Simply go to coinmarketcap and check the top 20 altcoins for a start and research about them. Find the one that seems promising to you and profit wise also. Then work with if and decide if you are in for short or long term. That's the best way I think you can start.
Top 20? Hmm.. but what about top 10 instead? As I think they are more reliable. I believe that the coin's ranking says it all about them or they won't be in that spot if they are not that good enough.
We may need to gain more experience first before we engage in a more riskier project, so that we can have a higher success rate at them and then if we lose, at least it won't lead for a total disappointment because we already earned something before and then we can always go back to those legit projects that we know. That should recover our losses. Also, before we start, it's better to know our goals first if we are into long-term or for the short-term only.