The first thing to do before anything is to have laid down investment goals, how you want to achieve them and the level of risk you are willing to take. Do you want to be actively involved in the investment or you want to just invest and leave it there? Are you ready to pay higher fees for less commitment or low fees for more commitment to the investment? Is your investment for short term goals or long term goals?

Many online brokers will ask you your goals in order to tailor the investment in regards to that. If you are investing for maybe less than five years, you might want to consider investing in bank certificates, bonds, money market mutual funds among others.

Another aspect is your risk tolerance. The stock market is hardly stable and it swings up and down. if you have a low level of risk tolerance, your best bet is to go conservative.