We can always try to invest in less popular project but we all need to avoid new project that is not built on a solid rock.
The foundation of a project is what is going to determine whether it worth to hold or just to buy and sell when launched.
Since there are thousands of coins in the market, we can take the risk and go for the less popular ones so that we can make money from the market without much stress.
New projects are also good for investment after realising about their fundamentals and if a project is stronger enough that its goals are achievable and its team is trusted then new project are also good source of earning.
I don't think that we can always earn big sum with investment in less popular project because bitcoin is termed as a king and is most popular project ever so you can see that it's profit is more sure than profit of less popular project.
If the money is yours, the idea should be yours is a perfect way to explain it. If people just follow others and hear about this new token that might be good, then we are going to end up with a bad result, we shouldn't really do that and try to avoid that if possible.
I personally believe that I would never invest into anything just because someone said it. Don't get me wrong, we all hear about coins here and there, I do not just come up with a random name and check if a coin with that name exists, of course I see it somewhere too, but not because someone suggested it, I see improvements, I see news, I see some new innovations, and I see MANY people chatting about it here on this forum. That's when I start to check it and see for myself if it's good or not.