If you're a long term HODLer without the intentions of hopping in and out of coins at dips and peaks daily, you should really put some time and effort into researching some of the projects in the Crypto market ecosystem in order to select a solid pick for long-term HODL
Here are some basic points to consider in order to make a pick like a VC.
TECHNOLOGY AND CONCEPT
This particular point is very important. The technology behind the project must be examined thoroughly. Buying into projects that promise a lot on the whitepaper without considering other factors is not always a good idea.
IOTA is an example. IOTA came with a game changing idea: using Tangle and the gossip protocol for public ledgers instead of the traditional Blockchain. Tangle was supposed to be a game changer; the project that got IoT mainstream but it has been plagued with a lot of challenges.
NB: This is not to say that IOTA is a failed project.
Sometimes, the team may not be able to meet up with expectations or deliver on the promises they made in the whitepaper.
THE TEAM AND ADVISORS OF THE COIN
Questions like these need to be asked:
Does it have a transparent and researchable team?
What is the track record of the team and the advisors?
The team is an important factor in the evaluation of coins/tokens. A team without a reasonable track record and reputation will most likely not be able to deliver on what they promise. Anybody can hire someone to write an excellent whitepaper and make an eye-catching website.
Take some time to look at each individual team member on the team. Take a look at their LinkedIn profile; companies they've worked for, how long they've worked for those companies, positions they've held in those companies etc.
Look at the advisors of the project too. The project advisors carry some weight too.
Take your time to shoot emails to the advisors asking them if they're involved in these projects if you can. Some projects like listing big guns who aren't necessarily involved or advising the project as part of the advisory team.
An example is Ethereum based DApps usually listing Vitalik Buterin as one of their advisors. He had to clarify that recently that he was only advising just two projects: Omisego and KyberNetwork projects.
PROBLEMS ACCESSED AND SOLUTIONS PROFFERED.
Does it solve a problem?
There are projects that do not necessarily need a blockchain but some people still run ICOs for these projects, raise funds, make a crappy product and then leave.
Make sure to take some time and check out the problems they coin wants to or is tackling and the approaches it wants to take to solve these problems (or is already taking to tackle the problems). Ensure that the problem it tackles has some serious real life case usage and that solutions are feasible too.
Another thing to consider is the future use case of the coin/token.
As time goes by, the future use cases of projects might change. This is the case of the father of all cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin. The use case of bitcoin slowly shifted from being a means of microtransactions to being a store of value like gold (although this is currently being combated by the lightening network project).
Use cases might change as the project becomes more and more adopted.
This is not to say that some gimmicks might not actually do well in the ecosystem. Every once in a while, an oddball without a specific use case might perform extremely well. An example is DogeCoin that was originally started as a gimmick for Dog memes but currently has a market cap of $600M+ and sits in the top 50 cryptocurrencies based on market capitalisation.
BACKING
What institutions are backing the project? Governments or financial institutions?
Backing is also an important point to look out for. If a project has backing from institutions, it is bound to perform well (usually). NEO is a typically example. NEO is solidly backed by the Chinese government and has been called the Ethereum of China from time to time. This gives it an edge over other projects because investors can be sure that the project will not be in as much danger as getting blacklisted or facing government sanctions as much as other projects in the ecosystem.
Backing from other institution like the tech and financial institution is also a good pointer that the project is on the right track.
GROWTH POTENTIAL
Different coins have different growth potentials. Growth potential will depend on the project being adopted by the masses. The adoption rate is usually slow if the idea is a new idea unless the project is surrounded by some serious hype (An example is the TRON project). Hype does not make a coin solid. Take your time. Do your research. Find out why the project is being hyped and decide whether you think the hype is worth the value the project has. There are way too many hyped up projects in the ecosystem right now.
Projects that have a small market cap usually have good room for expansion. An example is the Waves project. Waves is a platform blockchain. This means that DApps can be built on top the Waves blockchain. When you consider the market capitalisation of Waves to those of other platform blockchains like Ethereum, NEM and NEO, you realise that it does have some potential for serious growth. Keep an eye out for gems like that.
CONCLUSION
Taking the points individually, one might not make the best decisions. All these factors and more should be considered before making a decision on whether to buy and HODL the coin/token or to skip over that particular project
Milestones is another thing to watch - and whether the team hits them
Yes. Milestones and roadmaps are another important point to look out for.