Staking is nearly as profitable as the mining or trading of cryptocurrencies, and without risk. All you have to do is stake (buy & hold) some coins in order to get added to the mining pool. As for profits, the actual profits you can make from staking will depend on how much you vest and for how long.
Staking is not that easy as you said, you need to make sure that the project you plan to stake is a top altcoin or risk losing your money before your staking cycle is over, I will only stake coins on top 10 coinmarketcap rank