTD). That's up slightly from $28.3 million YTD 2007. The number of loans is also higher, growing from 4,145 YTD 2007 to 4,379 YTD 2008. "With the Fed 
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