There are 2 categories, both are worth investing into, but for different reasons:

• Long term. Code talks, bullshit walks. If the coin is competent, they overwhelmingly deliver some sound code *before* they even start trading anything. Typically they run testnet first, too. This is the case for all long lived coins basically. Ethereum and such is a modern example of this - they got money from VCs first, and then used the crowdsale to pay off VCs.
  
  
• Short term pumps. They generally cover most of first 2 pages of altcoin ann, all day. Pumps are often an easy ride because are so easy to categorize. These coins typically have no implementation, aggresivelly solicit funds, and churn out PR (not code, copy pasting doesn't count) day after day. If they deliver anything at all, it's utter garbage, often they just exit scam.
  
  

In bullish market, "long term" generally isn't where the money is. This is the reason why as a speculator, you must pay close attention to the, shall we say, "marketing oriented" projects as well.

Which means tracking shilling and FUD, because that's just a way how category 2 coins duke it out, those virtually never compete on technical merit. It ultimately boils down to "fake news" propaganda wars.

Pro trader bots scrape altcoin section to track shill/fud ratio in real time - keep track of whos "winning" and act accordingly.

Under no circumstances one should pay attention to shills/fud content, lest one would suffer brain damage. What is important about these is *quantity*. If there is sign of massive shill campaign, might be worth looking into if a pump rally is about to happen, as the campaign might pay off. Conversely, if there's sign of a start of FUD campaign, might want to short accordingly.

As for long term investing, that's self-evident. Unfortunately just knowing the buzzwords ("DAG", "IOT", "CT", "zkSNARK") is not enough - buzzwords are tool to shill the technically illiterate, not to describe technology.