Coinmarketcap will be the site you visit most often. Bookmark it. It has all the coins listed, their market cap, supply, websites, and exchanges you can buy from.
Go to the coins' sites and look at the project, roadmap, white paper, and team. You probably want to get a basic understanding of Blockchain tech before you start don't this though.
There's a lot of coins out there so it can be overwhelming. There's a lot of shyt coins out there you need to avoid at all costs.
Starting off it's easier to use Coinbase to get some Bitcoin and Ethereum. A lot of people suggest those should make up a nice chunk of your portfolio (30-50%). BTC is likely to take off first when the market gets bullish so put a good percentage of what you plan to invest in it.
For Altcoins just stick with Binance. You should start off with maybe 2 of the reliable high cap coins like Neo, Ven, ICX, or OMG. Maybe grab one lower cap coin. Don't spread yourself too thin.
It's a lot to take in so ask any questions and we'll help you.
Agree with everything but your last point, which i disagree strongly with.
Binance is the last step.
Kucoin, Livecoin, Huobi, Cryptopia, Coinexchange, Bibox, etc are where you can grab coins while they're lower profile.
And Idex, Forkdelta are spots where you can grab unknowns.
Binance alone won't have him winning.
It was on obscure exchanges that Nano(Xrb) hit first.
Those exchanges went belly up now but back then, you could've got Xrb for quarters, rather than the $7 it is now on Binance.
You want a portfolio, you stick to Binance. You want a winning portfolio, you go get them where they are.