I have been looking into ICO's all day today and realizing where I may have missed out on the biggest opportunities in the crypto space. Truth be told, I am still learning about API's, stakes, and all that other stuff that makes crypto currency so mind boggling. It can be a bit intimidating diving head first into something so broad but I've got nothing but time on my hands so why not indulge a bit and figure out what the heck is going on from the inside out. 
I recently invested in a ICO that I didn't really know much about. A friend referred it to me so I invested a few dollars and got 6000 tokens. That was last week. Today I saw a post in a Facebook group about the white paper that had just been released about the token so I took a look at it and it looked like pure crap. I was thinking to myself...what in the heck it is this? Now, I will admit, I am not the best writer, in fact I suck at it but I think I could have did a better job at it by coping another white paper format. It had no real information about the coin and what it's purpose is.
My YouTube tab was open so I decided to take a detour and check out this guy that I was watching last night. He was talking about ICO's and how you can make money off of them. He was also talking about how to research them so as I began watching the video I realized how much I really do not know about crypto so I began to look up everything he mentioned. I started from the beginning with questions like, what is a ICO and what is a white paper? That got me off to a good start. Then he started to mention coin market cap, how he uses it and other things to check out in regards to investing in a ICO. @diaryofamademan is his name. He's a smart guy, I'm sure he is on steemit so check him out. Anyway, I just typed every website he went to, book marked it and went to town.
It was a lot of information for me at once. I had to stop a few times and breathe because I became overwhelmed with information so I took a nap and came back to it an hour later. As I napped, I played another video about how to research ICO's and woke up from my nap to the info that I was waiting for. He mentioned the price of the pre-sale and how important it is for the price to be in the cents. Something like 10 cents or lower is ideal for a successful ICO, he says. The token that I purchased was for $3 and some change. Oh well, you have to live and learn. Hopefully, this token I bought isn't as shitty as the white paper that I read. I know that we ought not to just go by how a white paper looks but if you guys saw this....you would maybe think the same thing that I am thinking. I am still new to the crypto community so maybe there have been a few folks that have had successful post ICO results with a coin that had a crappy white paper. I don't know..that's just my guess.
From what I understand, it is possible to make some decent money by investing in ICO's. Of course, after doing your own research, if you feel it is something worth value then by all means go for it but if it's a duplicate of something else then you may want to leave that ICO alone. A few sites that I have used today have been really helpful to my quest for knowledge of ICO's, just in case there are any newbies out there like me. ICO alert has been awesome and it easy to use. It has recent, upcoming and active ICO's. ICO rating is something I haven't used just yet. I just looked at the site but really don't know how to navigate it yet. Token market is another site that has great information on it that is helpful for ICO news and podcast. 
If you are looking to get into some ICO's, check out the site and the quality of the site. Does it look professional or scamish? In this case, the rule of not judging a book by it's cover can be broken. Read the site. Check the information like; what the token is created for, timeline, team members and social proof. You're pretty much just judging them by their cover so feel free to be judgmental, it's your money so be diligent. Then watch the video on the site and then read the white paper. In the white paper, look for information like, prototypes, team members and the idea of the token. If the team does a good job at explaining the idea then you should have a understanding of what purpose the token was created for and why it is a great investment. If the token site doesn't has a white paper, but is selling the token already, I would be very cautious, IJS. Secondly, research the CEO especially if they have social clout or a famous person on the team. It's best to find out what you can about the CEO as far as the background of the person and maybe even connections they have, especially if you like the idea. Check site's like Linkedin, Twitter and stuff like that for info about the CEO and maybe other crew members if you feel the need to dig further. Researching team credibility is important.
There is a site called picolo research that gives reviews on ICO's. They'll tell you if something is risky or not so after you have watched the video, check out picolo to get the 411 on the ICO that you are thinking about investing into. I like picolo research a lot because there was a token I was looking at that I really liked but after checking out the rating on picolo, I immediately changed my mind and disregarded all thoughts of that particular ICO. Also read the report that is on the picolo site to see if it matches the information that you have found on the picolo site.
I hope that this information helped you as it was very helpful to me. Most of you reading this probably already know about this information so, I want to thank you for stopping by. For all those who this may have helped, you are welcome! Show your love and appreciation by smashing that UPVOTE BUTTON! I think this is resteemable too! Thanks for reading. Latray! 
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Good points, dthremedy. Important to do the study and research. You have done that and I compliment you on it.
Thank you for your kind words about my interview about ICOs and what to do: https://steemit.com/ico/@terrybrock/keys-to-success-for-an-ico-initial-coin-offering
I look forward to seeing more posts from you in the future.
One of the easy golden rules of course is first reading the white papers and researching the project and the people, and only then deciding if it is worth time and money.
Excellent post thanks.
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