Ok thanks guys.  I'm glad I didn't invest all that money in something that might not be profitable. I'm going to take a look at litecoin for now and see if mining that holds any rewards.

Ok thanks for the input.  I just looked up the price history of bitcoin and saw that it was once over $1000 and now it seems to be the lowest it's been in a long time.  You mentioned earning bitcoins in other ways.  What other ways are there to earn bitcoins?  I didn't know that there were any ways other than mining.

Hi all,

I became interested in bitcoin mining after my friend told me about it a few years back.  I did some research and found out that I'd have to invest quite a bit of money in order to make a profit on my investment.  I was wondering if you guys could give me some insight on how to get started, what I should buy (I found an antminer s4 2000 gh/s bitcoin miner for roughly $1000 and thought this might be good), how much, when, and if I would make a profit on my investment, the benefits of joining a pool and what I would need to do so, the cheapest option I can buy to still make a good profit on my investment, and if this is overall a good idea or not.
Thanks