With the way everything is in a drop right now, mining has become more of an investment then as an instant profit. Most coins now cost more to mine then they are currently worth. So either you gamble that the coin will go up after some time or hold off for a while untill the market goes back up again, if it does that.
I never saw mining as a short term profit, I'm just doing it on the side with my gaming rig since I don't have time to play anymore, might as well try to make some money, also thought about selling my card since the price went up by 30% compared to the time I bought it.
But the point is you should mine something you think will increase in value.
So many people just look at short term gains and jump around mining what looks good right now (nicehash), this is good if you have a big farm, but smaller miners are better off with some gambling.
As someone already suggested, BTX is a good coin to mine right now, but somehow can't get my miner to run, not sure what is the exact problem.
It's nice to see these thoughts shared, because I see alot of "well now coin x is only mining $5 or $10 a day" or something depending on the coin / rig etc... , but if you steadily mine and have a little luck as people get into crypto currency more and more, couldn't we see some coins 3x, 5x, or 10x (over a longer time span, like 2-5 years?)
If you look at it this way, mining a coin that gets you only $5-10 a day, that 5x in 2 years, is like a $25-50 profit per day... right? Or maybe more if it is a coin that goes nuts and goes up 10x or 100x? That's the way I'm looking at it at this point.