The best thing that we can do is always be careful when we want to invest in one or more project, only use the money you can afford, and don't use too big money if you are not sure, or you are sure that the project will be successful because you never know if that will happen or not. Always search for more information about the project so you can get additional information which will help you to decide. All in all, your tips will help people to choose, and they can know what they need to do before they invest.
There is no way to know the chance of a project surviving or not even when they look very good and done some hype about it. It all depends on the strength of the team and also depends on how far they are willing to go and never to get discourage about the project no matter the storm that they face through it. So the best way is to test them first by using the money that will not make us hypertensive, ten after we have tested the project, then we can gradually add more money to it.
When I first got to know about bitcoin, I just put some money in for and waited to monitor the development of the project, it was until I became sure of my capital being safe in bitcoin that I started putting more money into the market. So like you said, one of the best ways to protect the capital is just to ensure it is in the market of a strong crypto.
This depends a lot to be honest. There are a lot of projects that have a good roadmap, plans, a reputable team and are still unable to make it big in the crypto market. No project, no matter how many funds they raise, how many team members they have, is to be a confirmed success. Before investing, I personally make sure they are as little red lights and as big of a chance of the project succeeding as possible, but the best advice I can give anyone else is just - don't invest money you aren't willing to lose.
Regarding ICO's, the market is in a bit of a weird state right now. It's died off from last year, which is good and bad. It's good because there are now fewer scams and the industry is a lot more tight night, as well as there is now a lot more smarter investors and scam/bad icos are getting a lot less attention. The bad part is now there is less variety in investment options, and a lot fewer ICO's in general.
I wouldn't recommend throwing money in ICO's right now. Probably some stable altcoins are the way to go rn.