I am new to this market but im doing following things, may be you can suggest smth more.
For example lets take VERGE.
1 Discussion in topic 332 pages, i did not read all of them but it seems that people like it.
2The traffic on their website :
17.38%United States - good
7.41%United Kingdom - good
7.01%Turkey - not so good
5.72%Netherlands - good
5.57%Germany - good
3 It is on well known exchange - bittrex, $5,342,730 - per 24\ , has good volatility , since june:) but i do not like the amount of coins czu price will go slowly.
Circulating Supply 13,409,472,280 XVG
Max Supply 16,555,000,000 XVG
4 What does it offer? i think nothing, all about anonymity and nothing else, i mean it does not solve the crucial problem in society, it is not technological. You ca use it for trading but not investing..
My priority list to investing in an altcoin:
1) The technology: Does it propose anything new that can challenge the current king (Bitcoin) and is it already working or is it some promise/vaporware?
2) Active devs: are they constantly trying to improve stuff or they are sitting on a chair doing nothing?
3) Limited supply: Is it a good store of value?
4) Marketing: Can the devs spread the word of their good work and get big liquidity going or they can't spread the word even if the project is good?
These are the major keys imo. Without 1), you are just buying another short lived pump and dump, aka they want your bitcoin.