I started off with trading small amounts, and with altcoins that were considered more 'popular', like DogeCoin and MoonCoin. I do simple analysis on the trends, buy low, sell high, and earn quite a good amount myself. So I started to diversify, bought other coins, 42coins, Blackcoins, LTC, and many others. I ended up not monitoring the coins after some time and ended up losing way more than I previously earned, so I decided to just stick to one or 2 of my favorite coins/volatile (High risk high reward), and keep a close eye on it. I recommend the same if you are starting out.
Get like XRP, ETH or LTC, go to Polo/Bittrex, deposit a bit and start trying for fun. Or, for starters, you can even just write down the amount you would buy and when you would sell, to see if you earn or lose before you deal with real cash.
Good luck! You can try coins with high volumes, and stay away from those coins with low prices, but low volume. I know they say buy low, but those coins won't go anywhere but into void.
(like mooncoin) 
