The altcoin landscape has so many projects, but in reality there are not that many real developers. Sure, you can always hire mercenary coders at crazy high consulting rates, but unless you have VC funding, this is not sustainable. This means the key to a coin's success is their dev team. Good marketing always helps, but if there is no content to market, then it is just harmful. [note: any companies that have VC funding are not selling at nice prices, if at all]