CryptoMining 101 - Need some advice

Hey Fellas, that's my first post on BHW (been lurking for a while)

Shortly 'bout myself to give you a background:
I'm a guy who quit his education (didn't enroll into any college/studies) to pursue a marketing/eSport-management-related career.

So far I've been managing social media of a few bigger local companies, creating their content & managing their PPC campaigns on facebook (no exp with adwords or any other paid advertising).
Apart from that, I started a good run as a freelance copywriter.

Feeling the wind of change on my back I decided to get into cryptocurrencies.

So, the questions are:
- I have a bankroll of approx. 12000$ USD & free electricity
I want to buy a miner (is that how you say it?) and test my luck at mining cryptocurrencies.
Where can I find info on how to start mining? What currencies are worth mining nowadays? Where do I order a miner?

- Another part of my bankroll (3000$) will be used as an investment fund
Question: if I were to invest half of it (1500$) into currencies for a long run, what currencies should I look upon?
ETH? Lite? BTC is solid but stale I guess...

I'll use the last 1500$ for short term trading.
I already have an account on Poloniex, where I managed to lose 30 of 50$ i put there for a time.
Question: Do you have any good 101 materials on trading?
Not looking for "quick money gain fast rich" schemes & methods - We're talking about education to start succesful trading.
I'm a long-run player.


Last but not least:
What are the newspapers with alt-coins info? What Twitters should I follow? What forums/reddits should I subscribe?
I guess that it's necessary to follow at least some to be constantly updated on the topic of the everchanging cryptocurrencies

Dude no offense you need to google most of that then come back.

Narrow it down to one or two questions!

Also there are various sites about bitcoin which you will find. One ends in .org .

Happy mining