That is an individual personal decision.

However, you cannot beat the fundamental investment rule of all markets: the higher the risk, the higher the potential return...
Or the other way around: if you want a high return, you need to accept a high risk.

Top 100 Coins have a much lower risk as they are established already, but they also offer lower returns than a new coin that is successful.
New coins of course have a much higher risk of failing.

I would personally invest in a lot of different new coins (after reviewing their concept), knowing many will fail but the few who succeed make enough profit to compensate for those who fail... and you spread your risk over more products that way. Even top 100 coins can get in trouble if a better version of the coins use case emerges or the industry is changed.

I read that if you invested the same amount in every single ICO in 2017, your money would be 14x of what you cumulatively invested now.

Just my 2 cents 

If you send Ether from an exchange wallet, your investment is likely lost !
The smart contract of the ICO coin will send the equivalent amount of whatever coin you should get for the Ether you send to the address you sent it from.
If that is an exchange wallet, it will not know how to deal with those AltCoins or you are not able to add them to the wallet interface, so they are lost.

Always set up a personal wallet that you have full control over for participating in an ICO.
Professional ICOs will warn you about this and give you a step by step instruction when you sign up.
We are preparing an ICO ourselves (www.c4f.io) and will provide a step by step instruction to people who sign up for being whitelisted for that very reason.

Good luck with your ICO adventures, wish you lot's of profits 

Yes, hope you are right... we just start our own marketing. Will see how it goes without flooding the forums but is tough to get noticed these days, regardless how good the idea I think.

Understand the frustration...

So, in your view, what is a legit way for a ICO to get a review from the community on here ?

In order to get noticed and reviewed, projects need to post that they are there... unfortunately the number of ICOs has reached crazy levels, which makes it difficult to stick out for the individual one and at the same time causes flooding of forums for the other users.

No good idea how to solve this...

I think the coin itself is not what carries the value of ripple as a company... it is their technology and connections to the traditional finance industry.
So if more people think like that they will not go up above $1.50 or so anytime soon again.

That said, I bought early at $0.29 and then some more at $1.90... so overall I am pretty much neutral now, but no profit either...
The big platforms listing them would be a boost.
Will probably just let them sit in my wallet, as I did not invest huge amounts.

How to find the good ones ?

For short term gains go with the hype, for long term success find the ones with good concepts and a professional team with a good track record of business success.

I personally always look for the business idea and long term prospect of a project - do they have a plan how to run the project in the long term other than from the ICO money ?
I want the project I invest in to be profitable and grow value of their coin over time. That only happens if there is a good business model behind it.
Next I look at the team if they have business acumen and experience in driving large projects.
Finally if they have a working prototype or proof of concept so that I know the project can actually work if the ICO is successful and they get the money they need to finalize the development.

We at Coins4Favors (www.c4f.io) are doing an ICO in April for a blockchain powered global marketplace where you can find people in other places that do small favors (check a used car in another city, send me some stuff that I cannot buy in my city/country, etc.) for FavorCoins. It is backed up by a working prototype of the platform and the SmartPhone app, that does the location based matching, etc.

If you are interested, check out our short Intro Video and you get the idea in 2 minutes: https://youtu.be/EXquipYf7xk

Good luck with your investments.

Yes seems whitepapers are less important now... unfortunately.
We are doing an ICO in April for our Coins4Favors project (www.c4f.io) and I think a good whitepaper helps to differentiate from scammers and unprofessional projects, but it seems less and less people read them.

We spend quite some time to describe in great detail the concept and how we make our project sustainable in the long run.
If you are a long term investor, you should be interested in how the project will grow in value in the long run. Getting ICO money and then deplete that over time without a solid business plan behind the project is a guarantee for failure of your investment in the long run.
Yet, if I look at the number of page visits, the number of people signing up for the Pre-ICO information and the number of Whitepaper downloads, it seems less than 20% read the whitepaper.

Reflects the hype of the market and how people jump on catchy buzz word slogans more than sound project concepts these days.
Consequentially it is getting more difficult to find investors who are really interested in the long term potential of a project and even we have given in to the fact that many investors are not willing to spend 1 hour to read a 30 page white paper.

As a consequence we have also added a 3 Minute video which outlines our project and the concept https://youtu.be/EXquipYf7xk, but I would hope that it is only a starting point for any serious investor.

Anyways, I hope those that read our whitepaper will buy into the concept and will help us develop the Coins4Favors global market place for mini-jobs and favors around the world.

Good luck everyone with your crypto-investments 

We are doing an ICO ourselves soon (www.c4f.io), so I can share what we focus on at Coins4Favors to stand out from the crowd and make sure investors see that we are a real team with a great strategy to successfully implement a unique innovative idea.

ICOs I would invest in should have these attributes as a minimum:

1) A compelling idea that is simple enough for people to understand it. If it is all only buzz words and you don't understand what the Altcoin will do for you, stay away.
  (see for example our video explaining our FavorCoin, anyone can get the idea in 2 minutes https://youtu.be/EXquipYf7xk )
You should be able to answer this question: What problem is the Altcoin solving, why would people use it ?

