Just for lurkers, newbies to precious metals, or people who do not want to trade in options and want to have a more conservative portfolio:
There is nothing wrong with having a portfolio of physical metal (no paper) in gold and silver only. While gold is a bigger market and moves less extremely, your silver percentage determines how much leverage you have (upwards as well as downwards). You do not need options/spreadbetting for leverage, silver might be enough for you.
You can store physical metal in safety deposits, bury it in the backyard, or use services like BullionVault or GoldMoney.
Once you have a proper core position in bullion, you can slowly start building up additional exposure by buying mining share etc. if you want to.