I am now extremely selective. I am not trying to be negative, but i think we are on the cusp of a huge shake up that will kill a lot of the shitcoins and level out the playing field. Thus it will be easier it invest; however, one still must be cautious.

1. never invest in ICOS with anonymous CEOS or where information is hard to get. Always do a background check or a deep dive into the executives background and see if they actually have experience in the field that is tied to there project. Example modern finance chain is crypto to fiat. The president and CEO have extensive experience in payment processing industry and they hired a VP from ripple to interface with the banks whereas Pundix has team members that have less experience in the industry (they seem to be doing good despite this but experience and knowledge trumps all)

2. Invest in projects that have a long shelf life that will be there in 5 to 10 years. Do not invest in projects where you cannot explain what they hope to achieve in less than a few sentences. Good idea that are innovative, are obvious to everyone and they solve a practical problem. Example, Tapcoin (hooch app) wants you to take ownership of your data away from the big firms who sell it without your permission (and get breached). So, they are letting you sell your non personalized data to bars and hotels in order to earn coins for free food and hotel stays. Reward systems have been around for a long time and this is a improvement on the system. Reward systems and databases (and collection for analytics) will be around for a long time and are not going anywhere. Do not invest in projects that make vague promises using catch-all terms like big data, AI processing, where you are unsure of their utility.

3. Look at competitors in the field before you invest. What are the differences between them ? What are the raises ? Compare and contrast.

4. Look for projects where they seek to make the world a better place as opposed to just making profit. Projects like Hinounou want to help monitor elders and vulnerable classes with block chain technology. This is a real problem and the CEO has a passion for fixing it. Passion is what makes people put in the extra effort whereas someone who just wants to make money, will do the bare minimum.

5. Beware of vague promises without backup. Many projects promise huge TPS or call themselves 4th and 5th gen blockchain. Those are buzz words and unless they can back up their claims in the whitepaper/technical paper then assume its all hype.

6. NEVER GET YOUR INFO from only one source such as bitcointalk, reddit, and other discussion forums. Make sure you use multiple sources and never trust just one persons word on anything. You always want to have all your questions answered and the mods and admins of the telegram group should have no issue answering them. Don't even trust me on any of the projects i mentioned. DO YOUR HOMEWORK, which requires time and effort.

Following these tips have served me well.