How do you do your own research if the coin is a good investment?
For me, I always look on the purpose of the project, the team behind it, what exchanges is it available on etc. And one of the important thing for me is the total supply of the coin.
I also research if the coin is Proof of Work (POW), Proof of Stake (POS), Pre-mined or other.
Your searching quality not bad I think! you can also checked it's market value and yes if any coin trusted well rising and something stable and many of exchangers support then this coin is good I think.
I would recommend to invest in the coins that have made their way to the top 30 in the crypto currency coin market cap. Those coins have been in the market for long and can be trusted though research must be done which coin is the best and which have great technology and real world applications. Also the circulating supply and trade volume must be checked as they play major role in increase or decrease of a crypto currencies rate.