A Guide On How to DYOR (Do Your Own Research) In An Effective Manner

So… You want to start researching cryto, eh?

Hello all new and old, I'm going to do my best to outline how I personally do my own research in hopes that it at least helps some of you, and of course anyone with quality ideas/tips are more than welcome to add them into the comments!

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1. First thing's first, you need to identify which project you're going to be looking into (of course), and what type of project it is (whether it be a smart contract platform, DeFi governance token, Lending protocol, Oracle, Privacy-focused, etc)
2. After you've done that, you better break out a notebook or something of the like so you can keep track of where you're at as well as what you've all ready covered. Keeping things well-organized will be a massive boon in your ability to research and gain a better understanding of what you're looking at.
3. Next, I'd recommend identifying similar projects that are competitors (in a sense) to the crypto you're researching before diving into the deep end on just the one that you're most interested in. Remember, you're not only trying to figure out what your project is doing and how it's doing that, you are also trying to identify its strength and weaknesses relative to the other projects in its space. That will give you the best idea as to if your project is THE project or not. You also want to pay attention to what problem they're trying to solve, as even smart contract platforms like ETH, DOT, ATOM, ADA, etc., are all aiming to solve different issues in their own ways. There will be some that are direct competitors, but for the most part they have different goals in the long-term.
4. Now, you're ready to start diving into the project that started all of this for you. CoinGecko is a good place for this, as they usually have links directly to the project's websites, and to their whitepapers as well which can make pulling up multiple sources for reliable info rather easy and painless, although this isn't going to be perfect for more obscure/newer projects in the space. Look over their website for a roadmap of sorts, or look into their whitepaper and see if it's in there. Just because a project hasn't reached their targeted goals on their roadmap doesn't mean they're a bad project with a bad team, sometimes there are obstacles thrown in the way that weren't foreseen, and as long as the devs are remaining open and transparent about the state of things, you shouldn't write them off just because they push some things back.
5. Now this might be the most important note of all, but whenever you encounter a term that you're unfamiliar with, you stop what you're doing, research that term until you have gathered a fair understanding of it, and you feel comfortable enough that when you encounter it again, you understand what they're trying to convey with it. This should be done with each term individually, no matter how long it takes. This is a complex space with so many terminologies that are foreign to outsiders or noobs, hell even some people who have been here 1+ years haven't gathered a great understanding of all of these new terms. I did say bring a notebook along though, didn't I?
6. Assuming you've managed to follow all of these steps so far, you should be expanding your knowledge base when it comes to the crypto space fairly quickly, and it will make you feel all the more secure with your investments as well as when you're reading any news that's related to crypto. At this time you also have a better understanding of this space then 99% of the rest of the world, giving you a massive head-start in that regard. Knowledge is power, never forget that.
7. Your conclusions should look somewhat like this, depending on how you went about all of this, as I'm sure everyone has their own way of researching. "I like 'X' coin more than 'A, B, C', because 'X' does 'Y and Z' better than 'A, B, C' does, not to mention the fact that 'A, B, C' lacks in 'D' while 'X' does a very good job at 'D'. But don't forget to add the fact that 'A, B, C' still have their own strengths that 'X' does not possess, so you have to consider that in your final conclusion as well.

I hope that this write-up is able to help out some, and I'm sure I didn't add every single good research tip, so I'm looking forward to what some of the comments have to add! We have a ton of intelligent people here in this sub, even if it may not seem like it at times, and I know they're just waiting to share their plethora of knowledge with the right person, you just gotta find out who they are and start asking! Remember that it is never wrong to ask questions here, but please construct them in a way that helps us, help you. Simply saying "what is ETH?" is too broad of a question and isn't going to garner much help. Do it in such a way that you're asking something specific about a project, so that you are more likely to get the answers you seek, at least in some part.

Thanks for reading, if you managed to make it this far!