2) Ensure that the business plan is long term and sustainable. Just getting ICO money but not having a good business plan behind it how to make the product sustainable and grow the user base will result in the value dropping.
How will the Altcoin grow in value, how will the company sustain operation ? Even if they collect a lot of money in the ICO, without a long term revenue and profit source the operation will dry up and the coin will fail.
You should be able to understand how they will grow the project and sustain operation once the money from the ICO is used up for developing and marketing the project.

3) The team. It is ok if a rather inexperienced team has a good idea, but there should be some accomplished people on the team that have experience in running projects and business acumen.
We at Coins4Favors post our LinkedIn profiles that show our long term careers in different industries and that we are real people. Make sure team members are transparent and authentic.
Many skills can be bought and hired, so dont get fooled by the number of team members (we can find 30 people to join as advisers or members easily), but rather focus on an overall sound background in business strategy, business plans and project execution  for a team you invest into.
Do you think the team has the skills to plan, execute and grow the project based on past experience, skills and background ?

4) A working prototype. While the intend of an ICO is to collect money to implement an idea, nobody with a sound business acumen will start a project like an ICO without doing a proof of concept or developing an Alpha version.
As the founder behind an ICO project you invest upfront, so you better do a sanity check yourself. At a minimum you setup a separate entity, need legal support, etc. - all this is money you need to invest upfront.
In our case we developed an alpha version of the SmartPhone App and platform and played with the design of the smart contracts to ensure our vision and ideas that make our platform unique are achievable and realistic.
At the same time this gives investors a better chance of the product reaching market and being scaled up.
Can they show a proof that their idea can be implemented ?

5) Transparency of the team and accessibility
We are starting to market our project now, so we will be available on all the channels to answer questions collect feedback.
Is the team reachable and does it respond to questions or concerns ?

Good luck with your investments, I hope you give us a look as well  

I would invite you to review our Coins4Favors ICO [C4F] at www.c4f.io.

For those who don't want to start with the Whitepaper immediately, there is a short video that describes the concept here: https://youtu.be/EXquipYf7xk

We willl become the 1st blockchain powered marketplace for global mini-jobs and favors based on a location aware smartpone app coupled with a blockchain based compensation system.
If you need someone to check something for you in a different place, reserve a parking lot for you, bring something from a vacation, check a used car in another city, etc. or whatever comes to mind you will find a provider in our ecosystem.

We are just starting the marketing and aim at an ICO in April.
We are very open to questions, concerns and constructive feedback to make this a rewarding project for our contributors.

Let's help the good ICOs to stand out from the scammers

Over the last almost 12 months we have developed a great concept of a blockchain based marketplace for mini-jobs and favors around the world in combination with a location based Smartphone app.

We have the alpha version of the product, setup the company (C4F Ltd) and the legal framework, as well as the supporting documents (whitepaper, terms & conditions, privacy policy).
Webpage is online under www.c4f.io and www.coins4favors.com.
Smart COntracts are being finalized and will be out on Github for review and auditing in the coming days.

In order to be transparent and give people a chance to raise concerns prior to our Pre-ICO we would like to use this forum to discuss the concept.
Please look at the webpage www.c4f.io or watch our quick intro video at https://youtu.be/EXquipYf7xk and ask us any questions or provide feedback on the idea, etc.

If you have questions, ask us 
If you have criticism, we welcome it in a constructive way 
If you like the idea behind Coins4Favors, share the word and help us make it a success 

Thanks
The Coins4Favors team

Good Day,

We are working on our own ICO (www.c4f.io) and it is sure not gotten easier to stick out from all the quick scammers and unrealistic projects out there.
However, I think the fundamental rules of any investment still apply.

1) check if the product or concept is backed up by a solid business plan. Read the whitepaper and see if you understand how they will stay in business and grow the value over time.
If they don't have a solid usiness plan for after the ICO, chances are the money raised in the ICO will be depleted (worst case stolen) and the value of your investment goes down.

2) ensure you understand what they are offering and doing. If it is all buzzwords and you don't understand  what they want to do, don't invest.

3) make sure the team is real and they have the skills. They don't need to be 20 years in the market as ICOs offer a good chance for young less experienced teams as well, but make sure they can deliver what they promise.
Most serious teams have now linkedin profiles for the key team members to verify their background.

I personally invest in things I understand and believe in the business plan and have done very well with that strategy.
Good luck with your investments, ICOs are still a great way to make a good return and even more important help some great ideas to get implemented.
Jens 

Announcing Coins4Favors, the 1st blockchain based global marketplace for mini-jobs and favors around the world

Check out the revolutionary concept on www.c4f.io and watch our introduction video at https://youtu.be/EXquipYf7xk
We combine blockchain technology and a true utility token with a location aware smartphone app to generate a platform that connects favor-seekers and providers around the world.
Coins4Favors offers escrow based compensation via FavorCoins and a transparent rating system to allow users to assess each other before agreeing on a transaction.

Help us disrupt the service market and close the gap for small favors around the world by contributing to our Pre-ICO or ICO.
Bounty program available ! - check webpage for details, spread the word.

We welcome constructive feedback on the concept, concerns, etc.