--snip--
All those time, effort and money getting wasted at the end or you would wait for a very long time before you see the fruit of your labor. So how can we somehow mitigate the risk of investing in the wrong ones? Here are my preferences:
That bolded part is the most important when it comes to ICOs. I too initially did some bounties here but most of these projects are completely worthless and just people looking to make huge exit scams.
What I have found interesting instead is to focus only on one or two of them at a time and take a deep personal interest. Get to know the people behind it as much as you can, mail them and try to gauge their intent. Once I have enough interest in it, I try to care about the goal as much as I would care if i invested in a startup.
It's a good learning experience.
Apart from that, the time and energy spent in random bounties is much better utilized reading here at the forum or just getting to know more about bitcoin. Bitcoin is a huge topic. People have been reading on it for years but still don't consider themselves experts. We have only just begun on the path.
Besides that, I think if you can write well, then doing a little content writing for the bounties isn't all that bad. Haven't tried it much but that's what I'd do if i had to.