New person here so bear with me, But what do you guys think is the safest way of purchasing NXT?

 Hey so I am relatively new to the whole internet coin scene but I do have a general idea of how they work. I was just curious as to what made you guys invest in certain coins rather than others. e.g. Dogecoin vs Darkcoin. So basically just the things that made one coin more appealing than another. Also I was curious as to how these alternative coins became big and differentiated themselves from the other lesser coins. Was it all just how they were hyped, or is there something substantial that really differentiates them?