With few exceptions Alt coins are risky, they have the capability to wipe out your entire investment within few days. A good example is the Trump Coin, it came in the name of current US president and there were expectations that it will go further high but after 2 to 3 days of its launch it starts falling till date.
Alts must be for short duration i.e. you invest, take profit and quit. Don't think that Alts have fundamentals like Bitcoin and they will go up after sometime. There are very few Alts that have survived so far for more then 5 years, mostly they have a short life. Moreover, it's important that what alts you have chosen for investment. People buy cheap coins with greed of getting more profit on low investment and that never happened.
These few points must be kept in mind before you invest in Alts, otherwise you will end up your money getting struck.
I don't think it's too difficult and there are lots of tutorials that explain general things like this, but there are also those who look for references from trusted and updated sources to be useful for your investment decisions. don't just rely on one source of information, compare it with other sources, then take steps and decide to enter or not. of course and this is one of the good tips to consider. Many lose if someone takes the wrong step.