I also started with airdrops, but the few that I took part in turned out to be scam and that really affected my mindset towards them. I still have several airdrop wallet that I participated in some years ago and up till this day they have not been listed while the few that later got listed are worth nothing so I just had to leave them in my wallet rather than waste my gas fee trying to swap them.
And it’s just like you said, back then I didn’t know how to research on a project or what to watch out for when learning about a new project and I guess that’s the same issue with the Op, even if airdrop could be profitable will the Op know how to do his research properly?
Nothing hard to know, We have to just check the big partnerships, backup platform,total fund raising and Ecosystem. The details can be found on big ICO platform and their official website. Social pages community also could be worth but look for interection to check fake/real followers